Fred Lurmann

Air pollution, weight loss and metabolic benefits of bariatric surgery: a potential model for study of metabolic effects of environmental exposures

Emerging experimental evidence suggests that air pollution may contribute to development of obesity and diabetes, but studies of children are limited.

Prenatal traffic-related air pollution exposures, cord blood adipokines and infant weight

Studies suggest that prenatal exposure to traffic‐related air pollution (TRAP) may contribute to childhood obesity. While exact mechanisms for this association are unknown, circulating adipokines are hypothesized to contribute to early‐life weight gain.

Association of Prenatal Exposure to Ambient and Traffic-Related Air Pollution With Newborn Thyroid Function: Findings From the Children’s Health Study

Key Points Question Are prenatal ambient and traffic-related air pollutant exposures associated with newborn total thyroxine concentrations, and are there critical windows of exposure? Findings In a cohort study of a subset of 2050 newborns from the Children’s Health Study in southern California, an increase of 2 standard deviations in prenatal exposure to particulate matter in air pollution was associated with higher newborn total thyroxine measures. Months 3 to 7 and 1 to 8 of pregnancy were identified as critical windows of exposure to particulate matter and associated higher thyroxine levels. Meaning The fetal thyroid gland may be susceptible to particulate matter air pollution toxicity, especially during early pregnancy and midpregnancy.

Traffic Exposure and Lung Function in Adults: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

BACKGROUNDnTraffic exposure is a major contributor to ambient air pollution for people living close to busy roads. The relationship between traffic exposure and lung function remains inconclusive in adults.nnnMETHODSnA cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association between traffic exposure and lung function in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, a community based cohort of 15 792 middle aged men and women. Traffic density and distance to major roads were used as measures of traffic exposure.nnnRESULTSnAfter controlling for potential confounders including demographic factors, personal and neighbourhood level socioeconomic characteristics, cigarette smoking and background air pollution, higher traffic density was significantly associated with lower forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) in women. Relative to the lowest quartile of traffic density, the adjusted differences across increasing quartiles were 5.1, -15.4 and -21.5 ml for FEV1 (p value of linear trend across the quartiles = 0.041) and 1.2, -23.4 and -34.8 ml for FVC (p trend = 0.010). Using distance from major roads as a simpler index of traffic related air pollution exposure, the FEV1 was -15.7 ml (95% CI -34.4 to 2.9) lower and the FVC was -24.2 ml (95% CI -46.2 to -2.3) lower for women living within 150 m compared with subjects living further away. There was no significant effect of traffic density or distance to major roads on lung function in men. The FEV1/FVC ratio was not significantly associated with traffic exposure in either men or women.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThis is the largest published study of traffic exposure and pulmonary function in adults to date. These results add to growing evidence that chronic exposure to traffic related air pollution may adversely affect respiratory health.