Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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A session on personalized medicine vs. public health and community needs is explored in at the International Conference on One Medicine One Science (iCOMOS) in Minneapolis

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The iCOMOS conference is a global forum to communicate the importance of science in solving pressing health issues at the interface of humans, animals and the environment.

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Scientists, environmentalists, human and animal health professionals economists, ethics and public health specialists will gather to explore the science behind One Health-- and issues of importance to animal, human and environmental health throughout the world.

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To celebrate Earth Week, students at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, New York, were asked to share their favorite green-living life hacks.

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A recent study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, published this month in the journal Toxins, may finally put to rest the ongoing debate about whether to use cold or heat to treat jellyfish stings. Their systematic and critical review provides overwhelming evidence that clinical outcomes from all kinds of jellyfish stings are improved following treatment with hot packs or hot-water immersion.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found a new and better way to achieve a chemical reaction that is used widely in the pharmaceutical as well as flavor and fragrance industries.

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Researchers have figured out what makes certain chemicals accumulate to toxic levels in aquatic food webs. And, scientists have developed a screening technique to determine which chemicals pose the greatest risk to the environment.

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Much of the world may cringe as lemurs are hunted and killed or when entire forests are burnt and harvested for charcoal. However, if local residents don't perceive the actions as crimes or they believe there's a low risk of getting caught, then poaching and deforestation will continue.

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Exposure to chemicals found in everyday products could affect the amount of fat stored in the body, according to a study by University of Georgia researchers. Phthalates are chemicals found in everything from plastic products to soap to nail polish—they give plastic its bendy stretch.

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CLEMSON — Rapid expansion of cities around the world has raised concerns about deteriorating quality of life in urban areas. Lincoln Larson, assistant professor in the Clemson University parks, recreation and tourism management department, said people often struggle to find ways to preserve health and happiness amidst sometimes harsh, stress-inducing urban environments. However, it appears that one path to long-term happiness may lead straight through the closest park.

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Thousands are bitten by rattlers and other venomous snakes each year, and a new treatment may serve as a “bridge” to buy time until medical care is available.

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The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) unveiled a new video and classroom activity kit to help teach “The Science Behind Soap,” the theme for ACI’s exhibit at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C. ACI’s exhibit demonstrates for students the science behind the chemistries that help produce the safe and effective products that enhance our health and quality of life.

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In response to news of the first confirmed mortality of a Common Loon due to avian malaria in the Northeast, Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) has initiated a crowd funding campaign to investigate the scope of the finding.

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Decreases in ambient air pollution levels over the past 20 years in Southern California were associated with significant reductions in bronchitic symptoms in children with and without asthma, according to a study appearing in the April 12 issue of JAMA.

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Dramatic improvements in air quality in U.S. cities since the 1990s may not be enough to ensure normal lung function in children, according to new research published in the April 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.

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Firefighters who responded in the first two days of the World Trade Center disaster and those who worked at the site for six months or longer are more likely to need sinus surgery than firefighters whose exposure to the site’s caustic dust was less intense or shorter term, according to new research published in the American Thoracic Society journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

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Climate change is a significant threat to the health of Americans, creating unprecedented health problems in areas where they might not have previously occurred, according to a report released April 4 by the White House.

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More walkable neighborhoods, parks and public transit could all reduce your chance of becoming one of the 600 million adults who battle obesity worldwide, according to researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The study, recently published online in The Lancet, found a neighborhood’s design plays a critical role in physical activity and could help reduce non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

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Use of a common nonprescription antimicrobial, triclocarban (TCC), during pregnancy and breast-feeding may alter the offspring’s composition of intestinal bacteria and other micro-organisms, called the gut microbiota, a new animal study finds. Presentation of the results will take place Friday at the Endocrine Society’s 98th annual meeting in Boston.

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A new culture system that tests the role of chemical exposure on the developing mammary gland has found that bisphenol A (BPA) directly affects the mammary gland of mouse embryos. The study results, to be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society’s 98th annual meeting in Boston, show that these changes to embryonic mammary tissue occur at a dose comparable to that of humans’ environmental exposure to BPA.

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When most people think of Earth Month they think of recycling bottles and choosing paper over plastic. But these activities are just a small piece of the sustainability puzzle that Florida State University researchers are helping to solve.

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A new mathematical model shows how fertility goes down as the cost of achieving social status goes up.

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While it took nearly three years of waiting, the American Thoracic Society is pleased that OSHA has issued its final rule establishing a more protective standard for occupational silica. The new more protective standard will greatly reduce exposure to this known and potentially deadly occupational hazard.

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University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law hosts 'Green Infrastructure, Resilient Cities: New Challenges, New Solutions'

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Endocrine-disrupting chemicals may contribute to reproductive health problems experienced by hundreds of thousands of women, costing European Union an estimated €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) a year in health care expenditures and lost earning potential, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Exposure to a substitute chemical often used to replace bisphenol A in plastics can encourage the formation of fat cells, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s journal Endocrinology.

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Large-scale changes to agricultural practices will be required to meet the goal of reducing levels of algae-promoting phosphorus in Lake Erie by 40 percent, a new University of Michigan-led, multi-institution computer modeling study concludes.

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Daniel Deocampo, associate professor and chair of Geosciences at Georgia State University, will attend the White House Water Summit today (March 22) to share his plans for bringing new technologies and workforce development to the water economy of the southeastern United States.

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Key factors that can combine to produce a Zika virus outbreak are expected to be present in a number of U.S. cities during peak summer months, new research shows.

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Residents of Baltimore’s low-income neighborhoods who believe rats are a big problem where they live are significantly more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms such as sadness and anxiety, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

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A new study quantifies the public health costs of polluted air from existing coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkans at up to 8.5 EUR billion per year.

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“If you live in flammable countryside, you’ve got to work with fire. You can’t make it go away,” according to professor Mark Cochrane, a wildfire expert and senior scientist at the Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence. That means moving from the notion that fires are unnatural and toward a managed approach that involves reintegrating fire as a vital landscape process and building communities that are resilient to fire.

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Rising temperatures worldwide are changing not only weather systems, but — just as importantly — the distribution of water around the globe, according to a study published today (March 14, 2016) in the journal, “Scientific Reports.”

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Low levels of pesticides can impact the foraging behaviour of bumblebees on wild flowers, changing their floral preferences and hindering their ability to learn the skills needed to extract nectar and pollen, according to a study co-authored by a University of Guelph professor.

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The human microbiome, a diverse collection of microorganisms living inside us and on our skin, has attracted considerable attention for its role in a broad range of human health issues. Now, researchers are discovering that the built environment also has a microbiome, which includes a community of potentially-pathogenic bacteria living inside water supply pipes.

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UCR study shows biomass grown in areas of poor air quality releases more pollutants when burned than biomass grown in clean air.

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The American Thoracic Society applauds the collaborative effort of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada to reduce methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change.

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Alternative methods to animal testing, how epigenomic exposures impact health, safety of toxic metals in foods, effects of exposures to nanoparticles, generational effects of environmental exposures, and the toxicological effects of manmade and natural disasters are the topics of some of the more than 170 scientific sessions being conducted at the 55th Annual Meeting and ToxExpo of the Society of Toxicology (SOT), March 13–17, 2016, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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Terrestrial biosphere is contributing to climate change because of human activities including agriculture.

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A new method to detect a wide range of pesticides could help save bee populations.

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More people live close to sea coast than earlier estimated, assess researchers in a new study. These people are the most vulnerable to the rise of the sea level as well as to the increased number of floods and intensified storms. By using recent increased resolution datasets, Aalto University researchers estimate that 1.9 billion inhabitants, or 28% of the world's total population, live closer than 100 km from the coast in areas less than 100 meters above the present sea level.

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Scientists looking for environmental and occupational health risks are less likely to find them if they have a financial tie to firms that make, use, or dispose of industrial and commercial products, a University of Illinois at Chicago researcher has found.

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Groups of 2 or single individuals less likely to be caught in an avalanche than larger groups, according to a new report in Wilderness & Environmental Medicine.

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Heavy city traffic contributes significantly to air pollution and health problems such as asthma, but University of Texas at Dallas researchers think another kind of traffic — data traffic — might help citizens better cope with pollution.

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Salmon have an ace up their sleeve -- or in their gills -- when facing challenging conditions that could affect their hearts, according to a study led by a University of Guelph researcher. The researchers found that carbonic anhydrase (CA) can help improve delivery of oxygen to the heart.