Friday, December 17, 2021

Whose to blame for inflation?

 

NPR is saying President Biden's approval ratings are low because of inflation.  Part of the cause of the current inflation is Covid, which republican actions have made much worse.  Another is the effects of climate disruption.  It has caused damage to crops, causing inflation in food costs.  The destructive wildfires and storms events that global warming has made more likely and more destructive makes building repairs and rebuilding necessary, which can be expected to cause inflation in mitaterials and labor costs needed for this.  Climate disruption is already causing inflation in the cost of insurance. And Trump and other Republicans have slowed action to combat climate destruction.

Fall in fertility rates may be linked to fossil fuel pollution, finds study

 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/15/fall-fertility-rates-may-be-linked-fossil-fuel-pollution-finds-study

 

Sofia Quaglia
Wed 15 Dec 2021 05.00 EST


Decreasing fertility rates may be linked to pollution caused by fossil fuel burning, a review of scientific studies has found.

Over the past 50 years childbirth has steadily decreased. The study focused on Denmark, but the trend is also seen in other industrialised nations. One in 10 Danish children are born with assisted reproduction and more than 20% of men never have children, according to the researchers. This decrease seems to have started at the beginning of industrialisation.

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Falling birthrates are often chalked up to cultural and socioeconomic factors, such as the rise of access to planned parenthood, contraception and abortion, and the changing role of women in society, as education and participation in the workforce has delayed childbearing, for example. But data shows that pregnancies were already declining before the rollout of the contraceptive pill, overall abortion numbers are decreasing over the years, and unintended pregnancy loss has been increasing by 1-2% since 1990.

Instead, a growing body of research has shown growing rates of human infertility due to biological reasons including 74,000 yearly cases of testicular cancer, insufficient sperm and egg quality, premature puberty in young women, and an increase in the number of congenital malformations in male infant genitalia .

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Fossil fuels are ubiquitous and they have been found in people’s blood, urine, semen, placenta and breast milk, as well as their fatty tissue. Many fossil fuel pollutants are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with the body’s hormonal systems and have a negative effect on reproductive health.

“We know from numerous experimental animal studies that plastics, chemicals, and so forth can cause problems in animal reproduction,” said Skakkebæk. “We cannot do such exposure studies in humans, that would not be ethical, but we know enough from animal studies to be concerned.”

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Judge rejects opioid settlement over legal protections for Sackler family

 

Good news.

 

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/16/purdue-pharma-settlement-sackler-opioid


Fri 17 Dec 2021 08.14 EST


A judge has rejected the OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the opioid epidemic because of a provision that would protect members of the Sackler family from facing litigation of their own.

The ruling on Thursday from Judge Colleen McMahon in New York is likely to be appealed by the company, family members and the thousands of government entities that support the plan.

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Warmer winters can wreak as much havoc as hotter summers, say scientists

 

 I suggest reading the whole article.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/17/warmer-winters-climate-crisis-scientists

 

Katharine Gammon
Fri 17 Dec 2021 02.00 EST

 

 Warmer winters are happening across the globe, and leading to some big impacts: 2021 brought the planet’s 16th-warmest February since records began.

While the popular imagination might associate the climate crisis with scorching summers and their attendant droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and heat waves, milder winters can also be drivers of catastrophic weather events and profound changes. They range from shifts in agricultural use, triggering changing weather patterns to boosting the likelihood of violent events, like the swarm of tornadoes that wreaked havoc in the American midwest and south over last weekend.

“One of the truisms in climate science is that cold places and cold times of year warm faster than the warmer places and warmer times of year,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA studying how extreme events are changing on a warming Earth. “Not only is the actual rate of warming faster in colder seasons and places – like the Arctic, which is warming three times faster than other places – but also a lot of impacts that are associated with warming are amplified.”

Swain points to one specific threshold where temperature has a huge impact: whether precipitation falls as liquid rain or frozen snow depends on just a single degree difference. And in the west of America, where there was a gigantic snow drought until just a few days ago, that has huge impacts.

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When precipitation falls as snow, it sticks around for longer, creating runoff moisture for the spring season – it’s often referred to as the bank of future water for moisture-strapped places. But when it falls as rain, it runs off immediately. “Winter warming affects the frozenness – or not – of things, which is ecologically important for the accumulation of snowpack and the water supply,” explains Swain.

Warm spells in winter can create extreme heat waves later in summer. Unseasonal warmth can lead to a premature snow melt and vegetation growth, which lowers soil moisture and amplifies the likelihood of extreme and persistent heat waves throughout the summer, says Kornhuber. He points to the chain of events that led up to a heatwave that rocked Siberia in 2020 and was associated with wildfires that lasted the whole summer and caused record breaking carbon emissions.

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 Climate model projections for the United States indicate that overall there will be an increase in the likelihood of conditions favorable to severe storms as the planet warms, says Chiara Lepore, an associate research scientist at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

Lepore published research last month predicting 14-25% increase in severe storms per every extra 1C degree of future global temperature increase.

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Thursday, December 16, 2021

Volunteer with Tax-Aide

https://www.aarp.org/volunteer/programs/tax-aide/

 

AARP Foundation
With the help of people like you, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide offers free tax-filing help to those who need it most. We’re looking for compassionate and friendly individuals to join our team of local volunteers for the upcoming tax season. You’ll receive training and continued support in a welcoming environment. And, as our current volunteers tell us, you’ll not only learn new skills, but also get a great feeling from helping someone else.

•••••

Who will you help as a volunteer?

We offer free tax preparation help to anyone, with special attention to older, low-income taxpayers. We understand that many individuals may miss out on credits and deductions they’ve earned because they can’t afford to pay for professional tax preparation.

There are exceptions, especially complicated returns, but we can help most people.

Who volunteers?

Neighbors like you. And there's a role for everyone.

Good with the fine print?
Be a volunteer tax preparer.

You'll work with taxpayers directly; filling out tax returns and helping them seek a refund. Experience isn't necessary — we'll provide training and IRS certification.

Love working with people? Be a client facilitator.

You'll welcome taxpayers, help organize their paperwork and manage the overall flow of service.

Skilled in all things digital? Be a technology coordinator.

You'll manage computer equipment, ensure taxpayer data security and provide technical assistance to volunteers at multiple sites.

Want to help get the word out? Be a communications coordinator.

You'll promote AARP Foundation Tax-Aide and recruit volunteers in your community.

Have a knack for running things? Be a leadership or administrative volunteer.

Manage volunteers, make sure program operations run smoothly, track volunteer assignments and site activities, and maintain quality control.

Speak a second language?
You're urgently needed!

We have a big demand for bilingual speakers in all roles. We also have a need for dedicated interpreters who can assist other volunteers.

Get that great feeling from helping your neighbors in need by joining our volunteer team today!

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered in conjunction with the IRS.

Who's to blame for continuing Covid?

 

NPR is saying President Biden's approval ratings are low.  They say one reason is Covid.  Of course, it was Trump who encouraged his fans to be dismissive of the danger of Covid.  After he lost the 2020 election, he had no interest in implementing the distribution of the vaccine.  NPR explained this as due to his being focused on fighting the results of the election.  Anybody who has paid attention to the way Trump reacts knows that when someone doesn't support him in any way, he seeks revenge.  It would have been totally out of character if he had cared about the welfare of the American people after they didn't reelect him. And it  is republican governors who are blocking actions to fight Covid.  It is largely republicans who are refusing to get vaccinated, prolonging and aggravating the problem and encouraging the proliferation of variants.

Benefits of diet during COVID19

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938340


 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Centro Universitario de la Costa


The links between diet-related diseases and Covid-19 is now widely accepted based on scientific evidence. In this regard, obesity has been identified by the CDC as a strong risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. Still scientists trying to understand why Covid19 had mild symptoms in some and much more severe symptoms in others.

Vaccination against Covid19 is essential. Vaccine have been proven to be safe and effective and should be promoted as the first line of defence. However, attention to the preventative effect of diet related mitigations, is largely missing. As a mitigating factor, diet impact on Covid19 should be carefully explored. 

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 The study showed that those Covid19 positive individuals, with an increased habitual intake of legumes, grains, bread & cereals food groups, showed decreased overall symptom severity. 

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Ambulance call-outs for heart attacks rise when air pollution is high, German study finds

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938275

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
The European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC)

 

Ambulance call outs for heart attacks are more common on days when air pollution levels are high, according to new research being presented at Euroanaesthesia, the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC), held online this year (17-19 Dec). Warmer weather, is however, associated with fewer heart attacks.

Fluctuations in air pollution levels and changing weather conditions are already known to affect health1,2.  Rises in air pollution, for example, can exacerbate heart and respiratory conditions.

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Adults with positive facial expressions while eating vegetables help kids consume more than double the amount of vegetables

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938068

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
 Peer-Reviewed Publication
Aston University

 chi

Parents who struggle to encourage their children to eat vegetables can now play a more influential part at their mealtimes – concludes a study by psychologists in the College of Health and Life Sciences at Aston University.

The recent study, which was published in the journal Appetite, was carried out by doctoral researcher Katie Edwards, who found that children watching adults eat a green vegetable with positive facial expressions tasted and consumed more than double the amount of that vegetable.

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Meditation affects people in different ways

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938087

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
National Research University Higher School of Economics

 

A group of researchers from the HSE Centre for Bioelectric Interfaces has studied the activity of the brain and other body systems during meditation. It was the first study to show that, when following the same instructions, some people relax, while others concentrate. The results of the study were published in the PLOS ONE journal.

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Extensive use of smartphones by parents might damage toddler’s development and have far-reaching consequences

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937995

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Moms devote only 25% of their attention to toddlers while browsing the Internet on the phone
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Tel-Aviv University

 

A new study from Tel Aviv University found that interaction between mothers and their toddlers is reduced by a factor of four when the mothers use their smartphones, which might damage the toddler’s development and have even greater and far-reaching consequences. 

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“We found that the three components of mother-child interaction were reduced by a factor of two to four relative to uninterrupted free play, both when the mother was reading printed magazines and browsing on her smartphone,” Dr. Borodkin says. “In other words, the mothers talked up to four times less with their children while they were on their smartphone. Moreover, they exchanged fewer conversational turns with the toddler, provided less immediate and content-tailored responses, and more often ignored explicit child bids. Even when they were able to respond while browsing Facebook, the quality of the response was reduced – the mothers kept their responsiveness to a bare minimum to avoid a complete breakdown in communication with the toddler.”

 

Equally interesting is the fact that no difference was found between browsing a smartphone and reading magazines. “We did not find that one media distracted more than the other. However, it is clear that we use smartphones much more than any other media, so they pose a significant developmental threat. It should be noted that we currently have no research evidence suggesting an actual effect on child developmental related to the parental use of smartphones, as this is a relatively new phenomenon. However, our findings indicate an adverse impact on the foundation of child development. The consequences of inadequate mother-child interaction can be far-reaching.”

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Better identification of sesame in food packaging needed to avoid anaphylaxis

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938040

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Study shows more than 50% of products did not declare sesame on the label
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology

 

In 2021, the US Congress passed the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education & Research Act which, among other things, added sesame to the list of allergens which are mandatory for inclusion on food labels by 2023. A new study in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), found that among those who self-reported an allergic reaction to sesame, more than 56% of products which contained sesame did not declare sesame on the label.

“Sesame is the ninth most common childhood food allergy in the US, yet many people don’t recognize it on food labels, or it’s missing entirely” says allergist Katie Kennedy, MD, ACAAI member and senior author on the paper. “What we discovered in our study was that amongst those who reported events related to accidental ingestion of sesame, many reported they didn’t know that words such as ‘tahini’ meant sesame. Because the word ‘sesame’ is often not used on labels, accidents happen at a greater rate”.

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Older people experience more positive and less negative emotions during the pandemic

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938062

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Universiteit van Amsterdam

 

Getting old is usually seen as unappealing, but ageing in fact has some positive effects. One of the advantages of getting old is feeling better. Older people generally experience more positive and less negative emotions than younger people. In a new study published in Psychological Science, Rui Sun and Disa Sauter from the University of Amsterdam tested whether this advantage of older people would also hold during the Covid-19 pandemic. They found that even during the difficult conditions of this crisis, older people are on average emotionally better off than younger people.

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New study associates mask laws to reduction of COVID-19 deaths

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938091

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Countries without face mask mandates experienced significantly higher COVID-19 deaths per million than countries that enacted mask mandates, investigators report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Elsevier

 

 A study of the impact of national face mask laws on COVID-19 mortality in 44 countries with a combined population of nearly one billion people found that, over time, the increase in COVID-19 related deaths was significantly slower in countries that imposed mask laws compared to countries that did not. The study, appearing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, shows that masks provide a supplementary layer of protection that could prevent unnecessary COVID-19 deaths.

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Pressure to be ‘perfect’ causes mental health issues for teenage girls, research shows

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938113

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Exeter

 

Pressure from schools and families to live up to society’s expectations of the “ideal” girl and be “good” causes mental health issues in teenage girls, a study shows.

Cultures in schools and at home contribute to anxiety in girls from all backgrounds, researchers have found.

Pressure to achieve high grades, be popular and beautiful, and participate in extra-curricular activities can lead to mental health issues.

This is more common when girls are fearful about the future, face pressures at home and encounter a competitive culture in schools.

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Depression, anxiety, and happiness in dog owners and potential dog owners during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937217

 

 News Release 15-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
PLOS

 

Dog ownership was associated with fewer negative psychological impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a U.S. survey

Private equity long-term care homes have the highest mortality rate during COVID-19

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938131

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Waterloo

 

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that for-profit long-term care homes had worse patient outcomes than not-for-profit homes. A new study found that of those for-profit homes, long-term care homes (LTCs) owned by private equity firms and large chains have the highest mortality rates.

The study conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo traced the growing dominance of financial firms in seniors housing, including LTCs and retirement living.

The study found that nursing homes with the highest profit margins have the lowest quality as financialized ownership and are even more aggressive in seeking to extract value from care homes and the people who live and work in them.

“This study is not focused on the public or non-profit seniors’ facilities across Canada, but rather, the pension funds, private-equity firms, public companies, and other instruments treating long-term care as an asset class,” said Martine August, a professor in Waterloo’s School of Planning and author of the study. “When financial firms own and operate seniors housing, they prioritize profit at the expense of other goals.

“These financial firms derive maximum value in three ways: cost-savings from cutting staff, reducing services, and using government grants to improve facilities thus raising property values for subsequent sale as real estate.”

August said financialization is the process by which real goods and services such as housing and senior assisted living are bundled and traded as investor products like bonds, shares and derivatives, differentiating them from sole proprietors.

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For IBS, specific diets are less important than expected

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938025

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Chalmers University of Technology

 

Many IBS sufferers avoid certain types of food and often exclude gluten. However, a large new study from Chalmers University of Technology and Uppsala University, Sweden, does not show a relationship between high intake of gluten and increased IBS symptoms. The researchers did find that a certain type of carbohydrate called ‘fodmaps’ can aggravate intestinal problems, however, the overall results indicate that they also have less influence than previously thought.
 

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 IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) affects around three to five percent of the world's population, and involves symptoms such as stomach pain, diarrhoea and constipation. In the new study, which included 110 people with IBS, the researchers examined how people were affected by serving them rice puddings prepared in different ways. One variety was rich in gluten while the other contained large amounts of carbohydrate of the ‘fodmap’ variety – that is, fermentable carbohydrates, including certain chains of fructose and lactose. Many foods are rich in fodmaps, including dairy products, types of bread and certain fruits and vegetables.
In addition to the specially prepared rice puddings, the researchers also served a neutral one that served as a placebo.

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Greater exposure to nitrogen dioxide linked to higher levels of biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease in the brain

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938189

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

 

Investigators from the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), the research arm of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, in collaboration with ISGlobal, have found an association between exposure to air pollution and higher levels of biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, particularly in individuals with elevated beta-amyloid deposition in the brain.

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 These findings are consistent with hypotheses which propose that fine particles such as PM2.5 can cross the blood-brain barrier and reach the brain. Air pollution is also one of the most prevalent sources of environmentally-induced inflammation and oxidative stress, two factors involved in neurodegenerative processes.

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Lack of access to affordable, nutritious food puts those with chronic liver disease at a higher risk of death

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938168

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
For some patients, risk is nearly 50% higher than those with access to a heathy diet
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Southern California - Health Sciences

 

Food insecurity, the limited availability of nutritionally adequate food, is a growing public health concern in the United States. Over 35 million Americans experience food insecurity annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These numbers are estimated to have risen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as economic hardship has caused more Americans to lose access to an affordable, nutritious diet.

A new study by Keck Medicine of USC found that food insecurity can be deadly for patients with either nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a buildup of extra fat in the liver that is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the U.S., or advanced liver disease, a condition characterized by inflammation and scarring of the liver.

The results showed that people living with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease who are food insecure have a 46% higher risk of death compared to individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease who are food secure.

For those with advanced liver disease who are food insecure, the risk of dying is 37% higher when compared to food-secure advanced liver disease patients.

Additionally, researchers estimated that 3% of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease deaths and 7% of advanced liver disease deaths could be eliminated if food insecurity was eradicated.

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Women who practice self-compassion are at lower risk of cardiovascular disease

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938206

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Pittsburgh

 

Despite what skeptics say, being kind to oneself is not a New Age fad – and there is research to back it up.

Middle-aged women who practiced self-compassion had lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, irrespective of other traditional risk factors such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance and cholesterol levels. The findings were published today by University of Pittsburgh researchers in Health Psychology.

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Lleadership style may impact crisis outcomes

 

Not surprising to me.


  https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938242


 News Release 16-Dec-2021
UNH research amidst COVID-19 finds leadership style may impact crisis outcomes
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of New Hampshire


As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility and new research shows that may have had significant meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic where varying responses from world leaders influenced infection outcomes. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Nebraska at Omaha took a closer look at international leadership styles and found global leaders that had a rational, problem-solving approach toward the crisis were associated with fewer country-wide infections.

“We found that differences in leadership sensemaking style significantly predicted case rates,” said Jennifer Griffith, UNH associate professor of organizational behavior and management. “In short, how leaders process, categorize and interpret information can impact their own behavior, like wearing a mask, as well as the policy positions they take, like funding, and can in turn impact the behavior of those they govern.”

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 The content they analyzed showed that leaders that responded to the pandemic with a more pragmatic leadership style were more effective in dealing with the pandemic and governed countries that had lower rates of infection. Leaders who took a more charismatic approach, focusing on idealized visions of the future and maintaining a positive outlook, were associated with higher overall COVID-19 infection rates. The researchers say during the COVID-19 crisis, leaders with a pragmatic style were more malleable and able to problem solve during complex circumstances but those with a more charismatic style put too much emphasis on their message and goals, giving a false sense of security, rather than adapting to specific circumstances.

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Oropharyngeal cancer incidence and mortality rising in nearly all 50 states

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938149

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

 

Oropharyngeal cancer incidence among men is continuing to rise rapidly in nearly all 50 states and among women living in states in the Midwest and Southeast regions, according to a new study by investigators at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) School of Public Health in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

In addition, the investigators found that the number of people diagnosed with large tumors as well as the death rate has increased in the last decade.

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 During 2001-2017, male oropharyngeal cancer cases diagnosed with large tumors rose more than 4% per year. Between 2006-2017, oropharyngeal cancer mortality also increased more than 2% per year among men.

“More than 70% of oropharyngeal cancer cases are caused by HPV, and more than 90% of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers could be potentially prevented if the current generation of adolescents receives the recommended number of HPV vaccine doses,” Damgacioglu said.

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Building a better bat box: Temperature variation in rocket box designs

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938281

 

  News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences


Bat box designs vary widely, but many commercial varieties remain untested and risk cooking the animals they’re designed to shelter. Often small and painted dark colors, these boxes may rise to dangerous temperatures on sunny days in summer, putting mom and pup in harm’s way.

New research from the University of Illinois shows a four-sided “rocket box” style, especially with modifications to length and insulation, provides more thermally appropriate roosting spaces for bats. Diverging from earlier bat box research, the study meticulously maps hot spots inside more than a dozen rocket box designs.

“Previous work made broad temperature comparisons among a hodgepodge of bat box designs, usually at only one spot inside the box. In those kinds of studies, it’s hard to know the full temperature gradient bats experience or which design elements are most important for maintaining optimal temperatures,” says Joy O’Keefe, an assistant professor and wildlife extension specialist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.

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“A rocket box can hold more than 200 Indiana bats; such a mass of warm bodies could increase roost temperatures from stressful to lethal on hot days,” says study author Frank Tillman, former graduate researcher working with O’Keefe.

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“When a bat chooses a box near sunrise, they all pretty much look the same. They're all cold. So the bats can't really know what they're getting into. Then, by the middle of the day, temperatures are starting to get comfortable. Everybody's hunky dory. It’s the end of the day where you can get these deadly temperatures. We've seen temperatures in the bat boxes being 68 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the outside air temperature,” O’Keefe says.

Generally, the tops of the boxes were heating up more and faster than the middle and bottom portions. But because rocket boxes are long and four-sided, bats could theoretically move vertically or away from sun-blasted sides of the box. A longer box, like the 1.5-meter-long design tested in the experiment, would offer a greater range of temperatures.

Another winning design was a water jacket design dreamed up by co-author George Bakken, an emeritus professor at Indiana State University. This design had a layer of vacuum-sealed water bags inserted in a sleeve around the standard rocket box. The water acts as a buffer, effectively moderating daily temperature fluctuations and making it less likely for the box to reach extremely hot or cold temperatures.

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Shifting conferences online cuts carbon footprint 94%

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938270

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Cornell University

 

The COVID-19 global pandemic – unexpectedly – has shown humanity a new way to reduce climate change: Scrap in-person meetings and conventions.

Moving a professional conference completely online reduces its carbon footprint by 94%, and shifting it to a hybrid model, with no more than half of conventioneers online, curtails the footprint to 67%, according to a new Cornell University-led study in Nature Communication.

The annual carbon footprint for the global event and convention industry is on par with the yearly greenhouse gas emissions of the entire U.S., according to the new paper.

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Protective effect of education against midlife mental health struggle waning for Americans

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937783

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Arizona State University

 

Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers.

To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time. The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries. American adults currently in their 40s, 50s and early 60s have more symptoms of depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age. This pattern was found in Australian middle-aged adults but not in those living in Germany, South Korea or Mexico. Years of education was associated with better mental health in midlife, but the strength of this buffering effect has waned for Americans currently in their 40s, 50s and 60s relative to older American generations and to middle-aged adults in Australia, Germany, South Korea and Mexico.

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 The physical health of adults in their 40s and early 50s improved over time in all five countries included in the study. American adults born in the 1950s and 1960s have been healthier in midlife than people born in the 1930s and 1940s were when they were in their 40s and 50s. In the US, this health improvement dissipates by the late 50s and early 60s.

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In general, education protects people from experiencing symptoms of depression or having memory difficulties later in life. But, college-educated American adults born in the 1950s and 1960s reported worse memory recall than their older, also college-educated, peers. This pattern did not exist in any of the other studied countries.

“While the future of American middle-aged adults might not look that bright, we can look to other countries to see what works for overall success in midlife,” Infurna said. “Other countries have more accessible health care systems and social safety nets like paid family leave, subsidized childcare, and paid work and vacation leave. These differences can help support adults in midlife, who are often juggling working, parenting and caregiving, and suggest ways the US can make things better.”

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Breakthrough infections generate ‘super immunity’ to COVID-19, study suggests

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/938330

 

 News Release 16-Dec-2021
COVID-19 vaccination provides a foundation of protection that’s enhanced by breakthrough infection; ‘the key is to get vaccinated’
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Oregon Health & Science University

 

Breakthrough infections greatly enhance immune response to variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a newly published study from Oregon Health & Science University.

The laboratory results, published online ahead of print today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reveals that a breakthrough infection generates a robust immune response against the delta variant. Authors say the findings suggest the immune response is likely to be highly effective against other variants as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate.

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2021 in review: Weather records aren’t just broken, they’re smashed

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25233652-800-2021-in-review-weather-records-arent-just-broken-theyre-smashed

 

Record-shattering fires, freezes and rainfall around the world made it all too clear that extreme weather is fast becoming the new normal


15 December 2021
By Adam Vaughan

DEADLY fires, floods and freezes struck around the world this year, as a report by the world’s top climate scientists said it is now an “established fact” that humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions are linked to more-frequent, more-intense extreme weather.

“The sad fact is climate change and extreme weather have become the norm,” says Christiana Figueres, former head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Temperature records are usually exceeded by a fraction of a degree. Yet in late June, the village of Lytton in Canada broke the country’s record high by almost 5°C [9°F], reaching 49.6°C [121°F]. A day later, wildfires destroyed much of the community.

-----

In July, Turkey endured a new temperature high, while Sicily in Italy saw Europe’s warmest day on record a month later. South America was afflicted by drought, exemplified by the continent’s second longest river, the Paraná, dropping to its lowest level in 77 years.

-----

Floods took a heavy toll too. The Chinese city of Zhengzhou in Henan province was deluged with more than 200 millimetres of rainfall in 1 hour on 20 July, an all-time national record. The resulting flooding of the city’s subway system killed 14 people. The same month saw extreme rainfall devastate parts of Germany and Belgium, causing landslides and more than 200 deaths. South Sudan was wracked by its third year in a row of extreme floods.

-----

In September, people drowned when basements in New York flooded as the remains of Hurricane Ida hit. “Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, our economy, and the threat is here,” said US president Joe Biden.

=====

[And there were the horrible tornadoes last weekend in the U.S.]







Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Third of fertility specialists still recommend a type of IVF treatment which has no clear evidence of benefit

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937392heal

 

 News Release 14-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Taylor & Francis Group

 

Despite a lack of evidence that the intrusive IVF treatment process of scratching the womb (endometrial scratching) increases the chances of having a baby, a third of fertility specialists are still offering this often-painful procedure.

That’s the findings of a new survey of fertility clinic experts internationally – only 10% of whom actually believe endometrial scratching improve pregnancy and live birth rates during the first round of IVF.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Human Fertility, results from over a half (55%) of respondents suggest that endometrial scratching is only offered to patients for psychological reasons, rather than medical – as it is often a ‘last resort’ treatment option for those who have failed with several rounds of IVF.

“Many participants felt that endometrial scratching reduces distress among women who request it and offers hope to women who have had unsuccessful treatments; however more research will be needed to clarify whether this does have psychological benefits for patients,” explains lead researcher Dr Sarah Lensen from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

As many as 10% of couples experience subfertility – defined as the failure to conceive after at least one year of trying for a baby.

-----

 

Anti-gay slurs not targeted just at gay men

 

No surprise.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937923

 

 News Release 14-Dec-2021
Threatened straight men likely to use slurs against other straight men
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Houston

 

The childhood playground can be a tough place with insults flying faster than dodgeballs, and while some children outgrow the name calling, others never seem to. Hurling slurs as adults only exacerbates problems. The use of anti-gay slurs by heterosexual men against other heterosexual men is the focus of a new study by Nathan Grant Smith, an associate professor of counseling psychology and chair of the Department of Psychological, Health, and Learning Sciences in the University of Houston College of Education.

“Our results suggest that using anti-gay slurs may serve a status-protecting function for heterosexual men: When their masculinity is threatened, they may be more likely to punish other heterosexual men by calling them the f-word,” said Smith, whose findings were published in Current Psychology. 

-----

Overweight children are developing heart complications

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937916

 

 News Release 14-Dec-2021
Youth with high BMI showed signs of artery stiffness, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Georgia

 

The percentage of obese children and teens jumped from 19% pre-pandemic to 22%, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the rate at which body mass index (BMI) increased doubled.

New research from the University of Georgia suggests that could spell bad news for children’s cardiovascular systems both now and down the line. 

------

 The researchers found significantly higher levels of visceral fat and arterial stiffness in the overweight youth, suggesting that abdominal fat likely contributes to cardiovascular problems in kids.

“The stiffer the artery, the faster blood is going to move through those blood vessels, and that can be detrimental and overstress our system,” said Joseph Kindler, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of nutritional sciences in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “As these issues build up, unfortunately, it’s sort of this game of dominoes. You tip one over, and the rest of the systems start being overtaxed. That’s when really pervasive health issues can occur.”

-----


Antibiotics can be first-line therapy for uncomplicated appendicitis cases

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937581

 


 News Release 14-Dec-2021
A review of studies shows that antibiotic therapy is effective in up to 70% of cases that do not have added risks
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Duke University Medical Center

 

With numerous recent studies demonstrating that antibiotics work as well as surgery for most uncomplicated appendicitis cases, the non-surgical approach can now be considered a routine option, according to a review article in JAMA.

-----

 

Researchers from Tel Aviv University identified the biological mechanism causing nerve destruction in the Motor Neuron disease ALS

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937888


 News Release 14-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Tel-Aviv University


A research group from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University uncovered, for the first time, the biological mechanism causing nerve destruction in the neurodegenerative disease ALS. The groundbreaking study, led by Prof. Eran Perlson and the doctoral students Topaz Altman and Ariel Ionescu, suggests that the course of this fatal disease can be delayed and even reversed in its early stages.

-----

ALS is the most common type of motor neuron disease, causing paralysis and muscle atrophy. One out of every 400 people will have the disease, and yet it has no effective cure. ALS patients gradually lose their ability to control their voluntary muscle movements, leading to complete paralysis and eventually lose the ability to breathe independently. The average life expectancy of ALS patients is currently only about three years.

 

"To this day it is unclear what causes the disease", explains Prof. Perlson. "Only about 10% of the patients carry a familial background with known genetic mutations, but the remaining 90% are a mystery. The paralysis caused by the disease results from damage to the motor neurons, which leads to the degeneration nerve endings and to the loss of muscle innervation. This consequently leads to the degeneration of the nerve and the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord, however until now we could not understand the basic biological mechanism causing the initial damage behind this vicious cascade".

-----


New poll: Major spike among American adults skipping medical treatment due to cost

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937306

 

 News Release 14-Dec-2021
Pandemic causes Americans to take harsher view of US healthcare system
Reports and Proceedings
West Health Institute

 

Nearly one-third (30%) of Americans skipped needed medical care in the past three months due to cost, the highest reported number since the COVID-19 pandemic began and a threefold increase from March to October, according to the latest survey from the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization West Health and Gallup, the global analytics and advice firm. Even about 20% of the nation’s highest-income households — those earning more than $120,000 per year — blame cost as the reason for not seeking care, up from 3% over the same timeframe.

-----

 

Stress, by itself, can lead to excessive drinking in women but not men

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937609

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Arizona State University

 

A new study has shown that stress alone can drive women to excessive drinking.

Men who experienced the same stress only drank to excess when they had already started consuming alcohol.

Though rates of alcohol misuse are higher in men than women, women are catching up. Women also have a greater risk than men of developing alcohol-related problems.

-----

 tags: drug use, drug abuse,

Decreased vehicle emissions linked with significant drop in deaths attributable to air pollution

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937593

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

 

Decreasing vehicle emissions since 2008 have reduced by thousands the number of deaths attributable to air pollution, yielding billions of dollars in benefits to society, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study also found that although the public health burden of large trucks has been greatly reduced, passenger light-duty vehicles, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, continue to contribute a significant amount of air pollution in major metropolitan areas.

-----

 

Massive cost, meager benefit

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937785

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Evidence review reveals little, if any, clinical benefit to drug that costs Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars annually
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Oregon Health & Science University
 

 

An extremely expensive drug used for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders provides very little, if any, clinical benefit, according to a new evidence review published today by physicians and researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University.

The review, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found the clinical benefit of the drug Acthar (rACTH) is quite low compared to less-expensive alternatives.

-----

 

Florida will begin emergency feeding and rescue of starving manatees

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/10/florida-manatees-rescue-emergency-feeding

 

Jessica Glenza
@JessicaGlenza
Fri 10 Dec 2021 07.00 EST


Florida wildlife officials will undertake a manatee feeding and rescue operation involving hand-feeding the mammals romaine lettuce, amid unprecedented mortality among the gentle aquatic creatures affectionately known as “sea cows”.

Typically, manatees return to warm water winter feeding grounds, where they feast on plentiful seagrass.

But algal blooms from polluted waters have devastated seagrass beds, and thereby wiped out the important food source for the manatees. Algal blooms and manatee deaths have been especially pronounced along Florida’s Atlantic coast, leading to record-breaking mortality.

“Our agencies and Unified Command partners carefully considered all aspects of a short-term feeding trial,” said Shannon Estenoz, assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks with the federal Department of Interior, in a release. “It is critical we help manatees in the short term with actions that are compatible with their long-term wellbeing and resilience.”

-----


Climate-driven disease devastates seagrass health

 

This has resulted in starving manatees.

 

 https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937734

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Cornell University

 

In an oceanic omen for climate change’s intensifying effects, new research shows that seagrass suffers from a lesion-filled wasting disease through large swaths of intertidal meadows in the Pacific Northwest. The grasses’ once-vibrant plant root systems are deteriorating, too.

-----

 Eelgrass (Zostera marina) normally thrives in the San Juan Islands, Washington, on the Salish Sea along the Canadian border. In typical scenarios, Graham describes the seagrass meadow environment as bountiful underwater rainforests, which clean the waters and support herring, salmon, perch, clams, mussels and oysters. Nearby, orca whales feast on Chinook salmon – the largest of the Pacific salmon – which live in these tidal grasslands.

Seagrass wasting disease has been present for years, thanks to the warming waters of climate change, which strengthens the plant’s disease nemesis Labyrinthula zosterae. This paper confirms that below the muddy beds, the plant’s roots are compromised.

-----


 

Remote monitoring doesn’t always detect catastrophic pacemaker failure

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937747

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
It can happen in a heartbeat:
Improved collaboration between industry, health systems, medical societies, and individual healthcare providers is needed to effectively manage implanted medical device recalls, according to an article published in Heart Rhythm Case Reports
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Elsevier

 

 Even after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety notice and recall, manufacturing defects in certain cardiac rhythm management (CRM) devices led to premature battery depletion that was not picked up by remote monitoring. A case report in Heart Rhythm Case Reports, an official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society, published by Elsevier, documents two instances of premature battery failures in a recalled subset of St. Jude Assurity and Endurity pacemakers (manufactured by Abbott) that shed light on a potentially lethal flaw of remote monitoring.

-----

 

Chicago study finds individual housing dramatically reduced coronavirus rates in at-risk people experiencing homelessness

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937608

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Chicago Medical Center

 

Persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) who were at high risk of severe COVID-19 were 2.5 times less likely to contract SARS-CoV-2 if they were provided with individual hotel rooms and medical and social support compared to citywide rates in homeless shelters, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medicine, Lawndale Christian Health Center, and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Additionally, PEH who participated in this housing intervention also saw improvements in certain health measures such as blood pressure, and more than half of them moved on to longer-term housing after the intervention. The results were published on December 13 in JAMA Network Open.

The findings provide hard data demonstrating these types of interventions can be highly effective for improving stability for PEH and that increasing healthcare and social support access can drive better health outcomes and improve health equity. 

-----

 

Computer-, smartphone-based treatments effective at reducing symptoms of depression

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937349

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American Psychological Association

 

Computer- and smartphone-based treatments appear to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression, and while it remains unclear whether they are as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy, they offer a promising alternative to address the growing mental health needs spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

-----

 

Cannabis use could cause harmful drug interactions

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937642

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Washington State University

 

Using cannabis alongside other drugs may come with a significant risk of harmful drug-drug interactions, new research by scientists at Washington State University suggests.

The researchers looked at cannabinoids—a group of substances found in the cannabis plant—and their major metabolites found in cannabis users’ blood and found that they interfere with two families of enzymes that help metabolize a wide range of drugs prescribed for a variety of conditions. As a result, either the drugs’ positive effects might decrease or their negative effects might increase with too much building up in the body, causing unintended side effects such as toxicity or accidental overdose.

-----

 tags: drug use, drug abuse,


Common sleep disorder combo could be deadly

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937745

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Flinders University

 

People who suffer from both insomnia and obstructive sleep apnoea are more likely to suffer from heart problems and are almost 50% more likely to die than those without either condition, say Flinders University researchers, who advise people being tested for one of the disorders be tested for the other.

“Insomnia and obstructive sleep apnoea are the two most common sleep disorders, affecting 10 to 30% of the population, but people can often suffer from both at the same time,” says Dr Bastien Lechat from Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute: Sleep Health.

-----

 

People with HIV are at increased risk for heart failure

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937528

 

 News Release 13-Dec-2021
Kaiser Permanente research finds risk difference more pronounced in women, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and people under 40
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Kaiser Permanente

 

People with HIV are at higher risk of developing heart failure than people without HIV, a new study found.

-----

 

For patients with multiple myeloma, vaccination offers protection from COVID-19, but less than other cancer patients receive

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937726

 

 News Release 12-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

 

For patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, vaccination against COVID-19 provides some protection against coronavirus infection but to a far lower degree than the general population of cancer survivors, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators shows.

-----

 They found that, with a follow-up between 14-287 days, the estimated effectiveness of vaccine was 5.6% after two doses in patients with myeloma and 27.2% effective in people with MGUS, compared to 85% in cancer survivors not on treatment in general. (Effectiveness is a measure of the vaccine’s ability to prevent infection by the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.) The researchers also found that the effectiveness of the vaccine begins to decline about six months after patients receive their second dose.

The findings underscore the need for patients with multiple myeloma “to be especially careful – to take social distancing seriously and utilize masking – even if they’ve been vaccinated,” said study senior author Nikhil Munshi, MD, director of basic and correlative science at Dana-Farber’s Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center.

The decreased effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with myeloma is likely due to the disease itself and to its treatment, both of which can weaken patients’ immune system, researchers say. As the vaccine spurs the immune system to defend against the coronavirus, a decline in immune function can diminish the vaccine’s efficacy.

-----


Factory workers threatened with firing if they left before tornado, employees say

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kentucky-tornado-factory-workers-threatened-firing-left-tornado-employ-rcna8581

 

Dec. 13, 2021, 3:57 PM EST / Updated Dec. 14, 2021, 7:49 AM EST
By Deon J. Hampton


MAYFIELD, Ky. — As a catastrophic tornado approached this city Friday, employees of a candle factory — which would later be destroyed — heard the warning sirens and wanted to leave the building. But at least five workers said supervisors warned employees that they would be fired if they left their shifts early.

For hours, as word of the coming storm spread, as many as 15 workers beseeched managers to let them take shelter at their own homes, only to have their requests rebuffed, the workers said.

Fearing for their safety, some left during their shifts regardless of the repercussions.

At least eight people died in the Mayfield Consumer Products factory, which makes scented candles. The facility was leveled, and all that is left is rubble. Photos and videos of its widespread mangled remains have become symbols of the enormous destructive power of Friday’s tornado system.

-----

 


Thank you President Biden

 Dec. 14, 2021


Great to have a president who cares about all Americans, not just those in states who voted for them. Most of the states hit by the tornadoes this weekend voted for Trump, but President Biden immediately declared them federal disaster areas, making them eligible for federal aid. 

A welcome difference from Trump, who delayed or outright denied federal disaster aid to states  who didn't vote for him.

Friday, December 10, 2021

Chemicals from hair and beauty products impact hormones, especially during pregnancy

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937604

 

  News Release 10-Dec-2021
Certain personal care products during pregnancy may impact maternal hormone levels according to a new Rutgers study
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Rutgers University


Use of certain personal care products during pregnancy may impact maternal hormone levels, according to a new Rutgers study.

 

Personal care and beauty products contain several ingredients that often include a wide range of endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates, parabens, phenols, parabens and toxic metals. These chemicals interact with hormone systems, influencing synthesis, regulation, transport, metabolism and hormone reception, which are all especially vulnerable during pregnancy.

-----

The researchers found that the use of hair products, particularly hair dyes, bleach, relaxers and mousse are associated with lower levels of sex steroid hormones, which have a critical role maintaining pregnancy and fetal development. Disruptions of these hormones may contribute to adverse maternal and pregnancy outcomes like growth restriction, preterm birth and low birth weight.

 

“Alterations in hormone levels, especially during pregnancy, can have vast consequences beyond health at birth including changes in infant and child growth, pubertal trajectories and may influence development of hormone-sensitive cancers such as breast, uterine and ovarian cancer,” says the study’s lead author, Zorimar Rivera-Núñez, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “Additional research should address the public health impact of exposure to chemicals in hair products in pregnant populations.”

 

The researchers also found that socioeconomic variables, such as income, education and employment status, influence the use of personal care products among pregnant women in Puerto Rico. For example, participants who reported a household income greater than $100,000 use personal care products more often than participants with lower household incomes. Additionally, employed participants reported using more cosmetics than those who were unemployed.

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Affordability of medical care among Medicare enrollees

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937344

 

 News Release 10-Dec-2021
JAMA Health Forum
Peer-Reviewed Publication
JAMA Network

 

The findings of this survey study of 13,000 Medicare enrollees suggest the unaffordability of medical care is common, especially among those with lower incomes or worse health or who qualify for Medicare based on disability.

 

Seasonal temperature impacts patient lab results

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936716

 

 News Release 10-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Cell Press

 

 Ambient temperature influences the results of some of the most used laboratory tests, and these distortions likely affect medical decision making, such as whether to prescribe medications, researchers report December 10th in the journal Med. The authors say that laboratories could statistically adjust for ambient temperature on test days when reporting lab results to account for day-to-day variability.

-----

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambient

Definition of ambient

 (Entry 1 of 2)
1 : existing or present on all sides : encompassing

 the ambient air temperature

 ambient light

 

 ambient sound

Melatonin exacerbates asthma discovers research group

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937537

 

 News Release 10-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Tohoku University

 

Patients with asthma often experience a worsening of asthmatic symptoms at night in so-called "nocturnal asthma." According to reports, more than 50% of asthma deaths occur at night, exposing a link between nocturnal asthma symptoms and asthma deaths. Although some have proposed several triggers that explain the pathogenesis of nocturnal asthma, the precise mechanisms regulating this asthma phenotype remain obscure.

Now, a research group led by Kentaro Mizuta from Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry has discovered that melatonin, a sleep hormone, worsens asthma.

-----

Childhood trauma increases risk of opioid abuse

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937465

 

 News Release 9-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Georgia

 

Young adults who experienced trauma in childhood are more at risk for misusing prescription opioids, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

The study, which was recently published in the Journal of American College Health, supports arguments to expand opioid risk screeners to include adverse childhood experiences.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) describe a range of stressors, some more severe than others, that can lead to negative health outcomes as an adult. These can range from having divorced parents to experiencing domestic violence or food insecurity.

Previous studies have linked childhood trauma to chronic health conditions, chronic pain, mental health conditions and health risk behaviors, including illicit drug use. But it’s unclear whether ACEs might influence prescription drug misuse and, in particular, prescription opioid misuse. 

-----

 tags: drug use, drug abuse, child abuse,

China’s crops at risk: Climate change boosts spread of crop pests and diseases

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937405

 

 News Release 9-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

 

Based on a unique, previously unpublished data set ranging from 1970 to 2016, an international team including the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) compared long-term statistical records about pest and disease occurrence in China with potential climatic driving factors – such as temperature, precipitation, humidity – as well as factors from farming practices, including for instance fertilizer application, irrigation, use of pesticides. They found that, since the 1970s, the occurrence of crop pests and diseases in China has increased by a factor of four. Climate change is responsible for likely about 20 percent of the observed increase, with great variations between different Chinese provinces.

-----

 

Chronic exposure to air pollution may increase risks for ICU admission or death among COVID-19 patients, study finds

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937426

 

 News Release 9-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

 

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who had been chronically exposed in their neighborhoods to higher particulate matter—such as smoke, soot, and dirt—had increased risks for admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and death compared to those without such exposure, Mount Sinai-led researchers reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine on December 8.

-----

Exposure to toxic metals may increase risk of clogged arteries

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936995

 

 News Release 9-Dec-2021
ATVB Journal Report
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American Heart Association

 

Environmental exposure to low-levels of the toxic metals arsenic, cadmium and titanium appears to increase the risk of plaque buildup in arteries in the neck, heart and legs, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association’s journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB).

Traces of metal may enter the body through contaminated soil that infiltrates food, through drinking water, air pollutants or tobacco smoke. There is strong evidence that toxic metals, such as arsenic and cadmium, are cardiovascular risk factors. Arsenic and cadmium are often found in tobacco and food, while arsenic is also found in water. Titanium exposure is mainly derived from dental and orthopedic implants, screws, pacemaker encasings, cosmetic products and some foods.

------

 

Environmentally sustainable diet linked to health benefits

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937398

 

 News Release 9-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Lund University

 

A large population study from Lund University in Sweden has shown that more sustainable dietary habits are linked to health benefits, such as a reduced risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The study is published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“Our results indicate that dietary guidelines that are beneficial for both planetary health and personal health do exist”, says Anna Stubbendorff, doctoral student at Lund University and first author of the study.

-----

 The EAT-Lancet diet has target values for daily intake of a selection of different food, and consists of a lot of whole grains, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and pulses (peas, beans and lentils), and significantly less meat, sugar and saturated fat compared with current consumption. 

-----


One in five future thyroid cancers linked to excess weight

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937370

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of New South Wales

 

Avoiding excess weight, especially obesity, should be a priority for thyroid cancer prevention, the first study to evaluate future thyroid cancer burden in Australia has found.

The world-first study published in the International Journal of Cancer and led by Dr Maarit Laaksonen from UNSW’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, found that one in five future thyroid cancers in Australia is attributable to current levels of overweight and obesity.

Dr Laaksonen, a senior lecturer in Data Science, says this is concerning as the prevalence of obesity in Australia has doubled during the last two decades, with 75 per cent of Australian men and 60 per cent of Australian women being overweight or obese.

“This finding translates to close to 10,000 thyroid cancers in the next 10 years,” Dr Laaksonen says. “Obesity explains 75 per cent of this burden in Australia.” 

-----


Wednesday, December 08, 2021

The World Inequality Report

 

PPP : Purchasing Power Parity,  a money conversion rate used to express the purchasing powers of different currencies in common units. This rate expresses the ratio between the quantity of monetary units required in different countries to purchase the same "basket" of goods and services.

USD:  U.S. dollars

 

https://wir2022.wid.world/executive-summary/

 

-----

This report presents the most up-to-date synthesis of international research efforts to track global inequalities. The data and analysis presented here are based on the work of more than 100 researchers over four years, located on all continents, contributing to the World Inequality Database (WID.world), maintained by the World Inequality Lab. 

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An average adult individual earns PPP €16,700 ( USD $23,380) per year in 2021, and the average adult owns €72,900 (USD $102,600). These averages mask wide disparities both between and within countries. The richest 10% of the global population currently takes 52% of global income, whereas the poorest half of the population earns 8% of it. On average, an individual from the top 10% of the global income distribution earns €87,200 (USD $122,100) per year, whereas an individual from the poorest half of the global income distribution makes €2,800 (USD $3,920) per year (Figure 1).

Global wealth inequalities are even more pronounced than income inequalities. The poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all, possessing just 2% of the total. In contrast, the richest 10% of the global population own 76% of all wealth. On average, the poorest half of the population owns PPP €2,900 per adult, i.e. USD4,100 and the top 10% own €550,900 (or USD771,300) on average (Figure 4)

----------

[Wealth inequalities will inevitably be greater than income disparities, because once someone has more money than another, it is easier for them to make even more.]

Income and wealth inequalities have been on the rise nearly everywhere since the 1980s, following a series of deregulation and liberalization programs which took different forms in different countries. The rise has not been uniform: certain countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality (including the US, Russia and India) while others (European countries and China) have experienced relatively smaller rises. These differences, which we discussed at length in the previous edition of the World Inequality Report, confirm that inequality is not inevitable, it is a political choice.

-----

 One way to understand these inequalities is to focus on the gap between the net wealth of governments and net wealth of the private sector. Over the past 40 years, countries have become significantly richer, but their governments have become significantly poorer. The share of wealth held by public actors is close to zero or negative in rich countries, meaning that the totality of wealth is in private hands (Figure 8). This trend has been magnified by the Covid crisis, during which governments borrowed the equivalent of 10-20% of GDP, essentially from the private sector. The currently low wealth of governments has important implications for state capacities to tackle inequality in the future, as well as the key challenges of the 21st century such as climate change.

-----

The rise in private wealth has also been unequal within countries and at the world level. Global multimillionaires have captured a disproportionate share of global wealth growth over the past several decades: the top 1% took 38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, whereas the bottom 50% captured just 2% of it. This inequality stems from serious inequality in growth rates between the top and the bottom segments of the wealth distribution. The wealth of richest individuals on earth has grown at 6 to 9% per year since 1995, whereas average wealth has grown at 3.2% per year (Figure 9). Since 1995, the share of global wealth possessed by billionaires has risen from 1% to over 3%. This increase was exacerbated during the COVID pandemic. In fact, 2020 marked the steepest increase in global billionaires’ share of wealth on record

-----

 




Want to be a criminal in America? Stealing billions is your best bet to go scot-free

 

 Or being a really big opioid dealer.

 Please read the whole article.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/07/want-to-be-a-criminal-in-america-stealing-billions-is-your-best-bet-to-go-scot-free


Judd Legum

Tue 7 Dec 2021 09.31 EST


In the United States, only certain types of theft are newsworthy.

For example, on 14 June 2021, a reporter for KGO-TV in San Francisco tweeted a cellphone video of a man in Walgreens filling a garbage bag with stolen items and riding his bicycle out of the store. According to San Francisco’s crime database, the value of the merchandise stolen in the incident was between $200 and $950.

According to an analysis by Fair, a media watchdog, this single incident generated 309 stories between 14 June and 12 July. A search by Popular Information reveals that, since 12 July, there have been dozens of additional stories mentioning the incident. The theft has been covered in a slew of major publications including the New York Times, USA Today and CNN.

In most coverage, the video is presented as proof that there are no consequences for shoplifting in San Francisco. But the man in the video, Jean Lugo-Romero, was arrested about a week later and faces 15 charges, including “grand theft, second-degree burglary and shoplifting”. He was recently transferred to county jail where he is being held without bond.

Just a few months earlier, in November 2020, Walgreens paid a $4.5m settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging that it stole wages from thousands of its employees in California between 2010 and 2017. The lawsuit alleged that Walgreens “rounded down employees’ hours on their timecards, required employees to pass through security checks before and after their shift without compensating them for time worked, and failed to pay premium wages to employees who were denied legally required meal breaks”.

Walgreens’ settlement includes attorney’s fees and other penalties, but $2,830,000 went to Walgreens employees to compensate them for the wages that the company had stolen. And, because it is a settlement, that amount represents a small fraction of the total liability. According to the order approving the settlement, it represents “approximately 22% of the potential damages”.

So this is a story of a corporation that stole millions of dollars from its own employees. How much news coverage did it generate? There was a single 221-word story in Bloomberg Law, an industry publication. And that’s it. There has been no coverage in the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, or the dozens of other publications that covered the story of a man stealing a few hundred dollars of merchandise.

While Lugo-Romero has been behind bars since June on allegations that he stole several thousand dollars in a series of shoplifting incidents, no one at Walgreens has had to take personal responsibility for stealing millions from its employees. Stefano Pessina, who served as Walgreens’ CEO during the majority of the alleged wage theft, saw his compensation rise from $7,133,155 in 2015 to $17,483,187 in 2020. In 2021, Pessina transitioned from CEO to executive chairman. Pessina’s 2021 compensation is not yet available, but the previous executive chairman made $8,797,713 last year. Needless to say, neither Pessina nor any Walgreens employee has had to spend any time in jail as a result of millions in wage theft.

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The only way in which Walgreens is an aberration, unfortunately, is that it had to pay some of its employees back. Numerous companies steal billions in wages from workers in the United States each year. It is a crime that is seldom prosecuted – or covered in the media.

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According to a report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), “75.75m workers in the United States earning less than $13 per hour ... were subject to forced arbitration in 2019”. Millions of these workers are victims of wage theft. But the “employer-imposed collective and class-action waiver” prohibits them from joining forces to take on employers who cheat. Instead, disputes are pushed into private arbitration, a forum that is notoriously friendly for corporations.

This means the only way to recover stolen wages would be for each employee to individually file a complaint. This is something most employees will never have the time or knowledge to do. With few exceptions, they cannot afford legal representation. And even if everyone were able to figure out how to challenge their employer themselves, “public agencies, operating at their current capacity, could recover less than 4%” of wages stolen from employees locked out of class action lawsuits.

A piece of federal legislation, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, would prohibit companies from forcing employees to forfeit access to the legal system. This would allow victims of wage theft to join forces and seek recovery in court. And, perhaps, it could pressure more employers to follow the law in the first place.


Kellogg to replace 1,400 strikers as deal is rejected

 

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/kellogg-strike-workers-pay

 

Tue 7 Dec 2021 21.59 EST

 

Kellogg has said it is permanently replacing 1,400 workers who have been on strike since October, a decision that comes as the majority of its cereal plant workforce rejected a deal that would have provided 3% raises.

The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said an overwhelming majority of workers had voted down the five-year offer.

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The rejected offer would have provided cost of living adjustments in the later years of the deal and preserved the workers’ current healthcare benefits. But workers say they deserve significant raises because they routinely work more than 80 hours a week, and they kept the plants running throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

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Workers say they are also protesting planned job cuts and offshoring, and a proposed two-tier system that gives newer workers at the plants less pay and fewer benefits.

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“This is after just one year ago, we were hailed as heroes, as we worked through the pandemic, seven days a week, 16 hours a day. Now apparently, we are no longer heroes,” said Bidelman. “We don’t have weekends, really. We just work seven days a week, sometimes 100 to 130 days in a row. For 28 days, the machines run, then rest three days for cleaning. They don’t even treat us as well as they do their machinery.”

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https://www1.salary.com/Steve-Cahillane-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-kellogg-co.html

 

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at KELLOGG CO, Steve Cahillane made $11,663,852 in total compensation. Of this total $1,318,750 was received as a salary, $3,328,000 was received as a bonus, $1,832,100 was received in stock options, $4,800,650 was awarded as stock and $384,352 came from other types of compensation. This information is according to proxy statements filed for the 2020 fiscal year.  


 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937291

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Microplastics found to be harmful to human cells, new study shows
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of York

 

High levels of ingested microplastics in the human body have the potential to have harmful effects, a new study reveals.

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“What we have found is that in toxicology tests, we are seeing reactions including cell death and allergic reactions as potential effects of ingesting or inhaling high levels of microplastics.”

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“Our analysis of the data showed that cell viability depends on the shape of the microplastics. Irregularly shaped microplastics, which are the majority found in the environment, are more hazardous than spherical.

 

 “So far, most toxicology studies have been testing spherical microplastics. There needs to be a shift to testing irregularly shaped ones.”

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Global research shows that digital contact does not enhance wellbeing

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937285

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Kent

 

 New research led by the University of Kent with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has found that during periods of limited face-to-face contact, such as that experienced by most people during Covid-19 lockdowns, digital contact is particularly harmful for young people’s wellbeing.

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The study, published by New Media and Society, suggests that video or text-based messaging apps in particular can have a negative effect on the mental wellbeing of young people over 16. For empathetic people, who readily recognise and align with others’ emotions, wellbeing was worst when communicating via video chat.

 

Despite its legal and health threats, face-to-face contact was still positively associated with wellbeing compared to digital contact. Perceived household vulnerability to Covid-19 reduced the positive effect of face-to-face communication on wellbeing, but surprisingly, people’s own vulnerability did not. Findings show that people strived to remain socially connected while maintaining a physical distance, despite the tangible costs to their wellbeing.

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Maternal health risks linked to childbirth persist throughout postpartum year

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936921


 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Study suggests racial and ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity rates up to a year after delivery, higher risk for those with anxiety and depression.
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan


Efforts to reduce maternal morbidity have primarily centered around the risk of life-threatening events during and shortly after pregnancy.

But these risks may continue well into the late postpartum period as well – especially for individuals who are Black or have depression or anxiety – new research suggests.

Researchers analyzed data from a national sample of nearly 101,000 commercially insured people up to a year after giving birth. Nearly 1 in 333 experienced “near miss” events or illnesses that could have resulted in death, according to the findings in JAMA Network Open.

“In the U.S. we still view postpartum health as confined to issues occurring in the first few weeks after birth,” said lead author Lindsay Admon, M.D., M.Sc., an obstetrician-gynecologist and researcher at University of Michigan Health Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital. “But alarming data is emerging showing increasing rates of maternal mortality later in the first year postpartum.”

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The paradox of big data spoils vaccination surveys

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937034

 

 News Release 8-ec-2021
Researchers analyze where COVID vaccination surveys went wrong
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Harvard University


When Delphi-Facebook and the U.S. Census Bureau provided near-real time estimates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake last spring, their weekly surveys drew on responses from as many as 250,000 people.

The large data sets provided statistically tiny margins of error, a key measure of a poll’s accuracy, and raised confidence that the numbers were correct. But when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later provided figures of actual reported vaccination rates, the two polls were off — by a lot. By the end of May, the Delphi-Facebook study overestimated vaccine uptake by 17 percentage points — 70 percent versus 53 percent, according to the CDC — and the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey did the same by 14 percentage points.

A comparative analysis by statisticians and political scientists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford universities concludes that the surveys fell victim to the “Big Data Paradox,” the mathematical tendency of big data sets to minimize one type of error -- that due to small sample size – but to magnify another that tends to get lesser attention: errors due to systematic biases that make the surveyed sample a poor representation of the larger population.

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“This is the Big Data Paradox: the larger the data size, the surer we fool ourselves when we fail to account for bias in data collection,” the paper’s authors wrote in their analysis, published Dec. 8 in the journal Nature.

Those misleading results can be particularly harmful when actions are taken based on them, the authors point out. The governor of a state where a survey shows that 70 percent are vaccinated against COVID, for example, might relax public health measures. If actual vaccination rates are closer to 55 percent, instead of fostering a return to normal life, the step could result in a spike in cases and a rise in COVID deaths.

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Rare gene mutation in some Black Americans may allow earlier screening of heart failure

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937330

 

  News Release 8-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

 

Researchers have linked a rare genetic mutation found mostly in Black Americans and other people of African descent to an earlier onset of heart failure and a higher risk of hospitalization. The findings suggest that earlier screening for the mutation could lead to faster treatment and improved outcomes for heart failure in this vulnerable group, the researchers said. The results of the study, which was largely supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, appear in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure.

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Black children overlooked in scar tissue disorder tests, study says

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937290

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of Edinburgh

 An immune disease that can damage vital organs – and is supposedly rare in young people – is more common than previously thought among Black children, a study suggests.

Fresh insights into the disorder – which causes scar tissue to form on skin and internal organs – suggest that Black children are more likely to be affected than young people of other ethnicities.

Findings from the study could lead to improved and earlier diagnosis of the disease, the team says.

The condition – called systemic sclerosis – causes the body’s immune system to attack connective tissues under the skin and around internal organs including the heart, lungs and kidneys.

The presumed rarity of the disease in children – which can be fatal when internal organs are affected – may be because most previous studies have mainly involved White patients, the team says.

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Air pollution reduces the benefits of physical activity on the brain

 

I cringe when I see people jogging beside highways.

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/936856

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Does air pollution reduce the benefits of physical activity on the brain?
Peer-Reviewed Publication
American Academy of Neurology

 

A new study shows that people who do vigorous physical activities, like jogging or playing competitive sports, in areas with higher air pollution may show less benefit from that exercise when it comes to certain markers of brain disease. The markers examined in the study included white matter hyperintensities, which indicate injury to the brain’s white matter, and gray matter volume. Larger gray matter volumes and smaller white matter hyperintensity volumes are markers of overall better brain health.

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Vigorous exercise may increase exposure to air pollution and prior studies have shown adverse effects of air pollution on the brain,” said study author Melissa Furlong, PhD, of the University of Arizona in Tucson. “We did show that physical activity is associated with improved markers of brain health in areas with lower air pollution. However, some beneficial effects essentially disappeared for vigorous physical activity in areas with the highest levels of air pollution. That’s not to say people should avoid exercise. Overall, the effect of air pollution on brain health was modest—roughly equivalent to half the effect of one year of aging, while the effects of vigorous activity on brain health were much larger—approximately equivalent to being three years younger.”

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Sunshine may shield children, young adults from MS

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937060

 

 News Release 8-Dec-2021
Exposure to UV rays boost vitamin D, may protect against auto-immune disease
Peer-Reviewed Publication
University of California - San Francisco

 

Living in sunny locations and spending time outdoors may raise the risk for skin cancer, but a new study led by UC San Francisco and the Australian National University shows that in children and young adults, sun exposure may protect against multiple sclerosis. The study follows previous work by other researchers that has demonstrated an association between increased ultraviolet exposure in childhood and lower odds of adult MS.

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 In questionnaires filled in by participants with MS or their parents, 19 percent stated that they spent less than 30 minutes daily outdoors during the previous summer, compared to 6 percent of those who did not have MS.  When the researchers adjusted for MS risks, like smoking and female sex, they found that the participants who spent an average of 30 minutes to one hour outdoors daily had a 52 percent lower chance of MS, compared to those who spent an average of less than 30 minutes outdoors daily.

“Sun exposure is known to boost vitamin D levels,” said co-senior author Emmanuelle Waubant, MD, PhD, professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology and of the Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “It also stimulates immune cells in the skin that have a protective role in diseases such as MS. Vitamin D may also change the biological function of the immune cells and, as such, play a role in protecting against autoimmune diseases.”

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Fortunately, the use of sunscreen does not appear to lessen the therapeutic effects of sunlight in warding off MS, noted Waubant, who is also director of the UCSF Regional Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. Clinical trials are needed to determine if “increasing sun exposure or vitamin D supplementation can prevent the development of MS or alter disease course post-diagnosis,” she said. Meanwhile, “advising regular time in the sun of at least 30 minutes daily especially during summer, using sun protection as needed, especially for first degree relatives of MS patients, may be a worthwhile intervention to reduce the incidence of MS.”

Limited sun exposure and/or low levels of vitamin D have been associated with other conditions. These include Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, as well as schizophrenia and other auto-immune diseases like Type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease and lupus. 

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‘We’re losing IQ points’: the lead poisoning crisis unfolding among US children

 

I suggest reading the whole article.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/08/lead-poisoning-crisis-us-children

 

Erin McCormick in Rhode Island and Eric Lutz
Wed 8 Dec 2021 05.00 ESTTurokk Dow is one of about 87,000 young children who are diagnosed with lead poisoning in the US each year, more than three decades after the neurotoxin was banned as an ingredient in paint, gasoline and water pipes. Today, lead lingers in houses and apartments, yards and water lines, and wherever states and communities ramp up testing, it becomes clear that the nation’s lead problem is worse than we realized, experts say.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics this fall suggested that more than half of all US children have detectable levels of lead in their blood – and that elevated blood lead levels were closely associated with race, poverty and living in older housing. Black children are particularly at risk.

“Most American children are exposed to lead, a substance that is not safe at any level,” said co-author Dr Harvey Kaufman, a senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics, which led the study. According to the CDC, “[e]ven low levels of lead in blood have been shown to negatively affect a child’s intelligence, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement.”

“This is an entire United States issue,” Kaufman said. “It really is everywhere.”

The nation’s programs to detect lead before it poisons children and to identify those who have been exposed are astoundingly slipshod.

“We literally are using the blood of our children as detectors of environmental contamination,” said Dr Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician who helped to expose the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

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 “As a society, we’re losing IQ points due to lead exposure,” said Tom Neltner of the Environmental Defense Fund. “In an individual child, you are not going to see it. But statistically we see the child is more likely to have behavior problems, to have learning problems, to have lower income. Other studies indicate that they’re more likely to be arrested, more likely to commit violent behavior – all the things we really don’t want in the next generation.”

Children all across the nation are at risk. Lead water pipes are still found in millions of homes in all 50 states, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council found.

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A 2017 Pew Charitable Trust study found that taking measures to prevent lead exposure for children could provide huge economic benefits to society – up to $84bn a year in increased earnings and savings.

And yet, poorer communities may lack the funding necessary to take on such prevention and remediation programs. While President Biden has made environmental justice a pillar of his administration, the final version of the infrastructure bill contains $15bn for removal of lead water pipes – much less than the $45bn originally proposed.

[Not President Biden's fault.]

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