Cloud Hosting

ExtramuralBy Megan Avakian

Nearly all children have nicotine on their hands, even those living in smoke-free environments, according to NIEHS-funded research. The children were exposed via thirdhand smoke (THS), or the residue that lingers on surfaces and in dust where tobacco was used.

The study included 504 children under the age of 12 from the Cincinnati area. The researchers analyzed child handwipe samples for nicotine, a marker of THS exposure. A child was considered protected from exposure if no household member smoked or vaped, smoking and vaping were banned in homes and cars, and there was no contact with tobacco users within the previous week.

Nicotine was detected on 98% of children living in exposed conditions and, surprisingly, on 95% of children in protected spaces. On average, exposures of about 3 nanograms per wipe were observed among children from protected households and 22 nanograms per wipe among children in exposed households.

Among children considered to be protected, children of Black parents had higher exposure than those with white or multiracial parents. Children from the lowest income families had about five-fold higher nicotine exposure compared to children from families with incomes greater than $30,000. The association between income and exposure points to a potential role of income-related disparities, such as housing type and quality.

According to the authors, results suggest that decades of permissive smoking policies have created significant THS reservoirs in many indoor environments. Smoking bans, exposure screening, and THS remediation are needed to help protect children.

Citation:Matt GE, Merianos AL, Quintana PJE, Hoh E, Dodder NG, Mahabee-Gittens EM. 2022. Prevalence and income-related disparities in thirdhand smoke exposure to children. JAMA Netw Open 5(2):e2147184.

NIEHS-funded researchers showed that pine needles can be used as a tool to monitor the presence and distribution of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) over time. The pine needles waxy coating traps PFAS and other airborne pollutants, providing a record of contamination.

The study included 60 pine needle samples from six North Carolina counties. For historical comparison, the researchers examined 15 archived samples, dating back to the 1960s, collected from the same counties. The team analyzed each sample using a non-targeted, multidimensional approach that allowed them to distinguish between PFAS based on molecular structure.

More than 70 different PFAS were identified in the pine needles. The types of PFAS detected in samples correlated with known changes in PFAS use over time. For example, samples from the past three decades had an increasing number of newer PFAS, such as GenX, compared with samples collected before the newer substances had emerged. The pine needles, taken at varying distances from contamination sources such as airports, firefighter training sites, and chemical plants, revealed where specific PFAS were being used. For example, samples collected near a contamination source had extremely elevated levels of a type of PFAS commonly used in firefighting foams compared with samples collected further away.

According to the researchers, study results showed that using pine needles in combination with non-targeted multidimensional analyses is a viable method for monitoring the distribution of diverse PFAS.

Citation:Kirkwood KI, Fleming J, Nguyen H, Reif DM, Baker ES, Belcher SM. 2022. Utilizing pine needles to temporally and spatially profile per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Environ Sci Technol 56(6):3441-3451.

Long-term exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures in school air may affect the nervous and immune systems, according to an NIEHS-funded study in rats. Although PCBs were banned in the U.S. in the late 1970s, air in older schools may be contaminated with PCBs released from building materials. This study contributes to knowledge of the health effects of long-term PCB inhalation, which are poorly understood.

For 13 weeks, the researchers exposed female rats to a PCB mixture and dose representative of air in a Chicago school built in 1968. They used a combination of transcriptomics, metabolomics, and neurobehavioral tests to examine the effects of PBC exposure on the nervous, immune, reproductive, and endocrine systems.

PCBs were detected in the brain, liver, lung, serum, and adipose tissue. PCB exposure impaired memory, induced anxiety-like behavior, substantially reduced white blood cell counts, and disrupted plasma metabolite composition. Exposed rats had altered expression of genes in the brain that are important in neurotransmitter signaling, cognitive function, vascular function, and immune response.

Although the exposure level used in this study was higher than what is found in most new schools, it is similar to concentrations reported for some older schools. According to the authors, results indicate that this exposure level 45.5 micrograms per cubic meter may be close to the lowest dose in which airborne PCB exposure induces adverse health effects.

Citation:Wang H, Adamcakova-Dodd A, Lehmler HJ, Hornbuckle KC, Thorne PS. 2022. Toxicity assessment of 91-day repeated inhalation exposure to an indoor school air mixture of PCBs. Environ Sci Technol 56(3):1780-1790.

NIEHS-funded researchers used a data mining approach to identify a diverse set of chemicals that may contribute to disparities in preterm birth among different populations. In the U.S., preterm birth occurs disproportionately in the Black population. Black women also face disproportionate exposure to chemicals in personal care products and from racial disparities in siting of polluting facilities.

The study included 19 chemicals observed at higher levels in the blood or urine of Black women compared with white women. The researchers obtained chemical-gene interactions from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database and a list of genes involved in preterm birth from the Preterm Birth Database. They examined chemicals for enrichment with preterm birth genes and identified biological pathways affected by these genes.

All 19 chemicals were associated with enriched expression of genes involved in preterm birth. Exposure levels for several chemicals were at least 1.5-fold higher in Black women compared with white women. These chemicals, which included methyl mercury, methylparaben, propylparaben, diethyl phthalate, DDE, and bisphenol S, also had a higher degree of enrichment with preterm birth genes. The chemicals affected genes involved in pathways relevant to preterm birth, such as inflammation, aging, and estradiol response. Most chemicals impacted genes involved in all three pathways.

Study results suggest that exposure to a diverse array of chemicals contributes to racial disparities in preterm birth and that multiple chemicals drive these effects. According to the authors, results may help to prioritize chemicals for further study and exposure reduction in the fight against preterm birth disparities.

Citation:Harris SM, Colacino J, Buxton M, Croxton L, Nguyen V, Loch-Caruso R, Bakulski KM. 2022. A data mining approach reveals chemicals detected at higher levels in non-Hispanic Black women target preterm birth genes and pathways. Reprod Sci; doi:10.1007/s43032-022-00870-w [Online 2 Feb 2022].

((Megan Avakian is a science communication specialist for MDB Inc., a contractor for the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training.)

Read the original:

April 2022: Extramural Papers of the Month - Environmental Factor Newsletter

The Internet went through massive shifts, starting in the 90s, where some innovations were adopted by enough of its users and developers that they eventually became standards. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit all represent what we now call Web 2.0.

The definitions can get a little fuzzy, but looking in the broad strokes helps us understand what kicked off the transition between Web 1.0 and the next iteration. This will also help us understand how the emergence of Web3 will work.

Also read:How to Delete Your Personal Data from the Internet

When the Internet was just starting to enter homes around the world, servers and bandwidth were expensive commodities. Getting a site up and running that could handle large amounts of traffic required a large upfront investment. One way to mitigate this was to minimize the amount of assets you displayed to the visitor. Thats why sites from the 90s have a reputation for being quirky and aesthetically unremarkable. There are still relics of this era around today.

Around the early to mid 2000s, the market around bandwidth and storage started loosening a bit. Startups that came with the Dot-com Bubble and survived the devastating blow kept adopting new ideas on how visitors can interact with their sites, transforming them into creators. This is how sites like YouTube and MySpace got their starts. The latter eventually collapsed, but the idea was picked up by Facebook. Behold, the Web 2.0 era.

Web 2.0 was designed by two crucial things:

Whereas the majority of people were consumers in Web 1.0, the next iteration saw websites that encouraged people to produce their own content and share it with the world.

As the 2010s approached, the websites we use to consume our media and socialize today began to take off and usher in this new era of the Internet.

Also read:How to Securely Send Sensitive Information Over the Internet

One of the biggest problems with the Web 2.0 model is that it allowed for a significant amount of consolidation of the infrastructure of the Internet. Facebook, YouTube, and Google became quasi-monopolies, controlling a huge chunk of all Internet traffic. Because of this, both developers and their users have been put in an awkward position, as the former engages in activities that led to widespread accusations of censorship.

Since about 2015 (though its very difficult to pinpoint an exact year), some people have been thinking of decentralizing services on the Internet to solve this issue.

Put simply, the Web3 principle is focused entirely on using something known as a blockchain to decentralize certain aspects of the Web.

Also read:Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Whats the Difference?

We have already written a detailed explanation about it, but in short, blockchains are just like databases, except that you can only use it to store and record not delete. Theyre generally immutable (you cannot delete something once its created) and redundant. (A large number of machines distributed around the world voluntarily hold th contents.)

Digital currencies like Bitcoin use blockchains because they provide a perfect platform with which to make an immutable ledger that cannot be seized. (Youre going to have a tough time seizing thousands or millions of personal machines around the world).

Also read:The Differences Between Permissioned and Permissionless Blockchains

Blockchains usually come in two flavors:

Because blockchains are capable of being decentralized and hosted on numerous systems at the same time, theyre also incredibly resilient. At this moment, the technology is getting a bad reputation because of all the scams in the cryptocurrency and digital token world. However, as more mature implementations appear, and it stops being a wild west, well likely see this become an integral part of Internet services, in the same way Facebook and Google became integral parts of Web 2.0.

Were already seeing examples of blockchain implementations growing into decently healthy projects like Odysee and DTube. Both are video-sharing sites that take different approaches to how they use their blockchains. While Odysee hosts everything entirely on the blockchain platform, DTube uses the chain to pull videos from other sites, storing only the comments associated with those videos.

The former has a hybrid permissioned blockchain, while the latter uses a fully permissionless implementation.

At this moment, Odysee pulls in millions of viewers from all over the world, demonstrating that this model is actually viable for the future of the Web.

You may think that a decentralized Web for platforms is a silly pipe dream, but the concept of decentralization is actually rather old. In fact, things like BitTorrent (a decentralized file-sharing protocol that makes use of trackers and other discovery layers) have been around since 2001!

The point is that decentralization was wildly successful with file sharing in the past and theres no reason blockchains cant help reinforce this in other areas, like social media and search engines.

Before we hop on the hype train, its important to reassess exactly what were getting into with this shift in the Internets arterial structure:

Pros:

Cons:

Its very clear that the only real challenge that Web 3.0 providers will have to overcome is the issue of immutability. Yes, censorship resistance is great and all, but what about when its dealing with something truly criminal or vile in nature? This is where blockchain technology becomes a double-edged sword, and so far the discussion around it has been too small. Its probably time we start to examine how we are going to be able to operate in this new paradigm.

Also read:How to Earn Cryptocurrency by Browsing the Web

For people who make content, nothing will really change on the surface. But since blockchains are immutable, nothing can truly be censored. Although websites can still ignore a particular block containing your content, theres nothing stopping someone else from making a site that doesnt do that.

Theres no need to reinvent the wheel. This new hypothetical site can use the same exact ledger and display it completely uncensored if they want to.

Web3 will not necessarily bring an end to censorship, but it will make it uncompetitive due to how little investment is required to make an uncensored version of a blockchain that already contains all the material it needs to populate its content.

The question surrounding data harvesting/mining on the Internet cant be answered by technology. It is in fact the infiltration of new tech into our lives that created this issue in the first place.

In theory, the same blockchain created by someone who collects data on its front end can be used to create another front end that doesnt do this. Its possible that the very existence of a public blockchain would put competitive pressure on sites to stop data mining.

The painful reality of the situation is that the only real pressure that can conceivably change anything has to come from the users themselves through their refusal to share data. Consent laws like GDPR and newer standards adopted by websites to let visitors manage how their data is collected have made some progress in mending this issue, but ultimately, the only real solution is to educate people until they become more conscious about how they use the Web.

The hardest part of Web 3.0 is the development effort required to make the backbone itself. However, there are many open-source blockchains people can just rip off to make derivatives. A huge amount of blockchain projects available today practically copy/paste the code from other projects. The uniqueness is in what data they store.

In the end, with the sheer amount of effort being put into making excellent open-source implementations of blockchain technology, it isnt inconceivable for Web 3.0 projects that dont focus on cryptocurrencies (which is still the flavor of the year at the time writing) to pop up everywhere like daisies at some point.

Image credit: Pete Linforth Pixabay

Is this article useful? Yes No

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox

See the original post:

What Is Web3 and How Will It Change Your Digital Life - Make Tech Easier