Molly L Kile

• ScD
• Oregon State University

As part of the Advancing Science, Practice, Programming, and Policy in Research Translation for Children’s Environmental Health (ASP3IRE) center, machine learning, geographic information systems (GIS), and natural language processing to analyze more than 650 million posts related to children’s environmental health are being used. Using preliminary...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010952.].

Antibiotic resistance is a leading cause of hospitalization and death worldwide. Heavy metals such as arsenic have been shown to drive co-selection of antibiotic resistance, suggesting arsenic-contaminated drinking water is a risk factor for antibiotic resistance carriage. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and abundance of antibiotic-res...

(1) Background: Arsenic (As) is a common drinking water contaminant that is regulated as a carcinogen. Yet, As is a systemic toxicant and there is considerable epidemiological data showing As adversely impacts reproductive health. This study used data from a birth cohort in Bangladesh (2008–2011) to examine associations between drinking water As le...

Background Pregnancy is a sensitive time for maternal cardiovascular functioning and exposures to arsenic or manganese may adversely affect blood pressure (BP). Objectives This study examined the associations between arsenic and manganese exposures and maternal BP measured during pregnancy. Effect modification by pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI...

Objectives We aimed to investigate the association between type of cooking biomass fuels (crop residues vs fuelwood) and newborn birth outcomes in Bangladeshi children. Methods In this birth cohort study, pregnant women who were 18 years or older with ultrasound confirmed singleton pregnancy of ≤16 weeks of gestation were enrolled from two Banglad...

Environmental health literacy (EHL) is defined as the understanding of how the environment can impact human health, yet there are few tools to quantify EHL. We adapted the Short Assessment of Health Literacy (SAHL) to create the Short Assessment of Environmental Health Literacy (SA-EHL). Using the Amazon mTurk platform, users (n = 864) completed th...

Background Oil and gas extraction produces air pollutants that are associated with increased risks of hypertension. To date, no study has examined residential proximity to oil and gas extraction and hypertensive conditions during pregnancy. This study quantifies associations between residential proximity to oil and gas development on gestational hy...

Background: Oil and natural gas extraction may produce environmental pollution at levels that affect reproductive health of nearby populations. Available studies have primarily focused on unconventional gas drilling and have not accounted for local population changes that can coincide with drilling activity. Objective: Our study sought to examin...

Background: Studies have evaluated environmental exposure to toxic metals such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), or lead (Pb) on birth size; however, information on potential effects of exposures to metal mixtures is limited. Objectives: We assessed the association between metal mixtures (As, Cd, Mn, Pb) in umbilical cord blood and...

Background: Recent studies indicate airborne PAH levels have decreased in the U.S., but it is unclear if this has resulted in PAH exposure changes in the U.S. population. Objective Examine temporal trends in urinary metabolites of Naphthalene, Fluorene, Phenanthrene, and Pyrene in U.S. non-smokers, 6+ years old. Methods: We used biomonitoring dat...

Background Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental contaminants that are hepatotoxic and immunotoxic. PAH exposure may modulate hepatitis B immunology. Objective We used data from 6 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003-2014) to evaluate the associations between urinary PAH metabolites and hepatitis...

It is believed that genetic factors play a large role in the development of many cognitive and neurological processes; however, epidemiological evidence for the genetic basis of childhood neurodevelopment is very limited. Identification of the genetic polymorphisms associated with early-stage neurodevelopment will help elucidate biological mechanis...

Background Since the 1990s, extensive regulations to reduce traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) have been implemented, yet the effectiveness of these regulations has not been assessed with respect to improving infant health. In this study, we evaluate how infant health risks associated with maternal residences near highways during pregnancy have c...

Background: Many populations are exposed to arsenic, lead, and manganese. These metals influence immune function. We evaluated the association between exposure to single and multiple metals, including arsenic, lead, and manganese, to humoral immunity as measured by antibody concentrations to diphtheria and tetanus toxoid among vaccinated Banglades...

Background: Fetal epigenetic programming plays a critical role in development. DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A), which is involved in de novo DNA methylation (DNAm), is a prime candidate gene as a mediator between prenatal exposures and birth outcomes. We evaluated the relationships between in utero arsenic (As) exposure, birth outcomes, and...

Background: Previous research found that infants who were exposed to high levels of arsenic in utero had an increased risk of infectious disease in the first year of life. This prospective study examined the association between arsenic exposures during gestation, and respiratory, diarrheal, and febrile morbidity in children 4–5 years of age. Metho...

Native Americans face disproportionate exposures to environmental pollution through traditional subsistence practices including shellfish harvesting. In this study, the collection of butter clams (Saxidomus giganteus) was spatially and temporally paired with deployment of sediment pore water passive samplers at 20 locations in the Puget Sound regio...

Background: Arsenic can impair immune function. Timing of exposure can influence potential immunotoxicity of arsenic exposure. We examined the association between drinking water arsenic concentrations (W-As) measured repeatedly during different exposure windows in early life and serum concentrations of IgG antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus...

Antibiotic resistance in human pathogens can proliferate under selective pressures. Heavy metals in environmental reservoirs may contribute to selecting antibiotic-resistant strains. To determine the associations between heavy metals and antibiotic resistance, a literature review was conducted to systematically collect and categorize evidence for c...

Third generation cephalosporins (3GC) are one of the main choices for treatment of infections caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative bacteria. Due to their overuse, an increasing trend of resistance to 3GC has been observed in developing countries. Here, we describe fecal colonization of 3GC-resistant (3GCr) Escherichia coli in healthy i...

In the U.S., privately owned wells are not subject to any regulatory testing requirements. Well owners must have sufficient environmental health literacy (EHL) to understand and interpret information that contain complex terms and labels to manage their water quality. The objective of this paper is to assess the performance and validity of a new EH...

Background: Epidemiological evidence suggests that arsenic (As) exposure during pregnancy may reduce infant birth weight. One significant source of As exposure is diet; thus, As may indirectly affect infant growth by mediating the effect of maternal diet on birth weight (BW). This study evaluated the potential mediating effect of As in the relatio...

To assess differences and trends in personal chemical exposure, volunteers from 14 communities in Africa (Senegal, South Africa), North America (United States (U.S.)) and South America (Peru) wore 262 silicone wristbands. We analysed wristband extracts for 1530 unique chemicals, resulting in 400 860 chemical data points. The number of chemical dete...

In 2015, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) was impacted by an air toxic release from one of two nearby oil refineries. This experience motivated SITC members to learn more about their exposure to air toxics. On the invitation of SITC, this community-based study measured personal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and con...

Biomonitoring studies have shown that humans are exposed to numerous environmental chemicals. Previous work provides limited insights into the dynamic relationship between different chemicals within a population. The objective of this study is to develop an analytical method identifying exposure profiles of seven common environmental chemicals and...

Arsenic crosses the placenta, possibly increasing the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes. We aimed to examine the association between maternal arsenic exposure and fetal/neonatal survival using a prospective cohort of 1,616 maternal-infant pairs recruited at ≤ 16 weeks gestational age in Bangladesh (2008-2011). Arsenic concentration was measured...

Prenatal arsenic exposure is associated with adverse birth outcomes and disease risk later in life, which could be mediated through epigenetic dysregulation. We evaluated the association between arsenic and gestational age (GA) that was mediated through DNA methylation (DNAm) using data from a Bangladeshi birth cohort. Arsenic exposure was measured...

Background: Arsenic alters immunological parameters including antibody formation and antigen-driven T-cell proliferation. Objective: We evaluated the cross-sectional relationship between urinary arsenic and the seroprevalence of hepatitis B (HBV) infection in the United States using data from six pooled cycles of the National Health and Nutritio...

Background: Preterm birth is a disease of multifactorial etiologies that has environmental, social, and maternal health components. Individual studies have shown that exposure to arsenic contaminated drinking water, child marriage, and low maternal weight gain during pregnancy contribute to preterm birth. These factors are highly prevalent and oft...

Purpose of ReviewEvidence suggests prenatal polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) exposure effects on human neurodevelopment, but this is controversial due to conflicting research results. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize available peer-reviewed data of prenatal PBDE exposure effects on cognitive function, motor funct...

Contents ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS xvii SUMMARY 1 1 INTRODUCTION 17 Previous Veterans and Agent Orange Reports, 18 Charge to the Committee, 19 Information Gathering, 20 Organization of the Report, 21 2 BACKGROUND 25 The Current Population of Vietnam Veterans,25 Military Use of Herbicides in Vietnam, 27 Exposure of Different Groups of Vietnam Veter...

Background: In 2001, the United States revised the arsenic maximum contaminant level for public drinking water systems from 50µg/L to 10µg/L. This study aimed to examine temporal trends in urinary arsenic concentrations in the U.S. population from 2003 to 2014 by drinking water source among individuals aged 12 years and older who had no detectable...

Background Arsenic has antimicrobial properties at high doses yet few studies have examined its effect on gut microbiota. This warrants investigation since arsenic exposure increases the risk of many diseases in which gut microbiota have been shown to play a role. We examined the association between arsenic exposure from drinking water and the comp...

Analysis of alpha and beta diversity of microbiota. (TIFF)

Correlation between taxa and arsenic exposure. (TIFF)

Simulation of different genome assembly completeness for MGS0010 by p-value. (TIFF)

Abundance of arsenic resistance genes in high arsenic exposure group. (TIFF)

Taxa abundance estimates between 16S RNA-based and whole genome shotgun sequencing. (TIFF)

Arsenic resistance operons in assembled contigs. (TIFF)

Antibiotic resistance genes identified using Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD) database. (XLSX)

UniBac qPCR for total bacterial load. (TIFF)

Arsenic-enriched genes found in the bacteria that survived antibiotic treatment in mouse gut. (XLSX)

Contigs that harbor arsenic resistance operons identified through blastn search against NCBI nucleotide database. (XLSX)

Assemblage of 100 large genomes in the genome with open reading frames (ORF) annotated with SEED functions. (XLSX)

Genome MGS0010 which showed a significant tendency for enrichment within the 332 arsenic related SEED functions. (XLSX)

Basic questionnaire. (DOC)

Antibiotic resistance genes by arsenic exposure. (TIFF)

Abundance of KEGG functions between high and low arsenic exposure groups. (XLSX)

Assembled metagenomics species (MGS) from sampled population. (XLSX)

Workflow of reference free assembly of genomes. (TIFF)

Simulation of different genome assembly completeness for MGS0010. (TIFF)

Abundance of bacterial genes between high and low arsenic exposure groups with differential abundance (two-tailed P <0.1). (XLSX)

Background Neurodevelopment is a complex process involving both genetic and environmental factors. Prenatal exposure to lead (Pb) has been associated with lower performance on neurodevelopmental tests. Adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes are more frequent and/or more severe when toxic exposures interact with genetic susceptibility. Methods To explo...

Fish provide a valuable source of beneficial nutrients and are an excellent source of low fat protein. However, fish are also the primary source of methylmercury exposure in humans. Selenium often co-occurs with mercury and there is some evidence that selenium can protect against mercury toxicity yet States issue fish consumption advisories based s...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to chemical mixtures is recognized as the real-life scenario in all populations, needing new statistical methods that can assess their complex effects. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the joint effect of in utero exposure to arsenic, manganese, and lead on children’s neurodevelopment. METHODS: We employed a novel statistical a...

This prospective study evaluated the relationship between long-term dietary habits and total arsenic (As) concentration in toenail clippings in a cohort of 1616 pregnant women in the Bangladeshi administrative regions of Sirajdikhan and Pabna Sadar. Diet was assessed at Gestation Week 28 and at Postpartum Month 1, using a locally-validated dish-bas...

Background Children are exposed to flame retardants from the built environment. Brominated diphenyl ethers (BDE) and organophosphate-based flame retardants (OPFRs) are associated with poorer neurocognitive functioning in children. Less is known, however, about the association between these classes of compounds and children’s emotional and social be...

Background Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and metals (lead and cadmium) are neurotoxic and affect neurobehavioral performance. Yet little is known about the association between exposure to multiple neurotoxic compounds and cognitive functioning in older adults. Methods Using data from two consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition an...

Background: The primary route of exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a known developmental neurotoxicant, isf rom ingestion of seafood. Since 2004, women of reproductive age in the U.S. have been urged to eat fish and shellfish as part of a healthy diet while selecting species that contain lower levels MeHg. Yet few studies have examined trends in Me...

A locally validated tool was needed to evaluate long-term dietary intake in rural Bangladesh. We assessed the validity of a 42-item dish-based semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) using two 3-day food diaries (FDs). We selected a random subset of 47 families (190 participants) from a longitudinal arsenic biomonitoring study in Bangl...

p> Objective : There is growing concern that exposure to arsenic during pregnancy can have adverse effects on the developing fetus. To investigate the effect of arsenic exposure on reproductive health outcomes this study was carried out. Materials and methods : This prospective birth cohort study was carried out by Harvard School of Public Health...

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to examine specific linkages between early visual-motor integration skills and executive function, as well as between early object manipulation skills and social behaviors in the classroom during the preschool year. Method: Ninety-two children aged 3 to 5 years old (Mage = 4.31 years) were recruited to pa...

Background Recent interest in reference-free deconvolution of DNA methylation data has led to several supervised methods, but these methods do not easily permit the interpretation of underlying cell types. Results We propose a simple method for reference-free deconvolution that provides both proportions of putative cell types defined by their unde...