Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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Chemical exposure and stressful or traumatic experiences during childhood both are known to have detrimental effects on human health, but little is known about how the two interact.

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Lead exposure has long been a known health risk, especially for young children. Research has found that even at low levels, chronic exposure to lead can cause damage to the brain and other organs and cause problems with cognitive and motor skills.

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Variations in the gut microbiome are linked to the incidence and mortality of diseases. A new study highlights a critical development window during which these differences emerge. The findings are based on analysis of data from 2,756 gut microbiome samples from 729 U.S. children between birth and 12 years of age.

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Current methods can vastly overestimate the rates that malaria parasites are multiplying in an infected person’s blood, which has important implications for determining how harmful they could be to a host, according to a new report.

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Hundreds of people are still missing and rubble scorched ground is all that is left after wildfires decimated parts of Maui. Lahaina is facing years of rebuilding, as very little is left of the tourist town.   Liesel Ritchie is a disaster resilience expert and associate director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell—perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream.

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In the waters off the Hawaiian Islands, rates of calcification were measured in the deepest coral colonies and reported recently in a study led by a University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa oceanographer.

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Recordings of media briefings will be posted by 10 a.m. Eastern Time on each day. Watch recorded media briefings at: www.acs.org/ACSFall2023briefings.

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July 2023 was the hottest month on record, with cities like Phoenix experiencing record-breaking heat waves for weeks on end.

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Hammerhead worms are once again making their way to backyards across the United States. They were most recently spotted in Washington, D.C and Virginia but have been around for some time.

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An international team of researchers led by UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science investigated the health and environmental impacts of a program in Ecuador that put induction stoves in 750,000 households.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense, CBTS, led by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, is supporting a DHS Summer Research Team effort to detect harmful chemicals in shrimp supplies.

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Researchers analyzed over 100 period products for fluorinated compounds, an indicator of potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. While PFAS were absent from many products, they might be in others. They will present their results at ACS Fall 2023.

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Medical experts offer tips on various back to school health concerns to prepare for a healthy successful school year.

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Expert Sam R. Telford, III, from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine debunks and confirms the best advice for a mosquito-free summer

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It's that time of year again. For media working on stories about the seasonal return to school, here are the latest features and experts in the Back-To-School channel on Newswise.

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Researchers have developed an innovative method for screening sensors to detect heavy metals, bacteria and other agents in water. This method could lead to mass manufacturing of sensors that provide dependable part-per-billion monitoring of water quality.

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The impact of particulate matter air pollution on death and disability is on the rise worldwide, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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In rooms where smoking has taken place regularly, tobacco's imprint lingers on indoor surfaces, even long after regular smoking has stopped. The leftover residues, known as thirdhand smoke, can be a long-term source of indoor pollutants. New research from a team led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) zeroes in on carpets as an especially potent – and difficult to clean – reservoir of tobacco contaminants.

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Climate change has supersized summer heat this year, with Southern California expected to again reach more than 100 degrees mid-month. Along with the rise in outdoor temperatures, physicians are seeing an increase in heat-related illnesses following weeks of unrelenting hot weather.

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Just catching a quick whiff of certain chemicals known as nerve agents can be lethal. Researchers now reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a sensitive and selective nerve gas sensor using these human scent receptors. It reliably detected a substitute for deadly sarin gas in simulated tests.

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The latest headlines from the Food and Water Safety channel on Newswise.

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A new study analyzing toxins produced by Microcystis, the main type of cyanobacteria that compose the annual harmful algal bloom (HAB) in Lake Erie, suggests that the toxicity of the bloom may be overestimated in earlier warm months and underestimated later in the summer.

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The Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMCOEH), a partnership between the University of Utah and Weber State University and one of the nation’s leading centers focused on the health and safety of workers and their environment, was recently awarded an $8.6 million grant that will allow it to further a mission that touches tens of thousands of people each year in Utah and across the West.

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A multi-university study will investigate the aftermath of the train derailment and subsequent chemical spill and fires in East Palestine, Ohio, to gain a better understanding of the impact that this event had on the community.

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Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. Reporting on wildfire smoke? Fred Hutch clinicians and researchers are available to their expertise. Dr. Trang VoPham is an epidemiologist focusing on environmental exposures and risk, follow her on social media.

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Dr. Azita Amiri, an associate professor with the College of Nursing at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, has been awarded a $25,000 Network of Practice Grant by the Bloomberg American Health Initiatives, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to examine life expectancy inequities in Alabama.

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New analysis from researchers at the George Washington University links lead exposure either in utero or during childhood with an increased risk of engaging in criminal behavior in adulthood. While prior research has found an association between lead exposure and criminal behavior at the ​​aggregated population level, this is the first review to bring together the existing data at the individual-level of exposure and effects.

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On World Lung Cancer Day, Aug. 1, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) and its founding member, the American Thoracic Society, stress the importance of understanding lung cancer risk factors, as well as the importance of early detection through screening, and treatment.

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New exposure study suggests that combined consumption estimates of the metal cadmium in common foods may exceed some government health guidance limits for young groups.

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