As marginalized communities continue to bear disproportionate impacts from environmental hazards, we urgently call for researchers and institutions to elevate the principles of Environmental Justice. ...The American Geophysical Union (AGU) GeoHealth section supports members' engagement in health‐related community‐engaged and community‐led transdisciplinary research. We highlight intersectional research that provides examples and actions for both individuals and organizations on community science and trust building, removing barriers created by scientific agency priorities and career expectations, and opportunities in education and policy. Justice does not start or end at one meeting; this is ongoing work that is active, evolving, and an ethical responsibility of AGU's membership.
Plain Language Summary
GeoHealth was recently defined as a new field of science that combines earth, environmental, and health sciences with a mission to answer scientific questions important to the health of humans and our planet. An incredibly important topic within GeoHealth is how racism affects environmental and human health. This topic is known as Environmental Justice: the right of all people and communities to have equal and fair protection by environmental laws and policies, regardless of race or color. However, many scientists feel underprepared to apply Environmental Justice to their own research due to a lack of training. Using GeoHealth projects from the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2021 as examples, we highlight recent research that provides examples and clear suggested actions for both individuals and organizations on community science and trust building, changing funding methods for science, education, and policy in order to incorporate Environmental Justice across the all of the types of research we conduct.
Key Points
We, members of American Geophysical Union GeoHealth, urgently call for researchers to incorporate and elevate the principles of Environmental Justice in their work
We discuss justice‐oriented capacity‐building strategies like co‐creating research with communities, education, and restructuring funding mechanisms
We provide individual‐ and organizational‐level guidance on converting science into action, dismantling barriers, and overcoming challenges
Coffee production workers can be exposed to inhalational hazards including alpha-diketones such as diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione. Exposure to diacetyl is associated with the development of ...occupational lung disease, including obliterative bronchiolitis, a rare and irreversible lung disease. We aimed to identify determinants contributing to task-based exposures to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione at 17 U.S. coffee production facilities. We collected 606 personal short-term task-based samples including roasting (
n
= 189), grinding (
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= 74), packaging (
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= 203), quality control (QC,
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= 44), flavoring (
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= 15), and miscellaneous production/café tasks (
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= 81), and analyzed for diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione in accordance with the modified OSHA Method 1013/1016. We also collected instantaneous activity-based (
n
= 296) and source (
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= 312) samples using evacuated canisters. Information on sample-level and process-level determinants relating to production scale, sources of alpha-diketones, and engineering controls was collected. Bayesian mixed-effect regression models accounting for censored data were fit for overall data (all tasks) and specific tasks. Notable determinants identified in univariate analyses were used to fit all plausible models in multiple regression analysis which were summarized using a Bayesian model averaging method. Grinding, flavoring, packaging, and production tasks with ground coffee were associated with the highest short-term and instantaneous-activity exposures for both analytes. Highest instantaneous-sources of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione included ground coffee, flavored coffee, liquid flavorings, and off-gassing coffee bins or packages. Determinants contributing to higher exposures to both analytes in all task models included sum of all open storage sources and average percent of coffee production as ground coffee. Additionally, flavoring ground coffee and flavoring during survey contributed to notably higher exposures for both analytes in most, but not all task groups. Alternatively, general exhaust ventilation contributed to lower exposures in all but two models. Additionally, among facilities that flavored, local exhaust ventilation during flavoring processes contributed to lower 2,3-pentanedione exposures during grinding and packaging tasks. Coffee production facilities can consider implementing additional exposure controls for processes, sources, and task-based determinants associated with higher exposures to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione, such as isolating, enclosing, and directly exhausting grinders, flavoring mixers, and open storage of off-gassing whole bean and ground coffee, to reduce exposures and minimize risks for lung disease among workers.
Acrylamide, classified in 1994 by IARC as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” was discovered in 2002 in some heat‐treated, carbohydrate‐rich foods. Four prospective studies have evaluated the ...association between dietary acrylamide intake and endometrial cancer (EC) risk with inconsistent results. The purpose of this nested case‐control study, based on the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, was to evaluate, for the first time, the association between hemoglobin adducts of acrylamide (HbAA) and glycidamide (HbGA) and the risk of developing EC in non‐smoking postmenopausal women. Hemoglobin adducts were measured in red blood cells by HPLC/MS/MS. Four exposure variables were evaluated: HbAA, HbGA, their sum (HbAA+HbGA), and their ratio (HbGA/HbAA). The association between hemoglobin adducts and EC was evaluated using unconditional multivariable logistic regression models, and included 383 EC cases (171 were type‐I EC), and 385 controls. Exposure variables were analyzed in quintiles based on control distributions. None of the biomarker variables had an effect on overall EC (HRHbAA;Q5vsQ1: 0.84, 95%CI: 0.49–1.48; HRHbGA;Q5vsQ1: 0.94, 95%CI: 0.54–1.63) or type‐I EC risk. Additionally, none of the subgroups investigated (BMI < 25 vs. ≥25 kg m−2, alcohol drinkers vs. never drinkers, oral contraceptive users vs. non‐users) demonstrated effect measure modification. Hemoglobin adducts of acrylamide or glycidamide were not associated with EC or type‐I EC risk in 768 nonsmoking postmenopausal women from the EPIC cohort.
What's new?
Acrylamide in food may not lead to endometrial cancer, according to a new report. The carcinogen has provoked public concerns because it can be detected in certain foods. Prospective studies on the relationship between endometrial cancer and dietary acrylamide, however, have produced conflicting results. Taking a different tack, these authors conducted a case‐control study, drawing on data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). They measured the amounts of certain compounds formed by hemoglobin with acrylamide or glycidamide in nonsmoking, postmenopausal women. Neither of these levels, they report, had any impact on endometrial cancer risk.
Neoplastic and non-neoplastic events may raise levels of mucins, CA15.3, and CA125, and generate antibodies against them, but their impact on epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk has not been fully ...defined.
CA15.3, CA125, and IgG1 antibodies against them were measured in 806 women who developed EOC and 1,927 matched controls from the European Prospective Investigation of Nutrition and Cancer. Associations between epidemiologic factors and anti-mucin antibodies were evaluated using generalized linear models; EOC risks associated with anti-mucin antibodies, by themselves or in combination with respective antigens, were evaluated using conditional logistic regression.
In controls, lower antibodies against both mucins were associated with current smoking; and, in postmenopausal women, higher levels with longer oral contraceptive use and later-age-at and shorter-interval-since last birth. Lower anti-CA15.3 antibodies were associated with higher body mass and, in premenopausal women, more ovulatory cycles. Higher anti-CA15.3 and anti-CA125 antibodies were associated with higher risk for mucinous EOC occurring ≥ 3 years from enrollment. Long-term risk for serous EOC was reduced in women with low CA125 and high anti-CA125 antibodies relative to women with low concentrations of both.
We found general support for the hypothesis that anti-mucin antibody levels correlate with risk factors for EOC. Antibodies alone or in combinations with their antigen may predict longer term risk of specific EOC types.
Anti-CA125 and anti-CA15.3 antibodies alone or in perspective of antigens may be informative in the pathogenesis of EOC subtypes, but less useful for informing risk for all EOC.
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GeoHealth research both characterizes and predicts problems at the nexus of earth and human systems like climate change, pollution, and natural hazards. While GeoHealth excels in the area of ...integrated science, there is a need to improve coordinated and networked efforts to produce open science to enable environmental justice. There is a need to resource and empower frontline populations that are disproportionately marginalized by environmental injustice (i.e., the unequal protection from environmental harms and lack of access and meaningful engagement in decision making for a healthy environment; EPA, 2022, https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice). GeoHealth practice has the opportunity to advance environmental justice or the “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income” with respect to how research and collaboration of GeoHealth professionals supports the “development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” that produce equal protection from environmental and health hazards and access to the decision making for a health environment (EPA, 2022, https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice). Here we highlight barriers and opportunities to apply an equity‐centered ICON framework to the field of GeoHealth to advance environmental justice and health equity.
Plain Language Summary
Technical, structural, and cultural hurdles are roadblocks towards advancement of open science by design in the field of GeoHealth. To shift the GeoHealth paradigm, we present a commentary about the strengths, limitations, and provide recommendations for centering equity in the development and implementation of ICON in GeoHealth.
Key Points
We address challenges and opportunities to advance equity in GeoHealth using the ICON (integrated, coordinated, open science, networked) framework
There is a need to develop, improve, and scale coordinated and networked efforts that address collaboration and open science
Scaling ICON in GeoHealth includes intentional actions that shift power and follow community expertise to drive equity in science
Mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) is a rare histotype of ovarian cancer, with low response rates to standard chemotherapy, and very poor survival for patients diagnosed at advanced stage. There is a ...limited understanding of the MOC immune landscape, and consequently whether immune checkpoint inhibitors could be considered for a subset of patients.
We performed multicolor immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) on tissue microarrays in a cohort of 126 MOC patients. Cell densities were calculated in the epithelial and stromal components for tumor-associated macrophages (CD68+/PD-L1+, CD68+/PD-L1-), T cells (CD3+/CD8-, CD3+/CD8+), putative T-regulatory cells (Tregs, FOXP3+), B cells (CD20+/CD79A+), plasma cells (CD20-/CD79a+), and PD-L1+ and PD-1+ cells, and compared these values with clinical factors. Univariate and multivariable Cox Proportional Hazards assessed overall survival. Unsupervised k-means clustering identified patient subsets with common patterns of immune cell infiltration.
Mean densities of PD1+ cells, PD-L1- macrophages, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and FOXP3+ Tregs were higher in the stroma compared to the epithelium. Tumors from advanced (Stage III/IV) MOC had greater epithelial infiltration of PD-L1- macrophages, and fewer PD-L1+ macrophages compared with Stage I/II cancers (p = 0.004 and p = 0.014 respectively). Patients with high epithelial density of FOXP3+ cells, CD8+/FOXP3+ cells, or PD-L1- macrophages, had poorer survival, and high epithelial CD79a + plasma cells conferred better survival, all upon univariate analysis only. Clustering showed that most MOC (86%) had an immune depleted (cold) phenotype, with only a small proportion (11/76,14%) considered immune inflamed (hot) based on T cell and PD-L1 infiltrates.
In summary, MOCs are mostly immunogenically ‘cold’, suggesting they may have limited response to current immunotherapies.
•High stage compared to low stage MOC have features suggestive of a more immunosuppressive environment.•High epithelial FOXP3+ T-regulatory cells associated with poorer overall survival, possibly inhibiting the immune response.•Most mucinous ovarian carcinomas are immunogenically ‘cold’ and tailored immune therapy approaches would be required.
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