Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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Two scientists put the carbon dioxide record at Mauna Loa to music, and made a music video of climate change.

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High indoor temperatures appear to worsen symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, particularly in homes that also have high levels of air pollutants, according to new research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

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A team of Michigan State University researchers has found that consuming an omega-3 fatty acid called DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, can stop a known trigger of lupus and potentially other autoimmune disorders.

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Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have created an efficient, semi-printed plastic solar cell without the use of environmentally hazardous halogen solvents.

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Agriculture and soil science fit with environmental health

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Columbia University Medical Center researchers will participate in a seven-year NIH initiative to study the effect of a wide range of environmental factors on the health of children and adolescents.

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A family of common industrial compounds called perfluoroalkyl substances, which are best known for making carpets stain resistant and cookware non-stick, has been under scrutiny for potentially causing health problems

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University of Chicago researchers will receive about $5 million in the first two years of a seven-year initiative called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO), which will investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors in early development influences the health of children.

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Researchers from 10 autism research centers nationwide will collaborate on a study using new technology to look at the baby teeth of children who have siblings with autism — considered high-risk already — to determine if they’re more likely to develop the disorder if exposed to chemicals in the womb.

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CHAM researcher awarded $5.3 million from NIH as part of a seven-year initiative called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes

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UofL research team awarded more than $1.6 million by NIH to investigate environmental influences on children’s health

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It seems like almost every week another food product is being recalled because of contamination. One of the more common culprits is a pathogenic strain of E. coli. To help prevent illnesses caused by this bacteria in food or water, researchers have developed a new nanosensor to rapidly detect its presence. The study appears in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases.

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Exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may reduce levels of vitamin D in the bloodstream, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Beginning in 2008, Volkswagen installed software to circumvent emissions testing by turning off the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions control system in real-world driving in nearly half a million cars. A new analysis using a tool developed and used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the health and economic impacts related to air quality calculates that a single year of elevated emissions from the affected VW vehicles could lead to as many as 50 premature deaths, 3,000 lost workdays, and $423 million in economic costs.

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Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University (GW) will hold a public forum on September 22 that will address the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which offers much-needed reforms to the nation’s system of regulating chemicals. Join us on September 22 for a lively discussion of new law and what it will take to implement some of its key health protection measures.

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Study Links Altered Brain Chemistry, Behavioral Impairments in Fish Exposed to Elevated CO2 Research team studied damselfish behavior and physiology under ocean acidification conditions predicted for year 2300

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Florida beekeepers are concerned after 2.5 million bees that were killed during an aerial spraying with Naled/Dibrom for Zika-carrying mosquitoes in Dorchester County, S.C. Now, Floridians are looking for ways to avoid the same tragedy. Florida is the third-largest beekeeping state in the nation.

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Dams around the world provide critical water supplies and hydropower to growing communities and hundreds of new dams are proposed for developing economies. Though viewed as sources of potential green energy, their construction also poses a significant environmental cost.

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Getting clean water to communities in parched areas of the planet remains an ongoing challenge. Recent developments that harvest water from air have been proposed as a solution. However, the technology to do so consumes a lot of energy. But based on new modeling results, scientists now report in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology that a new system design would require less energy and produce high-quality water.

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Efforts to protect a worldwide multibillion dollar-a-year coffee industry are the buzz at Texas A&M. This will confront the industry's serious problems: diseases, narrow genetic diversity, climate change and an ever-increasing global demand.

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Global Temperature Report: August 2016

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Doctors and researchers know that man-made chemicals commonly found in plastics, foods, personal care products and building materials can interfere with how hormones like estrogen and testosterone work in the body.

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John Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering have created a new academic department devoted to tackling environmental issues and their impact on public health

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Researchers including a University of Guelph scientist have recorded the only known example of prehistoric pollen caught in explosive mid-discharge from a fossil flower. The team describes this “freeze-frame” fossilized pollen release – preserved in amber more than 20 million years ago — in a paper describing a new genus of fossil nettle plants.

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Research shows the diversity of soil bacteria, fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria all are better predicted by variation in environmental temperature rather than pH.

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According to NAU Scientists, and their new study, global warming began in the Arctic and tropical oceans before thermometers were widespread enough to record the early signal.

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With millions of motorists set to hit the road for the bank holiday weekend, drivers have been urged to close windows and turn off fans while in traffic jams to avoid breathing in dangerously high levels of air pollution. Latest research from the University of Surrey has shown that simple adjustment to your car's ventilation system while sitting in traffic jams can greatly affect your exposure to toxic fumes by up to 76%.

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Click here to go directly to the Environment News Source.

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New research suggests that Pennsylvania residents with the highest exposure to active natural gas wells operated by the hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) industry are nearly twice as likely to suffer from a combination of migraine headaches, chronic nasal and sinus symptoms and severe fatigue.

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Two Wichita State University professors are conducting research on an invasive plant species to assist Kansas ranchers in their practices.

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Increased sea temperatures could dramatically enhance and accelerate radiation-induced DNA effects in marine invertebrates, a new study suggests.

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Large-scale groundwater pumping is opening doors for dangerously high levels of arsenic to enter some of Southeast Asia's aquifers, with water now seeping in through riverbeds with arsenic concentrations more than 100 times the limits of safety, according to a new study from scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, MIT, and Hanoi University of Science.

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In a new study published today in the journal Cogent Psychology, researchers from the University of Surrey examined the way sun safe messages are conveyed to young women, and found that visual communication using technology to age participant's faces to emphasis sun damage and premature ageing is most effective.

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Led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, scientists conducted a collaborative study that answered foundational questions about how nature influences the composition of aerosols. The team's findings could help avoid unintended consequences in both regulations and remediation.

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The world’s leading atmospheric scientists overwhelmingly deny the existence of a secret, elite-driven plot to release harmful chemicals into the air from high-flying aircraft, according to the first peer-reviewed journal paper to address the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory.

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They call it "Conan the Bacterium," and now it may be used to help save lives in the event of a nuclear disaster or terrorist attack. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences have discovered a potent manganese (Mn)(II)-based antioxidant complex of the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans that can be used to protect animals from radiation injury. The report, "MDP: A Deinococcus Mn2+-Decapeptide Complex Protects Mice from Ionizing Radiation," was released today in PLOS ONE.

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Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI), announces the publication of the scientific paper Evaluating the effectiveness of the Minamata Convention on Mercury: Principles and recommendations for next steps, published by the journal Science of the Total Environment (now available online).

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Health researchers predict that the transmission of dengue could decrease in a future warmer climate, countering previous projections that climate change would cause the potentially lethal virus to spread more easily.

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Aug. 10, 2016─Reducing outdoor concentrations of two air pollutants, ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), to levels below those set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would likely save thousands of lives each year, result in far fewer serious illnesses and dramatically reduce missed days of school and work, according to a new analysis conducted by the American Thoracic Society and the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University.

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In recent years, evidence has been building suggesting that flame retardants, which are used in furniture and electronics, are potentially linked to health problems. And studies have shown that the substances leach out of products, and end up in indoor dust, air and in us. Now, scientists report in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology how flame retardants in our homes could also be contaminating surface water through our laundry.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded three Kansas State University researchers and seven Chicago organizations a $750,000 grant to investigate if giving communities access to low-cost portable air pollution monitoring devices could help improve air quality.

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WHAT: On August 10, the American Thoracic Society and the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University will share findings from their seminal report on the annual health benefits of meeting more protective air pollution standards as recommended by the ATS. The report focuses on ozone (O3), a component of smog, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), tiny particles that are released when fuel is burned by motor vehicles and power plants, and also other sources.

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Using a unique technique to fight nerve gas and setting up a genetic code for synthetic materials will be the topics of a pair of Kavli Lectures at the 252nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The meeting will take place August 21-25 in Philadelphia.

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Honeybees from chlorothalanil-treated hives showed the greatest change in gut microbiome.

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NASA established the Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team and this past week tapped Tracey Holloway, a professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, to lead the multi-institutional effort to help make environmental satellite data more accessible and useful.

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A new virus has been identified in association with a die-off of largemouth bass in Pine Lake in Wisconsin’s Forest County. The previously unknown virus was isolated at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s La Crosse Fish Health Center from dead fish collected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) during an investigation into a May 2015 fish kill in the northeastern Wisconsin lake.

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In a marine oil spill, a high priority for responders is the protection of corals and coral reefs, which, for a myriad of other reasons, are under stress throughout the world. To accomplish this, responders need the best possible scientific information on the effects oil has on corals. To that end, researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography have been studying the effect hydrocarbons have on these unique marine creatures.