Publications

Background The impact of wildfire smoke (WFS) on air quality across the contiguous US has become geographically widespread. However, the effects of WFS exposure on psychometric measures of mental and physical health remain largely unknown. Objectives To assess the associations between WFS PM2.5 and black carbon (BC) exposure and psychometric health measures. Methods The St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) and the 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) were administered to participants in the Lovelace Smokers Cohort in New Mexico to assess psychometric health measures in the past 4 weeks. WFS estimates were calculated against Albuquerque metropolitan area for 7-, 15-, 30-, and 60-d prior to questionnaire completion. The associations between exposure and health measures were assessed using linear models. Results Associations were observed for all psychometric measures with WFS PM2.5 and BC exposures estimated for 7-day prior to questionnaire completion. These associations remained for WFS exposure estimated up to 30-day prior to questionnaire completion for all SGRQ subdomains and physical health measures of SF-36, whereas associations with the mental health component were more transient and primarily evident within one week. Additionally, WFS PM2.5 exhibited stronger potency than total ambient PM2.5. Male participants, individuals with less than a college education, and those exposed to woodsmoke demonstrated stronger associations with WFS exposure. Conclusions Exposure to WFS was associated with worse SGRQ and SF-36 scores, with notable differences in temporal patterns between mental and physical health measures. Our findings also underscore the importance of source-specific risk assessment for air pollution.

Background We previously identified a sputum 12-gene methylation panel that predicts lung aging and risk for lung cancer. Research Question Can the sputum methylation panel be used as a readout to derive a dietary pattern beneficial for lung health? Is this dietary pattern associated with various subjective and objective lung health phenotypes? Does this relationship vary among people who currently smoke vs previously smoked? Study Design and Methods Using the Lovelace Smoker Cohort (LSC), we employed the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regularized Poisson regression to define a dietary pattern for sputum. Associations of the dietary pattern with objective and subjective lung health measurements were examined using generalized linear and Cox models in the LSC and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening trial. Results The Dietary Pattern for Healthy Lung (DiPHeaL) includes low consumption of processed meat, and high consumption of dark green vegetables, tea, alcohol, and fruit juice. In the LSC, a higher DiPHeaL score (1 SD) was associated with better FEV1 (by 96.1 mL/s), FEV1/FVC ratio (by 1.83%), and respiratory quality of life (by 4.9 for activity score), and decreased cardiopulmonary mortality (by 47%) in participants who previously smoked (all P values < .05), but not in participants who currently smoke. Moreover, effect sizes of the DiPHeaL score on respiratory quality of life measures were greater among participants who previously smoked with airway obstruction compared with those without. Associations with cardiovascular and respiratory mortality were replicated in PLCO participants who previously smoked . A higher DiPHeaL score was also associated with lower lung cancer incidence in participants who previously smoked, as well as reduced COPD incidence and lung cancer mortality regardless of smoking status in the PLCO. Interpretation We defined a novel dietary pattern for lung epigenetic aging, which linked to lung health measurements. Participants who previously smoked, especially those with airway obstruction, may benefit the most from nutritional modification. Keywords: dietary pattern; lung cancer; mortality; respiratory quality of life; spirometry; sputum methylation

Hearing loss in newborns is a prevalent issue that can hinder the growth of language skills and cognitive development. Given that hearing loss often co-occurs with other adverse birth outcomes and the recognized role of metals in causing such outcomes, it is conceivable that metals may also serve as a risk factor of hearing loss. This study examined the associations between maternal residential exposure to thirteen PM2.5-bound metals and failure in Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) in offspring in New Mexico from 2008 to 2017 to ascertain possible implications of these environmental exposures. This retrospective cohort study included 141,406 births (7670 births in disease group and 133,736 births in non-diseased group) in New Mexico during 2008–2017. Thirteen PM2.5-bound metals released from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities were investigated potentially as risk factors. The RSEI model estimated maternal residential exposure to PM2.5-bound metals during pregnancy, and spatial log-binomial regressions, adjusted for confounders, calculated adjusted relative risks (aRRs) for the association with NHS failure. Findings indicated that maternal residential exposure to PM2.5-bound metals – including antimony, barium, beryllium, chromium, cobalt, manganese, mercury, vanadium, and zinc – during pregnancy were positively associated with NHS failure in offspring, showing aRRs ranging from 1.07 to 2.18. A significant trend was observed when exposures were categorized as zero, low, medium, and high of these metals. Our findings indicate that maternal exposure to these PM2.5-bound metals may adversely affect newborn hearing, underscoring air pollution as a modifiable risk factor for improving hearing health outcomes. Keywords: Newborn hearing; PM2.5-bound metals; GIS; Spatial analysis; Risk-Screening Environmental Indicator (RSEI)