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This review offers a detailed examination of the current landscape of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field (EMF) assessment tools, ranging from spectrum analyzers and broadband field meters to area monitors and custom-built devices. The discussion encompasses both standardized and non-standardized measurement protocols, shedding light on the various methods employed in this domain. Furthermore, the review highlights the prevalent use of mobile apps for characterizing 5G NR radio network data. A growing need for low-cost measurement devices is observed, commonly referred to as "sensors" or "sensor nodes", that are capable of enduring diverse environmental conditions. These sensors play a crucial role in both microenvironmental surveys and individual exposures, enabling stationary, mobile, and personal exposure assessments based on body-worn sensors, across wider geographical areas. This review revealed a notable need for cost-effective and long-lasting sensors, whether for individual exposure assessments, mobile (vehicle-integrated) measurements, or incorporation into distributed sensor networks. However, there is a lack of comprehensive information on existing custom-developed RF-EMF measurement tools, especially in terms of measuring uncertainty. Additionally, there is a need for real-time, fast-sampling solutions to understand the highly irregular temporal variations EMF distribution in next-generation networks. Given the diversity of tools and methods, a comprehensive comparison is crucial to determine the necessary statistical tools for aggregating the available measurement data., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Whether differences in lifestyle between co-twins are reflected in differences in their internal or external exposome profiles remains largely underexplored. We therefore investigated whether within-pair differences in lifestyle were associated with within-pair differences in exposome profiles across four domains: the external exposome, proteome, metabolome and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA). For each domain, we assessed the similarity of co-twin profiles using Gaussian similarities in up to 257 young adult same-sex twin pairs (54% monozygotic). We additionally tested whether similarity in one domain translated into greater similarity in another. Results suggest that a lower degree of similarity in co-twins' exposome profiles was associated with greater differences in their behavior and substance use. The strongest association was identified between excessive drinking behavior and the external exposome. Overall, our study demonstrates how social behavior and especially substance use are connected to the internal and external exposomes, while controlling for familial confounders., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Energy-based devices are used to improve features of appearance for aesthetic reasons while avoiding more invasive methods. Examples of treatment targets are the reduction of wrinkles, sagging, unwanted skin lesions, body hair and excess fatty tissue, and the enhancement of muscle tissue. One treatment modality is the use of electromagnetic fields (EMF, 0‒300 GHz). The present work aims to give an up-to-date survey of cosmetic applications of EMF for professional use with an assessment of client and worker exposure and possible adverse effects. A systematic search was conducted for peer-reviewed articles (2007-2022), patents, premarket notifications, manufacturer data, and adverse effects reports. Five categories of cosmetic EMF device with increasing frequency were identified: sinusoid low frequency magnetic fields for lipolysis; pulsed low frequency magnetic fields for skin rejuvenation; pulsed low frequency magnetic fields for muscle building; radiofrequency EMF for lipolysis or skin rejuvenation; microwaves for hair removal or hyperhidrosis. In the vicinity of the last four device categories, there is a potential for exceeding the occupational exposure limits in the European Union EMF Directive, which could lead to nerve or muscle stimulation, burns or overheating. There are also potential hazards for clients or workers wearing active or passive medical devices. The severity of reported adverse effects increases with EMF frequency., (© 2024 Bioelectromagnetics Society.)

Ecotoxicological impacts of chemicals released into the environment are characterized by combining fate, exposure, and effects. For characterizing effects, species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) estimate toxic pressures of chemicals as the potentially affected fraction of species. Life cycle assessment (LCA) uses SSDs to identify products with lowest ecotoxicological impacts. To reflect ambient concentrations, the Global Life Cycle Impact Assessment Method (GLAM) ecotoxicity task force recently recommended deriving SSDs for LCA based on chronic EC10s (10% effect concentration, for a life-history trait) and using the 20th percentile of an EC10-based SSD as a working point. However, because we lacked measured effect concentrations, impacts of only few chemicals were assessed, underlining data limitations for decision support. The aims of this paper were therefore to derive and validate freshwater SSDs by combining measured effect concentrations with in silico methods. Freshwater effect factors (EFs) and uncertainty estimates for use in GLAM-consistent life cycle impact assessment were then derived by combining three elements: (1) using intraspecies extrapolating effect data to estimate EC10s, (2) using interspecies quantitative structure-activity relationships, or (3) assuming a constant slope of 0.7 to derive SSDs. Species sensitivity distributions, associated EFs, and EF confidence intervals for 9862 chemicals, including data-poor ones, were estimated based on these elements. Intraspecies extrapolations and the fixed slope approach were most often applied. The resulting EFs were consistent with EFs derived from SSD-EC50 models, implying a similar chemical ecotoxicity rank order and method robustness. Our approach is an important step toward considering the potential ecotoxic impacts of chemicals currently neglected in assessment frameworks due to limited test data. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:1914-1927. © 2024 The Author(s). Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC., (© 2024 The Author(s). Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.)

A shift from predominantly animal-based to plant-based consumption can benefit both planetary and public health. Nudging may help to promote such a shift. This study investigated nudge effects on plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy in an online supermarket. We conducted a two-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled real-life online supermarket trial. Each customer transaction was randomized to a control arm (regular online supermarket) or an intervention arm (addition of placement, hedonic property and dynamic social norm nudges promoting meat and dairy alternatives). Outcomes were the aggregate of meat and dairy alternative purchases (primary outcome), the number of meat purchases, dairy purchases, meat alternative purchases, and dairy alternative purchases (secondary), and retailer revenue (tertiary). Generalized linear mixed models with a Conway-Maxwell Poisson distribution were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Analyzed data included 8488 transactions by participants (n = 4,266 control arm, n = 4,222 intervention arm), out of which 2,411 (66%) were aged above 45 years, 5,660 (67%) were females, and 1,970 (23%) lived in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. Intervention arm participants purchased 10% (IRR 1.10 (95% CI 0.99-1.23)) more meat and dairy alternatives and 16% (1.16 (0.99-1.36)) more meat alternatives than control arm participants, although these findings are not statistically significant. There was no difference in dairy alternative purchases (1.00 (0.90-1.10)). Intervention arm participants purchased 3% less meats (0.97 (0.93-1.02)) and 2% less dairy products (0.98 (0.95-1.02)) than control participants. Retailer revenue was not affected (0.98 (0.95-1.01)). Online nudging strategies alone did not lead to a statistically significant higher amount of plant-based purchases, but replication of this work is needed with increased study power. Future studies should also consider nudging strategies as part of a broader set of policies to promote plant-based purchases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Prospectively registered on 14 th of May 2022. ISRCTN16569242 (https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN16569242)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Different SARS-CoV-2 variants can differentially affect the prevalence of Post Covid-19 Condition (PCC). This prospective study assesses prevalence and severity of symptoms three months after an Omicron infection, compared to Delta, test-negative and population controls. This study also assesses symptomology after reinfection and breakthrough infections., Methods: After a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, cases were classified as Omicron or Delta based on ≥ 85% surveillance prevalence. Three months after enrolment, participants indicated point prevalence for 41 symptoms and severity, using validated questionnaires for four symptoms. PCC prevalence was estimated as the difference in prevalence of at least one significantly elevated symptom, identified by permutation test, in cases compared to population controls., Results: At three months follow-up, five symptoms and severe dyspnea were significantly elevated in Omicron cases (n = 4138) compared to test-negative (n = 1672) and population controls (n = 2762). PCC prevalence was 10·4% for Omicron cases and 17·7% for Delta cases (n = 6855). In Omicron cases, severe fatigue and dyspnea were more prevalent in reinfected than primary infected, while severity of symptoms did not significantly differ between cases with a booster or primary vaccination course., Conclusions: Prevalence of PCC is 41% lower after Omicron than Delta at three months. Reinfection seems associated with more severe long-term symptoms compared to first infection., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Background: Scientific and technological advancements in mapping and understanding the interrelated pathways through which biological and environmental exposures affect disease development create new possibilities for detecting disease risk factors. Early detection of such risk factors may help prevent disease onset or moderate the disease course, thereby decreasing associated disease burden, morbidity, and mortality. However, the ethical implications of screening for disease risk factors are unclear and the current literature provides a fragmented and case-by-case picture., Methods: To identify key ethical considerations arising from the early detection of disease risk factors, we performed a systematic scoping review. The Scopus, Embase, and Philosopher's Index databases were searched for peer-reviewed, academic records, which were included if they were written in English or Dutch and concerned the ethics of (1) early detection of (2) disease risk factors for (3) disease caused by environmental factors or gene-environment interactions. All records were reviewed independently by at least two researchers., Results: After screening 2034 titles and abstracts, and 112 full papers, 55 articles were included in the thematic synthesis of the results. We identified eight common ethical themes: (1) Reliability and uncertainty in early detection, (2) autonomy, (3) privacy, (4) beneficence and non-maleficence, (5) downstream burdens on others, (6) responsibility, (7) justice, and (8) medicalization and conceptual disruption. We identified several gaps in the literature, including a relative scarcity of research on ethical considerations associated with environmental preventive health interventions, a dearth of practical suggestions on how to address expressed concerns about overestimating health capacities, and a lack of insights into preventing undue attribution of health responsibility to individuals., Conclusions: The ethical concerns arising with the early detection of risk factors are often interrelated and complex. Comprehensive ethical analyses are needed that are better embedded in normative frameworks and also assess and weigh the expected benefits of early risk factor detection. Such research is necessary for developing and implementing responsible and fair preventive health policies., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

How can data on the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment and the quality of ecosystems exposed to PPCPs be used to determine whether current regulatory risk assessment schemes are effective? This is one of 20 "big questions" concerning PPCPs in the environment posed in a landmark review paper in 2012. Ten years later, we review the developments around this question, focusing on the first P in PPCPs, that is, pharmaceuticals, or more specifically the active ingredients included in them (active pharmaceutical ingredients, APIs). We illustrate how extensive data on both the occurrence of APIs and the ecotoxicological sensitivity of aquatic species to them can be used in a retrospective risk assessment. In the Netherlands, current regulatory risk assessment schemes offer insufficient protection against direct ecotoxicological effects from APIs: the toxic pressure exerted by the 39 APIs included in our study exceeds the policy-related protective threshold of 0.05 (the "95%-protection level") in at least 13% of sampled surface waters. In general, anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic products (e.g., diclofenac, ibuprofen) contributed most to the overall toxic pressure, followed by sex hormones and modulators of the genital system (e.g., ethinylestradiol) and psychoanaleptics (e.g., caffeine). We formulated three open questions for future research. The first relates to improving the availability and accessibility of good-quality ecotoxicity data on pharmaceuticals for the global scientific, regulatory, and general public. The second relates to the adaptation of regulatory risk assessment frameworks for developing regions of the world. The third relates to the integration of effect-based and ecological approaches into regulatory risk assessment practice. Environ Toxicol Chem 2024;43:611-622. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC., (© 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.)

With increasing numbers of chemicals used in modern society, assessing human and environmental exposure to them is becoming increasingly difficult. Recent advances in wastewater-based epidemiology enable valuable insights into public exposure to data-poor compounds. However, measuring all >26,000 chemicals registered under REACH is not just technically unfeasible but would also be incredibly expensive. In this paper, we argue that estimating emissions of chemicals based on usage data could offer a more comprehensive, systematic and efficient approach than repeated monitoring. Emissions of 29 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to wastewater were estimated for a medium-sized city in the Netherlands. Usage data was collected both on national and local scale and included prescription data, usage in health-care institutions and over-the-counter sales. Different routes of administration were considered as well as the excretion and subsequent in-sewer back-transformation of conjugates into respective parent compounds. Results suggest model-based emission estimation on a city-level is feasible and in good agreement with wastewater measurements obtained via passive sampling. Results highlight the need to include excretion fractions in the conceptual framework of emission estimation but suggest that the choice of an appropriate excretion fraction has a substantial impact on the resulting model performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Commercial, high-tech upper limb prostheses offer a lot of functionality and are equipped with high-grade control mechanisms. However, they are relatively expensive and are not accessible to the majority of amputees. Therefore, more affordable, accessible, open-source, and 3D-printable alternatives are being developed. A commonly proposed approach to control these prostheses is to use bio-potentials generated by skeletal muscles, which can be measured using surface electromyography (sEMG). However, this control mechanism either lacks accuracy when a single sEMG sensor is used or involves the use of wires to connect to an array of multiple nodes, which hinders patients' movements. In order to mitigate these issues, we have developed a circular, wireless s-EMG array that is able to collect sEMG potentials on an array of electrodes that can be spread (not) uniformly around the circumference of a patient's arm. The modular sEMG system is combined with a Bluetooth Low Energy System on Chip, motion sensors, and a battery. We have benchmarked this system with a commercial, wired, state-of-the-art alternative and found an r = 0.98 ( p < 0.01) Spearman correlation between the root-mean-squared (RMS) amplitude of sEMG measurements measured by both devices for the same set of 20 reference gestures, demonstrating that the system is accurate in measuring sEMG. Additionally, we have demonstrated that the RMS amplitudes of sEMG measurements between the different nodes within the array are uncorrelated, indicating that they contain independent information that can be used for higher accuracy in gesture recognition. We show this by training a random forest classifier that can distinguish between 6 gestures with an accuracy of 97%. This work is important for a large and growing group of amputees whose quality of life could be improved using this technology.

Global emphasis on enhancing prevention and treatment strategies necessitates an increased understanding of the biological mechanisms of psychopathology. Plasma proteomics is a powerful tool that has been applied in the context of specific mental disorders for biomarker identification. The p-factor, also known as the "general psychopathology factor", is a concept in psychopathology suggesting that there is a common underlying factor that contributes to the development of various forms of mental disorders. It has been proposed that the p-factor can be used to understand the overall mental health status of an individual. Here, we aimed to discover plasma proteins associated with the p-factor in 775 young adults in the FinnTwin12 cohort. Using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, 13 proteins with a significant connection with the p-factor were identified, 8 of which were linked to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. This exploratory study provides new insight into biological alterations associated with mental health status in young adults., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The combined health impact of concurrent railway noise and railway vibration exposure is not yet well understood., Objectives: This systematic review gives an overview of epidemiological studies on health effects from railway vibration, aiming to quantify this association with exposure-effect curves. Moreover, the combined health effects of vibration and concurrent noise were investigated., Methods: We converted the vibration metric to an equivalent noise level and calculated an overall noise level by energetically summing the equivalent and railway noise level. The combined health effect was determined by using published evidence-based exposure-effect formulas., Results: Studies included in this systematic review predominately investigated annoyance and self-reported sleep disturbances; no studies on manifest diseases were identified. For the combined effects of vibration and noise on "total" annoyance, the results based on the pooled analysis of CargoVibes project are recommended as conservative approach., Discussion: Converting railway vibration into equivalent noise levels in dB may offer a pragmatic approach to assess the combined health effects of railway noise and railway vibration exposure. Future studies should include cardiovascular and mental diseases in addition to vibration-induced annoyance and sleep disturbances. Furthermore, future studies should include in-depth investigations of the interaction between railway noise and railway vibration to allow for a more accurate assessment of the railway-induced burden of disease., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ecosystems are strongly influenced by multiple anthropogenic stressors, including a wide range of chemicals and their mixtures. Studies on the effects of multiple stressors have largely focussed on nonchemical stressors, whereas studies on chemical mixtures have largely ignored other stressors. However, both research areas face similar challenges and require similar tools and methods to predict the joint effects of chemicals or nonchemical stressors, and frameworks to integrate multiple chemical and nonchemical stressors are missing. We provide an overview of the research paradigms, tools, and methods commonly used in multiple stressor and chemical mixture research and discuss potential domains of cross-fertilization and joint challenges. First, we compare the general paradigms of ecotoxicology and (applied) ecology to explain the historical divide. Subsequently, we compare methods and approaches for the identification of interactions, stressor characterization, and designing experiments. We suggest that both multiple stressor and chemical mixture research are too focused on interactions and would benefit from integration regarding null model selection. Stressor characterization is typically more costly for chemical mixtures. While for chemical mixtures comprehensive classification systems at suborganismal level have been developed, recent classification systems for multiple stressors account for environmental context. Both research areas suffer from rather simplified experimental designs that focus on only a limited number of stressors, chemicals, and treatments. We discuss concepts that can guide more realistic designs capturing spatiotemporal stressor dynamics. We suggest that process-based and data-driven models are particularly promising to tackle the challenge of prediction of effects of chemical mixtures and nonchemical stressors on (meta-)communities and (meta-)food webs. We propose a framework to integrate the assessment of effects for multiple stressors and chemical mixtures. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;42:1915-1936. © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC., (© 2023 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.)

Background: Maternal occupational exposure to pesticides has been linked to adverse birth outcomes but associations with residential pesticide exposures are inconclusive., Objectives: To explore associations between residential exposure to specific pesticides and birth outcomes using individual level exposure and pregnancy/birth data., Methods: From all 2009-2013 singleton births in the Dutch birth registry, we selected mothers > 16 years old living in non-urban areas, who had complete address history and changed addresses at most once during pregnancy (N = 339,947). We estimated amount (kg) of 139 active ingredients (AI) used within buffers of 50, 100, 250 and 500 m around each mother's home during pregnancy. We used generalized linear models to investigate associations between 12 AIs with evidence of reproductive toxicity and gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), perinatal mortality, child́s sex, prematurity, low birth weight (LBW), small for gestational age (SGA) and large for gestational age (LGA), adjusting for individual and area-level confounders. For the remainder 127 AIs, we used minimax concave penalty with a stability selection step to identify those that could be related to birth outcomes., Results: Regression analyses showed that maternal residential exposure to fluroxypyr-meptyl was associated with longer GA, glufosinate-ammonium with higher risk of LBW, linuron with higher BW and higher odds of LGA, thiacloprid with lower odds of perinatal mortality and vinclozolin with longer GA. Variable selection analysis revealed that picoxystrobin was associated with higher odds of LGA. We found no evidence of associations with other AIs. Sensitivity and additional analysis supported these results except for thiacloprid., Discussion: In this exploratory study, pregnant women residing near crops where fluroxypyr-meptyl, glufosinate-ammonium, linuron, vinclozolin and picoxystrobin were applied had higher risk for certain potentially adverse birth outcomes. Our findings provide leads for confirmatory investigations on these compounds and/or compounds with similar modes of action., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The evolution of emerging technologies that use Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Field (RF-EMF) has increased the interest of the scientific community and society regarding the possible adverse effects on human health and the environment. This article provides NextGEM's vision to assure safety for EU citizens when employing existing and future EMF-based telecommunication technologies. This is accomplished by generating relevant knowledge that ascertains appropriate prevention and control/actuation actions regarding RF-EMF exposure in residential, public, and occupational settings. Fulfilling this vision, NextGEM commits to the need for a healthy living and working environment under safe RF-EMF exposure conditions that can be trusted by people and be in line with the regulations and laws developed by public authorities. NextGEM provides a framework for generating health-relevant scientific knowledge and data on new scenarios of exposure to RF-EMF in multiple frequency bands and developing and validating tools for evidence-based risk assessment. Finally, NextGEM's Innovation and Knowledge Hub (NIKH) will offer a standardized way for European regulatory authorities and the scientific community to store and assess project outcomes and provide access to findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data.

Background: This prospective study assesses symptoms 3 months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection compared to test-negative and population controls, and the effect of vaccination prior to infection., Methods: Participants enrolled after a positive (cases) or negative (test-negative controls) SARS-CoV-2 test, or after invitation from the general population (population controls). After 3 months, participants indicated presence of 41 symptoms and severity of 4 symptoms. Permutation tests were used to select symptoms significantly elevated in cases compared to controls and to compare symptoms between cases that were vaccinated or unvaccinated prior to infection., Results: In total, 9166 cases, 1698 symptomatic but test-negative controls, and 3708 population controls enrolled. At 3 months, 13 symptoms, and severity of fatigue, cognitive impairment, and dyspnea were significantly elevated incases compared to controls. Of cases, 48.5% reported ≥1 significantly elevated symptom compared to 29.8% of test-negative controls and 26.0% of population controls. Effect of vaccination could be determined for cases aged <65 years, and was significantly protective for loss of smell and taste but not for other symptoms., Discussion: Three months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, almost half of cases report symptoms, which was higher than background prevalence and test-negative prevalence. Vaccination prior to infection was protective against loss of smell and taste in cases aged <65 years., Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. All authors: No reported conflicts of interest. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Internal exposure of the human body to potentially harmful chemical substances can be assessed by Human Biomonitoring (HBM). HBM can be used to generate conclusive data that may provide an overview of exposure levels in entire or specific population groups. This knowledge can promote the understanding of potential risks of the substances of interest or help monitoring the success of regulatory measures taken on the political level. Study planning and design are key elements of any epidemiologic study to generate reliable data. In the field of HBM, this has been done using differing approaches on various levels of population coverage so far. Comparison and combined usage of the resulting data would contribute to understanding exposure and its factors on a larger scale, however, the differences between studies make this a challenging and somewhat limited endeavour. This article presents templates for documents that are required to set up an HBM study, thus facilitating the generation of harmonised HBM data as a step towards standardisation of HBM in Europe. They are designed to be modular and adaptable to the specific needs of a single study while emphasising minimum requirements to ensure comparability. It further elaborates on the challenges encountered during the process of creating these documents during the runtime of the European Joint Programme HBM4EU in a multi-national expert team and draws up lessons learnt in the context of knowledge management., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.)

We investigated the association between perceived occupational noise exposure and depressive symptoms in young Finnish adults and whether noise sensitivity moderates this association. This study was based on an ongoing longitudinal twin study. We included those who had been working daily ( n = 521) or weekly ( n = 245) during the past 12 months (mean age 22.4, SD 0.7, 53% female). We asked about occupational noise exposure at age 22 and assessed depressive symptoms using the General Behavior Inventory (GBI) at age 17 and 22. Noise sensitivity and covariates were used in linear regression models. Perceived daily occupational noise exposure was associated, as a statistically independent main effect with depressive symptoms at age 22 (beta 1.19; 95% CI 0.09, 2.29) among all, and separately for females (beta 2.22; 95% CI 0.34, 4.09) but not males (beta 0.22; 95% CI -1.08, 1.52). Noise sensitivity was independently associated with depressive symptoms among all (beta 1.35; 95% CI 0.54, 2.17), and separately for males (beta 1.96; 95% CI 0.68, 3.24) but not females (beta 1.05; 95 % CI -0.04, 2.13). Noise sensitivity was independent of perceived occupational noise exposure. Pre-existing depressive symptoms at age 17 were predictive of perceived occupational noise exposure, suggesting complex interactions of noise and depression.

Background: Smoking is the leading behavioral risk factor for the loss of healthy life years. Many smokers want to quit, but have trouble doing so. Financial incentives in workplace settings have shown promising results in supporting smokers and their design influences their impact. Lotteries that leverage behavioral economic insights might improve the effectiveness of workplace cessation support., Methods and Design: We examine in a cluster randomized trial if a workplace cessation group training paired with lottery deadlines will increase continuous abstinence rates over and above the cessation training alone. Organizations are randomized to either the control arm or lottery arm. The lotteries capitalize regret aversion by always informing winners at the deadline, but withholding prizes if they smoked. In the lottery-arm, winners are drawn out of all participants within a training group, regardless of their smoking status. In weeks 1-13 there are weekly lotteries. Winners are informed about their prize (€50), but can only claim it if they did not smoke that week, validated biochemically. After 26 weeks, there is a long-term lottery where the winners are informed about their prize (vacation voucher worth €400), but can only claim it if they were abstinent between weeks 13 and 26. The primary outcome is continuous abstinence 52 weeks after the quit date., Discussion: There is a quest for incentives to support smoking cessation that are considered fair, affordable and effective across different socioeconomic groups. Previous use of behavioral economics in the design of lotteries have shown promising results in changing health behavior. This cluster randomized trial aims to demonstrate if these lotteries are also effective for supporting smoking cessation. Therefore the study design and protocol are described in detail in this paper. Findings might contribute to the application and development of effective cessation support at the workplace., Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register Identifier: NL8463 . Date of registration: 17-03-2020., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Within the Human Biomonitoring for Europe initiative (HBM4EU), a study to determine new biomarkers of exposure to pesticides and to assess exposure patterns was conducted. Human urine samples (N = 2,088) were collected from five European regions in two different seasons. The objective of the study was to identify pesticides and their metabolites in collected urine samples with a harmonized suspect screening approach based on liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) applied in five laboratories. A combined data processing workflow included comprehensive data reduction, correction of mass error and retention time (RT) drifts, isotopic pattern analysis, adduct and elemental composition annotation, finalized by a mining of the elemental compositions for possible annotations of pesticide metabolites. The obtained tentative annotations (n = 498) were used for acquiring representative data-dependent tandem mass spectra (MS 2 ) and verified by spectral comparison to reference spectra generated from commercially available reference standards or produced through human liver S9 in vitro incubation experiments. 14 parent pesticides and 71 metabolites (including 16 glucuronide and 11 sulfate conjugates) were detected. Collectively these related to 46 unique pesticides. For the remaining tentative annotations either (i) no data-dependent MS 2 spectra could be acquired, (ii) the spectral purity was too low for sufficient matching, or (iii) RTs indicated a wrong annotation, leaving potential for more pesticides and/or their metabolites being confirmed in further studies. Thus, the reported results are reflecting only a part of the possible pesticide exposure., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Publishing research data using a findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) approach is paramount to further innovation in many areas of research. In particular in developing innovative approaches to predict (eco)toxicological risks in (nano or advanced) material design where efficient use of existing data is essential. The use of tools assessing the FAIRness of data helps the future improvement of data FAIRness and therefore their re-use. This paper reviews ten FAIR assessment tools that have been evaluated and characterized using two datasets from the nanomaterials and microplastics risk assessment domain. The tools were grouped into four categories: online and offline self-assessment survey based, online (semi-) automated and other tools. We found that the online self-assessment tools can be used for a quick scan of a user's dataset due to their ease of use, little need for experience and short time investment. When a user is looking to assess full databases, and not just datasets, for their FAIRness, (semi-)automated tools are more practical. The offline assessment tools were found to be limited and unreliable due to a lack of guidance and an under-developed state. To further characterize the usability, two datasets were run through all tools to check the similarity in the tools' results. As most of the tools differ in their implementation of the FAIR principles, a large variety in outcomes was obtained. Furthermore, it was observed that only one tool gives recommendations to the user on how to improve the FAIRness of the evaluated dataset. This paper gives clear recommendations for both the user and the developer of FAIR assessment tools., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nanotechnology is a growing megatrend in industrial production and innovations. Many applications utilize engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) that are potentially released into the atmospheric environment, e.g., via direct stack emissions from production facilities. Limited information exists on adverse effects such ENM releases may have on human health and the environment. Previous exposure modeling approaches have focused on large regional compartments, into which the released ENMs are evenly mixed. However, due to the localization of the ENM release and removal processes, potentially higher airborne concentrations and deposition fluxes are obtained around the production facilities. Therefore, we compare the ENM concentrations from a dispersion model to those from the uniformly mixed compartment approach. For realistic release scenarios, we based the modeling on the case study measurement data from two TiO2 nanomaterial handling facilities. In addition, we calculated the distances, at which 50% of the ENMs are deposited, serving as a physically relevant metric to separate the local scale from the regional scale, thus indicating the size of the high exposure and risk region near the facility. As a result, we suggest a local scale compartment to be implemented in the multicompartment nanomaterial exposure models. We also present a computational tool for local exposure assessment that could be included to regulatory guidance and existing risk governance networks.

Background: There is continued concern about residential proximity to agricultural pesticide use and possible adverse health effects. Studies on this subject have been scarce with inconsistent results. We explored associations between residential proximity to specific crops, pesticide use and cause-specific mortality in a prospective census-based cohort study in The Netherlands., Methods: Selecting inhabitants aged >30 living in less urbanized areas, at the same address for nine years up to baseline (2004) from a national register-based cohort, we followed ~3.1 million individuals for cause-specific mortality until 2012. We estimated the area of specific crop groups cultivated within buffers of 50 m, 100 m and 250 m around each individual's residence and the amount of fungicides, herbicides and insecticides used within the same buffers for the period 1995-2003. The association between these exposure proxies and 25 primary causes of death was investigated using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusting for individual and area-level confounders., Results: Residential proximity to crops was associated with decreased mortality risks overall. In contrast to the overall trend an increased risk was observed for chronic lower respiratory diseases and proximity to maize cultivation. We found no evidence of an association between the amount of pesticides used and cause-specific mortality., Conclusions: In a large prospective census-based cohort study in The Netherlands we found evidence of an increased risk of chronic lower respiratory diseases in relation to maize cultivation which was not reflected in general pesticide use, hinting to specific pesticides or practices in maize cultivation that may lead to the observed increased risk., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: There is increasing evidence of associations between residential proximity to livestock farms and respiratory morbidity, but less is known about potential effects on respiratory mortality among residents., Objectives: We aimed to assess potential associations between respiratory mortality and residential proximity to (intensive) livestock farming., Methods: In DUELS, a national census-based cohort, we selected all inhabitants from rural and semi-urban areas of the Netherlands, aged ≥30 years and living at the same address for five years up to baseline (2004). We followed these ∼4 million individuals for respiratory mortality (respiratory system diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases, pneumonia) from 2005 to 2012. We computed the average number of cattle, pigs, chicken, and mink present in 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m and 2000 m of each individual's residence in the period 1999-2003. Analyses were conducted using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusting for potential confounders at individual and neighbourhood level., Results: We found evidence that living up to 2000 m of pig farms was associated with respiratory mortality, namely from chronic lower respiratory diseases, with Hazard Ratios ranging from 1.06 (1.02, 1.10) in people living close to low numbers (

Projected plastic production volumes are rising, as is societal and political attention to plastic pollution and possible health impacts. In line with ambitions for climate mitigation and the circular economy, various national and international policies and action plans address the reduction of impacts of plastics. Quantitative scenario analyses show that even if current ambitious targets to reduce plastics are achieved, plastics will remain a source of millions of tons of environmental pollution annually. To achieve a sustainable transformation of the global plastics economy, 'extraordinary effort' and 'coordinated global action' beyond current ambitions are needed. While mapping knowledge gaps for the effects of micro and nano plastics (MNP) is crucial, mapping alone is not enough to achieve the needed transition. In this communication, we propose a scope for the exploration of societal transformation pathways to safe and sustainable plastics. To see which efforts are needed globally we need to advance in the following three areas: (i) embedding risk assessment methodologies in wider cost-benefit and life cycle analyses; (ii) using safe-and-sustainable design strategies that include alternative solutions and look at multiple life cycles, and (iii) reflecting on the societal transformation pathways with stakeholders by using co-created quantitative models. We believe that these practices are crucial in the coming decade to realise the extraordinary effort of defining safe and sustainable plastics., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: There is rising concern regarding possible health effects from exposure to pesticides in residents living near agricultural land. Some studies indicated increased risks of reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression among agricultural workers but less is known about the mental and perceived health of rural residents. We aimed to study possible associations between self-reported psychological distress (SPD) and self-perceived health (SPH) in residents near pesticide-treated agricultural land., Methods: Using the Public Health Monitor national survey from 2012, we selected 216 932 participants who lived in rural and semi-urban areas of the Netherlands and changed addresses at most once in the period 2009-2012. Psychological distress (PD) was assessed via the Kessler Psychological Distress scale (K10) and participants were asked to assess their own health. We estimated the area of specific crop groups cultivated within buffers of 50 m, 100 m, 250 m and 500 m around each individual's residence for the period 2009-2012. Association between these exposure proxies and the outcomes was investigated using logistic regression, adjusting for individual, lifestyle and area-level confounders., Results: Overall, results showed statistically non-significant OR across all buffer sizes for both SPD and SPH, except for the association between SPH and 'all crops' (total area of all considered crop groups) with OR (95% CI) ranging from 0.77 (0.63 to 0.93) in 50 m to 1.00 (1.00 to 1.00) in 500 m. We observed that most ORs were below unity for SPH., Conclusions: This study provides no evidence that residential proximity to pesticide treated-crops is associated with PD or poorer perceived health., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

The use of chemicals by society has resulted in calls for more effective control of their emissions. Many of these chemicals are poorly characterized because of lacking data on their use, environmental fate and toxicity, as well as lacking detection techniques. These compounds are sometimes referred to as contaminants of emerging concern (CECs). Urban areas are an important source of CECs, where these are typically first collected in sewer systems and then discharged into the environment after being treated in a wastewater treatment plant. A combination of emission estimation techniques and environmental fate models can support the early identification and management of CEC-related environmental problems. However, scientific insight in the processes driving the fate of CECs in sewer systems is limited and scattered. Biotransformation, sorption and ion-trapping can decrease CEC loads, whereas enzymatic deconjugation of conjugated metabolites can increase CEC loads as metabolites are back-transformed into their parent respective compounds. These fate processes need to be considered when estimating CEC emissions. This literature review collates the fragmented knowledge and data on in-sewer fate of CECs to develop practical guidelines for water managers on how to deal with in-sewer fate of CECs and highlights future research needs. It was assessed to what extent empirical data is in-line with text-book knowledge and integrated sewer modelling approaches. Experimental half-lives ( n  = 277) of 96 organic CECs were collected from literature. The findings of this literature review can be used to support environmental modelling efforts and to optimize monitoring campaigns, including field studies in the context of wastewater-based epidemiology., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11157-022-09638-9., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

The adverse effects of air pollutants on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems are unquestionable. However, in recent years, indications of effects beyond these organ systems have become more evident. Traffic-related air pollution has been linked with neurological diseases, exacerbated cognitive dysfunction, and Alzheimer's disease. However, the exact air pollutant compositions and exposure scenarios leading to these adverse health effects are not known. Although several components of air pollution may be at play, recent experimental studies point to a key role of ultrafine particles (UFPs). While the importance of UFPs has been recognized, almost nothing is known about the smallest fraction of UFPs, and only >23 nm emissions are regulated in the EU. Moreover, the role of the semivolatile fraction of the emissions has been neglected. The Transport-Derived Ultrafines and the Brain Effects (TUBE) project will increase knowledge on harmful ultrafine air pollutants, as well as semivolatile compounds related to adverse health effects. By including all the major current combustion and emission control technologies, the TUBE project aims to provide new information on the adverse health effects of current traffic, as well as information for decision makers to develop more effective emission legislation. Most importantly, the TUBE project will include adverse health effects beyond the respiratory system; TUBE will assess how air pollution affects the brain and how air pollution particles might be removed from the brain. The purpose of this report is to describe the TUBE project, its background, and its goals.

Background: There is increasing evidence that a complex interplay of factors within environments in which children grows up, contributes to children's suboptimal mental health and cognitive development. The concept of the life-course exposome helps to study the impact of the physical and social environment, including social inequities, on cognitive development and mental health over time., Methods: Equal-Life develops and tests combined exposures and their effects on children's mental health and cognitive development. Data from eight birth-cohorts and three school studies (N = 240.000) linked to exposure data, will provide insights and policy guidance into aspects of physical and social exposures hitherto untapped, at different scale levels and timeframes, while accounting for social inequities. Reasoning from the outcome point of view, relevant stakeholders participate in the formulation and validation of research questions, and in the formulation of environmental hazards. Exposure assessment combines GIS-based environmental indicators with omics approaches and new data sources, forming the early-life exposome. Statistical tools integrate data at different spatial and temporal granularity and combine exploratory machine learning models with hypothesis-driven causal modeling., Conclusions: Equal-Life contributes to the development and utilization of the exposome concept by (1) integrating the internal, physical and social exposomes, (2) studying a distinct set of life-course effects on a child's development and mental health (3) characterizing the child's environment at different developmental stages and in different activity spaces, (4) looking at supportive environments for child development, rather than merely pollutants, and (5) combining physical, social indicators with novel effect markers and using new data sources describing child activity patterns and environments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with regard to the content of this report., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The Environmental Epidemiology. All rights reserved.)

Background: Results from observational and experimental studies indicate that exposure to air pollutants during gestation reduces birth weight, whereas little is known on potential cardiometabolic consequences for the offspring at adulthood., Objectives: Our aim was to evaluate the long-term effects of gestational exposure to diesel engine exhaust (DE) on adult offspring phenotype in a rabbit model., Methods: The protocol was designed to mimic human exposure in large European cities. Females rabbits were exposed to diluted (1 mg/m 3 ) DE (exposed, n = 9) or clean air (controls, n = 7), from 3 days after mating, 2 h/d and 5 d/wk in a nose-only inhalation system throughout gestation (gestation days 3-27). After birth and weaning, 72 offspring (47 exposed and 25 controls) were raised until adulthood (7.5 months) to evaluate their cardio-metabolic status, including the monitoring of body weight and food intake, fasting biochemistry, body composition (iDXA), cardiovascular parameters and glucose tolerance. After a metabolic challenge (high fat diet in males and gestation in females), animals were euthanized for postmortem phenotyping., Results: Sex-specific responses to maternal exposure were observed in adult offspring. Age-related increases in blood pressure (p = 0.058), glycaemia (p = 0.029), and perirenal fat mass (p = 0.026) as well as reductions in HDL-cholesterol (p = 0.025) and fat-to-body weight ratio (p = 0.011) were observed in exposed males, suggesting a metabolic syndrome. Almost only trends were observed in exposed females with higher triglycerides and decreased bone density compared to control females. Metabolic challenges triggered or amplified some biological responses, especially in females., Conclusions: In utero exposure to air pollution predisposed rabbit offspring to cardiometabolic disorders in a sex-specific manner., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Physical activity can be affected by both meteorological conditions and surrounding greenness, but few studies have evaluated the effects of these environmental factors on physical activity simultaneously. This multi-city comparative study aimed to assess the synergetic effects of apparent temperature and surrounding greenness on physical activity in four European cities. Specifically, we aimed to identify an interaction between surrounding greenness and apparent temperature in the effects on physical activity., Methods: Data were collected from 352 adult residents of Barcelona (Spain), Stoke-on-Trent (United Kingdom), Doetinchem (The Netherlands), and Kaunas (Lithuania) as part of the PHENOTYPE study. Participants wore a smartphone for seven consecutive days between May-December 2013 and provided additional sociodemographic survey data. Hourly average physical activity (Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET)) and surrounding greenness (NDVI) were derived from the Calfit mobile application collecting accelerometer and location data. Hourly apparent temperature was calculated from temperature and relative humidity, which were obtained from local meteorological stations along with other meteorological covariates (rainfall, windspeed, and sky darkness). We assessed the interaction effects of apparent temperature and surrounding greenness on hourly physical activity for each city using linear mixed models, while adjusting for meteorological, demographic, and time-related variables., Results: We found significant interactions between apparent temperature and surrounding greenness on hourly physical activity in three of four cities, aside from the coastal city of Barcelona. Significant quadratic effects of apparent temperature were found in the highest level of surrounding greenness for Stoke-on-Trent and Doetinchem, with 4% decrease in median MET observed for a 10°C departure from optimal temperature (15.2°C and 14.6°C, respectively). Significant linear effects were found for higher levels of surrounding greenness in Kaunas, whereby an increase of 10°C was associated with ∼4% increase in median MET., Conclusion: Apparent temperature and surrounding greenness interacted in the effect on hourly physical activity across three of four European cities, with varying effect between cities. While quadratic effects of temperature suggest diminishing levels of physical activity in the highest greenness levels in cities of temperate climates, the variation in surrounding greenness between cities could be further explored, particularly by looking at indoor-outdoor locations. The study findings support the need for evidence-based physical activity promotion and urban design., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)