Browsing by Subject "Environmental exposure"

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    Cadmium (Cd) and Lead (Pb) topsoil levels and incidence of childhood leukemias
    (Springer, 2022) Asenjo, Santiago; Nuñez, Olivier; Segú-Tell, Jordi; Pardo-Romaguera, Elena; Cañete-Nieto, Adela; Martín-Méndez, Iván; Bel-Ian, Alejandro; García-Pérez, Javier; Cárceles-Álvarez, Alberto; Ortega-García, Juan A.; Ramis, Rebeca; Cirugía, Pediatría y Obstetricia y Ginecología
    There are few well-established risk factors for childhood leukemias. While the frequency of childhood leukemias might be partially attributable to some diseases (accounting for a small fraction of cases) or ionizing radiation, the role of heavy metals has not been assessed. The objective of our study was to assess the potential association between levels of cadmium (Cd) and lead (PB) in soil and childhood leukemias incidence. We conducted a population-based case-control study of childhood leukaemia in Spain, covering 2897 incident cases gathered from the Spanish Registry of Childhood Tumours and including 14 Spanish Regions with a total population of 5,307,433 children (period 1996-2015). Cd and Pb bioavailable levels at every children's home address were estimated using data from the Geochemical Atlas of Spain. We used logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs); we included as covariates: sex, rurality, employment rate and socioeconomic status. Metal levels were analysed according to two definitions: as continuous variable assuming linearity and as categorical variables to explore a potentially nonlinear association (quantiles). Increases in both Cd and Pb topsoil levels were associated with increased probability of childhood leukemias incidence. The results for the models with the continuous variables showed that a unit increase on the topsoil level was associated with an OR of 1.11 for Cd (95%CI 1.00-1.24) and an OR of 1.10 for Pb (95%CI 0.99-1.21). Our study may point towards a possible link between residential Cd and Pb topsoil levels and the probability of childhood leukemias incidence. Residing in a location with the highest concentrations of these heavy metals compared to those locations with the lowest could increase the risk around a 20%, for both Cd and Pb.
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    Inheritance of Refractive Error in Millennials
    (Nature Research, 2020-05-18) Pusti, D.; Benito, A.; Madrid-Valero, J.J.; Ordoñana, J.R.; Artal, P.; Física
    Over the last decades, the prevalence of myopia has suddenly increased, and at this rate, half of the world's population will be myopic by the year 2050. Contemporary behavioural and lifestyle circumstances, along with emergent technology, are thought to be responsible for this increase. Twin studies mostly reported a high heritability of refractive error across ethnicities. However, heritability is a population statistic and could vary as a result of changing environmental conditions. We studied the variance of refractive error in millennials with 100 twin pairs of university students in southeast Spain. The study population presented a high prevalence of myopia (77%). Statistical analysis showed the variance of refractive error in this group of young twins was mainly driven by the shared environment and, to a lesser extent, by additive genetic factors. We found an increase in myopia prevalence accompanied by a decrease in heritability in this sample of millennials in contrast with results from a previous generation group from the same ethnic origin.