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- Bornehag, Carl-Gustaf, 1957-, et al.
(författare)
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The SELMA study : a birth cohort study in Sweden following more than 2000 mother-child pairs
- 2012
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Ingår i: Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology. - Hoboken, USA : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0269-5022 .- 1365-3016. ; 26:5, s. 456-467
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: This paper describes the background, aim and study design for the Swedish SELMA study that aimed to investigate the importance of early life exposure during pregnancy and infancy to environmental factors with a major focus on endocrine disrupting chemicals for multiple chronic diseases/disorders in offspring.Methods: The cohort was established by recruiting women in the 10th week of pregnancy. Blood and urine from the pregnant women and the child and air and dust from home environment from pregnancy and infancy period have been collected. Questionnaires were used to collect information on life styles, socio-economic status, living conditions, diet and medical history.Results: Of the 8394 reported pregnant women, 6658 were invited to participate in the study. Among the invited women, 2582 (39%) agreed to participate. Of the 4076 (61%) non-participants, 2091 women were invited to a non-respondent questionnaire in order to examine possible selection bias. We found a self-selection bias in the established cohort when compared with the non-participant group, e.g. participating families did smoke less (14% vs. 19%), had more frequent asthma and allergy symptoms in the family (58% vs. 38%), as well as higher education among the mothers (51% vs. 36%) and more often lived in single-family houses (67% vs. 60%).Conclusions: These findings indicate that the participating families do not fully represent the study population and thus, the exposure in this population. However, there is no obvious reason that this selection bias will have an impact on identification of environmental risk factors.
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- Larsson, Malin, et al.
(författare)
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Associations Between Different Background Factors And Parental Reported Autistic Spectrum Disorder In Children Aged 6-8 Years Old
- 2009
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Ingår i: Neurotoxicology. ; 30:5, s. 822-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Potential contributions of environmental chemicals and conditions to the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders are the subject of considerable current research and speculation. The present paper describes the results of a study undertaken as part of a larger project devoted to the connection between properties of the indoor environment and asthma and allergy in young Swedish children. The larger project, The Dampness in Buildings and Health (DBH) Study, began in the year 2000 with a questionnaire distributed to parents of all children 1-6 years of age in one Swedish county (DBH-I). A second, follow-up questionnaire (DBH-III) was distributed in 2005. The original survey collected information about the child, the family situation, practices such as smoking, allergic symptoms, type of residence, moisture-related problems, and type of flooring material, which included polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The 2005 survey, based on the same children, now 6-8 years of age, also asked if, during the intervening period, the child had been diagnosed with Autism, Asperger's syndrome, or Tourette's syndrome. From a total of 4779 eligible children, 72 (60 boys, 12 girls) were identified with parentally reported autism spectrum disorder. A random sample of 10 such families confirmed that the diagnoses had been made by medical professionals, in accordance with the Swedish system for monitoring children's health. An analysis of the associations between indoor environmental variables in 2000 as well as other background factors and the ASD diagnosis indicated five statistically significant variables: (1) maternal smoking; (2) male sex; (3) economic problems in the family; (4) condensation on windows, a proxy for low ventilation rate in the home; (5) PVC flooring, especially in the parents' bedroom. In addition, airway symptoms of wheezing and physician-diagnosed asthma in the baseline investigation (2000) were associated with ASD 5 years later. Results from the second phase of the DBH-study (DBH-II) indicate PVC flooring to be one important source of airborne phthalates indoors, and that asthma and allergy prevalence are associated with phthalate concentrations in settled dust in the children's bedroom. Because these associations are among the few linking ASD with environmental variables, they warrant further and more extensive exploration
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- Larsson, Mikael, et al.
(författare)
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Comprehensive study regarding greenhouse gas emission from iron ore based production at the integrated steel plant SSAB Tunnplåt AB
- 2006
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Ingår i: International Journal of Green Energy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1543-5075 .- 1543-5083. ; 3:2, s. 171-183
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the years 2001-2002, a comprehensive study regarding CO2 emissions related to the steel production for the integrated steel making production route, was carried out. The study was financed by SSAB and carried out by a research group with members from SSAB, MEFOS and LTV. The aim was to study the emissions from the existing system and how these could be influenced by process changes and by process modifications. The calculations were made using a global spreadsheet model for calculating the CO2 emissions, developed from an existing energy and process integration model of the same system. The calculated cases included the existing BF/BOF route as well as integration of other processes, e.g., an electric arc furnace, DR processes, COREX and a new future smelting reduction process concept (Sidcomet). All new existing alternative ore based process technologies would increase the specific CO2 emission from the system. A technology transfer to scrap based metallurgy would significantly decrease the emission level, but is not feasible for SSAB, due to the future product mix and the structure of scrap availability. In a 5-20 year perspective, the existing steel making process route with the use of magnetite ore for pellet production has the lowest specific CO2 emission. In a long-term perspective, 20-50 years, alternative process routes, e.g., based on H2 and DRI, could be of interest. Studies on such changes are, however, big projects and should be carried out as joint European and/or international efforts
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- Schantz, Staffan, et al.
(författare)
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Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-ethyl acrylate) latex particles with poly(ethylene glycol) grafts: Structure and film formation
- 2007
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Ingår i: Langmuir. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0743-7463 .- 1520-5827. ; 23:7, s. 3590-3602
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Water-based copolymer dispersions were prepared using methyl methacrylate (MMA), ethyl acrylate (EA) (MMA/EA = 1:2), and a series of nonionic polymerizable surfactants, i.e., "surfmers" based on poly(ethylene glycol)-(meth)acrylates. The latexes were compared with the behavior of a conventionally stabilized (nonionic nonylphenol ethoxylate, NP100 with 84 ethylene oxide units) dispersion with the same MMA-EA composition (PMMAEA). A number of techniques were employed in order to characterize structure, dynamics, and film formation properties: solution/solid-state NMR, dynamic/static light scattering (DLS/SLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile/shear mode dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surfmers were found to be miscible with the MMA-EA copolymer at room temperature, with 46-85 mol % of the reacted surfmer detected at the particle surfaces, and the remaining part buried in the particle bulk. In contrast, the NP100 surfactant formed a separate interphase between the copolymer particles with no mixing detected at room temperature or at 90 degrees C. For a 4.0% dry weight concentration, NP100 phase separated and further crystallized at room temperature over a period of several months. Composition fluctuations related to a limited blockiness on a length scale above similar to 2 nm were detected for PMMAEA particles, whereas the surfmer particles were found to be homogeneous also below this limit. On a particle-particle level, the dispersions tended to form colloidal crystals unless hindered by a broadened particle size distribution or, in the case of PMMAEA, by the action of NP100. Finally, a surface roughness (R-q) master plot was constructed for data above the glass transition temperature (T-g) from T-g + 11 degrees C to T-g + 57 degrees C and compared with the complex shear modulus over 11 frequency decades. Shift factors from the 2 methods obeyed the same Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF) temperature dependence, thus connecting the long-time surface flattening process to the rheological behavior of the copolymer.
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