January 2013 | Volume 121 | Number 1

News

On the Cover | Focus

EHP Cover Image

Cooling Concepts: Alternatives to Air Conditioning for a Warm World

Richard Dahl | A18-A125

The demand for air conditioning is booming in developing countries and expected to grow even more in coming decades, ironically adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in the process of providing relief from the heat. Architects are responding with nature-inspired passive technologies that provide cooling with less climate impact.

Forum

Green Walls Could Cut Street-Canyon Air Pollution

Rebecca Kessler | A14

Summit Discusses Public Health Implications of Fracking

Tanya Tillett | A15

Tiered Protocol for Sussing Out Endocrine Disruption

Kellyn S. Betts | A16

The Beat

Erin Dooley | A17

Spheres of Influence

Beyond Uncertainty Factors: Protecting the Tails of the Bell Curve

Charles W. Schmidt | A26-A29

Back in 1988, Bernard Weiss, now professor emeritus at the University of Rochester Medical Center, calculated that if the mean IQ of a hypothetical population of 100 million people fell by 5 points, then the number scoring below 70—a threshold for requiring remedial assistance—would swell from 6 million to 9.4 million.Graphed on what’s known as a normal distribution in statistics, Weiss’ analysis revealed how a shift in the population mean—in this case for IQ but conceivably for other physical features such as weight, cholesterol levels, and attention span—can be particularly harmful to certain segments of society.

Science Selections

Gene–Dioxin Interactions and Pubertal Onset in Boys: Findings from the Russian Children’s Study

Julia R. Barrett | A30

Evolutionary Selection for Arsenic Resistance: The Case of the Atacameños of the Andes Highlands

Wendee Nicole | A31

PCBs and Diabetes: Pinning Down Mechanisms

Bob Weinhold | A32

Climate Change and Elderly Americans: Examining Adaptability in an Aging Population

Tanya Tillett | A33

Commentaries

Contrasting Theories of Interaction in Epidemiology and Toxicology

Gregory J. Howard and Thomas F. Webster | 1-6

Reviews

Using in Vitro High Throughput Screening Assays to Identify Potential Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals

Daniel M. Rotroff, David J. Dix, Keith A. Houck, Thomas B. Knudsen, Matthew T. Martin, Keith W. McLaurin, David M. Reif, Kevin M. Crofton, Amar V. Singh, Menghang Xia, Ruili Huang, and Richard S. Judson | 7-14

Climate Change and Older Americans: State of the Science

Janet L. Gamble, Bradford J. Hurley, Peter A. Schultz, Wendy S. Jaglom, Nisha Krishnan, and Melinda Harris | 15-22

Addressing Human Variability in Next-Generation Human Health Risk Assessments of Environmental Chemicals

Lauren Zeise, Frederic Y. Bois, Weihsueh A. Chiu, Dale Hattis, Ivan Rusyn, and Kathryn Z. Guyton | 23-31

Research

Developmental Exposure to Concentrated Ambient Particles and Preference for Immediate Reward in Mice

Joshua L. Allen, Katherine Conrad, Günter Oberdörster, Carl J. Johnston, Brianna Sleezer, and Deborah A. Cory-Slechta | 32-38

Elimination Rates of Dioxin Congeners in Former Chlorophenol Workers from Midland, Michigan

Lesa L. Aylward, James J. Collins, Kenneth M. Bodner, Michael Wilken, and Catherine M. Bodnar | 39-45

The Air Quality Health Index and Asthma Morbidity: A Population-Based Study

Teresa To, Shixin Shen, Eshetu G. Atenafu, Jun Guan, Susan McLimont, Brian Stocks, and Christopher Licskai | 46-52

Possible Positive Selection for an Arsenic-Protective Haplotype in Humans

Carina M. Schlebusch, Cecil M. Lewis Jr., Marie Vahter, Karin Engström, Raúl Y. Tito, Alexandra J. Obregón‑Tito, Doris Huerta, Susan I. Polo, Ángel C. Medina, Tom D. Brutsaert, Gabriela Concha, Mattias Jakobsson, and Karin Broberg | 53-58

Radiation and the Risk of Chronic Lymphocytic and Other Leukemias among Chornobyl Cleanup Workers

Lydia B. Zablotska, Dimitry Bazyka, Jay H. Lubin, Nataliya Gudzenko, Mark P. Little, Maureen Hatch, Stuart Finch, Irina Dyagil, Robert F. Reiss, Vadim V. Chumak, Andre Bouville, Vladimir Drozdovitch, Victor P. Kryuchkov, Ivan Golovanov, Elena Bakhanova, Nataliya Babkina, Tatiana Lubarets, Volodymyr Bebeshko, Anatoly Romanenko, and Kiyohiko Mabuchi | 59-65

Blood Pressure Changes and Chemical Constituents of Particulate Air Pollution: Results from the Healthy Volunteer Natural Relocation (HVNR) Study

Shaowei Wu, Furong Deng, Jing Huang, Hongyi Wang, Masayuki Shima, Xin Wang, Yu Qin, Chanjuan Zheng, Hongying Wei, Yu Hao, Haibo Lv, Xiuling Lu, and Xinbiao Guo | 66-72

Time-Series Analyses of Air Pollution and Mortality in the United States: A Subsampling Approach

Suresh H. Moolgavkar, Roger O. McClellan, Anup Dewanji, Jay Turim, E. Georg Luebeck, and Melanie Edwards | 73-78

Childhood Thyroid Radioiodine Exposure and Subsequent Infertility in the Intermountain Fallout Cohort

Mary Bishop Stone, Joseph B. Stanford, Joseph L. Lyon, James A. VanDerslice, and Stephen C. Alder | 79-84

Polymorphisms in Genes Encoding Potential Mercury Transporters and Urine Mercury Concentrations in Populations Exposed to Mercury Vapor from Gold Mining

Karin Engström, Shegufta Ameer, Ludovic Bernaudat, Gustav Drasch, Jennifer Baeuml, Staffan Skerfving, Stephan Bose-O’Reilly, and Karin Broberg | 85-91

Air Pollution from Industrial Swine Operations and Blood Pressure of Neighboring Residents

Steve Wing, Rachel Avery Horton, and Kathryn M. Rose | 92-96

Heavy Metal Lead Exposure, Osteoporotic-like Phenotype in an Animal Model, and Depression of Wnt Signaling

Eric E. Beier, Jason R. Maher, Tzong-Jen Sheu, Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Andrew J. Berger, Michael J. Zuscik, and J. Edward Puzas | 97-104

Coplanar Polychlorinated Biphenyls Impair Glucose Homeostasis in Lean C57BL/6 Mice and Mitigate Beneficial Effects of Weight Loss on Glucose Homeostasis in Obese Mice

Nicki A. Baker, Michael Karounos, Victoria English, Jun Fang, Yinan Wei, Arnold Stromberg, Manjula Sunkara, Andrew J. Morris, Hollie I. Swanson, and Lisa A. Cassis | 105-110

Children’s Health

Genetic Modification of the Association between Peripubertal Dioxin Exposure and Pubertal Onset in a Cohort of Russian Boys

Olivier Humblet, Susan A. Korrick, Paige L. Williams, Oleg Sergeyev, Claude Emond, Linda S. Birnbaum, Jane S. Burns, Larisa M. Altshul, Donald G. Patterson Jr., Wayman E. Turner, Mary M. Lee, Boris Revich, and Russ Hauser | 111-117

Variability of Organophosphorous Pesticide Metabolite Levels in Spot and 24-hr Urine Samples Collected from Young Children during 1 Week

Asa Bradman, Katherine Kogut, Ellen A. Eisen, Nicholas P. Jewell, Lesliam Quirós-Alcalá, Rosemary Castorina, Jonathan Chevrier, Nina T. Holland, Dana Boyd Barr, Geri Kavanagh-Baird, and Brenda Eskenazi 118-124

In Utero Exposure to Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds and Anogenital Distance in Newborns and Infants

Marina Vafeiadi, Silvia Agramunt, Eleni Papadopoulou, Harrie Besselink, Kleopatra Mathianaki, Polyxeni Karakosta, Ariana Spanaki, Antonis Koutis, Leda Chatzi, Martine Vrijheid, and Manolis Kogevinas | 125-130

Toxicokinetic Modeling of Persistent Organic Pollutant Levels in Blood from Birth to 45 Months of Age in Longitudinal Birth Cohort Studies

Marc-André Verner, Dean Sonneborn, Kinga Lancz, Gina Muckle, Pierre Ayotte, Éric Dewailly, Anton Kocan, Lubica Palkovicová, Tomas Trnovec, Sami Haddad, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, and Merete Eggesbø | 131-137