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Bibliography Tag: full text available

Casey et al., 2004

Casey, Michelle M., Blewett, Lynn A., & Call, Kathleen T.; “Providing Health Care to Latino Immigrants: Community-Based Efforts in the Rural Midwest;” American Journal of Public Health, 2004, 94(10), 1709-1711; DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.94.10.1709.

ABSTRACT:

We examined case studies of 3 rural Midwestern communities to assess local health care systems response to rapidly growing Latino populations. Currently, clinics provide free or low-cost care, and schools, public health, social services, and religious organizations connect Latinos to the health care system. However, many unmet health care needs result from lack of health insurance, limited income, and linguistic and cultural barriers. Targeted safety net funding would help meet Latino health care needs in rural communities with limited resources.  FULL TEXT

Askelson et al., 2020

Askelson, N., Ryan, G., Pieper, F., Bash-Brooks, W., Rasmusson, A., Greene, M., & Buckert, A.; “Perspectives on Implementation: Challenges and Successes of a Program Designed to Support Expectant and Parenting Community College Students in Rural, Midwestern State;” Maternal Child Health Journal, 2020, 24(Suppl 2), 152-162; DOI: 10.1007/s10995-020-02879-6.

ABSTRACT:

OBJECTIVES: Expectant and parenting students (EPS) at community colleges are an underserved and often under-resourced group. In a rural, Midwestern state, the department of public health was awarded the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) grant to assist this population. This paper outlines the results of the implementation evaluation and offers suggestions for programs and evaluators working with this population in the community college setting.

METHODS: We conducted a multicomponent evaluation utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods. Evaluation activities included tracking activities/services, surveys and interviews with participants, and interviews with community college staff implementing grant activities. The research team calculated frequencies for quantitative data and coded qualitative data for themes.

RESULTS: Data from the community colleges and students’ self-reports revealed that EPS most commonly received concrete support from the program, often in the form of stipends or gift cards. Students reported that concrete support was beneficial and helped to relieve financial stress during the semester. Students’ major barriers to participation were lack of knowledge about the program and busy schedules that prevented them from accessing PAF services. Staff reported that difficulty identifying EPS and the short one-year project period were major implementation challenges.

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: We recommend that community colleges work to identify EPS, use fellow EPS to recruit program participants, and implement programming that works with the students’ schedules.

FULL TEXT

Villapiano et al., 2017

Villapiano, N., Iwashyna, T. J., & Davis, M. M.; “Worsening Rural-Urban Gap in Hospital Mortality;” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2017, 30(6), 816-823; DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2017.06.170137.

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND: One out of every 5 Americans live in rural communities. Rural Americans have higher rates of early and preventable deaths outside of the hospital than their urban counterparts. How rurality relates to hospital mortality is unknown. We sought to determine the association between rural versus urban residence and hospital mortality.

METHODS: This is a retrospective observational study of 4,412,942 nonmaternal, nonneonatal hospitalizations in 2008, and 3899,464 nonmaternal, nonneonatal hospitalizations in 2013 using all-payer, all-age data from the National Inpatient Sample of the Health care Cost and Utilization Project. Using multivariable logistic regression, we report the association between rural versus urban location of residence and hospital mortality, adjusting for chronic disease burden, age, income, and insurance status.

RESULTS: The unadjusted probability of hospital mortality for urban patients decreased from 2.51% (95% CI, 2.40 to 2.62) in 2008 to 2.27% (95% CI, 2.22 to 2.32) in 2013 (P < .001). Hospital mortality did not change for rural patients over this same time period (2008: 2.66% [95% CI, 2.57 to 2.74], 2013: 2.66% [95% CI, 2.60 to 2.72]; P = .99). Adjusting for covariates accounted for the rural-urban hospital mortality difference in 2008 (rural: 2.13% [95% CI, 2.05 to 2.21], urban: 2.11% [95% CI, 2.02 to 2.20]; P = .67), but did not fully explain the difference in 2013 (rural: 1.92% [95% CI, 1.87 to 1.97]; urban: 1.76% [95% CI, 1.72 to 1.80], P < .001), resulting in 8416 excess deaths among hospitalized patients from rural areas.

CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: In 2013, patients living in rural areas of the United States had a greater probability of hospital mortality than their urban counterparts. Explaining excess rural hospital deaths will require further attention to the patient, community, and health system factors that distinguish rural from urban populations. FULL TEXT

Benbrook and Benbrook, 2021

Benbrook, Charles, & Benbrook, Rachel (2021). “A minimum data set for tracking changes in pesticide use.” In R. Mesnage & J. Zaller (Eds.), Herbicides: Elsevier and RTI Press.

ABSTRACT:

A frequently asked but deceptively simple question often arises about pesticide use on a given farm or crop: Is pesticide use going up, down, or staying about the same? Where substantial changes in pesticide use are occurring, it is also important to understand the factors driving change. These might include more or fewer hectares planted, a change in the crop mix, a higher or lower percentage of hectares treated, or higher or lower rates of application and/or number of applications. Or, it might arise from a shift to other pesticides applied at a higher or lower rate and/or lessened or greater reliance on nonpesticidal strategies and integrated pest management (IPM). Questions about whether pesticide use is changing and why arise for a variety of reasons. Rising use typically increases farmer costs and cuts into profit margins. It generally raises the risk of adverse environmental and/or public health outcomes. It can accelerate the emergence and spread of organisms resistant to applied pesticides. If the need to spray more continues year after year for long enough, farming systems become unsustainable. Lessened reliance on and use of pesticides, on the other hand, are typically brought about and can only be sustained by incrementally more effective prevention-based biointensive IPM systems (bioIPM).1–3 Fewer pesticide applications and fewer pounds/kilograms of active ingredient applied reduce the impacts on nontarget organisms and provide space for beneficial organisms and biodiversity to flourish. Such systems reduce the odds of significant crop loss in years when conditions undermine the efficacy of control measures, leading to spikes in pest populations and the risk of economically meaningful loss of crop yield and/or quality. FULL TEXT

Benbrook et al., 2021a

Benbrook, Charles, Perry, Melissa J., Belpoggi, Fiorella, Landrigan, Philip J., Perro, Michelle, Mandrioli, Daniele, Antoniou, Michael N., Winchester, Paul, & Mesnage, Robin; “Commentary: Novel strategies and new tools to curtail the health effects of pesticides;” Environmental Health, 2021, 20(1); DOI: 10.1186/s12940-021-00773-4.

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND: Flaws in the science supporting pesticide risk assessment and regulation stand in the way of progress in mitigating the human health impacts of pesticides. Critical problems include the scope of regulatory testing protocols, the near-total focus on pure active ingredients rather than formulated products, lack of publicly accessible information on co-formulants, excessive reliance on industry-supported studies coupled with reticence to incorporate published results in the risk assessment process, and failure to take advantage of new scientific opportunities and advances, e.g. biomonitoring and “omics” technologies.
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: Problems in pesticide risk assessment are identified and linked to study design, data, and methodological shortcomings. Steps and strategies are presented that have potential to deepen scientific knowledge of pesticide toxicity, exposures, and risks.
We propose four solutions:
(1) End near-sole reliance in regulatory decision-making on industry-supported studies by supporting and relying more heavily on independent science, especially for core toxicology studies. The cost of conducting core toxicology studies at labs not affiliated with or funded directly by pesticide registrants should be covered via fees paid by manufacturers to public agencies.
(2) Regulators should place more weight on mechanistic data and low-dose studies within the range of contemporary exposures.
(3) Regulators, public health agencies, and funders should increase the share of exposure-assessment resources that produce direct measures of concentrations in bodily fluids and tissues. Human biomonitoring is vital in order to quickly identify rising exposures among vulnerable populations including applicators, pregnant women, and children.
(4) Scientific tools across disciplines can accelerate progress in risk assessments if integrated more effectively. New genetic and metabolomic markers of adverse health impacts and heritable epigenetic impacts are emerging and should be included more routinely in risk assessment to effectively prevent disease.
CONCLUSIONS: Preventing adverse public health outcomes triggered or made worse by exposure to pesticides will require changes in policy and risk assessment procedures, more science free of industry influence, and innovative strategies that blend traditional methods with new tools and mechanistic insights.

FULL TEXT

Costello et al., 2009

Costello S, Cockburn M, Bronstein J, Zhang X, Ritz B; “Parkinson’s disease and residential exposure to maneb and paraquat from agricultural applications in the central valley of California.” American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009 Apr 15;169(8):919-26. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwp006.
ABSTRACT:
Evidence from animal and cell models suggests that pesticides cause a neurodegenerative process leading to Parkinson’s disease (PD). Human data are insufficient to support this claim for any specific pesticide, largely because of challenges in exposure assessment. The authors developed and validated an exposure assessment tool based on geographic information systems that integrated information from California Pesticide Use Reports and land-use maps to estimate historical exposure to agricultural pesticides in the residential environment. In 1998-2007, the authors enrolled 368 incident PD cases and 341 population controls from the Central Valley of California in a case-control study. They generated estimates for maneb and paraquat exposures incurred between 1974 and 1999. Exposure to both pesticides within 500 m of the home increased PD risk by 75% (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13, 2.73). Persons aged < or =60 years at the time of diagnosis were at much higher risk when exposed to either maneb or paraquat alone (odds ratio = 2.27, 95% CI: 0.91, 5.70) or to both pesticides in combination (odds ratio = 4.17, 95% CI: 1.15, 15.16) in 1974-1989. This study provides evidence that exposure to a combination of maneb and paraquat increases PD risk, particularly in younger subjects and/or when exposure occurs at younger ages. FULL TEXT

Abou et al., 2020

Abou Ghayda R, Sergeyev O, Burns JS, Williams PL, Lee MM, Korrick SA, Smigulina L, Dikov Y, Hauser R, Mínguez-Alarcón L; “Russian Children’s Study. Peripubertal serum concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and semen parameters in Russian young men.” Environment International. 2020 Nov;144:106085. DOI:10.1016/j.envint.2020.106085.

ABSTRACT:

Background: Epidemiologic literature on the relation of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) with semen quality among adult men has been inconclusive, and no studies have prospectively explored the association between peripubertal serum OCPs and semen parameters in young men.

Objective: To evaluate prospective associations of peripubertal serum concentrations of hexachlorobenzene (HCB), β-hexachlorocylohexane (β-HCH), and p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p’-DDE) with semen parameters among young Russian men.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included 152 young men who enrolled in the Russian Children’s Study (2003-2005) at age 8-9 years and were followed annually until young adulthood. HCB, β-HCH, and p,p’-DDE concentrations were measured at the CDC by mass spectrometry in serum collected at enrollment. Between 18 and 23 years, semen samples (n = 298) were provided for analysis of volume, concentration, and progressive motility; we also calculated total sperm count and total progressive motile count. Linear mixed models were used to examine the longitudinal associations of quartiles of serum HCB, β-HCH and p,p’-DDE with semen parameters, adjusting for total serum lipids, body mass index, smoking, abstinence time and baseline dietary macronutrient intake.

Results: Lipid-adjusted medians (IQR) for serum HCB, βHCH and p,ṕ-DDE, respectively, were 150 ng/g lipid (102-243), 172 ng/g lipid (120-257) and 275 ng/g lipid (190-465). In adjusted models, we observed lower ejaculated volume with higher serum concentrations of HCB and βHCH, along with reduced progressive motility with higher concentrations of βHCH andp,ṕ-DDE. Men in the highest quartile of serum HCB had a mean (95% Confidence Interval, CI) ejaculated volume of 2.25 mL (1.89, 2.60), as compared to those in the lowest quartile with a mean (95% CI) of 2.97 mL (2.46, 3.49) (p = 0.03). Also, men in the highest quartile of serum p,ṕ-DDE had a mean (95% CI) progressive motility of 51.1% (48.6, 53.7), as compared to those in the lowest quartile with a mean (95% CI) of 55.1% (51.7, 58.5) (p = 0.07).

Conclusion: In this longitudinal Russian cohort study, peripubertal serum concentrations of selected OCPs were associated with lower ejaculated volume and progressive motility highlighting the importance of the peripubertal window when evaluating chemical exposures in relation to semen quality. FULL TEXT

Milesi et al., 2021

Milesi, M. M., Lorenz, V., Durando, M., Rossetti, M. F., & Varayoud, J. “Glyphosate Herbicide: Reproductive Outcomes and Multigenerational Effects.” Frontiers in Endocrinology, 12. 2021; DOI:10.3389/fendo.2021.672532.

ABSTRACT:

Glyphosate base herbicides (GBHs) are the most widely applied pesticides in the world and are mainly used in association with GBH-tolerant crop varieties. Indiscriminate and negligent use of GBHs has promoted the emergence of glyphosate resistant weeds, and consequently the rise in the use of these herbicides. Glyphosate, the active ingredient of all GBHs, is combined with other chemicals known as co-formulants that enhance the herbicide action. Nowadays, the safety of glyphosate and its formulations remain to be a controversial issue, as evidence is not conclusive whether the adverse effects are caused by GBH or glyphosate, and little is known about the contribution of co-formulants to the toxicity of herbicides. Currently, alarmingly increased levels of glyphosate have been detected in different environmental matrixes and in foodstuff, becoming an issue of social concern. Some in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that glyphosate and its formulations exhibit estrogen-like properties, and growing evidence has indicated they may disrupt normal endocrine function, with adverse consequences for reproductive health. Moreover, multigenerational effects have been reported and epigenetic mechanisms have been proved to be involved in the alterations induced by the herbicide. In this review, we provide an overview of: i) the routes and levels of human exposure to GBHs, ii) the potential estrogenic effects of glyphosate and GBHs in cell culture and animal models, iii) their long-term effects on female fertility and mechanisms of action, and iv) the consequences on health of successive generations. FULL TEXT

Messina and Goodis, 2020

Messina, Edward & Goodis, Mike; “Overview of EPA’s Pesticide Program”; Presented at the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Committee Meeting; November 13, 2020. Environmental Protection Agency, 2020.

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

  • Background
  • Office of Pesticide Programs Structure and Responsibilities
  • Pesticide Legislation
  • Pesticide Registration and Registration Review Process
  • Risk Assessment, Risk Characterization, and Risk Management
  • Public Involvement
  • Collaboration with Domestic & International Partners
  • Updates on EPA Issues

 FULL PRESENTATION

Benbrook et al., 2021

Benbrook, Charles, Kegley, Susan, & Baker, Brian; “Organic Farming Lessens Reliance on Pesticides and Promotes Public Health by Lowering Dietary Risks;” Agronomy, 2021, 11(7); DOI: 10.3390/agronomy11071266.

ABSTRACT:

Organic agriculture is a production system that relies on prevention, ecological processes, biodiversity, mechanical processes, and natural cycles to control pests and maintain productivity. Pesticide use is generally limited or absent in organic agroecosystems, in contrast with non-organic (conventional) production systems that primarily rely on pesticides for crop protection. Significant differences in pesticide use between the two production systems markedly alter the relative dietary exposure and risk levels and the environmental impacts of pesticides. Data are presented on pesticide use on organic and non-organic farms for all crops and selected horticultural crops. The relative dietary risks that are posed by organic and non-organic food, with a focus on fresh produce, are also presented and compared. The results support the notion that organic farms apply pesticides far less intensively than conventional farms, in part because, over time on well-managed organic farms, pest pressure falls when compared to the levels on nearby conventional farms growing the same crops. Biopesticides are the predominant pesticides used in organic production, which work by a non-toxic mode of action, and pose minimal risks to human health and the environment. Consequently, eating organic food, especially fruits and vegetables, can largely eliminate the risks posed by pesticide dietary exposure. We recommend ways to lower the pesticide risks by increased adoption of organic farming practices and highlight options along organic food supply chains to further reduce pesticide use, exposures, and adverse worker and environmental impacts. FULL TEXT

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