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The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) incident was the largest offshore oil spill in the history of the United States, contaminating surface waters, the water column, deep-sea corals and benthos, nearshore and coastal ecosystems, and natural resources across 5 states and an ocean area of more than 112000 km2 in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Protected marine speciesósea turtles and marine mammals, in particularówere a main focus of the DWH Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA). The DWH spill overlapped in time and space with sea turtle and marine mammal habitats and life stages throughout the northern GoM. Thus, the DWH NRDA Trustees (2016; www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration-planning/gulf-plan/) performed several activities to assess adverse effects of oil exposure on sea turtles and marine mammals to quantify the full extent and nature of the impacts to these taxa across the region. A synopsis of the Trusteesí assessment activities and conclusions is presented in the DWH NRDA Programmatic Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (DWH NRDA Trustees 2016). This Theme Section presents several of these specific sea turtle and marine mammal assessment activities and associated findings. This Overview provides a context for the Theme Section papers, introduces basic NRDA concepts and discusses generally why and how protected marine species were assessed in the DWH NRDA.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill posed a severe threat to surface-pelagic sea turtles because the surface convergence zones, which provide vital habitat by aggregating pelagic Sargassum and other floating material, also aggregated floating oil. Following the DWH spill, turtle rescue operations between 17 May and 9 September 2010 documented 937 juvenile sea turtles in the spill area and examined 574 captured turtles. Of the captured turtles, 81% were visibly oiled. Transect searches in convergence zones found Kempís ridleys (51% of individuals), green turtles (37%), loggerheads (7%), hawksbills (2%), and unidentified sea turtles (2%). Line-transect methods estimated the density of all surface-pelagic sea turtles in surface convergence zones to be 3.32 km-2 (95% CI = 2.82ñ3.88), and the density of heavily oiled turtles to be 0.24 km-2 (95% CI = 0.15ñ0.39). Turtle densities and the areal extent of heavy oiling probability were used to estimate total number of turtles exposed to DWH oil. We estimate approximately 402000 surface-pelagic sea turtles were exposed, and of those, 54800 were likely to have been heavily oiled. Our estimates formed the basis of surface-pelagic juvenile sea turtle mortality estimates included in the DWH natural resource damage assessment.

Purpose: To investigate the risk factors for squamous-cell carcinoma of the conjunctiva (SCCC) and other eye cancers in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Methods: We estimated incidence rates and associations with age, sex, race/ethnicity and ultraviolet radiation using Cox proportional hazards models. Results: The incidence was 37.3 per 106 for all eye cancers (N = 178), 8.4 per 106 for SCCC (N = 40) and 28.9 per 106 for other eye cancers (N = 138). For all eye cancers, the incidence was lower in women than in men (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.26, 0.55) and in persons aged ≤60 years than those aged >60 years (HR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.72). The incidence was higher, but not statistically significant, in those with an average net erythemal exposure >170 versus ≤170 (HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 0.88, 1.63) and lower in those residing at latitudes >35° versus ≤35° (HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.61, 1.09). The patterns were similar for SCCC in sex, age, race/ethnicity and average net erythemal exposure, but not statistically significant. Conclusion: The incidence of all eye cancers was associated with male sex and older age. The same patterns were observed for SCCC. The associations reported here might be surrogates of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, although more follow-up is needed to obtain precise results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using high-resolution airborne measurements and more synoptic coverage of Landsat measurements, we estimated the total Sargassum coverage in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico (NE GOM) during 2010, with the ultimate purpose to infer how much Sargassum might have been in contact with oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mean Sargassum coverage during the four quarters of 2010 for the study region was estimated to range from ~3148±2355km(2) during January-March to ~7584±2532km(2) during July-September (95% confidence intervals) while estimated Sargassum coverage within the integrated oil footprint ranged from 1296±453km(2) (for areas with >5% thick oil) to 736±257km(2) (for areas with >10% thick oil). Similar to previous studies on estimating Sargassum coverage, a direct validation of such estimates is impossible given the heterogeneity and scarcity of Sargassum occurrence. Nonetheless, these estimates provide preliminary information to understand relative Sargassum abundance in the NE GOM., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Childhood obesity remains a serious concern in the United States and in many other countries. Direct experience preparing and tasting healthful foods and increasing activity during the school day are promising prevention approaches. Engaging parents and families remains an important challenge. Fuel for Fun: Cooking with Kids Plus Parents and Play is a multi-component school- and family-based intervention for 4th graders and their families intended to promote positive food and activity environments, policies and behaviors at the individual, family and school levels. This paper describes the design and evaluation plan., Methods/design: Four cohorts of 4th-graders and their parents from 8 schools in 2 districts in the same Northern Colorado region are participating in a 4-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. Theory-based Fuel for Fun consists of 5 components delivered over 1 school year: 1) Cooking with Kids - Colorado; an experiential classroom-based cooking and tasting curriculum, 2) Cafeteria Connections; cafeteria-based reinforcements of classroom food experiences using behavioral economic strategies, 3) SPARK active recess; a playground intervention to engage children in moderate to vigorous activity, 4) Fuel for Fun Family; multi-element supports targeting parents to reinforce the 3 school-based components at home, and 5) About Eating; an online interactive program for parents addressing constructs of eating competence and food resource management. Outcomes include child and parent measures of fruit and vegetable preferences and intake, cooking, physical activity, sedentary behaviors and attitudes. School level data assess lunch plate waste and physical activity at recess. In-depth diet and accelerometry assessments are collected with a subsample of parent-child dyads. Data are collected at baseline, immediately post-intervention at 7 months, and at 12 month follow-up. We anticipate recruiting 1320-1584 children and their parents over the length of the project., Discussion: The Fuel for Fun study design allows for impact assessment of school-, family- and online parent-based intervention components separately and in combination. Study strengths include use of theory- and evidence-based programs, valid child and parent self-report instruments, and objective measures of food, cooking, and physical activity behaviors at the individual, family and school levels. Parent involvement and engagement is examined through multiple strategies., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov registration number NCT02491294 . Registered 7 July, 2015.

Rates of colon cancer are much higher in African Americans (65:100,000) than in rural South Africans (<5:100,000). The higher rates are associated with higher animal protein and fat, and lower fibre consumption, higher colonic secondary bile acids, lower colonic short-chain fatty acid quantities and higher mucosal proliferative biomarkers of cancer risk in otherwise healthy middle-aged volunteers. Here we investigate further the role of fat and fibre in this association. We performed 2-week food exchanges in subjects from the same populations, where African Americans were fed a high-fibre, low-fat African-style diet and rural Africans a high-fat, low-fibre western-style diet, under close supervision. In comparison with their usual diets, the food changes resulted in remarkable reciprocal changes in mucosal biomarkers of cancer risk and in aspects of the microbiota and metabolome known to affect cancer risk, best illustrated by increased saccharolytic fermentation and butyrogenesis, and suppressed secondary bile acid synthesis in the African Americans.

Formally evaluating how specific policy measures influence environmental justice is challenging, especially in the context of regulatory analyses in which quantitative comparisons are the norm. However, there is a large literature on developing and applying quantitative measures of health inequality in other settings, and these measures may be applicable to environmental regulatory analyses. In this paper, we provide information to assist policy decision makers in determining the viability of using measures of health inequality in the context of environmental regulatory analyses. We conclude that quantification of the distribution of inequalities in health outcomes across social groups of concern, considering both within-group and between-group comparisons, would be consistent with both the structure of regulatory analysis and the core definition of environmental justice. Appropriate application of inequality indicators requires thorough characterization of the baseline distribution of exposures and risks, leveraging data generally available within regulatory analyses. Multiple inequality indicators may be applicable to regulatory analyses, and the choice among indicators should be based on explicit value judgments regarding the dimensions of environmental justice of greatest interest.

We have determined the congener compositions of nine commercial Aroclor products of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to the sub-part-per-million level using high-resolution gas chromatography combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry according to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Method 1668A. These Aroclor composition data should allow improved characterization and risk assessment of PCB contamination at hazardous waste sites, particularly for dioxin-like PCB congeners. By combining the data on the concentrations of each dioxin-like congener with its World Health Organization toxicity equivalency factor, we have established dioxin toxic equivalent concentrations for each pure Aroclor product.

The function and ultrastructure of platelets collected by the Haemonetics blood processor were investigated. Aggregability, release ability, and morphology of these platelets were compared with platelets of the same donors before plateletpheresis was instiuted. Data of a group of 15 normal donors were pooled and analyzed. Our results showed that Haemonetics-isolated platelets had the following altered in vitro functions. Adenosine diphosphate-induced aggregation was markedly reduce, and epinephrine-induced aggregation was often absent. Collagen-induced aggregation was characterized by prolongation of the aggregation time and, sometimes, also by reduction of aggregation. Increase of adenosine diphosphate or collagen concentration resulted in improvement of aggregation of Haemonetics-collected platelets; increase of epinephrine concentration had no effect. Exogenous CaCL2, pre-Haemonetics platelet-rich or platelet-poor plasma failed to correct the abnormal aggregation of post-Haemonetics platelets. Release of labeled serotonin induced by spinephrine and collagen was reduced. However, the ultrastructure of post-Haemonetics platelets was normal.