Feature Channels: Environmental Health

• share
• favorite_border

Despite prevention efforts, a child dies of heatstroke in a vehicle approximately once every 10 days. According to a new survey, most caregivers report they never leave children in their vehicles for any length of time. However, the attitudes toward those who were thought to put their children at risk for pediatric vehicular heatstroke are largely negative, which may cause some caregivers not to adopt important mitigation efforts to prevent these tragic deaths.

• share
• favorite_border

Smoke particulates from wildfires could cause between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths and cost between $36 to $82 billion per year in the United States, according to new research.

• share
• favorite_border

Wildfires can destroy homes, businesses, communities, infrastructure, and most importantly, lives. Researchers at CIRI are working on models to not only track wildfires, but also predict where they could spread to next.

• share
• favorite_border

Los investigadores de Mayo Clinic identificaron un amplio rango de sustancias químicas ambientales en la bilis humana de pacientes con colangitis esclerosante primaria, una enfermedad hepática crónica y poco común que afecta los conductos biliares. El estudio, que se publicó en Exposome, representa una nueva frontera de investigación en el Centro de Medicina Personalizada en Mayo Clinic que explora el exposoma, la medida en que el ambiente contribuye a las enfermedades y la salud.

• share
• favorite_border

Pesquisadores da Mayo Clinic identificaram uma ampla variedade de substâncias químicas presentes no ambiente na bile humana em pacientes com colangite esclerosante primária, uma doença hepática crônica rara nos dutos biliares. O estudo, publicado na revista Exposome, representa uma nova frente de pesquisa do Centro de Medicina Individualizada da Mayo Clinic que estuda o expossoma (a medida dos fatores ambientais que contribuem para a saúde e o aparecimento de doenças).

• share
• favorite_border

Adults who live in walkable neighborhoods are more likely to socialize and have a stronger sense of community, report researchers at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.

• share
• favorite_border

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a diverse range of environmental chemicals in human bile in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare, chronic liver disease of the bile ducts. The study, published in Exposome, represents a new frontier of research at Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine that explores the exposome, the measure of environmental contributors to disease and health.

• share
• favorite_border

Efforts to tackle major issues facing the UK, including the nation’s health and climate change, are being hampered because politicians often ignore the existing evidence when setting policies, according to Dame Theresa Marteau, a public health expert at the University of Cambridge.

• share
• favorite_border

Adverse cognitive effects linked to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) exposure, a type of endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC), have the potential to be passed down through generations, according to an animal study being presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

• share
• favorite_border

Exposure to dioxins can negatively impact thyroid function, according to a study presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

• share
• favorite_border

Prenatal exposure to chemicals called phthalates, which are used in hundreds of products, may lead to hormonal changes in females that could affect their future fertility, suggests a study in mice being presented Thursday at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, Ill.

• share
• favorite_border

The Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announces the 2023 Bloomberg Fellows, each selected from organizations working to improve one of five critical public health challenges facing the country: addiction and overdose, adolescent health, environmental challenges, food systems for health, and violence.

• share
• favorite_border

The Program in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine has received a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to research the connection between low-level lead exposure during pregnancy and early childhood and children’s school performance and behavior in Santa Ana, California.

• share
• favorite_border

As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.

• share
• favorite_border

Experts from Indiana University are available to comment on trending topics in this week's news, including the impact of Canadian wildfires on U.S. air quality, protecting against summertime mosquitos and ticks, and the history and significance of Juneteenth.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

John Gearhart has been named director of the Environment, Safety, Health and Quality Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective June 19.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Inhaled microplastics can pose serious health risks, so understanding how they travel in the respiratory system is essential for prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases. In Physics of Fluids, researchers develop a computational fluid dynamics model to analyze microplastic transport and deposition in the upper airway. The team explored the movement of microplastics with different shapes and sizes and under slow and fast breathing conditions. Microplastics tended to collect in hot spots in the nasal cavity and oropharynx, or back of the throat.

• share
• favorite_border

In the quarter century between 1996 and 2020, wildfires in California consumed five times more area than they did from 1971 to 1995. Researchers at the University of California and other international institutions have concluded that nearly all of the increase in scorched terrain can be blamed on human-caused climate change.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist and collaborators shows that nearly all the recent increase in summer wildfire burned area in California is attributable to human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change. Anthropogenic simulations yielded burn areas an average of 172% higher than natural variation simulations.

• share
• favorite_border

Agriculture is a stressful occupation, and farmers face substantial mental health challenges. Research indicates they often experience higher levels of anxiety and depression compared to the general population, but less is known about the effects on their families. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how economic stressors affect the mental health of U.S. farmers and their adolescent children.

• share
• favorite_border

The sliver of sargassum seaweed 19-year-old Sofia Hoffman collected from the shoreline of Crandon Park Beach’s Bear Cut Preserve looked more like a dying clump of grass than the fresh piece of marine algae it once was.

• share
• favorite_border

Around the world, most people are regularly exposed to low or moderate levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in the environment, increasing risk of coronary artery disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease, according to a new American Heart Association statement.

• share
• favorite_border

Lecturers of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Chulalongkorn University have found no contamination or spreading of Caesium-137 to the environment in the area of Prachin Buri Province as reported in the news. The Department aims to provide academic services and radiation measurements by a team of experts with in-depth measurement equipment.

• share
• favorite_border

Plastic particles less than five millimeters in size, also known as microplastics, often settle far away from their point of origin. Empa researchers have now developed a model that can be used to calculate the concentration of microplastics in Swiss lakes and rivers.

• share
• favorite_border

This study is expected to generate critical evidence about the rise and expansion of drug-resistant parasites in Ethiopia. Results will help policymakers and advance malaria elimination efforts in Ethiopia and beyond.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Columbia University Irving Medical Center will host the first scientific conference highlighting research on far-UVC light as a safe and effective technology for disinfecting indoor air.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Miami climate and aerosol experts, who are members of the Center for Aerosol Science and Technology, explain the dangers from the smoke flowing in from Canada, which is resulting in people donning masks.

• share
• favorite_border

The growing frequency and intensity of heat waves around the globe pose “a substantial, persistent ‘non-combat threat’” to military training and operations, according to experts in environmental, thermoregulatory and cardiovascular physiology.

• share
• favorite_border

Experts from Indiana University are available to comment on the health and environmental impact of Canadian wildfires on U.S. air quality.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A successful long-term experiment with live hogs indicates Nebraska scientists may be another step closer to achieving a safe, long-lasting and potentially universal vaccine against swine flu.

• share
• favorite_border

A new paper in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health makes the case that pandemic prevention requires a global taboo whereby humanity agrees to leave bats alone—to let them have the habitats they need, undisturbed.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, a researcher at the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response Center in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, will map infrastructure and assets that are threatened by flooding in Bay County, Florida.