BACKGROUND Childhood cancer has been linked to a variety of environmental factors, including agricultural activities, industrial pollutants and population mixing, but etiologic studies have often been inconclusive or inconsistent when considering specific cancer types. More specific exposure assessments are needed. It would be helpful to optimize future studies to incorporate knowledge of high-...

Ultramafic rocks of the ophiolitic complexes are prone to alteration and degradation, and therefore, ease of mobility of heavy metals such as nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), lead (Pb), and vanadium (V), resulting in environmental hazards. The ultramafic rocks of the ophiolitic realm of Kurdistan province, west of Iran, show field and compositional evidence for such hazardous conditions...

OBJECTIVE Natural disasters exacerbate risks of hazardous environmental exposures and adverse health consequences. The present study determined the proportion of previously identified lead industrial sites in urban locations that are at high risk for dispersal of toxic chemicals by natural disasters. METHODS Geographic analysis from publicly available data identified former lead smelting plan...

We tested the hypothesis that neighborhoods with hazardous waste sites may no longer be undesirable places to live if they have been at least partly remediated. We collected 377 questionnaires (42% response rate) administered from within one-half mile of the number 1, 4, and 12 hazardous waste sites on the National Priority List (Superfund). These neighborhoods were rated higher quality than ne...