Air pollution, a warm bedroom and high levels of carbon dioxide and ambient noise all may adversely affect our ability to get a good night’s sleep, suggests a study from researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute (CLBEI).

The study, published April 18 in Sleep Health, is one of the first to measure multiple environmental variables in the bedroom and analyze their associations with sleep efficiency—the time spent sleeping relative to the time available for sleep. The analysis found that in a group of 62 participants tracked for two weeks with activity monitors and sleep logs, higher bedroom levels of air pollution ( or PM_2.5), carbon dioxide, noise and temperature were all linked independently to lower sleep efficiency.

The study was a collaboration between Penn Medicine and UofL’s CLBEI which is led by Aruni Bhatnagar. The researchers recruited participants from the CLBEI’s National Institutes of Health-funded Green Heart Project that investigates the effects of planting 8,000 mature trees on the cardiovascular health of Louisville residents.

“These findings highlight the importance of the bedroom environment for high-quality sleep,” said study lead author Mathias Basner, professor and director of the division of Sleep and Chronobiology in the department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine.

The researchers suggest that more research is needed now on interventions that could improve sleep efficiency by reducing exposures to these sleep-disrupting factors.

“This could be as simple as leaving a bedroom door open to lower carbon dioxide levels, and using triple-pane windows to reduce noise,” Bhatnagar said. “We also applied for (future) funding that will allow us to investigate whether planting trees can improve sleep and cardiovascular health through improving health behaviors and the bedroom environment.”

About the study

In addition to work and family obligations that , a quickly changing environment due to growing urbanization and climate change seems to have made it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep that is of inadequate duration, or inadequate efficiency due to frequent disruption (“tossing and turning”), affects work productivity and quality of life. It also has been linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression and dementia.

This research is among a limited number of studies that looked at associations between multiple objectively measured factors in the sleep environment—such as noise and temperature—and objectively measured sleep.

For each of the environmental variables measured, the researchers compared sleep efficiency during exposures to the highest 20 percent of levels versus lowest 20 percent of levels. Through this analysis, they found that high noise was associated with a 4.7 percent decline in sleep efficiency compared to low noise, high carbon dioxide with a 4.0 percent decline compared to low levels, high temperature with a 3.4 percent decline compared to low temperature, and high PM_2.5 with a 3.2 percent decline compared to low PM_2.5. Two other sleep environment variables, relative humidity and barometric pressure, appeared to have no significant association with sleep efficiency among the participants.

Interestingly, only bedroom humidity was associated with sleep outcomes assessed with questionnaires, such that higher humidity was associated with lower self-reported sleep quality and more daytime sleepiness. This suggests that studies based on questionnaires may miss important associations readily detected by objective measures of sleep. This is not surprising as humans are unconscious and unaware of themselves and their surroundings during large portions of their sleep period.

Also, most study participants rated humidity, temperature and noise levels in the bedroom as “just right” regardless of the actual exposure levels.

“We seem to habituate subjectively to our bedroom environment, and feel there is no need to improve it, when in fact our sleep may be disturbed night after night as evidenced by the objective measures of sleep we used in our study,” said Basner.

“Where there is nothing growing, we can turn this soil that’s not useful into something that we can use for crops,” Himes said.

Himes’ students, who are undergraduates, have dug up soil samples from a plot on university property where hemp and kenaf plants are growing. The samples are then taken to a lab to see if they can determine which helpful bacteria might grow under certain conditions. The research could prove to be an economic boon.

“We can make use of land that is right now not useable and hopefully that can be an economic boost for the state” Himes said.

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“We are pleased to be an official satellite mini-conference host site of the World Health Organization’s first global conference on air pollution and health,” said Ted Smith, PhD, Center for Healthy Air, Water and Soil Director. “This conference is a prime opportunity for Kentuckiana citizens who are interested in the impact air pollution has on health and well-being to share ideas and learn from experts around the globe as well as those in our own community.”

The mini conference will include video streams from the plenary session of the main conference in Geneva with an opportunity for discussions in Louisville to be shared with the main conference each day.

Tuesday’s session will open with remarks from Smith. A session will follow that examines the scientific evidence that exists showing the impact air pollution has on health with a discussion to follow mediated by Daniel Conklin, PhD, UofL professor of medicine.

Wednesday’s session will cover engaging the health sector as a leader of change in public policy, and communication, advocacy and partnerships to develop opportunities and remove barriers for promoting clean air policy.

Admission is free but reservations are required to receive a box lunch. To register, go to the ��

The event is organized in collaboration with the United National Environment Programme, World Meteorological Organization, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Economic Commission for Europe and The World Bank.

“In environmental health, the study of liver disease is relatively new, particularly in the field of endocrine disrupting chemicals,” said Cave, associate professor of medicine in gastroenterology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “These chemicals, such as bisphenol-A (BPA), found in plastic drink bottles, may cause endocrine and metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity, or make them worse.”��

With the NIEHS award, Cave plans to explore how any number of endocrine disrupting chemicals contribute to fatty liver disease. The flexible nature of the award allows him to redirect the research over the course of the funding, and adapt the work in light of new leads.

Cave is one of eight environmental health scientists receiving the new Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental health Research (RIVER) Outstanding Investigator Award from the NIEHS. Awardees were selected based on their record of innovative and impactful research. Cave’s 8-year funding is the maximum awarded for this program. The new RIVER awards differ from the NIH’s traditional approach of funding projects designed to study specific aims, which can steadily produce new knowledge but may limit scientists when their results suggest new directions. Through RIVER, Cave will be able to explore novel directions of research in environmental liver disease.

“The RIVER program is designed to fund people, not projects. It gives outstanding environmental health scientists stable funding, time, and importantly, flexibility to pursue creative scientific ideas, rather than constantly writing grants to support their research programs,” said David Balshaw, PhD, chief of the NIEHS Exposure, Response and Technology Branch who leads the NIEHS team overseeing this initiative.

“This funding mechanism gives us the flexibility to study this evolving field and the freedom to pursue the hot leads as they develop,” Cave said. “I am very flattered to receive this award. It demonstrates the confidence the NIEHS has in my work.”

While the specific projects will evolve over time, Cave’s initial work will focus on exposures to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and vinyl chloride. PCBs are chemical compounds previously used in electrical equipment and other products. Although banned from production in 1979, PCBs do not readily break down and can remain in the environment. Vinyl chloride is used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), from which plastic pipes and other construction materials are formed. Both compounds are known to cause liver damage. Cave plans a multi-tiered research approach, beginning with cell cultures and animal models and then in humans.

As a framework for his research, Cave will establish the Environmental Liver Disease Revolutionizing Innovative, Visionary Environmental Health Research Program (ELD-RIVER), a unique integrative and collaborative research program including collaborations with academia, government agencies, industry, and scientific/medical societies. Cave and award co-investigator Juliane Beier Arteel, Ph.D., are collaborating with UofL’s NIAAA Alcohol Research Center, Diabetes and Obesity Center, and researchers in cardiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

More information about Cave’s grant is below:��

UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences researcher Kristina Zierold, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, is one of just a few scholars in the United States investigating the health impacts from exposure to coal ash.

Coal ash is generated when power plants burn coal for energy. It includes many elements, but fly ash, which is comprised of small, spherical particles, is the greatest component. The composition of fly ash varies, but it frequently contains toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); and radioactive elements.

Most coal ash is stored in open landfills or ponds, and because it is not classified as a hazardous waste, there are limited federal regulations that govern its use, storage or disposal.

“Children are exposed to fly ash through inhalation and ingestion from fugitive dust emissions that come from power plant emissions, landfills and sludge ponds, putting these children at risk of developing emotional and behavioral issues such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and neurobehavioral performance problems like the ability to concentrate,” Zierold said. ��

An estimated 1.54 million children in the United States are exposed to coal ash. Kentucky ranks in the top five states for the amount of ash generated and ash storage, according to a .

Study details

Zierold is recruiting 300 children ages 6-14 who live in neighborhoods located between 150 feet and a 10-mile radius of coal ash landfills and ponds in Louisville. Specific zip codes include: 40109, 40118, 40177, 40211, 40214, 40215, 40216, 40258, 40272.

The research team will conduct in-home air sampling to determine the presence of fly ash and metals. Parents will be asked to fill out questionnaires that will help characterize environmental exposure history and health history of the children.

In addition, researchers will collect toenail and fingernail clippings of children to test the level of metals such as manganese, chromium, and lead found within the children’s bodies. Children also will be asked to take tests on a computer to evaluate neurobehavioral performance.

All testing will be completed within the homes of those who take part in the study, which allows for one child per household. Parents will receive a $100 Visa gift card and the participating child will receive a $25 Visa gift card.

As the study progresses, Zierold plans to provide community members with the findings, both through direct contact and through community meetings. Upon completion of the study, Zierold will evaluate the relationships between coal ash and emotional and behavioral disorders and neurobehavioral performance.

More information also can be found on the .