Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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By: Mark Blackwell Thomas | Published: February 27, 2023 | 9:33 am | SHARE: It’s been three weeks since a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio sparked an environmental disaster that is still unfolding.  A federal investigators’ Feb. 22 announcement that the accident was 100% preventable, came on the same day the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced that the deaths of 43,700 aquatic animals were tied to the disaster.

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Rebecca Bart, PhD, member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and her colleagues from Washington University in St. Louis will be featured on a global stage at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 11 at 2:30 PM at the JW Marriott, Austin Texas.  SXSW is one of the most sought-after annual conferences in the world, attended by leaders and innovators in business, entertainment, and culture.

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Artificial intelligence has made a giant leap into our rubbish bins, with smart bin sensors now providing useful information that can be fed into a neural model, helping authorities to make waste collection more efficient, sustainable, and healthier.

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The project will host 125 field trips, which will educate as many as 3,125 socially disadvantaged middle and high school students about Florida’s natural resources and the importance of conserving them.

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A new study calculated the economic cost of cancers around the world, helping policymakers allocate resources appropriately and enact policies to curb the increase in cancer-related death and disability.

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Living in areas of the United States with higher levels of air pollution is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, according to a preliminary study released today, February 23, 2023, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting being held in person in Boston and live online from April 22-27, 2023.

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Endangered great apes get malaria, just like humans. New evidence from wild bonobos shows us the infection harms them, too.

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Irvine, Calif., Feb. 23, 2023 – People often associate Escherichia coli with contaminated food, but E. coli has long been a workhorse in biotechnology. Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated that the bacterium has further value as part of a system to detect heavy metal contamination in water. E.

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The latest research examining proper test methods to measure levels of the manufacturing by-product 1,4-dioxane in consumer products will be highlighted in a free webinar hosted by the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) and the American Cleaning Institute (ACI).

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A Yale-led study examines the potential environmental benefits of more carefully selecting patients for prostate biopsy in a way that can also spare low-yield and potentially harmful procedures

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A new study shows that a 2018 California bill banning routine antibiotic use in livestock is linked with reduction in some antibiotic-resistant infections

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Enhanced disinfectant is two-to-four times more effective in neutralizing pathogen threat

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A compound found in cigarette and industrial smoke, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), is known to damage DNA. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have mapped these effects for the first time in human lung cells after BaP exposure, which could help predict exposures that lead to cancers.

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The “metaverse” has captured the public imagination as a world of limitless possibilities that can influence all aspects of life. Discussions about the utility of completely immersible virtual environments were initially limited to a small number of tech and Sci-Fi circles until the rebranding of Facebook as “Meta” in 2021.

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Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Chemistry news channel on Newswise.

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In Journal of Applied Physics, a team of scientists fabricate sensitive nanostructured silver surfaces to detect arsenic, even at very low concentrations. The sensors make use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: As a molecule containing arsenic adheres to the surface, it's hit with a laser and the arsenic compound scatters the laser light, creating an identifiable signature. The technique is a departure from existing methods, which are time-consuming, expensive, and not ideally suited to on-site field assays.

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Empa researchers have studied residues from the incineration of graphene-containing plastics. Conclusion of the study: Burned composite materials containing graphene nanoparticles can be considered harmless in case of acute exposure.

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The size, strength and makeup of people’s social networks are key indicators of how they will respond to the health consequences of an environmental disaster, according to a new Cornell University study that focused on the Flint, Michigan water crisis.

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An international collaboration led by Oregon State University scientists has identified 27 global warming accelerators known as amplifying feedback loops, including some that the researchers say may not be fully accounted for in climate models.

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With the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework now set, attention turns to its potential for implementation and achieving its 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature.

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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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