Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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The United States, the largest importer of wildlife in the world, is not prepared for future spread of animal-borne, or zoonotic, diseases due to gaps among governmental agencies designed to combat these threats, concludes a new analysis by researchers at Harvard Law School and New York University.

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Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have found a way to use small shocks of electricity to disinfect water, reducing energy consumption, cost, and environmental impact. The technology could be integrated into the electric grid or even powered by batteries.

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Turning to plants as an energy source is something we take for granted. Every day, we power our bodies and feed our livestock with plants. Ongoing climate change poses a threat to this energy source as some of our most-used crops are facing stressors like never before.But a promising new candidate, sorghum, is changing the game.

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From jaguars and ocelots to anteaters and capybara, most land-based mammals living in the Brazilian Amazon are threatened by climate change and the projected savannization of the region.

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The cement industry emits more than 3 gigatons of carbon dioxide worldwide from the manufacturing of about 4.5 gigatons of cement every year because of its carbon-dioxide- and energy-intensive processing. This amount of cement is necessary to produce the concrete that shapes modern infrastructure.

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Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an affordable add-on acid gas reduction technology that removes 99.9% of acidic gases and other emissions to produce an ultraclean natural gas furnace. The AGR technology can also be added to other natural gas-driven equipment.

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Five of the 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern Railroad train that derailed Feb. 3 near the small town of East Palestine were carrying vinyl chloride, a known human carcinogen. University of Miami experts in chemistry, public health sciences, and law weigh in on the recent chemical spill and its potential consequences.

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Vegans and vegetarians have long argued their approach to eating is the kindest—to animals and to our planet. But new research from the University of Georgia suggests that might not actually be the case. The paper found that a diet of mostly plants with local and humanely raised meat is likely the most ethical way to eat if we want to save the environment and protect human rights.

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Based on data that span the past 120 years, scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that the mosquitoes responsible for transmitting malaria in Africa are spreading deeper into southern Africa and to higher elevations than previously recorded. The researchers estimate that Anopheles mosquito populations in sub-Saharan Africa have gained an average of 6.5 meters (21 feet) of elevation per year, and the southern limits of their ranges moved south of the equator by 4.7 kilometers (nearly 3 miles) per year.

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Seabed mining could soon begin in the deep ocean – but the potential impact on animals including whales is unknown, researchers have warned.

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Expert cautions that the statement, "We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open," is irresponsible.

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Two common wild plants contain extracts that inhibit the ability of the virus that causes COVID-19 to infect living cells, an Emory University study finds.

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Scientists applied machine vision models and were able to deduce from the context of an image if it pertained to the sale of a live animal.

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Over 44 million people in the United States depend on private drinking water wells that are not federally regulated. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire and collaborating institutions found that current monitoring practices do not accurately reflect groundwater pollution risks because spikes in harmful bacteria, like those from animal and human waste, vary depending on the season—with highest levels observed from testing conducted in summer months when temperatures are over 90°F.

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Protected marine areas are one of the essential tools for the conservation of natural resources affected by human impact —mainly fishing—, but, are they enough to recover the functioning of these systems?

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Declining water levels of Great Salt Lake threaten economic activity, local public health, and ecosystems. In response to this emergent statewide challenge, Utah’s research universities formed the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a collaboration of experts in public policy, hydrology, water management, climatology, and dust. Today they released a Great Salt Lake Policy Assessment that affirms the situation is urgent, but also identifies a variety of policy levers that can return the lake to healthy levels.

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Acesulfame is a sweetener in sugar-free drinks and foods. As it cannot be metabolised in the human body, the sweetener ends up in wastewater after consumption and remains largely intact even in sewage treatment plants. A new study by the University of Vienna shows that the persistence of the sweetener varies with temperature as the concentration of the sweetener in wastewater varies with the seasons.

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Extreme heat and humidity and other climate-related events have an alarming impact on mental health outcomes in terms of depression and anxiety in Bangladesh, the world’s seventh most vulnerable country to climate change.

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Changing the mind of someone who is dismissive of efforts to protect the planet could be accomplished by sharing a pro-sustainability point of view during a conversation, new research suggests.

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Replacing traditional biomass-burning cookstoves across sub-Saharan Africa could save more than 463,000 lives and US $66 billion in health costs annually, according to a new analysis of the most socially optimal cooking technologies in Africa.

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Gold nanorod probes combined with an optical microscope can now be used to detect signs of a highly contagious and lethal virus that poses a major threat to the swine industry worldwide.

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While microplastics have received significant attention in recent years for their negative environmental impacts, a new study from Oregon State University scientists found microfibers from synthetic materials as well as cotton impacted the behavior and growth of water organisms.

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More than three times as many houses and other structures burned in Western wildfires in 2010-2020 than in the previous decade, and that wasn’t only because more acreage burned, a new analysis has found.

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Over four percent of deaths in cities during the summer months are due to urban heat islands, and one third of these deaths could be prevented by reaching a tree cover of 30%, according to a modelling study published in The Lancet and led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation.

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China’s stricter clean heating policies have improved air quality in northern China, particularly in Beijing and surrounding cities– potentially reducing 23,000 premature deaths due to air pollution in 2021 than in 2015, a new study reveals.

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Coastal city residents would like to do more to reduce their single-use plastic waste and they are trying to recycle more, even trying to recycle items that simply can’t be recycled, often called “wish-cycling”.

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Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Surgery and the Transplantation channels on Newswise, a free source for journalists.

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Cornell University researchers have found white-tailed deer ­– the most abundant large mammal in North America – are harboring SARS-CoV-2 variants that were once widely circulated, but no longer found in humans.

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RUDN University biologist with colleagues from Iran and Thailand discovered the negative consequences of nanotechnology. Manufactured nanoparticles that help us produce new products are toxic to fish.

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RUDN University biologists with colleagues from Iran proved the effectiveness of the biofloc water purification system in aquaculture under conditions of high stocking density.

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Computational chemists reduce or eliminate hazardous materials by running simulations to develop fast, accurate models. MIT researchers use SDSC's supercomputer to explore the luminescent properties of iridium-centered phosphors.

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Five new drop-dead-gorgeous tree-dwelling snake species were discovered in the jungles of Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama. Conservationists Leonardo DiCaprio, Brian Sheth, Re:wild, and Nature and Culture International chose the names for three of them in honor of loved ones while raising awareness about the issue of rainforest destruction at the hands of open-pit mining operations.

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Early exposure to pesticides can affect health later in life, including negative effects to the nervous and endocrine systems in the body. The SWCPEH has partnered with promotores, or community health workers, from Familias Triunfadoras Inc. to educate the local migrant farmworker community. These underserved communities often have poor access to basic necessities and are most in need of preventative and routine health care.

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After a fire, investigators charged with determining the cause of the blaze sometimes stumble on unstable surfaces, breathe in toxins, or face other health and safety risks. But they had no central place to document their exposure to hazards at work, and researchers had no central place to evaluate that data to try to mitigate those risks — until now.

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The Amazon rainforest has been degraded by a much greater extent than scientists previously believed with more than a third of remaining forest affected by humans, according to a new study published on January 27 in the journal Science.

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China is a night-time ‘hot-spot’ for the production of nitrate radicals (PNO3) that could have a major impact on health-threatening ozone and fine particulates (PM2.5) in the atmosphere, a new study reveals.

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Toddlers whose moms were exposed to higher levels of air pollution during mid- to late-pregnancy tend to score lower on measures of cognition, motor coordination and language skills, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research.