Dr. Stuart Shalat, an expert on pollution and its effect on children’s health, has joined the School of Public Health at Georgia State University as a professor and director of the Division of Environmental Health.
The use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic has been on the decline amid growing concerns that the compound’s estrogen-mimicking properties may cause dangerous hormonal disruptions. Despite the reduction, BPA remains a ubiquitous substance, found in thousands of products. Cashiers who frequently handle thermal printed receipts may be exposed to higher levels of BPA than the general population. For the first time, researchers are studying this workforce segment to measure how their exposure may differ from that of the general population.
The trace amounts of toxic substances used to make plastics don’t contaminate the food or beverage products they contain at a significant level and pose no immediate threat to consumers, according to recent Iowa State University research. But the plastics may create environmental problems years after they’ve been used.
Post-doctoral Researcher Yun-Ya Yang, working with Associate Professor Gurpal Toor, studied areas along rural and urban parts of the Alafia River, in Hillsborough County, near Tampa. They found 17 pharmaceuticals. But they say these types of chemicals are not confined to the Alafia River or urban-area rivers in Florida.
Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Savannah River Ecology Laboratory have found that a contaminated mixture called Aroclor 1268 has spread beyond a former chemical plant, now a Superfund site, near Brunswick.
The liver is unique among organs in its ability to regenerate after being damaged. Exactly how it repairs itself remained a mystery until recently, when researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health discovered a type of cell in mice essential to the process. The researchers also found similar cells in humans.
Native North Americans have long adorned themselves and their homes with fragrant sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata), a native plant used in traditional medicine, to repel biting insects, and mosquitoes in particular. Now, researchers report that they have identified the compounds in sweetgrass that keep these bugs at bay. The team will describe their approach at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
The start of the school year means new classes, new friends, homework and sports. It also brings the threat of head lice. Scientists report today that lice populations in at least 25 states have developed resistance to over-the-counter treatments still widely recommended by doctors and schools. The researchers are presenting their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have determined that natural sunlight triggers the release of smog-forming nitrogen oxide compounds from the grime that typically coats buildings, statues and other outdoor surfaces in urban areas. The finding confirms previous laboratory work using simulated sunlight and upends the long-held notion that nitrates in urban grime are “locked” in place. The scientists will present their findings at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Cross contamination in commercial processing facilities that prepare spinach and other leafy greens for the market can make people sick. But researchers are reporting a new, easy-to-implement method that could eliminate or reduce such incidences. The scientists will present their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Modern living could be responsible for an ‘almost epidemic’ increase in neurological brain disease, according to new research from Bournemouth University.
Published in the USA journal Surgical Neurology International.
In households with kids — or grown-up klutzes — a durable set of melamine plates and bowls is a must. But studies suggest that heat and acid can cause melamine from dinnerware to seep into food and potentially cause harmful health effects. Now scientists show that substituting stainless steel containers for melamine ones when serving hot food could reduce the amount of the substance in people's bodies. Their report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Occupational and environmental health nursing is the specialty practice that provides for and delivers health and safety programs and services to workers, worker populations and community groups.
Using a climate model that can tag sources of soot and track where it lands, researchers have determined which areas around the Tibetan Plateau contribute the most soot -- and where. The model can also suggest the most effective way to reduce soot on the plateau, easing the amount of warming the region undergoes. The study, which appeared in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in June, might help policy makers target pollution reduction efforts.
According to the Sandy Child and Family Health Study, a major report on NJ residents living in Superstorm Sandy’s path, over 100,000 experienced significant structural damage to their primary homes. Conducted by Rutgers University, New York University (NYU), Columbia University and Colorado State University, research finds that tens of thousands still live with unfinished repairs, disputed claims and recurrent mold, all associated with increased odds of mental health distress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression.
Is it possible that too much iron in infant formula may potentially increase risk for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s in adulthood -- and are teeth the window into the past that can help us tell?
BPA’s popularity soared after the 1950s, but evidence suggests that even low doses might be harmful to human and environmental health. Many manufacturers are now phasing out BPA, but it doesn't break down easily, making safe disposal difficult. Now, researchers have developed a hybrid photocatalyst that can break down BPA using visible light. Their findings could eventually be used to treat water supplies and to more safely dispose of BPA and materials like it.
"No swimming" signs have already popped up this summer along coastlines where fecal bacteria have invaded otherwise inviting waters. Some vacationers ignore the signs while others resign themselves to tanning and playing on the beach. But should those avoiding the water be wary of the sand, too? New research in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology investigates reasons why the answer could be "yes."
Hospitalizations for heart conditions, neurological illness, and other conditions were higher among people who live near unconventional gas and oil drilling (hydraulic fracturing), according to new research.
Researchers from the University of Georgia have determined that various freshwater sources in Georgia, such as rivers and lakes, could feature levels of salmonella that pose a risk to humans. The study is featured in the July edition of PLOS One.
University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues predict that the 2015 western Lake Erie harmful algal bloom season will be among the most severe in recent years and could become the second-most severe behind the record-setting 2011 bloom.
According to a new series of studies out of NYU Langone Medical Center, two chemicals increasingly used during manufacturing to strengthen plastic wrap, soap, cosmetics, and processed food containers have been linked to a rise in risk of high blood pressure and diabetes in children and adolescents.
Berkeley Lab scientists are developing a cell culture that could help researchers better identify chemicals that increase breast cancer susceptibility. The scientists will grow the culture using adult stem cells obtained from breast tissue. Their test will show if a chemical causes a breakdown in cell-to-cell communication, which is a fundamental defect of cancer.
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Women who were exposed to higher levels of the pesticide DDT in utero were nearly four times more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer as adults than women who were exposed to lower levels before birth, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
A six-year study indicates that crops grown in contaminated urban soils present little to no risk for people eating those crops when gardeners have followed best practices.
Children and pets often play on wood decks, and when that wood gets wet, arsenic gets out, posing a potential danger. Wet wood loses three times more arsenic than dry wood, UF/IFAS scientists found.
A new Cornell study of New York state apple orchards finds that pesticides harm wild bees, and fungicides labeled “safe for bees” also indirectly may threaten native pollinators.
A new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that death rates among people over 65 are higher in zip codes with more fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) than in those with lower levels of PM2.5.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, cancer, immunotherapy, Alan Alda present science award, genetics, vision, lung cancer, prostate cancer, environmental health.
At today’s EU Conference on Endocrine Disruptors, invited Society spokesperson, R. Thomas Zoeller, PhD, told the European Commission that current approaches to identify EDCs are not effective because they do not take into account critical endocrine principles.
In the face of many myths, the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) releases “Nine Truths About Eating Disorders” in order to clarify public understanding. Produced in collaboration with Dr. Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED, who serves as distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Nine Truths” is based on Dr. Bulik’s 2014 “9 Eating Disorders Myths Busted” talk at the National Institute of Mental Health. Leading associations in the field of eating disorders also contributed their valuable input.
Over nearly 15 years spent studying ticks, Indiana University's Keith Clay has found southern Indiana to be an oasis free from Lyme disease, the condition most associated with these arachnids that are the second most common parasitic disease vector on Earth. He has also seen signs that this low-risk environment is changing, both in Indiana and in other regions of the U.S.
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Scientists may have uncovered a natural way of avoiding the use of pesticides and help save plants from attack by recreating a natural insect repellent.
BOSTON – Air pollution, even at moderate levels, has long been recognized as a factor in raising the risk of stroke. A new study led by scientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine suggests that long-term exposure can cause damage to brain structures and impair cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults.
Use of clean fuels and updated pollution control measures in the school buses 25 million children ride every day could result in 14 million fewer absences from school a year, based on a study by the University of Michigan and the University of Washington.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that while a large majority of newborns are exposed in their earliest days to bisphenol A (BPA), a much-studied chemical used in plastics and in food and soda can linings, they can chemically alter and rid their bodies of it.
Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, environment, crowdfunding, engineering, smoking, pharmaceuticals, medical research, cardiology and diabetes