| 1. |
- Augustsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Managing health risks in urban agriculture: The effect of vegetable washing for reducing exposure to metal contaminants
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 863
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A common, yet poorly evaluated, advice to remove contaminants from urban vegetables is to wash the produce before consumption. This study is based on 63 samples of chard, kale, lettuce and parsley that have grown near a heavily trafficked road in the third largest city in Sweden, with one portion of each sample being analysed without first being washed, and the other portion being subjected to common household washing. Concentrations of 71 elements were analysed by ICP-SFMS after a sample digestion that dissolves both the plant tissues and all potentially adhering particles. The results show that the washing effect, or the fraction removed upon washing, varies significantly between elements: from approximately 0 % for K to 68 % for the ∑REEs. Considering traditional metal contaminants, the efficiency decreased from Pb (on average 56 % lost) to Co (56 %) > Cr (55 %) > As (45 %) > Sb (35 %) > Ni (33 %) > Cu (13 %) > Zn (7 %) > Cd (7 %), and Ba (5 %). A clear negative correlation between the washing effect and the different elements' bioconcentration factors shows that the elements' accessibility for plant uptake is a key controlling factor for the degree to which they are removed upon washing. Based on the average washing efficiencies seen in this study, the average daily intake of Pb would increase by 130 % if vegetables are not washed prior to consumption. For the other contaminant metals this increase corresponds to 126 % (Co), 121 % (Cr), 82 % (As), 55 % (Sb), 50 % (Ni), 16 % (Cu), 8 % (Zn), 7 % (Cd) and 5 % (Ba). The advice to wash vegetables is therefore, for many elements, highly motivated for reducing exposure and health risks. For elements which are only slightly reduced when the vegetables are washed, however, advising should rather focus on reducing levels of contamination in the soil itself.
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| 2. |
- Augustsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Trace and major elements in food supplements of different origin : implications for daily intake levels and health risks
- 2021
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Ingår i: Toxicology reports. - : Elsevier. - 2214-7500. ; 8, s. 1067-1080
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As the use of food supplements increases, voices are being raised questioning the safety of these products. As a contribution to understanding the trace and major elemental composition of food supplements and their potential health risks, this study presents concentrations of 71 elements in 138 supplements, categorised into synthetic products and three groups of products with natural ingredients. Concentrations were converted into average daily doses (ADDs) and compared to tolerable daily intakes (TDIs). For elements where we found significant ADDs relative to the TDI a comparison was also made to the normal dietary intake. Our main findings are that: 1) Most elements display highly variable concentrations in food supplements; more so than in normal foodstuff; 2) For ten of the analysed elements some products rendered ADDs > 50% of the TDI. Half of the elements were essential (Fe, Mn, Se, Mo, Zn), and as such motivated in food supplements. The other half (As, Pb, Cd, Al, Ni) represent non-essential and highly toxic elements, where the occurrence in food supplements ought to be viewed as contamination. Although none of these toxic metals were declared on any product’s table of content, several products gave high ADDs - in several cases even exceeding the TDIs; 3) The risk of reaching high ADDs for the toxic elements is strongly associated with products that contain marine ingredients (e.g. algae, mussels etc), and to some degree products of terrestrial plant-based origin. The health of consumers would benefit if food regulatory frameworks were updated to better address the risks of food supplements occasionally being contaminated with different toxic metals, for example by setting maximum permissible concentrations for a longer list of elements.
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| 3. |
- Augustsson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Urban vegetable contamination - The role of adhering particles and their significance for human exposure
- 2023
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 900
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While urban-grown vegetables could help combat future food insecurity, the elevated levels of toxic metals in urban soils need to be met with measures that minimise transfer to crops. The study firstly examines soil/dust particle inclusion in leafy vegetables and its contribution to vegetable metals (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Zn), using vegetable, soil and dust data from an open-field urban farm in southeastern Sweden. Titanium concentrations were used to assess soil/dust adherence. Results showed that vegetables contained 0.05–1.3 wt% of adhering particles (AP) even after washing. With 0.5 % AP, an adult with an average intake of vegetables could ingest approximately 100mg of particles per day, highlighting leafy vegetables as a major route for soil/dust ingestion. The presence of adhering particles also significantly contributed to the vegetable concentrations of As (9-20%), Co (17-20%), Pb (25-29%), and Cr (33-34%). Secondly, data from an indoor experiment was used to characterise root metal uptake from 20 urban soils from Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the UK, and the Czech Republic. Combining particle adherence and root uptake data, vegetable metal concentrations were calculated for the 20 urban soils to represent hypothetical field scenarios for these. Subsequently, average daily doses were assessed for vegetable consumers (adults and 3-6 year old children), distinguishing between doses from adhering particles and root uptake. Risks were evaluated from hazard quotients (HQs; average daily doses/tolerable intakes). Lead was found to pose the greatest risk, where particle ingestion often resulted in HQs>1 across all assessed scenarios. In summary, since washing was shown to remove only a portion of adhering metal-laden soil/dust particles from leafy vegetation, farmers and urban planners need to consider that measures to limit particle deposition are equally important as cultivating in uncontaminated soil.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Englund, Anna-Lena, 1949-, et al.
(författare)
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Värdegrunden reducerad till metod
- 2009
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Ingår i: Pedagogiska magasinet. - Stockholm : Lärarförbundet. - 1401-3320. ; 13:4, s. 18-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- Det behövs en etisk vändning i diskussionen om främjande och förebyggande program. Alltför stort intresse riktas mot frågan om evidens och effektivitet och alltför lite intresse riktas mot värdefrågorna. Vad innebäör det för lärarens professionalism om manualstyrda aktiviteter ersätter samtal och samspel?
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| 7. |
- Engström, Alexander
(författare)
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Everyday life, crime, and fear of crime among adolescents and young adults
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Drawing on lifestyle-routine activity theory, this dissertation explores associations between everyday life, crime, and fear of crime among adolescents and young adults. It also examines the operationalisation of the concepts of lifestyle and routine activities, and explores the use of experience methods, via a smartphone application named STUNDA, to collect data about everyday life. Of the four studies conducted, Study I shows that different specific lifestyle measures are of varying relevance for victims, offenders, and victim-offenders, which indicates that no single universal lifestyle feature is of relevance for all outcomes studied. The findings from Study II reveal that spending time with friends in the city-centre is associated with lower levels of fear of crime across months, days, and moments. However, other associations between everyday life variables and fear of crime are inconsistent across these reference periods. Study III, a systematic review of the literature, shows that measures of lifestyle and routine activities differ in the frequency with which they are used in studies on interpersonal victimisation and offending. Illegal activities are often used as lifestyle/routine activity measures in studies on victimisation while unstructured and peer-oriented activities dominate in studies on offending. However, the measures used in the included studies are diverse, which indicates that researchers use a wide range of activities that are intended to measure lifestyle/routine activities. The final paper, Study IV, explores fear of crime in relation to moments of everyday life and finds that specific features of settings, such as being in semi-public and public spaces and on public transport, increase the odds for experiencing fear of crime.The overall conclusions of the studies point to methodological and theoretical directions for future research. First, research in the field of lifestyle-routine activity theory needs to consider specific and potentially different activities when examining victimisation, offending, and the overlap between these two outcomes. Further, fear of crime research must consider different reference periods, such as months, days and moments, since fear may not only be defined as a more stable trait-like phenomenon but also as a momentary and transitory experience in everyday life. The types of measures used to represent everyday life also require consideration, particularly in terms of the inclusion of lifestyle/routine activity measures that are actually related to criminogenic exposure. For theory more specifically, the implications of the findings point to an overall confirmation of the view that exposure to various environmental circumstances is associated with crime and fear of crime. However, across all of the studies conducted, the findings point to potential weaknesses of the theory. In particular, the lack of an elaborated perspective on individual traits and characteristics limits the explanatory scope of lifestyle-routine activity theory. For instance, people with similar lifestyles still vary in terms of their victimisation, offending, and fear of crime, which necessitates the inclusion of additional individual-level factors that could explain these variations. Future research must thus either modify lifestyle-routine activity theory or open up for other theoretical perspectives that provide a more holistic approach to understanding the role of both environ-mental and individual factors when studying everyday life, crime, and fear of crime.
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| 8. |
- Engström, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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High in Utero Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances from Drinking Water and Birth Weight: A Cohort Study among Infants in Ronneby, Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1660-4601. ; 19:4, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2013, the drinking water for one-third of the households in Ronneby, Sweden, was found to be contaminated by perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS, >10,000 ng/L) from Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF). In utero PFAS exposure can influence birth weight, but little is known about the effects at very high levels. This study aimed to examine the association between in utero PFAS exposure and birth weight. Infants with mothers from Ronneby exposed to contaminated water at home (high exposure) and infants with mothers from Ronneby not exposed to contaminated water at home (low exposure) were compared to infants with mothers from Blekinge county excluding Ronneby (referents). All infants born in Blekinge county 1995–2013 were included (n = 30,360). Differences in birth weight were only seen among infants born after 2005. For boys, Ronneby high exposure had a lower mean birth weight than referents (−54 g, 95% CI −97; −11). For girls, Ronneby high exposure had a higher mean birth weight than referents (47 g, 95% CI 4; 90). There were no differences in birth weight between referents and Ronneby low exposure. In conclusion, high exposure to PFAS may influence birth weight in a sex-specific way, although the effect estimates were relatively small.
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| 9. |
- Engström, Linda, et al.
(författare)
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Systemic immune challenge activates an intrinsically regulated local inflammatory circuit in the adrenal gland
- 2008
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Ingår i: Endocrinology. - : The Endocrine Society. - 0013-7227 .- 1945-7170. ; 149:4, s. 1436-1450
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is evidence from in vitro studies that inflammatory messengers influence the release of stress hormone via direct effects on the adrenal gland; however, the mechanisms underlying these effects in the intact organism are unknown. Here we demonstrate that systemic inflammation in rats elicited by iv injection of lipopolysaccharide results in dynamic changes in the adrenal immune cell population, implying a rapid depletion of dendritic cells in the inner cortical layer and the recruitment of immature cells to the outer layers. These changes are accompanied by an induced production of IL-1β and IL-1 receptor type 1 as well as cyclooxygenase-2 and microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 in these cells, implying local cytokine-mediated prostaglandin E2 production in the adrenals, which also displayed prostaglandin E2 receptors of subtypes 1 and 3 in the cortex and medulla. The IL-1β expression was also induced by systemically administrated IL-1β and was in both cases attenuated by IL-1 receptor antagonist, consistent with an autocrine signaling loop. IL-1β similarly induced expression of cyclooxygenase-2, but the cyclooxygenase-2 expression was, in contrast, further enhanced by IL-1 receptor antagonist. These data demonstrate a mechanism by which systemic inflammatory agents activate an intrinsically regulated local signaling circuit that may influence the adrenals’ response to immune stress and may help explain the dissociation between plasma levels of ACTH and corticosteroids during chronic immune perturbations.
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| 10. |
- Grövdal, Michael, et al.
(författare)
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Maintenance treatment with azacytidine for patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or acute myeloid leukaemia following MDS in complete remission after induction chemotherapy
- 2010
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Ingår i: British Journal of Haematology. - : Wiley. - 0007-1048 .- 1365-2141. ; 150:3, s. 293-302
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This prospective Phase II study is the first to assess the feasibility and efficacy of maintenance 5-azacytidine for older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia and MDS-acute myeloid leukaemia syndromes in complete remission (CR) after induction chemotherapy. Sixty patients were enrolled and treated by standard induction chemotherapy. Patients that reached CR started maintenance therapy with subcutaneous azacytidine, 5/28 d until relapse. Promoter-methylation status of CDKN2B (P15 ink4b), CDH1 and HIC1 was examined pre-induction, in CR and 6, 12 and 24 months post CR. Twenty-four (40%) patients achieved CR after induction chemotherapy and 23 started maintenance treatment with azacytidine. Median CR duration was 13.5 months, >24 months in 17% of the patients, and 18-30.5 months in the four patients with trisomy 8. CR duration was not associated with CDKN2B methylation status or karyotype. Median overall survival was 20 months. Hypermethylation of CDH1 was significantly associated with low CR rate, early relapse, and short overall survival (P = 0.003). 5-azacytidine treatment, at a dose of 60 mg/m(2) was well tolerated. Grade III-IV thrombocytopenia and neutropenia occurred after 9.5 and 30% of the cycles, respectively, while haemoglobin levels increased during treatment. 5-azacytidine treatment is safe, feasible and may be of benefit in a subset of patients.
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