About the Authors

Jessica L. Rinsky

Contributed equally to this work with: Jessica L. Rinsky, Maya Nadimpalli

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Maya Nadimpalli

Contributed equally to this work with: Jessica L. Rinsky, Maya Nadimpalli

Affiliation Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Steve Wing

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Devon Hall

Affiliation Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH), Warsaw, North Carolina, United States of America

Dothula Baron

Affiliation Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH), Warsaw, North Carolina, United States of America

Lance B. Price

Affiliation Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America

Jesper Larsen

Affiliation Microbiology and Infection Control, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

Marc Stegger

Affiliation Microbiology and Infection Control, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark

Jill Stewart

Affiliation Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Christopher D. Heaney

cheaney@jhsph.edu

Affiliations Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Competing Interests

SW provided pro bono testimony in legal proceedings related to landfills and provided pro bono consultation on radiation and health for two law firms that made gifts to the University of North Carolina and another law firm that did not make a gift to the University of North Carolina. He conducted research on epidemiologic investigation of symptoms reported by neighbors of areas where sewage sludge is applied to land funded by the Water Environment Research Foundation. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CH SW JS MN JR LP JL MS DH DB. Performed the experiments: CH MN LP JL MS. Analyzed the data: CH JR MN LP JL MS JS SW. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CH MN JS LP JL MS. Wrote the paper: JR MN CH SW JS DH DB LP JL MS.