November 2012 | Volume 120 | Issue 11

News

On the Cover | Focus

Quicksilver and Gold: Mercury Pollution from Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining

Charles W. Schmidt | A424-A429

In 2009 a mining engineer named Marcello Veiga set out to study mercury air pollution in a part of northwest Colombia called Antioquia Department. This mountainous, conflict-ridden state, where leftist guerillas routinely battle Colombian security forces, is an important center for artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Miners isolate gold by mixing ores dug from the ground or from stream beds with mercury to form an amalgam. When the amalgam is burned, the elemental mercury vaporizes into a toxic plume while the gold stays behind.

Forum

Quorum-Sensing Signal Disperses Bacteria from Biofilms

Carol Potera | A420

A Closer Look at GE Corn Findings

Wendee Nicole | A421

Newly Discovered Atmospheric Oxidant Contributes to Climate Change, Sulfuric Acid Production

Nate Seltenrich | A422

The Beat

Erin E. Dooley | A423

Focus

Lessons of the Elwha River: Managing Health Hazards during Dam Removal

Wendee Nicole | A430-A435

On the northwest edge of the continental United States, in some of the quietest and most rain-drenched lands in all of North America,¹ runs the glacier-blue Elwha River. It arises from the Elwha Snowfinger, a perennial snowfield in Washington’s Olympic National Park, and flows 45 miles northward through basalt canyons and old-growth forest before spilling into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The river traverses the reservation of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, a people who have relied on the river’s salmon for physical, spiritual, and cultural sustenance for millennia.

Science Selections

Expanding the Range of Possibility: Exploring the Uncertainty in Projecting Ozone-Related Health Effects of Climate Change

Bob Weinhold | A436

Proximity Plus Pollution: Understanding Factors in Asthma among Children Living near Major Roadways

Julia R. Barrett | A436

Superbug Hideout: Finding MRSA in U.S.Wastewater Treatment Plants

Rebecca Kessler | A437

Here Today, Here Tomorrow? Urinary Concentrations of Parabens over Time

Tanya Tillett | A437

Commentaries

Wind of Change Challenges Toxicological Regulators

Tewes Tralau, Christian Riebeling, Ralph Pirow, Michael Oelgeschläger, Andrea Seiler, Manfred Liebsch, and Andreas Luch | 1489-1494

Research Opportunities for Cancer Associated with Indoor Air Pollution from Solid-Fuel Combustion

Britt C. Reid, Armen A. Ghazarian, David M. DeMarini, Amir Sapkota,Darby Jack, Qing Lan, Deborah M. Winn, and Linda S. Birnbaum | 1495-1498

Advancing the Next Generation of Health Risk Assessment

Ila Cote, Paul T. Anastas, Linda S. Birnbaum, Rebecca M. Clark, David J. Dix, Stephen W. Edwards, and Peter W. Preuss | 1499-1502

Reviews

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Circulatory Disease from Exposure to Low-Level Ionizing Radiation and Estimates of Potential Population Mortality Risks

Mark P. Little, Tamara V. Azizova, Dimitry Bazyka, Simon D. Bouffler, Elisabeth Cardis, Sergey Chekin, Vadim V. Chumak, Francis A. Cucinotta, Florent de Vathaire, Per Hall, John D. Harrison, Guido Hildebrandt, Victor Ivanov, Valeriy V. Kashcheev, Sergiy V. Klymenko, Michaela Kreuzer, Olivier Laurent, Kotaro Ozasa, Thierry Schneider, Soile Tapio, Andrew M. Taylor, Ioanna Tzoulaki, Wendy L. Vandoolaeghe, Richard Wakeford, Lydia B. Zablotska, Wei Zhang, and Steven E. Lipshultz | 1503-1511

A Quantitative Synthesis of Mercury in Commercial Seafood and Implications for Exposure in the United States

Roxanne Karimi, Timothy P. Fitzgerald, and Nicholas S. Fisher | 1512-1519

Climate Change and Food Security: Health Impacts in Developed Countries

Iain R. Lake, Lee Hooper, Asmaa Abdelhamid, Graham Bentham, Alistair B.A. Boxall, Alizon Draper, Susan Fairweather-Tait, Mike Hulme, Paul R. Hunter, Gordon Nichols, and Keith W. Waldron | 1520-1526

Research

Mortality in Young Adults following in Utero and Childhood Exposure to Arsenic in Drinking Water

Allan H. Smith, Guillermo Marshall, Jane Liaw, Yan Yuan, Catterina Ferreccio, and Craig Steinmaus | 1527-1531

Exposure to Tobacco Smoke in Utero and Subsequent Plasma Lipids, ApoB, and CRP among Adult Women in the MoBa Cohort

Lea A. Cupul‑Uicab, Rolv Skjaerven, Kjell Haug, Gregory S. Travlos, Ralph E. Wilson, Merete Eggesbø, Jane A. Hoppin, Kristina W. Whitworth, and Matthew P. Longnecker | 1532-1537

Predictors and Variability of Urinary Paraben Concentrations in Men and Women, Including before and during Pregnancy

Kristen W. Smith, Joe M. Braun, Paige L. Williams, Shelley Ehrlich, Katharine F. Correia, Antonia M. Calafat, Xiaoyun Ye, Jennifer Ford, Myra Keller, John D. Meeker, and Russ Hauser | 1538-1543

Environmental Cadmium and Lead Exposures and Hearing Loss in U.S. Adults: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999 to 2004

Yoon-Hyeong Choi, Howard Hu, Bhramar Mukherjee, Josef Miller, and Sung Kyun Park | 1544-1550

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) Detected at Four U.S. Wastewater Treatment Plants

Rachel E. Rosenberg Goldstein, Shirley A. Micallef, Shawn G. Gibbs, Johnnie A. Davis, Xin He, Ashish George, Lara M. Kleinfelter, Nicole A. Schreiber, Sampa Mukherjee, Amir Sapkota, Sam W. Joseph, and Amy R. Sapkota | 1551-1558

Variation in Estimated Ozone-Related Health Impacts of Climate Change due to Modeling Choices and Assumptions

Ellen S. Post, Anne Grambsch, Chris Weaver, Philip Morefield, Jin Huang, Lai-Yung Leung, Christopher G. Nolte, Peter Adams, Xin-Zhong Liang, Jin-Hong Zhu, and Hardee Mahoney | 1559-1564

Prioritizing Chemicals and Data Requirements for Screening-Level Exposure and Risk Assessment

Jon A. Arnot, Trevor N. Brown, Frank Wania, Knut Breivik, and Michael S. McLachlan | 1565-1570

Excessive Heat and Respiratory Hospitalizations in New York State: Estimating Current and Future Public Health Burden Related to Climate Change

Shao Lin, Wan-Hsiang Hsu, Alissa R. Van Zutphen, Shubhayu Saha, George Luber, and Syni-An Hwang | 1571-1577

Competitive Androgen Receptor Antagonism as a Factor Determining the Predictability of Cumulative Antiandrogenic Effects of Widely Used Pesticides

Frances Orton, Erika Rosivatz, Martin Scholze, and Andreas Kortenkamp | 1578-1584

Early Zebrafish Embryogenesis Is Susceptible to Developmental TDCPP Exposure

Sean P. McGee, Ellen M. Cooper, Heather M. Stapleton, and David C. Volz | 1585-1591

Children’s Health

The Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL) Study—Methods and Study Population

Patricia C. Chulada, Suzanne Kennedy, Mosanda M. Mvula, Katy Jaffee, Jeremy Wildfire, Eleanor Thornton, Richard D. Cohn, L. Faye Grimsley, Herman Mitchell, Jane El-Dahr, Yvonne Sterling, William J. Martin, LuAnn White, Kevin U. Stephens, and Maureen Lichtveld | 1592-1599

Indoor Environmental Exposures for Children with Asthma Enrolled in the HEAL Study, Post-Katrina New Orleans

L. Faye Grimsley, Patricia C. Chulada, Suzanne Kennedy, LuAnn White, Jeremy Wildfire, Richard D. Cohn, Herman Mitchell, Eleanor Thornton, Jane El-Dahr, Mosanda M. Mvula, Yvonne Sterling, William J. Martin, Kevin U. Stephens, and Maureen Lichtveld | 1600-1606

Implementation of Evidence-based Asthma Interventions in Post-Katrina New Orleans: The Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL) Study

Herman Mitchell, Richard D. Cohn, Jeremy Wildfire, Eleanor Thornton, Suzanne Kennedy, Jane M. El-Dahr, Patricia C. Chulada, Mosanda M. Mvula, L. Faye Grimsley, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, LuAnn E. White, Yvonne M. Sterling, Kevin U. Stephens Sr., and William J. Martin II | 1607-1612

Exposures to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Age of Menarche in Adolescent Girls in NHANES (2003–2008)

Danielle E. Buttke, Kanta Sircar, and Colleen Martin  | 1613-1618

Near-Roadway Pollution and Childhood Asthma: Implications for Developing “Win–Win” Compact Urban Development and Clean Vehicle Strategies

Laura Perez, Fred Lurmann, John Wilson, Manuel Pastor, Sylvia J. Brandt, Nino Künzli, and Rob McConnell | 1619-1626

Perspectives

Podcast

Exploring Links between Arsenic and Diabetes, with Ana Navas-Acien

Ashley Ahearn