Laundry detergent pods became available on the US market in 2010 and are easy to use. These pods contain highly concentrated detergents wrapped in a thin film that easily dissolves in water. The appeal and design of laundry detergent pods has already resulted in many reported poisonings among children.
Researchers studying interaction between plants, pollinators and parasites say in experiments where bees infected with an intestinal parasite had reduced parasite loads in the gut after seven days when they had consumed natural toxins present in plant nectar, compared to bees on control nectar.
The objectives of these GLP US EPA OPPTS 970.3800 and 970.3700 studies were to examine the effects of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) at oral doses of 10, 100 or 1000 mg/kg bw/day over the course of 2 generations on growth as well as behavioral, neurological and neuropathologic functions in offspring.
Houston experienced its hottest summer on record in 2011, resulting in 278 excess emergency department visits per day during the August heat wave, according to research from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) published recently in Environmental Health.
Primary prevention of cancer - that is, stopping cancer before it starts - is possible through changes in environment policy, such as strengthening regulation on air quality and chemicals, including hormone disrupting chemicals. Malta chose to focus on this theme for World Cancer Day 2015. EU Environment Commissioner welcomed the initiative via a video message to the event.
Women whose bodies have high levels of chemicals found in plastics, personal-care products, common household items and the environment experience menopause two to four years earlier than women with lower levels of these chemicals, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings are reported online Jan. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.
Coating the mouth with BPA-containing food, like soup, does not lead to higher than expected levels of BPA in blood, a new study in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology shows. The study authors conclude that oral exposure does not create a risk for high exposures of BPA, also known as bisphenol A.
The female hormones estrogen and estradiol may help ward off the effects of lead exposure for young girls, explaining why boys, are shown to suffer more often from the cognitive disabilities linked to lead.
Nükhet Varlik, a Rutgers historian, has studied the Black Death – the medieval plague that may have wiped out more than half of the population in vast parts of the world – and found echoes from centuries past in issues such as the spread of deadly diseases including Ebola, human interactions with the environment, climate change and other dilemmas that affect human health today as much as they did in the Middle Ages.
There is much we may be able to learn about modern times from what Professor Varlik has found.
Exposure to the endocrine-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy can cause oxidative damage that may put the baby at risk of developing diabetes or heart disease later in life, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s journal Endocrinology.
Coral reef health is declining worldwide. To better understand the combined effects of mosquito pesticides and rising sea-surface temperatures, Dr. Cliff Ross, UNF associate professor of biology, exposed coral larvae to selected concentrations of pesticides and temperatures.
An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.” Civilization has crossed four of nine so-called planetary boundaries as the result of human activity, according to a report published today in Science by the 18-member research team.
Michael McCawley, Ph.D., interim chair of the West Virginia University School of Public Health Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, plans to provide research data in real time from a dedicated scientific observation well being drilled in Morgantown.
While nanotechnology has led to countless advancements, a group of Israeli researchers are now raising a flag of caution about its effects on our health. They say exposure to tiny silica-based particles can play a big role in increasing heart attack and stroke risks.
Each year, radon kills more people than home fires, drowning, falls or drunk driving. It is the number one cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, taking some 21,000 lives annually.
People exposed to asbestos from mining in Libby, Mont., show long-term changes in lung imaging and function tests, even with relatively low asbestos exposure, reports a study in the January Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Women who have adequate levels of B vitamins in their bodies are more likely to get and stay pregnant even when they also have high levels of a common pesticide known to have detrimental reproductive effects, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research.
Nearly 20 percent of the world’s gold supply is produced by workers in artisanal and small-scale gold mining shops that purify gold by burning off mercury. Argonne National Laboratory and the Environmental Protection Agency have teamed up to stop this mercury where it starts.
As if holiday travel isn't stressful enough. Now University of Michigan researchers say we're likely sharing that already overcrowded airline cabin with countless tiny creatures including house dust mites.
As governments, industry and public interest groups from across the globe prepare to meet next week to discuss endocrine-disrupting chemicals and other international chemical safety issues, the Endocrine Society and IPEN released a new guide documenting the threat endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) pose to human health.
Using a new imaging technique, National Institutes of Health researchers have found that the biological machinery that builds DNA can insert molecules into the DNA strand that are damaged as a result of environmental exposures. These damaged molecules trigger cell death that produces some human diseases, according to the researchers. The work, appearing online Nov. 17 in the journal Nature, provides a possible explanation for how one type of DNA damage may lead to cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and lung disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists using a microbe that occurs naturally in eastern cottonwood trees have boosted the ability of willow and lawn grass to withstand the withering effects of the nasty industrial pollutant phenanthrene.
Triclosan is an antimicrobial commonly found in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and many other household items. Despite its widespread use, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report potentially serious consequences of long-term exposure to the chemical.
Though no one would call the Ebola pandemic a good thing, it has presented an opportunity for scientists to alert the public about the dire need to halt the spread of infectious diseases, especially in developing and densely populated areas of the world.
Energy use in buildings accounts for nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated in Detroit, while exhaust from cars, trucks and buses is responsible for about 30 percent of the total, according to a new citywide inventory compiled by University of Michigan student researchers.
After releasing the results of a new study detailing the dangers of laundry detergent pods, researchers are calling for a national product safety standard in an effort to better protect children. The study showed that during a two year period, there were more than 17,000 children exposed to the highly concentrated chemicals in laundry detergent pods. That’s a child every hour.
Asthma caused or worsened by living near major roadways cost Los Angeles County more than $441 million in 2007 alone, according to a new peer-reviewed article by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Southern California and the University of Basel, Switzerland.
A genetically diverse mouse model is able to predict the range of response to chemical exposures that might be observed in human populations, researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found. Like humans, each Diversity Outbred mouse is genetically unique, and the extent of genetic variability among these mice is similar to the genetic variation seen among humans.
The most obvious effects of too much sun exposure are cosmetic, like wrinkled and rough skin. Some damage, however, goes deeper—ultraviolet light can damage DNA and cause proteins in the body to break down into smaller, sometimes harmful pieces that may also damage DNA, increasing the risk of skin cancer and cataracts. Understanding the specific pathways by which this degradation occurs is an important step in developing protective mechanisms against it.
Study by Amy Kalkbrenner and colleagues shows that pollution's impact on autism rates in North Carolina is similar to results of previous pollution autism studies in California.
A new study in human placenta provides the strongest evidence to date that Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with thyroid hormone action in pregnant women. The implication is that flame retardant chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can infiltrate the placenta during pregnancy and affect thyroid hormone activity at the cellular level, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Although office ergonomics training programs have been shown to improve employee well-being and productivity, in many cases training occurs only after complaints are logged.
A new study suggests that drops of fuel spilled at gas stations — which occur frequently with fill-ups — could cumulatively be causing long-term environmental damage to soil and groundwater in residential areas in close proximity to the stations.
Rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are elevated after days with high levels of air pollutants, reports a Japanese study in the October Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Four substances have been added in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 13th Report on Carcinogens, a science-based document that identifies chemical, biological, and physical agents that are considered cancer hazards for people living in the United States. The new report includes 243 listings.
Americans love their dogs, but they don't always love to pick up after them. And that's a problem. Dog feces left on the ground wash into waterways, sometimes carrying bacteria — including antibiotic-resistant strains — that can make people sick. Now scientists have developed a new genetic test to figure out how much dogs are contributing to this health concern, according to a report in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
An article in the October issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, explores the case of a woman who suffers from asthma, and, along with her doctor, realizes that by changing her bike route to and from work every day, she can cut down on the pollution to which she’s exposed, thereby improving her asthma symptoms.
In a paper published this week online in Global Society, researchers with University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Urban Studies and Planning Program, also at UC San Diego, present a bioregional guide that merges place-based (territorial) city planning and ecosystem management along the United States-Mexico border as way to improve human and environmental health.
A team of researchers from McGill University and the Quebec government have discovered microplastics (in the form of polyethylene ‘microbeads,’ less than 2 mm in diameter) widely distributed across the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, the first time such pollutants have been found in freshwater sediments.