http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/bl-lbh092915.php
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
Link between height and cancer
Large-scale Swedish study discovers link between height and cancer
BioScientifica Limited
Cancer risk has been found to increase with height in both Swedish men and women, according to research presented today at the 54th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting. This long-term study is the largest carried out on the association between height and cancer in both genders.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet and University of Stockholm examined 5.5 million men and women in Sweden, born between 1938 and 1991 and with adult heights ranging between 100 cm and 225 cm. They followed the group of individuals from 1958 or from the age of 20 until the end of 2011, and found that for every 10 cm (4 inches) of height, the risk of developing cancer increased by 18% in women and 11% in men. Additionally, taller women had a 20% greater risk of developing breast cancer, whilst the risk of developing melanoma increased by approximately 30% per 10 cm of height in both men and women.
Previous studies have also shown the same association between height and cancer. That is to say, taller individuals have a higher risk of developing different types of cancer, including breast cancer and melanoma. However, this association has never been studied in men and women on such a large scale before. "To our knowledge, this is the largest study performed on linkage between height and cancer including both women and men," said Dr Emelie Benyi, a PhD student at Karolinska Institutet who led the study.
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Sunday, October 04, 2015
New formula for life-satisfaction
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/uob-nff100115.php
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
New formula for life-satisfaction
University of Bonn: Lasting increases in income improve well-being -- extra work makes people more dissatisfied
University of Bonn
In a new study, mathematical economist Prof. Dr. Christian Bayer, from the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics at the University of Bonn, has demonstrated a connection between long-term income increases and personal satisfaction. Overtime also affects personal levels of happiness - but in a negative way. His findings will be presented in the latest issue of the "American Economic Journal".
•••••
Their findings were clear: more money does make people happier - but only if there is a long-term increase in income. A temporary increase does not have any noticeable effect on an employee's level of happiness, even if it is a large increase. By contrast, a permanent increase in income results in a significant rise in well-being, even if the raise is small.
•••••
The researchers identified a second important way in which professional life influences personal happiness: the number of hours that employees work. "Those who consistently have to work more become less happy," says Prof. Bayer, an instructor and researcher at the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics at the University of Bonn. "This finding contradicts many other studies that conclude people are more satisfied when they have any job than none at all." The new study suggests that the unemployed suffer from the lack of income not the lack of employment per se.
•••••
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
New formula for life-satisfaction
University of Bonn: Lasting increases in income improve well-being -- extra work makes people more dissatisfied
University of Bonn
In a new study, mathematical economist Prof. Dr. Christian Bayer, from the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics at the University of Bonn, has demonstrated a connection between long-term income increases and personal satisfaction. Overtime also affects personal levels of happiness - but in a negative way. His findings will be presented in the latest issue of the "American Economic Journal".
•••••
Their findings were clear: more money does make people happier - but only if there is a long-term increase in income. A temporary increase does not have any noticeable effect on an employee's level of happiness, even if it is a large increase. By contrast, a permanent increase in income results in a significant rise in well-being, even if the raise is small.
•••••
The researchers identified a second important way in which professional life influences personal happiness: the number of hours that employees work. "Those who consistently have to work more become less happy," says Prof. Bayer, an instructor and researcher at the Institute for Macroeconomics and Econometrics at the University of Bonn. "This finding contradicts many other studies that conclude people are more satisfied when they have any job than none at all." The new study suggests that the unemployed suffer from the lack of income not the lack of employment per se.
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New study removes cancer concern for multiple sclerosis drug
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/qmuo-nsr100115.php
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
New study removes cancer doubt for multiple sclerosis drug
Queen Mary, University of London
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are calling on the medical community to reconsider developing a known drug to treat people with relapsing Multiple sclerosis (MS) after new evidence shows it does not increase the risk of cancer as previously thought.
The drug called Cladribine is already licensed and in use for people with leukemia, a blood disease. Previous studies, ran with patients at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, showed Cladribine to be highly effective in treating relapsing MS. One trial showed the drug reduced relapses by over 50 per cent, and nearly 50 percent of people showed no signs of disease activity at all over two years. However, Cladribine was refused market authorisation on the suspicion it may cause cancer based on the interpretation of previous data.
A new study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation* compared the incidence of cancer where patients had been treated with Cladribine to other studies where they had been treated with other similar drugs that are currently licensed for MS.
The team from the Blizard Institute at QMUL compared data from the 11 pivotal trials that were used to support the licensing of seven different drugs to examine the cancer risk. They found there was no evidence for an increased risk of cancer in people with MS taking Cladribine.
Cladribine appears to be more effective, safer, easier to use and could potentially be cheaper than other current drugs used to treat MS.
•••••
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
New study removes cancer doubt for multiple sclerosis drug
Queen Mary, University of London
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are calling on the medical community to reconsider developing a known drug to treat people with relapsing Multiple sclerosis (MS) after new evidence shows it does not increase the risk of cancer as previously thought.
The drug called Cladribine is already licensed and in use for people with leukemia, a blood disease. Previous studies, ran with patients at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, showed Cladribine to be highly effective in treating relapsing MS. One trial showed the drug reduced relapses by over 50 per cent, and nearly 50 percent of people showed no signs of disease activity at all over two years. However, Cladribine was refused market authorisation on the suspicion it may cause cancer based on the interpretation of previous data.
A new study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation* compared the incidence of cancer where patients had been treated with Cladribine to other studies where they had been treated with other similar drugs that are currently licensed for MS.
The team from the Blizard Institute at QMUL compared data from the 11 pivotal trials that were used to support the licensing of seven different drugs to examine the cancer risk. They found there was no evidence for an increased risk of cancer in people with MS taking Cladribine.
Cladribine appears to be more effective, safer, easier to use and could potentially be cheaper than other current drugs used to treat MS.
•••••
Global Warming denialists doubling down
I knew it would happen. Since the research that found that you can persuade people to an opinion by exposing them to a lot of statements supporting that opinion, there has been an avalanche of global warming denialist in comments on popular web sites. It would be interesting to know how many are from the same person under different names, being paid by fossil fuel companies.
I had already seen an increase in denialist comments as the effects of global warming are becoming more apparent, with business leaders (even some in the fossil fuel industry) saying it is a problem that needs to be dealt with, and more people are understanding that it is a problem.
tags: influence
The media love men... bad news for women
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/mu-tml100115.php
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
The media love men... bad news for women
Why men continue to dominate media coverage
McGill University
Five out of every six names that appear in the media today are those of men, a McGill-led research team has discovered. Indeed, the more mentions a person receives in the media, the higher the chances are that this person is a man. That's because 82 per cent of the names mentioned in the media are men's. Go ahead and try it!
The researchers combed through data from more than 2,000 U.S. newspapers, magazines, and online news sources covering the period from 1983-2009 for the first time to arrive at this conclusion. Despite significant social and economic advances in many fields, there remains a persistent and telling under representation of women in media coverage, something that they refer to as a 'paper ceiling'.
"The persistent gap in media coverage is due to a combination of the media's preoccupation with leaders at the expense of everyone else and the well-known 'glass ceiling' that continues to block off working women's access to leadership positions," said Eran Shor, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at McGill University and the lead author of the study, which was just published in the prestigious American Sociological Review.
"The media focuses nearly exclusively on individuals at the top of occupational and social hierarchies, who are mostly men: CEOs, politicians, movie directors, and the like," Shor said. "And because these famous individuals account for most of those named in the news, there continues to be a big gap between the mentions of men and women in the overall media coverage."
Shor and his co-authors were surprised to discover that women's presence was no greater in news produced by liberal American media organizations than in that produced by conservative ones. Nor did they find that women's presence in the media increased in organizations where women were editors-in-chief or managing editors or where there were more women on the editorial boards.
In effect, what Shor and his co-authors document is a two-tier system when it comes to media mentions, with near parity in terms of male and female mentions in media for 'obscure individuals', people who make the news only once or twice, and a huge gulf between the mentions of men and women, when it comes to the names of the famous individuals which tend to dominate the news.
•••••
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
The media love men... bad news for women
Why men continue to dominate media coverage
McGill University
Five out of every six names that appear in the media today are those of men, a McGill-led research team has discovered. Indeed, the more mentions a person receives in the media, the higher the chances are that this person is a man. That's because 82 per cent of the names mentioned in the media are men's. Go ahead and try it!
The researchers combed through data from more than 2,000 U.S. newspapers, magazines, and online news sources covering the period from 1983-2009 for the first time to arrive at this conclusion. Despite significant social and economic advances in many fields, there remains a persistent and telling under representation of women in media coverage, something that they refer to as a 'paper ceiling'.
"The persistent gap in media coverage is due to a combination of the media's preoccupation with leaders at the expense of everyone else and the well-known 'glass ceiling' that continues to block off working women's access to leadership positions," said Eran Shor, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at McGill University and the lead author of the study, which was just published in the prestigious American Sociological Review.
"The media focuses nearly exclusively on individuals at the top of occupational and social hierarchies, who are mostly men: CEOs, politicians, movie directors, and the like," Shor said. "And because these famous individuals account for most of those named in the news, there continues to be a big gap between the mentions of men and women in the overall media coverage."
Shor and his co-authors were surprised to discover that women's presence was no greater in news produced by liberal American media organizations than in that produced by conservative ones. Nor did they find that women's presence in the media increased in organizations where women were editors-in-chief or managing editors or where there were more women on the editorial boards.
In effect, what Shor and his co-authors document is a two-tier system when it comes to media mentions, with near parity in terms of male and female mentions in media for 'obscure individuals', people who make the news only once or twice, and a huge gulf between the mentions of men and women, when it comes to the names of the famous individuals which tend to dominate the news.
•••••
The State of Research on the Effects of Physical Punishment
https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj27/the-state-of-research-on-effects-of-physical-punishment-27-pages114-127.html
Ministry of Social Development
Social Policy Journal Of New Zealand
Issue 27 March 2006
Abstract
Long considered an effective, and even necessary, means of socialising children, physical punishment has been revealed to be a predictor of a wide range of negative developmental outcomes. The extent of agreement in the research literature on this issue is unusual in the social sciences. Physical punishment is associated with increased child aggression, antisocial behaviour, lower intellectual achievement, poorer quality of parent–child relationships, mental health problems (such as depression), and diminished moral internalisation. The evidence about whether physical punishment results in short-term compliance is mixed, with some studies showing effectiveness in achieving this and others not. Short-term compliance can, however, be achieved as effectively without using physical punishment. Physical punishment has negative effects on child outcomes, especially if it is harsh, regardless of culture. When punishment use is normative in a culture, the effects are slightly less negative. Research findings support ongoing efforts to help parents use more positive methods of parenting, and the removal of a defence in law for the use of physical punishment against children.
•••••
Ministry of Social Development
Social Policy Journal Of New Zealand
Issue 27 March 2006
Abstract
Long considered an effective, and even necessary, means of socialising children, physical punishment has been revealed to be a predictor of a wide range of negative developmental outcomes. The extent of agreement in the research literature on this issue is unusual in the social sciences. Physical punishment is associated with increased child aggression, antisocial behaviour, lower intellectual achievement, poorer quality of parent–child relationships, mental health problems (such as depression), and diminished moral internalisation. The evidence about whether physical punishment results in short-term compliance is mixed, with some studies showing effectiveness in achieving this and others not. Short-term compliance can, however, be achieved as effectively without using physical punishment. Physical punishment has negative effects on child outcomes, especially if it is harsh, regardless of culture. When punishment use is normative in a culture, the effects are slightly less negative. Research findings support ongoing efforts to help parents use more positive methods of parenting, and the removal of a defence in law for the use of physical punishment against children.
•••••
Spanking and crime rates
A saw a study some years ago, before the internet, which found that the more frequent the rates of corporal punishment in a country, and in a U.S. state, the higher the rate of violence was in that region.http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/07/spanking-and-crime-rates
Jul 15th 2013
CERTAIN kinds of property crimes are up sharply in Germany, as I explain in this week’s print issue. But in many ways the more interesting trend is the ongoing decline in violent crime in Germany, Europe and much of the developed world. Criminologists have for years been puzzled by this phenomenon, with theories ranging from decreasing numbers of lead poisoning to better policing. But one of the most intriguing theories, and one with vast implications for America in particular, comes from Christian Pfeiffer, the director of the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony in Hanover.
Mr Pfeiffer has found a correlation between declining rates of children being spanked (or otherwise punished physically) and subsequent decreases in violent crime. In Germany, for example, it used to be common until well into the last century to discipline kids in this way. Not doing so almost amounted to being negligent. But then parents and teachers gradually stopped beating children.
When Mr Pfeiffer’s team polled adult Germans in 1992, 26% answered that they had been raised without any physical punishment at all. In the latest poll, soon to be released, that ratio has gone up to two thirds.
People who as children experienced the “powerlessness” of frequent spankings report a disproportionately greater interest later in life to own guns, Mr Pfeiffer says. They also demand more draconian prison sentences, including the death penalty, for convicted criminals. And they seem more prone to violence themselves. In a study of 45,000 ninth-graders Mr Pfeiffer conducted in 2007-08, those kids who had been beaten by their parents were five times as likely to commit repeated crimes or to use cannabis, and missed school four times more frequently for ten days a year or more.
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By contrast, spanking is still common in large parts of America, especially in the Evangelical milieus of Southern states. This is also where crime remains relatively high, gun ownership common, and incarceration excessive. (America’s incarceration rate is between eight to ten times that of northern European countries.)
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In America in 2006-07, according to Human Rights Watch, more than 200,000 children were beaten by their teachers with a stick as a punishment. They overwhelmingly lived in the southern states and in Evangelical families. Two studies in 2010 showed that only 15% of American children are raised by their parents without any physical violence at all. To Mr Pfeiffer, this is one (of admittedly several and complex) factors, that explain why Americans own more guns, commit more crime and punish more severely than western Europeans. The conclusion, suggests Mr Pfeiffer, is that everybody, including Americans, should try raising kids with what he calls “Liebe statt Hiebe” (love instead of beatings).
tags: child abuse, spanking
French floods: 19 feared dead after storms sweep French Riviera
Global warming is causing an increased frequency and severity of flood because it has caused an increase of water in the air.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/04/heavy-flooding-in-french-riviera-leaves-more-than-a-dozen-people-dead?CMP=share_btn_fb
Jessica Elgot and agencies
Oct. 4, 2015
Violent storms and flooding send water cascading through Antibes, Cannes and Nice, inundating a retirement home and killing three people inside
Nineteen people are feared dead after violent storms and severe flooding swept the French Riviera, including three people who drowned in a retirement home after a river broke its banks.
Heavy flooding along the Côte d’Azur on Saturday saw the river Brague burst its banks close to the city of Antibes, flooding a home for elderly people.
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More than 17cm (6.7in) of rain fell on the Cannes region in two hours, radio France Bleu Azur reported.
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Kovandzich said the walk home was daunting because the flooding had removed manhole covers. “You couldn’t immediately see where the holes might be because of the flowing water.”
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French weather forecasters said the worst storms had now passed over the French mainland and were heading for the Italian coast.
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Judging others
Juries & judges who consider themselves Christian have no problem issuing the death penalty. It is warped to consider this less problematical than gay marriage.
Late bedtimes could lead to weight gain
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/uoc--lbc100115.php
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
Late bedtimes could lead to weight gain
Teen night owls may want to hit the hay earlier, study suggests
University of California - Berkeley
Teenagers and adults who go to bed late on weeknights are more likely to gain weight than their peers who hit the hay earlier, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, that has found a correlation between sleep and body mass index.
Berkeley researchers analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative cohort of more than 3,300 youths and adults, and found that for every hour of sleep they lost, they gained 2.1 points on the BMI index. This gain occurred roughly over a five-year period.
Moreover, exercise, screen time, and the number of hours they slept did not mitigate this BMI increase, according to the study published in the October issue of the journal, Sleep.
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Surveys show that many teenagers do not get the recommended nine hours sleep a night, and report having trouble staying awake at school. The human circadian rhythm, which regulates physiological and metabolic functions, typically shifts to a later sleep cycle at the onset of puberty.
The results of the study thus suggest that adolescents who go to bed earlier will "set their weight on a healthier course as they emerge into adulthood," Asarnow said.
Public Release: 1-Oct-2015
Late bedtimes could lead to weight gain
Teen night owls may want to hit the hay earlier, study suggests
University of California - Berkeley
Teenagers and adults who go to bed late on weeknights are more likely to gain weight than their peers who hit the hay earlier, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, that has found a correlation between sleep and body mass index.
Berkeley researchers analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative cohort of more than 3,300 youths and adults, and found that for every hour of sleep they lost, they gained 2.1 points on the BMI index. This gain occurred roughly over a five-year period.
Moreover, exercise, screen time, and the number of hours they slept did not mitigate this BMI increase, according to the study published in the October issue of the journal, Sleep.
•••••
Surveys show that many teenagers do not get the recommended nine hours sleep a night, and report having trouble staying awake at school. The human circadian rhythm, which regulates physiological and metabolic functions, typically shifts to a later sleep cycle at the onset of puberty.
The results of the study thus suggest that adolescents who go to bed earlier will "set their weight on a healthier course as they emerge into adulthood," Asarnow said.
Four Dead, Hundreds In Need of Rescue, Several Interstates Closed in Catastrophic South Carolina Flooding
Expect more bad news before it's over. Since I first posted it, there has been another death reported.http://www.weather.com/safety/floods/news/south-carolina-flooding-impacts-0
Being psychic (joke), I can predict that the Republicans in Congress from the affected areas who voted against federal aid for the northern states that were devastated by Sandy, will now call for federal aid for their own areas.
Global warming has caused an increase in the amount of water in the atmosphere, which is resulting in increased frequency and amounts of extreme rainfall events.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/map-republicans-object-disaster-relief-unless-sandy-hit-their-state
In 22 states, all Republican representatives voted against Sandy aid, including Georgia, South Carolina, & North Carolina.
By Sean Breslin
Published Oct 4 2015
Hundreds of people are in need of rescue, several interstates are closed and four people are dead in some of the worst flooding South Carolina has ever seen, officials said Sunday.
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Officials are worried life-threatening impacts will only worsen as the 1-in-1,000-year rain event continues Sunday. Authorities said hundreds of people were in need of rescue Sunday morning as the floodwaters kept rising all over the Palmetto State.
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Four people have been killed by the flash floods in South Carolina, and officials worry that number will rise. Swift-water rescue teams have been dispatched all over the state to help pluck stranded residents out of flooding. Authorities have asked citizens to only call 911 if there's a life-threatening emergency.
•••••
Multiple dam breaches were reported Sunday morning in Columbia, according to the city's fire department. On its Twitter page, the department said Arcadia Lake, Forest Lake and Lake Dogwood have been affected by the breaches, and if residents are in a dry place, they should remain there.
Emergency vehicles were having trouble navigating the flooded roadways, and in many instances, they were only able to reach victims by boat. In Berkeley County, the U.S. Coast Guard was assisting in water rescues, according to WCSC-TV, as more than one family needed to be removed from their homes. Authorities also requested helicopters to aid in rescues because the number of people needing help outnumbered the vehicles that could reach them.
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Charleston has received more than 14 inches of rainfall since the historic event began Friday. One area northeast of Charleston has reported more than two feet of rain.
“The City of Georgetown is predominantly under water,” Georgetown Fire Chief Joey Tanner said in a news release.
Charleston International Airport reported 11.5 inches of rain fell Saturday, the wettest single day on record for that location. In downtown Charleston, 14.25 inches of rain have fallen, breaking the previous record for the wettest October on record for the city, set in 1959 (11.74 inches).
•••••
In Dorchester County, emergency managers reported at least 100 people had to be rescued at about 3 a.m. EDT Sunday morning from one area. Dorchester Emergency Manager Mario Formisano told The Weather Channel hundreds more likely will need to be rescued, and water rescues could top 1,000 people in the county before the flooding ends.
More than 29,000 customers were without power Sunday afternoon due to the flooding, according to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD).
The seawall at Edisto Beach has been breached, resulting in heavy flooding, SCEMD reported Saturday evening, and a state of emergency has been declared for the town.
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Around midday Sunday, flooding was also reported in the Myrtle Beach area. According to local reports, vehicles were getting stranded on flood-covered, impassable roads, and some neighborhood roads were also flooded.
Governor Nikki Haley declared a state of emergency Thursday evening in advance of any potential impacts from flooding. President Barack Obama also declared a state of emergency and ordered federal aid to help the recovery in South Carolina.
•••••
Charleston store owner Lauren Tuorto told WTVR.com she closed her consignment shop until Tuesday because of the flooding.
“It is impossible to navigate the peninsula right now without a kayak or a monster truck,” she said. “Having weathered plenty of hurricanes in the Out Islands of the Bahamas where my family lives and living in Charleston for 10 years, I have never seen rainfall like this."
A Spartanburg car dealership saw damage to dozens of vehicles after Thursday morning's flooding, reports KXAN-TV. Floodwaters lifted the vehicles and left them in multiple piles, washing two of them underneath a bridge. They were found upside down on the other side of a road. Darrin Shelton, general manager of the dealership, estimates water damage between 50 to 60 of the vehicles, which have to be removed from the lot.
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3141
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Using about a century of precipitation records, NOAA has constructed a Precipitation Frequency Data Server, which estimates how often we might expect to see extreme rainfall events recur. According to NOAA's Precipitation Frequency Data Server, these could be 1-in-1000 year rains for some locations. (Hydrologists would refer to a 1-in-1000-year rain as having a typical "recurrence interval" of 1000 years. The idea is that such events are not always separated by 1000 years; the same amount of rain could conceivably occur the very next year, or might not occur until thousands of years later.) The three-day 1-in-1000 year rainfall amounts for Charleston and Columbia are 17.1" and 14.2", respectively. The 24-hour 1-in-1000 year rainfall amounts for Charleston and Columbia are 14.8" and 12.5", respectively.
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Alabama Closes Driver’s License Offices After Implementing Voter ID Law
So outrageous that enough people questioned it to cause Snopes to investigate it, and verify it.http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/alabama_sends_message_we_are_t.html
http://m.snopes.com/2015/10/01/alabama-drivers-license/
By John Archibald
The Huntsville Times
Sept. 30, 2015
•••••
Because Alabama just took a giant step backward.
Take a look at the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. That's Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes, Bullock, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Hale, and Montgomery, according to the Alabama Secretary of State's office. Alabama, thanks to its budgetary insanity and inanity, just opted to close driver license bureaus in eight of them. All but Dallas and Montgomery will be closed.
Closed. In a state in which driver licenses or special photo IDs are a requirement for voting.
•••••
Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one.
•••••
Look at the five counties that voted most solidly Democratic? Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes and Bullock counties all had their driver license offices closed.
Look at the 10 that voted most solidly for Obama? Of those, eight – again all but Dallas and the state capital of Montgomery – had their offices closed.
•••••
Because the same Alabama Legislature that could not raise enough money to properly run the state in three sessions this year decided in 2011 that all voters must have a photo ID. It was such a great idea that Gov. Robert Bentley signed that bill into law despite complaints that such a move would disproportionately disenfranchise black voters.
It went into effect last year. And now this.
This. And true enough, department heads have to make terribly difficult decisions.
So Alabama closes 31 driver license offices. And while the cuts come across Alabama, they are deepest in the Black Belt. The harm is inflicted disproportionately on voters who happen to be black, and poor, in sparsely populated areas.
•••••
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says carbon price needed to tackle climate change
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-02/shell-ceo-says-carbon-price-needed-to-tackle-climate-change/6824510
By business reporter Michael Janda and staff
Updated October 02, 2015
Shell's global chief executive says an effective carbon price is needed to tackle climate change, whether through a trading or tax system.
Speaking exclusively to ABC TV's The Business, Ben van Beurden said a price on carbon was necessary to discourage pollution.
"Putting, in one form or another, a real, clear price on carbon that compels people to act with rational economic actions, I think is something that we need," he told presenter Ticky Fullerton.
When pressed over the Government's current Direct Action plan, which provides funding for programs to cut emissions rather than charging heavy emitters, Mr van Beurden said the design of the system was a matter for politicians in each country.
"Ultimately it doesn't matter too much if you have a trading system, a tax system or another system, as long as it is effective at what it does," he said.
•••••
tags: ethical businesses
By business reporter Michael Janda and staff
Updated October 02, 2015
Shell's global chief executive says an effective carbon price is needed to tackle climate change, whether through a trading or tax system.
Speaking exclusively to ABC TV's The Business, Ben van Beurden said a price on carbon was necessary to discourage pollution.
"Putting, in one form or another, a real, clear price on carbon that compels people to act with rational economic actions, I think is something that we need," he told presenter Ticky Fullerton.
When pressed over the Government's current Direct Action plan, which provides funding for programs to cut emissions rather than charging heavy emitters, Mr van Beurden said the design of the system was a matter for politicians in each country.
"Ultimately it doesn't matter too much if you have a trading system, a tax system or another system, as long as it is effective at what it does," he said.
•••••
tags: ethical businesses
Six Major US Banks Urge Global Leaders To Adopt Climate Change Agreement
http://www.ibtimes.com/six-major-us-banks-urge-global-leaders-adopt-climate-change-agreement-2116755
By Maria Gallucci
Sept 28, 2015
Six major U.S. banks are urging world leaders to adopt a strong agreement to slash carbon emissions and tackle climate change. The coalition warned in a letter Monday that warming global temperatures and related effects, including sea level rise and severe drought, threaten to upend the global economy and jeopardize future prosperity.
Their message targeted the heads of state and diplomats gathered in New York Monday for the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Climate change is one of the top subjects on the agenda, along with Syria’s civil war, the refugee crisis and the Iran nuclear accord. The U.N. is spearheading negotiations to forge a 195-country climate accord in Paris this December.
Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo called on negotiators to adopt policies that “recognize the cost of carbon” and help “provide greater market certainty, accelerate investment, drive innovation in low carbon energy, and create jobs,” according to the letter published by Ceres, a sustainability advocacy organization.
•••••
The banks’ statement did not explicitly call for a price on carbon dioxide emissions, which proponents say would make it more expensive to burn coal, oil and natural gas and encourage greater investment solar and wind power, electric vehicles, biofuels and other clean energy alternatives. But some financial leaders, including the World Bank, a U.N. financial institution, have repeatedly urged policymakers to put an outright tax on carbon emissions or adopt a cap-and-trade system. China last week announced it would launch the world’s largest cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions from its steel, cement, paper and electric power sectors.
A carbon price is “the most powerful move that a government can make in the fight against climate change and the reengineering of the economy,” Rachel Kyte, a special envoy for climate change at the World Bank, said a year ago at the 2014 Climate Week NYC, an annual forum to promote the business case for a low-carbon economy.
The U.S. banks’ letter issued Monday was timed to coincide with the ongoing 2015 Climate Week NYC.
tags: ethical businesses
By Maria Gallucci
Sept 28, 2015
Six major U.S. banks are urging world leaders to adopt a strong agreement to slash carbon emissions and tackle climate change. The coalition warned in a letter Monday that warming global temperatures and related effects, including sea level rise and severe drought, threaten to upend the global economy and jeopardize future prosperity.
Their message targeted the heads of state and diplomats gathered in New York Monday for the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Climate change is one of the top subjects on the agenda, along with Syria’s civil war, the refugee crisis and the Iran nuclear accord. The U.N. is spearheading negotiations to forge a 195-country climate accord in Paris this December.
Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo called on negotiators to adopt policies that “recognize the cost of carbon” and help “provide greater market certainty, accelerate investment, drive innovation in low carbon energy, and create jobs,” according to the letter published by Ceres, a sustainability advocacy organization.
•••••
The banks’ statement did not explicitly call for a price on carbon dioxide emissions, which proponents say would make it more expensive to burn coal, oil and natural gas and encourage greater investment solar and wind power, electric vehicles, biofuels and other clean energy alternatives. But some financial leaders, including the World Bank, a U.N. financial institution, have repeatedly urged policymakers to put an outright tax on carbon emissions or adopt a cap-and-trade system. China last week announced it would launch the world’s largest cap-and-trade system to reduce emissions from its steel, cement, paper and electric power sectors.
A carbon price is “the most powerful move that a government can make in the fight against climate change and the reengineering of the economy,” Rachel Kyte, a special envoy for climate change at the World Bank, said a year ago at the 2014 Climate Week NYC, an annual forum to promote the business case for a low-carbon economy.
The U.S. banks’ letter issued Monday was timed to coincide with the ongoing 2015 Climate Week NYC.
tags: ethical businesses
CEOs of 10 Major Food Companies Demand Climate Action
http://www.triplepundit.com/special/climate-week-nyc-2015/ceos-of-10-major-food-cos-demand-climate-action/
by Jen Boynton on Friday, Oct 2nd, 2015
The days of business push-back on environmental legislation are in the rearview mirror, at least for the food industry. So long, don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Yesterday 10 major food companies — coordinated by Ceres and led by Mars — released a letter to U.S. and global leaders calling for action on climate change. The signatories are a mix of major food conglomerates and mid-sized companies with a known sustainability bent: Mars, General Mills, Nestle USA, Unilever, Danone Dairy North America, Stonyfield Farm, Ben & Jerry’s, Kellogg Company, New Belgium Brewery, and Clif Bar. “Climate change is bad for farmers and for agriculture. Drought, flooding and hotter growing conditions threaten the world’s food supply and contribute to food insecurity,” the letter, which also ran in full page ads in the Washington Post and Financial times, states. Beyond calling for action in Paris, the letter includes three commitments: re-energize our companies’ continued efforts to ensure that our supply chain becomes (sic) more sustainable, talk transparently about our efforts and share best practices, and use our voices to advocate for governments to set clear, achievable measurable, enforceable science-based targets for carbon emissions reductions.
•••••
The letter signing was announced at a Washington D.C. roundtable attended by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Christopher Gibson (R-NY), who have joined together across the aisle to advocate for action on climate change. At the roundtable, Sen. Whitehouse spoke from the heart,
“Modern life has put a great many of us into a private bubble of consumption. There is too much distance between us and the natural world, we are no longer dependent on nearby farms. So the signals of distress that the earth and atmosphere are sending are falling on deaf ears. It’s really important that the big agriculture and food companies that provide the bridge between natural world and our bubble understand the importance of action on climate change.”
tags: ethical businesses
by Jen Boynton on Friday, Oct 2nd, 2015
The days of business push-back on environmental legislation are in the rearview mirror, at least for the food industry. So long, don’t let the door hit you on the way out! Yesterday 10 major food companies — coordinated by Ceres and led by Mars — released a letter to U.S. and global leaders calling for action on climate change. The signatories are a mix of major food conglomerates and mid-sized companies with a known sustainability bent: Mars, General Mills, Nestle USA, Unilever, Danone Dairy North America, Stonyfield Farm, Ben & Jerry’s, Kellogg Company, New Belgium Brewery, and Clif Bar. “Climate change is bad for farmers and for agriculture. Drought, flooding and hotter growing conditions threaten the world’s food supply and contribute to food insecurity,” the letter, which also ran in full page ads in the Washington Post and Financial times, states. Beyond calling for action in Paris, the letter includes three commitments: re-energize our companies’ continued efforts to ensure that our supply chain becomes (sic) more sustainable, talk transparently about our efforts and share best practices, and use our voices to advocate for governments to set clear, achievable measurable, enforceable science-based targets for carbon emissions reductions.
•••••
The letter signing was announced at a Washington D.C. roundtable attended by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Christopher Gibson (R-NY), who have joined together across the aisle to advocate for action on climate change. At the roundtable, Sen. Whitehouse spoke from the heart,
“Modern life has put a great many of us into a private bubble of consumption. There is too much distance between us and the natural world, we are no longer dependent on nearby farms. So the signals of distress that the earth and atmosphere are sending are falling on deaf ears. It’s really important that the big agriculture and food companies that provide the bridge between natural world and our bubble understand the importance of action on climate change.”
tags: ethical businesses
Citi report: slowing global warming would save tens of trillions of dollars
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/aug/31/citi-report-slowing-global-warming-would-save-tens-of-trillions-of-dollars?CMP=share_btn_fb
Dana Nuccitelli
Monday 31 August 2015
Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS), a division within Citibank (America’s third-largest bank), recently published a report looking at the economic costs and benefits of a low-carbon future. The report considered two scenarios: “Inaction,” which involves continuing on a business-as-usual path, and Action scenario which involves transitioning to a low-carbon energy mix.
One of the most interesting findings in the report is that the investment costs for the two scenarios are almost identical. In fact, because of savings due to reduced fuel costs and increased energy efficiency, the Action scenario is actually a bit cheaper than the Inaction scenario.
What is perhaps most surprising is that looking at the potential total spend on energy over the next quarter century, on an undiscounted basis the cost of following a low carbon route at $190.2 trillion is actually cheaper than our ‘Inaction’ scenario at $192 trillion. This, as we examine in this chapter, is due to the rapidly falling costs of renewables, which combined with lower fuel usage from energy efficiency investments actually result in significantly lower long term fuel bill. Yes, we have to invest more in the early years, but we potentially save later, not to mention the liabilities of climate change that we potentially avoid.
This conclusion soundly refutes the main argument against climate action – that it’s too expensive, with some contrarians even having gone so far as to claim that cutting carbon pollution will create an economic catastrophe. To the contrary, the Citi report finds that these investments will save money, before even accounting for the tremendous savings from avoiding climate damage costs.
What about those avoided climate costs? As shown in the bottom left corner of the above figure, the difference in climate damage costs between low (1.5°C) warming and high (4.5°C) warming scenarios could be as high as $50 trillion. Even moderate (2.5°C) warming could cost $30 trillion less than a business-as-usual high global warming scenario.
As a result, the Citi report concludes that taking action to cut carbon pollution and slow global warming would result in a positive return on investment.
By comparing the cost of mitigation to the avoided ‘liabilities’ of climate change, we can derive a simple ‘return on investment’. On a risk adjusted basis this implies a return of 1-4% at the low point in 2021, rising to between 3% and 10% by 2035.
This isn’t a groundbreaking finding. Other reports have arrived at the same conclusion, and have found that a revenue-neutral carbon tax would be modestly beneficial for the economy (again, before accounting for the economic benefits of curbing global warming). This is why there’s a consensus among economists that we should be reducing carbon pollution.
•••••
================================================
The original Citi report:
https://ir.citi.com/hsq32Jl1m4aIzicMqH8sBkPnbsqfnwy4Jgb1J2kIPYWIw5eM8yD3FY9VbGpK%2Baax
Some studies suggest that globally a third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80% of current coal reserves would have to remain unused from 2010 to 2050 in order to have a chance of meeting the 2°C target.
The fossil fuel industry has extensive influence over many world governments. They hire Merchants of Doubt to spread disinformation and uncertainty about the science and economics of climate change, and spend billions of dollars in campaign contributions to American political candidates in order to delay the low-carbon transition that would benefit the global economy and most people.
•••••
Dana Nuccitelli
Monday 31 August 2015
Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS), a division within Citibank (America’s third-largest bank), recently published a report looking at the economic costs and benefits of a low-carbon future. The report considered two scenarios: “Inaction,” which involves continuing on a business-as-usual path, and Action scenario which involves transitioning to a low-carbon energy mix.
One of the most interesting findings in the report is that the investment costs for the two scenarios are almost identical. In fact, because of savings due to reduced fuel costs and increased energy efficiency, the Action scenario is actually a bit cheaper than the Inaction scenario.
What is perhaps most surprising is that looking at the potential total spend on energy over the next quarter century, on an undiscounted basis the cost of following a low carbon route at $190.2 trillion is actually cheaper than our ‘Inaction’ scenario at $192 trillion. This, as we examine in this chapter, is due to the rapidly falling costs of renewables, which combined with lower fuel usage from energy efficiency investments actually result in significantly lower long term fuel bill. Yes, we have to invest more in the early years, but we potentially save later, not to mention the liabilities of climate change that we potentially avoid.
This conclusion soundly refutes the main argument against climate action – that it’s too expensive, with some contrarians even having gone so far as to claim that cutting carbon pollution will create an economic catastrophe. To the contrary, the Citi report finds that these investments will save money, before even accounting for the tremendous savings from avoiding climate damage costs.
What about those avoided climate costs? As shown in the bottom left corner of the above figure, the difference in climate damage costs between low (1.5°C) warming and high (4.5°C) warming scenarios could be as high as $50 trillion. Even moderate (2.5°C) warming could cost $30 trillion less than a business-as-usual high global warming scenario.
As a result, the Citi report concludes that taking action to cut carbon pollution and slow global warming would result in a positive return on investment.
By comparing the cost of mitigation to the avoided ‘liabilities’ of climate change, we can derive a simple ‘return on investment’. On a risk adjusted basis this implies a return of 1-4% at the low point in 2021, rising to between 3% and 10% by 2035.
This isn’t a groundbreaking finding. Other reports have arrived at the same conclusion, and have found that a revenue-neutral carbon tax would be modestly beneficial for the economy (again, before accounting for the economic benefits of curbing global warming). This is why there’s a consensus among economists that we should be reducing carbon pollution.
•••••
================================================
The original Citi report:
https://ir.citi.com/hsq32Jl1m4aIzicMqH8sBkPnbsqfnwy4Jgb1J2kIPYWIw5eM8yD3FY9VbGpK%2Baax
Some studies suggest that globally a third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80% of current coal reserves would have to remain unused from 2010 to 2050 in order to have a chance of meeting the 2°C target.
The fossil fuel industry has extensive influence over many world governments. They hire Merchants of Doubt to spread disinformation and uncertainty about the science and economics of climate change, and spend billions of dollars in campaign contributions to American political candidates in order to delay the low-carbon transition that would benefit the global economy and most people.
•••••
Flash floods, ‘once in 200 years rainfall event’ loom in South Carolina
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/flash-floods-once-200-years-rainfall-event-loom-south-carolina
By Jason Cumming and Elizabeth Chuck
Oct. 3, 2015
About 22 million Americans along the East Coast were under flood watches Saturday as a “once in 200 years rainfall event” began hammering the Carolinas with heavy rains — and the worst was yet to come.
South Carolina could get more rain in three days than it normally does during the entire fall, The Associated Press reported. Saturday was the third consecutive day of a relentless onslaught of rain, with a plume of precipitation expected to last through the weekend and only begin to taper off Monday.
Waterlogged Charleston, South Carolina, received 6 inches of rain over a period of 12 to 18 hours, NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said on MSNBC, adding that people there were paddleboarding through the city. Flash flood warnings were issued for downtown Charleston.
“A lot more damage is still yet to be done,” he warned. “The rivers are going to be a problem in this area for days to come.”
President Obama declared a state of emergency in South Carolina and ordered federal aid for the Palmetto state.
With a tide of 8.2 feet, water levels in Charleston were the highest they had been since 2009. North of Myrtle Beach, residents received 16 inches of rain. A whopping 2 feet of rain threatened other areas in the state.
As much as a foot of rain fell overnight in Wilmington, North Carolina, and numerous water rescues were reported.
•••••
Karins said the National Weather Service was referring to the historic drenching in South Carolina this weekend as a “once in 200 years rainfall event” — and it had the potential to be as bad as any likely to occur every 500 years.
The NWS added that “record rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding” were possible through Sunday. Up to 15 inches of rain was possible in some parts of the Carolinas, forecasters warned.
This stretch of the East Coast from Charleston to Washington, D.C., is expected to be deluged as a result of a weather pattern called a “Rex Block,” which is forecast to bring heavy rain to the area’s already-oversaturated grounds.
•••••
By Jason Cumming and Elizabeth Chuck
Oct. 3, 2015
About 22 million Americans along the East Coast were under flood watches Saturday as a “once in 200 years rainfall event” began hammering the Carolinas with heavy rains — and the worst was yet to come.
South Carolina could get more rain in three days than it normally does during the entire fall, The Associated Press reported. Saturday was the third consecutive day of a relentless onslaught of rain, with a plume of precipitation expected to last through the weekend and only begin to taper off Monday.
Waterlogged Charleston, South Carolina, received 6 inches of rain over a period of 12 to 18 hours, NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins said on MSNBC, adding that people there were paddleboarding through the city. Flash flood warnings were issued for downtown Charleston.
“A lot more damage is still yet to be done,” he warned. “The rivers are going to be a problem in this area for days to come.”
President Obama declared a state of emergency in South Carolina and ordered federal aid for the Palmetto state.
With a tide of 8.2 feet, water levels in Charleston were the highest they had been since 2009. North of Myrtle Beach, residents received 16 inches of rain. A whopping 2 feet of rain threatened other areas in the state.
As much as a foot of rain fell overnight in Wilmington, North Carolina, and numerous water rescues were reported.
•••••
Karins said the National Weather Service was referring to the historic drenching in South Carolina this weekend as a “once in 200 years rainfall event” — and it had the potential to be as bad as any likely to occur every 500 years.
The NWS added that “record rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding” were possible through Sunday. Up to 15 inches of rain was possible in some parts of the Carolinas, forecasters warned.
This stretch of the East Coast from Charleston to Washington, D.C., is expected to be deluged as a result of a weather pattern called a “Rex Block,” which is forecast to bring heavy rain to the area’s already-oversaturated grounds.
•••••
GOP leader accidentally tells the truth about Benghazi committee
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-leader-accidentally-tells-the-truth-about-benghazi-committee
By Steve Benen
Oct. 1, 2015
Even die-hard GOP partisans sometimes find it difficult to justify the House Republicans’ Benghazi committee. The party struggled to explain why it was necessary in the first place – the deadly 2012 attack was already examined by seven other congressional committees – and the rationale is even more elusive now that the investigation is the longest in the history of the United States.
Making matters slightly worse, the GOP-led committee has conducted itself in such a way as to raise concerns that the entire endeavor is little more than a taxpayer-funded election scheme.
Keep that in mind when reading about House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – the likely next Speaker of the House – and his interview on Fox News last night. Roll Call reported this morning on the Republican leader’s on-air comments:
“What you’re going to see is a conservative Speaker, that takes a conservative Congress, that puts a strategy to fight and win. And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?
“But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”
•••••
the ostensible point of the Select Committee on Benghazi was to examine a terrorist attack that left four Americans dead in Libya, not to create an election tool that can affect a presidential candidate’s poll numbers.
Note, McCarthy sees the committee as a legitimate accomplishment of the Republican Congress, not because it’s uncovered relevant details about an act of terrorism, but because Hillary Clinton’s “numbers are dropping.” This, in his mind, is evidence of the GOP majority using its power effectively – by using a supposedly non-partisan investigatory vehicle to embarrass a Democrat with dubious allegations.
•••••
By Steve Benen
Oct. 1, 2015
Even die-hard GOP partisans sometimes find it difficult to justify the House Republicans’ Benghazi committee. The party struggled to explain why it was necessary in the first place – the deadly 2012 attack was already examined by seven other congressional committees – and the rationale is even more elusive now that the investigation is the longest in the history of the United States.
Making matters slightly worse, the GOP-led committee has conducted itself in such a way as to raise concerns that the entire endeavor is little more than a taxpayer-funded election scheme.
Keep that in mind when reading about House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – the likely next Speaker of the House – and his interview on Fox News last night. Roll Call reported this morning on the Republican leader’s on-air comments:
“What you’re going to see is a conservative Speaker, that takes a conservative Congress, that puts a strategy to fight and win. And let me give you one example. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?
“But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen.”
•••••
the ostensible point of the Select Committee on Benghazi was to examine a terrorist attack that left four Americans dead in Libya, not to create an election tool that can affect a presidential candidate’s poll numbers.
Note, McCarthy sees the committee as a legitimate accomplishment of the Republican Congress, not because it’s uncovered relevant details about an act of terrorism, but because Hillary Clinton’s “numbers are dropping.” This, in his mind, is evidence of the GOP majority using its power effectively – by using a supposedly non-partisan investigatory vehicle to embarrass a Democrat with dubious allegations.
•••••
Saturday, October 03, 2015
EPA Acts To Mitigate 44 To 73 Percent Of Acute Pesticide Incidents Among Farmworkers
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/10/01/3707360/epa-pesticide-regulations/
by Esther Yu-Hsi Lee Oct 1, 2015
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a major step this week to protect the thousands of U.S. agricultural workers who are exposed to pesticides every year, many of whom suffer from chronic health effects years after they stop working in the fields.
EPA officials announced that the agency will help mitigate pesticide exposure by updating a two-decade old regulation known as the Worker Protection Standard (WPS).
The finalized revision of the WPS includes increased mandatory training sessions to inform farmworkers on the protections their employers are required to offer them; expanded training to teach workers how to reduce “take-home exposure;” new anti-retaliatory provisions to protect whistleblowers who raise concerns; and “no-entry” application-exclusion zones up to 100 feet surrounding pesticide application equipment to protect workers from pesticide overspray. And, for the first time ever, the revision bars minors under 18 from handling pesticides.
The regulation, which will be phased in over the next two years, will affect agricultural workers and pesticide handlers who work on farms and in forests, nurseries, and greenhouses. Livestock workers are not covered. Once fully implemented, the revised regulation is expected to “avoid or mitigate approximately 44 to 73 percent of annual reported acute WPS-related pesticide incidents,” according to the EPA.
•••••
“People are too immature at 16 years old to be able to handle pesticides, though many people thought that 18 was too young,” Jeannie Economos, Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator at the grassroots organization Farmworker Association of Florida, told ThinkProgress in a phone interview. “Younger people will think there’s no problem, they may not wear personal protective equipment, they might not think it’s necessary, or realize what they’re doing to their health or other people.”
Ruiz agreed that 16- and 17-year-olds don’t have “the emotional maturity” to work with pesticides because they may not know how to interact with their bosses when they have health-related questions or concerns. “They might not feel comfortable challenging their supervisors or employers about the potential harm,” she said.
•••••
Mily Treviño-Sauceda recalled the time a plane flew over the citrus farm where she worked and doused her and other workers with pesticides. “Everyone just started suffocating,” Treviño-Sauceda told Earth Justice. “I tried to run away but couldn’t see or breathe. Everyone was covered with white dust and their eyes were itchy and watering.” Another farmworker Jovita Alfau, a U.S. legal resident and Mexican native, became dizzy, weak, and vomited after she was sent back to tend hibiscus plants 24 hours they were sprayed down. And yet another farmworker Yolanda Gomez told the Center for Public Integrity, “When you go to the field you go clean, and when you come out of the field you can see your eyes are very red.”
Studies have shown a correlation between pesticide usage and Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s disease, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and asthma, among other problems that could affect workers on an organic and cellular level.
•••••
It’s not just direct exposure that can make people sick — without proper training to remove clothing that’s been exposed to pesticides, farmworkers can also take home the residue with them to family members who then get sick. “At most agricultural work sites, there aren’t facilities on-site for workers to change out of their work clothes or bathe,” Ruiz said, explaining that her organization teaches workers to reduce pesticide exposure after their work shifts end. “Often workers will go home in the same clothes that they were wearing at work. If they have contact with their family members, for example, hugging their kids or touching other family members who haven’t been working in the fields, they can be exposed to pesticide residue.”
•••••
At least some farmworkers are likely too scared to stop working with pesticides because they need their jobs. A survey of New Mexico farm workers found that managers told workers they would lose their jobs if they refused to work in direct contact with pesticides. What’s more, workers are often not warned about the chemicals they are working with, and do not know they have been poisoned until they start vomiting or have trouble breathing.
•••••
by Esther Yu-Hsi Lee Oct 1, 2015
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a major step this week to protect the thousands of U.S. agricultural workers who are exposed to pesticides every year, many of whom suffer from chronic health effects years after they stop working in the fields.
EPA officials announced that the agency will help mitigate pesticide exposure by updating a two-decade old regulation known as the Worker Protection Standard (WPS).
The finalized revision of the WPS includes increased mandatory training sessions to inform farmworkers on the protections their employers are required to offer them; expanded training to teach workers how to reduce “take-home exposure;” new anti-retaliatory provisions to protect whistleblowers who raise concerns; and “no-entry” application-exclusion zones up to 100 feet surrounding pesticide application equipment to protect workers from pesticide overspray. And, for the first time ever, the revision bars minors under 18 from handling pesticides.
The regulation, which will be phased in over the next two years, will affect agricultural workers and pesticide handlers who work on farms and in forests, nurseries, and greenhouses. Livestock workers are not covered. Once fully implemented, the revised regulation is expected to “avoid or mitigate approximately 44 to 73 percent of annual reported acute WPS-related pesticide incidents,” according to the EPA.
•••••
“People are too immature at 16 years old to be able to handle pesticides, though many people thought that 18 was too young,” Jeannie Economos, Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator at the grassroots organization Farmworker Association of Florida, told ThinkProgress in a phone interview. “Younger people will think there’s no problem, they may not wear personal protective equipment, they might not think it’s necessary, or realize what they’re doing to their health or other people.”
Ruiz agreed that 16- and 17-year-olds don’t have “the emotional maturity” to work with pesticides because they may not know how to interact with their bosses when they have health-related questions or concerns. “They might not feel comfortable challenging their supervisors or employers about the potential harm,” she said.
•••••
Mily Treviño-Sauceda recalled the time a plane flew over the citrus farm where she worked and doused her and other workers with pesticides. “Everyone just started suffocating,” Treviño-Sauceda told Earth Justice. “I tried to run away but couldn’t see or breathe. Everyone was covered with white dust and their eyes were itchy and watering.” Another farmworker Jovita Alfau, a U.S. legal resident and Mexican native, became dizzy, weak, and vomited after she was sent back to tend hibiscus plants 24 hours they were sprayed down. And yet another farmworker Yolanda Gomez told the Center for Public Integrity, “When you go to the field you go clean, and when you come out of the field you can see your eyes are very red.”
Studies have shown a correlation between pesticide usage and Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s disease, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and asthma, among other problems that could affect workers on an organic and cellular level.
•••••
It’s not just direct exposure that can make people sick — without proper training to remove clothing that’s been exposed to pesticides, farmworkers can also take home the residue with them to family members who then get sick. “At most agricultural work sites, there aren’t facilities on-site for workers to change out of their work clothes or bathe,” Ruiz said, explaining that her organization teaches workers to reduce pesticide exposure after their work shifts end. “Often workers will go home in the same clothes that they were wearing at work. If they have contact with their family members, for example, hugging their kids or touching other family members who haven’t been working in the fields, they can be exposed to pesticide residue.”
•••••
At least some farmworkers are likely too scared to stop working with pesticides because they need their jobs. A survey of New Mexico farm workers found that managers told workers they would lose their jobs if they refused to work in direct contact with pesticides. What’s more, workers are often not warned about the chemicals they are working with, and do not know they have been poisoned until they start vomiting or have trouble breathing.
•••••
Wyoming Made It Illegal To Take A Photo Of A Polluted Stream. Now They’re Being Sued For It.
by Natasha Geiling Oct 1, 2015
A controversial Wyoming law is under legal fire after a broad coalition of environmental, justice, and animal rights groups filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday.
The law, known as Senate File 12, or the Data Trespass Law, makes it illegal for anyone to collect data on public or private open land with the intention of sharing that data with the state or federal government. Proponents of the law say that it strengthens Wyoming’s trespass laws and gives property owners more power to dictate what happens on their land.
Critics of the law, however, liken it to a slew of “ag-gag” laws that have passed around the country in recent years, aimed at silencing whistleblowers who expose malpractice within the agriculture industry. Wyoming’s law, they contend, makes it illegal for citizen scientists or concerned residents to expose contamination of streams by the ranching industry, which represents a considerable economic and political force in the state.
“These Wyoming laws are designed to stop whistleblowers from being able to enforce the environmental laws in Wyoming,” Leslie Brueckner, a senior attorney at Public Justice, a public interest law firm that has challenged ag-gag laws in other states, told ThinkProgress. “Like the classic ag-gag statutes that we’re challenging in Idaho, this law directly infringes on the ability of whistleblowers and other advocates to speak freely under the First Amendment and also to expose wrongdoing in the agriculture industry.”
•••••
Brueckner draws parallels between Wyoming’s law and a slew of ag-gag laws that have passed — and been challenged — across the country. Recently, a federal judge in Idaho ruled that the state’s ag-gag law violated the First Amendment, something Brueckner says Wyoming’s law also violates. Brueckner also argues that Wyoming’s law, like Idaho’s, violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as it unfairly singles out a particular group — in this case, environmentalists hoping to shed light on water pollution throughout Wyoming.
But unlike traditional ag-gag laws, which normally narrow their scope to factory farms, Wyoming’s law is stunningly broad. Under the enacted law’s language, a person can be found guilty of trespassing to unlawfully collect resource data if they enter onto open land to collect resource data — in this case, “collect” is defined as “take a sample of material, acquire, gather, photograph or otherwise preserve information in any form from open land which is submitted or intended to be submitted to any agency of the state or federal government.”
•••••
Advocates of the law claim that it merely strengthens the rights of private property owners, and does not apply to public land. Indeed, when the law was first introduced, it defined trespassing as “[entering] onto or [crossing] private open land for the purpose of collecting resource data.” However — thanks to an amendment passed unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee — the final version of the law, signed by Gov. Matt Mead (R) in March, defines trespassing as someone who “enters onto open land” and “enters onto private open land” — which is defined as “land outside the exterior boundaries of any incorporated city, town, subdivision.” That distinction calls into question whether the law could potentially be applied to public land. In Wyoming, public lands account for some 17.5 million acres.
“It appears to clearly apply to both private and public land,” Brueckner said. “This is like trespass on steroids. These laws, they don’t merely prohibit data collection. What they criminalize is data collection for the purpose of submitting the information to the state and federal government, and that’s what’s so bizarre and over the top about these laws. They specifically target activity that is unarguably legitimate.”
And while all ag-gag laws are, in a way, targeted at environmentalists, most concern themselves more with animal welfare — exposing the bad actors in factory farming that use abhorrent practices, like lifting a cow too sick to stand to slaughter with a forklift. In Wyoming, the abuse is more subtle. Ranchers have long allowed their cattle to graze on public lands — something allowed by the Bureau of Land Management. But that access comes with an environmental cost when herds graze too close to streams, causing fecal matter to end up in waterways.
“These [Wyoming] laws are designed to prevent the public from knowing about the routine, well-accepted, widespread practices in the industry. In that sense, they are much broader, because the environmental impacts are so unavoidable and systemic,” Brueckner said. “The fact is that grazing of cattle has a profound impact on the environment, and they can’t just blame it on one or two bad actors.”
Vitamin D3 supplementation helps women build muscle even after menopause
Too much vitamin D is toxic. Pay attention to what your body tells you.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/tnam-vds091715.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Vitamin D3 supplementation helps women build muscle even after menopause
New study demonstrates vitamin effectiveness in reducing degeneration and risk of falls
The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
The benefits of vitamin D supplementation for postmenopausal women have been widely debated. But a new study from Sao Paulo, Brazil, now documents that vitamin D supplementation can significantly increase muscle strength and reduce the loss of body muscle mass in women as late as 12+ years after menopause.
•••••
Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in postmenopausal women worldwide, creating muscle weakness and a greater tendency for falling. The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted over a nine-month period. Muscle mass was estimated by total-body DXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry), as well as by handgrip strength and through a chair-rising test.
At the end of the trial, the women receiving the supplements demonstrated a significant increase (+25.3%) in muscle strength, while those receiving the placebo actually lost an average of 6.8% of muscle mass. Women not receiving Vitamin D supplements were also nearly two times as likely to fall.
•••••
Four gut bacteria decrease asthma risk in infants
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uobc-fgb092515.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Four gut bacteria decrease asthma risk in infants
University of British Columbia
New research by scientists at UBC and BC Children's Hospital finds that infants can be protected from getting asthma if they acquire four types of gut bacteria by three months of age. More than 300 families from across Canada participated in this research through the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study.
"This research supports the hygiene hypothesis that we're making our environment too clean. It shows that gut bacteria play a role in asthma, but it is early in life when the baby's immune system is being established," said the study's co-lead researcher B. Brett Finlay, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and the departments of microbiology & immunology and biochemistry and molecular biology at UBC.
Asthma rates have increased dramatically since the 1950s and now affect up to 20 per cent of children in western countries. The discovery opens the door to developing probiotic treatments for infants that prevent asthma. The finding could also be used to develop a test for predicting which children are at risk of developing asthma.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Four gut bacteria decrease asthma risk in infants
University of British Columbia
New research by scientists at UBC and BC Children's Hospital finds that infants can be protected from getting asthma if they acquire four types of gut bacteria by three months of age. More than 300 families from across Canada participated in this research through the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study.
"This research supports the hygiene hypothesis that we're making our environment too clean. It shows that gut bacteria play a role in asthma, but it is early in life when the baby's immune system is being established," said the study's co-lead researcher B. Brett Finlay, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and the departments of microbiology & immunology and biochemistry and molecular biology at UBC.
Asthma rates have increased dramatically since the 1950s and now affect up to 20 per cent of children in western countries. The discovery opens the door to developing probiotic treatments for infants that prevent asthma. The finding could also be used to develop a test for predicting which children are at risk of developing asthma.
•••••
Strokes in children linked to infections, inadequate vaccinations
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/luhs-sic092515.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Strokes in children linked to infections, inadequate vaccinations
Loyola University Health System
Children who have suffered recent infections or have not received most or all of their vaccinations are at a higher risk for stroke, according to research published in the Sept. 30 issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
•••••
There are between 2.6 and 13 strokes per 100,000 children per year. Developmental, genetic and environmental factors are major contributors to pediatric strokes. Infections also may temporarily increase the risk of stroke. Such infections include flu, upper respiratory tract infections, bacterial and viral infections and, to a lesser extent, urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal infections, according to the editorial.
•••••
Researchers in the multicenter, case-control study enrolled 355 children between the ages of 29 days and 18 years who had suffered ischemic strokes. (Ischemic strokes are caused by blood clots that block blood flow in the brain.)
Eighteen percent of these children had experienced infections during the week prior to their strokes. By comparison, only 3 percent of children in the control group had suffered infections during the week prior to being interviewed. Children who suffered strokes also were less likely to have received all or most of the recommended vaccinations.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Strokes in children linked to infections, inadequate vaccinations
Loyola University Health System
Children who have suffered recent infections or have not received most or all of their vaccinations are at a higher risk for stroke, according to research published in the Sept. 30 issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
•••••
There are between 2.6 and 13 strokes per 100,000 children per year. Developmental, genetic and environmental factors are major contributors to pediatric strokes. Infections also may temporarily increase the risk of stroke. Such infections include flu, upper respiratory tract infections, bacterial and viral infections and, to a lesser extent, urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal infections, according to the editorial.
•••••
Researchers in the multicenter, case-control study enrolled 355 children between the ages of 29 days and 18 years who had suffered ischemic strokes. (Ischemic strokes are caused by blood clots that block blood flow in the brain.)
Eighteen percent of these children had experienced infections during the week prior to their strokes. By comparison, only 3 percent of children in the control group had suffered infections during the week prior to being interviewed. Children who suffered strokes also were less likely to have received all or most of the recommended vaccinations.
•••••
Are American schools making inequality worse?
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/aera-aas092815.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Are American schools making inequality worse?
American Educational Research Association
The answer appears to be yes. Schooling plays a surprisingly large role in short-changing the nation's most economically disadvantaged students of critical math skills, according to a study published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
Findings from the study indicate that unequal access to rigorous mathematics content is widening the gap in performance on a prominent international math literacy test between low- and high-income students, not only in the United States but in countries worldwide.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Are American schools making inequality worse?
American Educational Research Association
The answer appears to be yes. Schooling plays a surprisingly large role in short-changing the nation's most economically disadvantaged students of critical math skills, according to a study published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
Findings from the study indicate that unequal access to rigorous mathematics content is widening the gap in performance on a prominent international math literacy test between low- and high-income students, not only in the United States but in countries worldwide.
•••••
Dormant viral genes may awaken to cause ALS
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/nion-dvg092915.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Dormant viral genes may awaken to cause ALS
NIH study may open an unexplored path for finding treatments
NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health discovered that reactivation of ancient viral genes embedded in the human genome may cause the destruction of neurons in some forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggest a link between human endogenous retroviral genes (HERVs) and ALS. The findings also raise the question of whether antiretroviral drugs, similar to those used for suppressing HIV, may help some ALS patients.
For generations, humans have been passing on genetic remnants of HERV infections that may have happened millions of years ago. Although nearly eight percent of the normal human genome is made up of these genes, very little is known about their role in health and disease.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Dormant viral genes may awaken to cause ALS
NIH study may open an unexplored path for finding treatments
NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health discovered that reactivation of ancient viral genes embedded in the human genome may cause the destruction of neurons in some forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The results, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggest a link between human endogenous retroviral genes (HERVs) and ALS. The findings also raise the question of whether antiretroviral drugs, similar to those used for suppressing HIV, may help some ALS patients.
For generations, humans have been passing on genetic remnants of HERV infections that may have happened millions of years ago. Although nearly eight percent of the normal human genome is made up of these genes, very little is known about their role in health and disease.
•••••
Children with severe obesity may be at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uonc-cws092815.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Children with severe obesity may be at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes
University of North Carolina Health Care
A new study led by researchers in the UNC Department of Pediatrics finds a direct correlation between more severe forms of obesity in children and related risk factors for developing heart disease and diabetes--particularly in boys. The study will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
More than 3 million children in the United States who are severely obese may be at a higher risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than overweight children, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study, to be published in the Oct. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that children with the more severe forms of obesity showed early signs of heart disease and diabetes, with the differences most notable in boys and young men.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Children with severe obesity may be at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes
University of North Carolina Health Care
A new study led by researchers in the UNC Department of Pediatrics finds a direct correlation between more severe forms of obesity in children and related risk factors for developing heart disease and diabetes--particularly in boys. The study will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
More than 3 million children in the United States who are severely obese may be at a higher risk of developing heart disease and diabetes than overweight children, according to a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. The study, to be published in the Oct. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that children with the more severe forms of obesity showed early signs of heart disease and diabetes, with the differences most notable in boys and young men.
•••••
Doctors trained to be confidantes for risk-taking teenagers
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uom-dtt092915.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Doctors trained to be confidantes for risk-taking teenagers
University of Melbourne
Doctors have successfully reduced risk-taking behaviour in teenagers and young people, in a world-first trial led by the University of Melbourne.
The study involved 901 young people doctors and practice nurses at 42 General Practices in 15 urban and eight regional divisions in Victoria, Australia.
They were trained to screen and counsel young people aged 14 to 25-years-old for six common risk-factors, including smoking, binge drinking, mental health problems, drug use, risky driving and unsafe sex - either with a form or simply enquiring about these areas in a sensitive way.
They found traditionally, screening for these issues is very low. For example, while many doctors are alert to mental health issues, hardly any screen for risky driving and partner abuse.
The researchers found 90 per cent of the 901 young people were engaging in one or more of the risky behaviours. The health professional then recommended a course of action to minimise risk or a plan to stop the behaviour.
After discussing these issues with the GP, the young people reported less illicit drug use and less risk for sexually transmitted illness after three months and fewer unplanned pregnancies at 12 months. The GPs were also able to detect more cases of partner abuse.
Encouragingly, almost all (97%) of young people in the study said they would be willing to discuss their personal lives with their doctor as a trusted source of information. A further 93 per cent said they'd tell a friend to do the same.
Associate Professor Lena Sanci, of the Department of General Practice, was lead author on the study, published today in PLOS one.
She said adolescence and young adulthood are peak years for the onset of mental disorders, injuries and reproductive health risks. Risky drinking, smoking, drug use, and low rates of physical exercise in adulthood are usually established during these years, yet young people are the group most likely to be overlooked by the medical profession.
"Young people will come to the doctor for coughs, colds and injuries, but not things like stopping smoking or reducing alcohol or talking about abuse in a relationship or learning about safer sex," Assoc Prof Sanci said.
"Perhaps it's because they don't view these things as health issues, or they're embarrassed, or maybe they feel they should be able to cope on their own. Doctors are the perfect confidantes for teens, who may not want to talk about these health risks with their parents.
"We didn't expect it to solve all the problems, but we did start a conversation that could help the young person manage the risks.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Doctors trained to be confidantes for risk-taking teenagers
University of Melbourne
Doctors have successfully reduced risk-taking behaviour in teenagers and young people, in a world-first trial led by the University of Melbourne.
The study involved 901 young people doctors and practice nurses at 42 General Practices in 15 urban and eight regional divisions in Victoria, Australia.
They were trained to screen and counsel young people aged 14 to 25-years-old for six common risk-factors, including smoking, binge drinking, mental health problems, drug use, risky driving and unsafe sex - either with a form or simply enquiring about these areas in a sensitive way.
They found traditionally, screening for these issues is very low. For example, while many doctors are alert to mental health issues, hardly any screen for risky driving and partner abuse.
The researchers found 90 per cent of the 901 young people were engaging in one or more of the risky behaviours. The health professional then recommended a course of action to minimise risk or a plan to stop the behaviour.
After discussing these issues with the GP, the young people reported less illicit drug use and less risk for sexually transmitted illness after three months and fewer unplanned pregnancies at 12 months. The GPs were also able to detect more cases of partner abuse.
Encouragingly, almost all (97%) of young people in the study said they would be willing to discuss their personal lives with their doctor as a trusted source of information. A further 93 per cent said they'd tell a friend to do the same.
Associate Professor Lena Sanci, of the Department of General Practice, was lead author on the study, published today in PLOS one.
She said adolescence and young adulthood are peak years for the onset of mental disorders, injuries and reproductive health risks. Risky drinking, smoking, drug use, and low rates of physical exercise in adulthood are usually established during these years, yet young people are the group most likely to be overlooked by the medical profession.
"Young people will come to the doctor for coughs, colds and injuries, but not things like stopping smoking or reducing alcohol or talking about abuse in a relationship or learning about safer sex," Assoc Prof Sanci said.
"Perhaps it's because they don't view these things as health issues, or they're embarrassed, or maybe they feel they should be able to cope on their own. Doctors are the perfect confidantes for teens, who may not want to talk about these health risks with their parents.
"We didn't expect it to solve all the problems, but we did start a conversation that could help the young person manage the risks.
•••••
Swap the couch for a walk to avoid an early death
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uos-stc093015.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Swap the couch for a walk to avoid an early death
University of Sydney
Swapping just one hour of sitting with walking or other physical activity each day decreases your chance of an early death by 12 to 14 per cent, according to a University of Sydney study of over 200,000 Australians.
The landmark study, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, is the first to examine the impact of swapping time spent on activities like sitting, standing, sleeping or walking on mortality.
It reveals that swapping even one hour of daily sitting with standing is linked to a five per cent reduction in the risk of premature death.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Swap the couch for a walk to avoid an early death
University of Sydney
Swapping just one hour of sitting with walking or other physical activity each day decreases your chance of an early death by 12 to 14 per cent, according to a University of Sydney study of over 200,000 Australians.
The landmark study, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, is the first to examine the impact of swapping time spent on activities like sitting, standing, sleeping or walking on mortality.
It reveals that swapping even one hour of daily sitting with standing is linked to a five per cent reduction in the risk of premature death.
•••••
Short, intense exercise bursts can reduce heart risk to teens
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uoe-sie093015.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Short, intense exercise bursts can reduce heart risk to teens
Adolescents who perform just 8 to 10 minutes of high-intensity interval exercise 3 times a week could be significantly reducing their risk of developing heart conditions, new research has concluded
University of Exeter
Adolescents who perform just eight to ten minutes of high-intensity interval exercise three times a week could be significantly reducing their risk of developing heart conditions, new research has concluded.
Even apparently healthy teenagers showed significant improvements in markers which are indicators of cardiovascular health, according to research by the University of Exeter.
Currently, it is recommended that teenagers perform a minimum of 60 minutes of daily exercise to prevent future disease, however according to the Health Survey for England less than 30% of adolescent boys and 20% of adolescent girls achieve this amount. Furthermore, efforts to increase physical activity levels in this age group often fail. It's therefore important to consider how shorter durations of exercise can be optimised for future health.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Short, intense exercise bursts can reduce heart risk to teens
Adolescents who perform just 8 to 10 minutes of high-intensity interval exercise 3 times a week could be significantly reducing their risk of developing heart conditions, new research has concluded
University of Exeter
Adolescents who perform just eight to ten minutes of high-intensity interval exercise three times a week could be significantly reducing their risk of developing heart conditions, new research has concluded.
Even apparently healthy teenagers showed significant improvements in markers which are indicators of cardiovascular health, according to research by the University of Exeter.
Currently, it is recommended that teenagers perform a minimum of 60 minutes of daily exercise to prevent future disease, however according to the Health Survey for England less than 30% of adolescent boys and 20% of adolescent girls achieve this amount. Furthermore, efforts to increase physical activity levels in this age group often fail. It's therefore important to consider how shorter durations of exercise can be optimised for future health.
•••••
Study's message to recovering alcoholics: Quit smoking to stay sober
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/cums-smt093015.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Study's message to recovering alcoholics: Quit smoking to stay sober
Smokers with a history of alcohol problems who continue smoking are at greater risk of relapsing
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Adult smokers with a history of problem drinking who continue smoking are at a greater risk of relapsing three years later compared with adults who do not smoke. Results of the study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York appear online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Most adults who have alcohol problems also smoke cigarettes. Yet while treatments for alcohol abuse traditionally require concurrent treatment for problems around illicit substance use, smoking has not generally been part of alcohol or substance use treatment. According to lead author Renee Goodwin, PhD, the thinking in clinical settings has been that asking patients to quit cigarette smoking while they try to stop drinking is "too difficult," and that continued nicotine dependence would make no difference in the long run.
"Quitting smoking will improve anyone's health," says Goodwin, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. "But our study shows that giving up cigarettes is even more important for adults in recovery from alcohol since it will help them stay sober."
•••••
Daily smokers and nondaily smokers had approximately twice the odds of relapsing to alcohol dependence compared with nonsmokers. The relationships held even after controlling for factors, including mood, anxiety, illicit drug use disorders, and nicotine dependence.
It's unclear why smoking makes alcohol relapse more likely, but the study's authors point to past research on the behavioral and neurochemical links between smoking and alcohol, and the detrimental effects of smoking on cognition.
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Study's message to recovering alcoholics: Quit smoking to stay sober
Smokers with a history of alcohol problems who continue smoking are at greater risk of relapsing
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Adult smokers with a history of problem drinking who continue smoking are at a greater risk of relapsing three years later compared with adults who do not smoke. Results of the study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York appear online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Most adults who have alcohol problems also smoke cigarettes. Yet while treatments for alcohol abuse traditionally require concurrent treatment for problems around illicit substance use, smoking has not generally been part of alcohol or substance use treatment. According to lead author Renee Goodwin, PhD, the thinking in clinical settings has been that asking patients to quit cigarette smoking while they try to stop drinking is "too difficult," and that continued nicotine dependence would make no difference in the long run.
"Quitting smoking will improve anyone's health," says Goodwin, an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. "But our study shows that giving up cigarettes is even more important for adults in recovery from alcohol since it will help them stay sober."
•••••
Daily smokers and nondaily smokers had approximately twice the odds of relapsing to alcohol dependence compared with nonsmokers. The relationships held even after controlling for factors, including mood, anxiety, illicit drug use disorders, and nicotine dependence.
It's unclear why smoking makes alcohol relapse more likely, but the study's authors point to past research on the behavioral and neurochemical links between smoking and alcohol, and the detrimental effects of smoking on cognition.
Reduced-nicotine cigarettes decreased dependence and frequency of smoking
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/vumc-r093015.php
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Reduced-nicotine cigarettes decreased dependence and frequency of smoking: NEJM study
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Reduced-nicotine cigarettes were beneficial in reducing nicotine exposure and dependence, and also the number of cigarettes smoked per day, when compared with standard-nicotine cigarettes in a six-week study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
•••••
Public Release: 30-Sep-2015
Reduced-nicotine cigarettes decreased dependence and frequency of smoking: NEJM study
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Reduced-nicotine cigarettes were beneficial in reducing nicotine exposure and dependence, and also the number of cigarettes smoked per day, when compared with standard-nicotine cigarettes in a six-week study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
•••••
Gender Pay Gap Drives Inequality
There is discrimination based on gender. Several times I found out what male co-workers were making, and it was always more than I made, even though people said I was the best computer progrmmer/analyst there, or even the best they had ever known.http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33037-gender-pay-gap-drives-inequality
By Marjorie E. Wood, Inequality.org
Oct. 3, 2015
It's a refrain we've heard a million times. "Women make 78 cents for every dollar a man makes."
But what does it really mean?
According to a recent report from the Institute for Women's Policy Research, at the current rate, women will not see equal pay until 2059—one year later than the group's findings from the previous year.
2059 is a long time from now. And certainly too long a wait for women who need to put food on their families' tables today.
•••••
Because women are concentrated in low-wage industries. From restaurants to domestic work to retail, women are the majority of workers in industries where employers pay rock bottom wages.
And those jobs are predominantly non-union and, in some cases, not even subject to basic labor protections. In restaurant work, for instance, the federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13 an hour, an exemption to the regular minimum wage that has been kept in place by the powerful National Restaurant Association lobby for decades. And homecare workers only recently won a court case determining that these workers should receive basic minimum wage and overtime protections.
Some 90 percent of homecare workers and more than 70 percent of restaurant workers are women—two of the lowest-paying occupations in our economy (and even within these industries, women still make less than men).
Closing the gender pay gap is about more than raising women's wages. It's about addressing our entire low-wage economy by increasing the minimum wage to a living wage, eliminating the tipped minimum wage and raising it to the regular wage, and covering all workers under basic labor protections, including the right to collective bargaining.
These broad measures would end up helping women most and would go a long way towards closing the pay gap.
As I've written about elsewhere, low-wage jobs are concentrated in industries where profits are booming. In fact, large, wealthy corporations are the majority – 66 percent – of low-wage employers in America. According to the National Employment Law Project, the 50 largest employers of low-wage workers are highly profitable, large corporations with executive compensation averaging $9.4 million.
Women, it turns out, are the backs on which extreme wealth is being built.
The next time you hear, "Women make 78 cents for every dollar a man makes," think about that. The gender pay gap isn't just about paying women more. It's also about transforming low-wage industries into living-wage industries.
Fiscal Times
By Beth Braverman
October 1, 2015
Millennials are the generation that’s most worried about online identity theft, but they’re the least likely to actively protect their data.
About half of those age 18-34 say that they’re concerned about cybercrime, but 86 percent store bank account information on their phones and 84 percent make financial transactions while connected to public Wi-Fi, according to a new report from TransUnion. Two-thirds of millennials don’t even protect their devices with passwords – a basic precaution for protecting your data from fraudsters.
By comparison, just 36 percent of Baby Boomers were concerned about identity theft, but at least half follow fundamental best practices to protect their data.
Last year nearly 18 million people, or about 7 percent of American adults were the victim of identity theft, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Two-thirds of victims reported a direct financial loss, although more than half was able to resolve any problems associated with the incident within a few days. While the cost for most victims was less than $99, the total amount lost to ID theft last year was $15.4 billion.
In addition to practicing good cyber hygiene online, best practices to protect your identity include using multiple, strong passwords and taking seriously any notification from a company that your account has been breached.
If you’re worried that you have been the victim of ID theft, report it immediately to your credit card issuer, bank and other financial institutions. Sign up for a fraud alert and check your credit reports regularly for suspicious activity.
By Beth Braverman
October 1, 2015
Millennials are the generation that’s most worried about online identity theft, but they’re the least likely to actively protect their data.
About half of those age 18-34 say that they’re concerned about cybercrime, but 86 percent store bank account information on their phones and 84 percent make financial transactions while connected to public Wi-Fi, according to a new report from TransUnion. Two-thirds of millennials don’t even protect their devices with passwords – a basic precaution for protecting your data from fraudsters.
By comparison, just 36 percent of Baby Boomers were concerned about identity theft, but at least half follow fundamental best practices to protect their data.
Last year nearly 18 million people, or about 7 percent of American adults were the victim of identity theft, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Two-thirds of victims reported a direct financial loss, although more than half was able to resolve any problems associated with the incident within a few days. While the cost for most victims was less than $99, the total amount lost to ID theft last year was $15.4 billion.
In addition to practicing good cyber hygiene online, best practices to protect your identity include using multiple, strong passwords and taking seriously any notification from a company that your account has been breached.
If you’re worried that you have been the victim of ID theft, report it immediately to your credit card issuer, bank and other financial institutions. Sign up for a fraud alert and check your credit reports regularly for suspicious activity.
Thursday, October 01, 2015
VW emissions fraud tallies with Europe’s pollution overshoots
New Scientist is a British publication, so it gives more science news about Britain & Europe than U.S. science publications, but it also publishes a lot of U.S. science news. It is published weekly.
I get mine at my local Barnes & Noble store. It's my favorite magazine.
Sept. 28, 2015
Volkswagen’s admission on 22 September that many of its cars tricked their way through routine tailpipe emission tests could throw light on why many European countries have failed to meet targets for reducing pollution from airborne nitrogen oxides (NOx).
Failure to meet targets potentially means premature deaths and additional disease – the UK government estimated in a consultation document issued earlier this month that nitrogen dioxide emissions account for up to 23,500 premature deaths in the UK, mainly through heart and lung disease.
VW rigged the tests by fitting its cars with a “defeat device”, a component designed to recognise when the emissions test is under way and to distort the real-world performance of the engine so that the emissions fall within the limit.
Investigation by New Scientist suggest that while no other manufacturers of diesel vehicles will have gone as far as VW to cheat their way through the tests, there may be many that legally deploy unrealistic conditions during testing to artificially reduce strain on the engine, and with it the emissions produced.
The aim is to find a performance sweet spot that maximises the apparent fuel efficiency of the vehicle and minimises the apparent emission profile, even if both deviate from how the car would perform in the real world.
•••••
“It’s clear that both the on-road fuel consumption and emissions from European cars can be significantly higher than the official vehicle test measurements would indicate,” says Martin Adams, head of the air pollution group at the European Environment Agency. “The amount of fuel cars use on the road can be 30 per cent or higher more than official measurements, and for NOx, the differences are even higher, particularly for diesel vehicles, with real-life measurements showing that emissions can be as much as four or five times higher than in the test.”
“There have been rumours that some vehicles ‘know’ they are being tested, but this is the first time it’s been confirmed,” says Adams.
If this practice is widespread, it could help to explain why NOx emissions in many European countries continue to overshoot targets (see map, below), because transport accounts for 46 per cent of all NOx emissions in the region, according to the European Environment Agency.
•••••
Recent information gathered by the agency shows that EU member states have struggled to meet national limits for NOx set in European legislation, on the basis of what manufacturers said they could achieve technologically. By 2010, 11 of the 27 countries still hadn’t reached the target, and six still hadn’t by 2013, including France and Germany, the home of VW.
“In 2013, Germany and France reported the highest exceedances of NOx limits, with 218 kilotonnes and 180 kilotonnes respectively,” the agency reported in June.
Growth in traffic
•••••
But Adams says we don’t know if strategies used by manufacturers to fool the testing system have contributed to the unexpected failure of countries to reach NOx targets.
The agency says that while unexpectedly large amounts of pollution from supposedly clean cars is one possibility, there are other explanations. One is the growth in overall traffic, and another the increase in cars that burn diesel instead of petrol. Diesel cars release less carbon dioxide than petrol cars, but the European Environment Agency estimates that diesel accounts for 80 per cent of total NOx emissions from cars.
Adams says new tests have been developed within Europe to more closely mimic real driving conditions. “The sooner they are in operation, the better,” he says. “They’ve been agreed and it’s now down to timing, so it could be as soon as 2017, or as late as 2021.”
Forget trying to be normal, we should nurture our diversity
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830413-600-forget-trying-to-be-normal-we-should-nurture-our-diversity/
Sept. 30, 2015
The idea that there's an ideal way of thinking can make it harder to accept those who think differently. But greatness lies in different ways of thinking
AM I normal? It’s a question that most of us ask ourselves at one time or another. We are troubled by inner voices or strange little obsessions; we worry that we are different, that we have weak powers of concentration or poor self-control. But without direct access to other people’s thoughts, we have only the vaguest hopes of knowing.
•••••
There is a case to be made that focusing on “normality” obscures the positives of thinking differently. Leaf though the annals of art, science or literature and it is striking how many great figures are described as eccentric, awkward or absent-minded. We owe a great deal to those who think differently from the norm.
That is one reason to celebrate the rise of the neurodiversity movement, an offshoot from autism activism. Many schools and some employers have adjusted their environments to utilise the skills and cater to the needs of the non-neurotypical. Social events are following suit. Let’s hope we continue to learn that it is normal, and indeed, good, to be different.
Sept. 30, 2015
The idea that there's an ideal way of thinking can make it harder to accept those who think differently. But greatness lies in different ways of thinking
AM I normal? It’s a question that most of us ask ourselves at one time or another. We are troubled by inner voices or strange little obsessions; we worry that we are different, that we have weak powers of concentration or poor self-control. But without direct access to other people’s thoughts, we have only the vaguest hopes of knowing.
•••••
There is a case to be made that focusing on “normality” obscures the positives of thinking differently. Leaf though the annals of art, science or literature and it is striking how many great figures are described as eccentric, awkward or absent-minded. We owe a great deal to those who think differently from the norm.
That is one reason to celebrate the rise of the neurodiversity movement, an offshoot from autism activism. Many schools and some employers have adjusted their environments to utilise the skills and cater to the needs of the non-neurotypical. Social events are following suit. Let’s hope we continue to learn that it is normal, and indeed, good, to be different.
The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: A Reappraisal
See below for my comments on the misleading report on NPR this morning (10/12015) about this, as well comments on why this result should not be surprising.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/09/the-wage-impact-of-the-marielitos-a-reappraisal.html#comment-6a00d83451b33869e201b7c7d71e9f970b
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21588#fromrss
George J. Borjas
NBER Working Paper No. 21588
Issued in September 2015
National Bureau of Economic Research
This paper brings a new perspective to the analysis of the Mariel supply shock, revisiting the question and the data armed with the accumulated insights from the vast literature on the economic impact of immigration. A crucial lesson from this literature is that any credible attempt to measure the wage impact of immigration must carefully match the skills of the immigrants with those of the pre-existing workforce. The Marielitos were disproportionately low-skill; at least 60 percent were high school dropouts. A reappraisal of the Mariel evidence, specifically examining the evolution of wages in the low-skill group most likely to be affected, quickly overturns the finding that Mariel did not affect Miami’s wage structure. The absolute wage of high school dropouts in Miami dropped dramatically, as did the wage of high school dropouts relative to that of either high school graduates or college graduates. The drop in the relative wage of the least educated Miamians was substantial (10 to 30 percent), implying an elasticity of wages with respect to the number of workers between -0.5 and -1.5. In fact, comparing the magnitude of the steep post-Mariel drop in the low-skill wage in Miami with that observed in all other metropolitan areas over an equivalent time span between 1977 and 2001 reveals that the change in the Miami wage structure was a very unusual event.
•••••
============================================================
My comments:
The power elite that makes corporate donations to NPR obviously don't want people to know about this, because NPR had a report this morning saying the Marielitos had no effect on the economy, because they bought stuff, and created more jobs. They did finally say that "some" people said there "might" have been temporary decreases in wages for low-income people. Of course, wage decreases are more harmful to poor workers, who are living on the edge already.
The power elite, as well as the middle class, are helped when wages for the poor are kept down. And it gives them a bigger customer base.
What I notice is that for decades, we have had both an increasing proportion of immigrants, and decreasing wages for the low-income wage earners.
There is currently an oversupply of lawyers, resulting in lower salaries and difficulty finding a joy in there field.
Thru the decades, I have seen that the cycle of the supply of engineers. When there are too few, salaries go up, leading to more people getting engineering decrees, leading to an over supply, leading to decreased salaries and more people not able to get jobs in their field, leading to fewer people getting engineering degrees, leading to an under supply, etc.
If you don't think that an increased supply of workers would have the same effect just because they come from another country, please tell me how you think that works.
It's easy for the privileged people here to pontificate that more poor immigrants would not hurt the poor who are already here. You're not the ones getting hurt. You are benefiting from lower wages for the people you depend on.
If farmers can't get people to do the work, it means they aren't paying enough, and they are treating them badly. Why would it me moral to do the same to people who are immigrants?
Falling TVs causing increasing number of severe neck and head injuries in children
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/smh-ftc092415.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Falling TVs causing increasing number of severe neck and head injuries in children
The rate of these injuries has increased in the last decade
St. Michael's Hospital
TVs falling onto children are causing an increasing number of severe neck and head injuries, according to a new paper published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
The rate of these injuries has increased in the last decade and is expected to continue rising as TVs are becoming increasingly large and affordable. TVs are found in 95 per cent of Canadian households, and many aren't properly fixed to walls or stable bases. As TVs become heavier, they're more likely to cause fractures and intracranial hemorrhages, which can be fatal.
•••••
Dr. Cusimano said children between one and three years old are most susceptible to these injuries and more likely to suffer severe injuries than older children. Many of these injuries occur when toddlers climb onto furniture to retrieve toys or bump into unstable TV bases, causing TVs to topple onto their heads. Because toddlers are usually shorter than most TV stands, their head is most often the first point of contact when a TV falls.
The paper looked at 29 studies from seven countries analyzing TV-related head and neck injuries. The researchers found that 84 per cent of reported injuries occurred at home, with three-fourths of these injuries not witnessed by adult caregivers.
"TVs are often placed on unstable bases, placed on high furniture like dressers, which aren't designed for TVs, or not properly secured to the wall," said Dr. Cusimano. "Meanwhile, parents are getting busier and busier and don't have as much time to supervise children, so it's not surprising that these injuries are getting reported more often."
The paper also found that children between two and five years old have significant exposure to TVs - spending more than 32 hours per week in front of TVs - making them susceptible to these sorts of injuries.
•••••
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Falling TVs causing increasing number of severe neck and head injuries in children
The rate of these injuries has increased in the last decade
St. Michael's Hospital
TVs falling onto children are causing an increasing number of severe neck and head injuries, according to a new paper published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
The rate of these injuries has increased in the last decade and is expected to continue rising as TVs are becoming increasingly large and affordable. TVs are found in 95 per cent of Canadian households, and many aren't properly fixed to walls or stable bases. As TVs become heavier, they're more likely to cause fractures and intracranial hemorrhages, which can be fatal.
•••••
Dr. Cusimano said children between one and three years old are most susceptible to these injuries and more likely to suffer severe injuries than older children. Many of these injuries occur when toddlers climb onto furniture to retrieve toys or bump into unstable TV bases, causing TVs to topple onto their heads. Because toddlers are usually shorter than most TV stands, their head is most often the first point of contact when a TV falls.
The paper looked at 29 studies from seven countries analyzing TV-related head and neck injuries. The researchers found that 84 per cent of reported injuries occurred at home, with three-fourths of these injuries not witnessed by adult caregivers.
"TVs are often placed on unstable bases, placed on high furniture like dressers, which aren't designed for TVs, or not properly secured to the wall," said Dr. Cusimano. "Meanwhile, parents are getting busier and busier and don't have as much time to supervise children, so it's not surprising that these injuries are getting reported more often."
The paper also found that children between two and five years old have significant exposure to TVs - spending more than 32 hours per week in front of TVs - making them susceptible to these sorts of injuries.
•••••
Record El Niño set to cause hunger for 10 million poorest, Oxfam warns
This El Niño is made worse by global warming.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/01/record-el-nino-set-to-cause-hunger-for-10-million-poorest-oxfam-warns
Ethiopian children at a food distribution centre
Ethiopian children at a food distribution centre. El Niño events have caused crops to fail in some of the world’s poorest countries. Photograph: STR/Reuters
Oliver Milman
Sept. 30, 2015
At least 10 million of the world’s poorest people are set to go hungry this year because of failing crops caused by one of the strongest El Niño climatic events on record, Oxfam has warned.
The charity said several countries were already facing a “major emergency”, such as Ethiopia, where 4.5 million are in need of food aid because of a prolonged scarcity of rain this year.
Floods, followed by drought, have slashed Malawi’s maize production by more than a quarter, farmers in central America have suffered from two years of drought and El Niño conditions have already reduced the Asian monsoon over India, potentially triggering a wider drought across the east of the continent.
Indonesia’s government has declared drought in 34 of the country’s provinces because of El Niño, while 2 million people in Papua New Guinea have been affected by crops shrivelling in heat in some parts of the country and severe frosts in its highlands.
El Niño is a periodic climatic phenomenon where waters of the eastern tropical Pacific warm, triggering a range of potential consequences for global weather. While parts of South America are typically doused in heavy rainfall, warmer, drought-like conditions are experienced in Australia, south-east Asia and southern Africa.
The UK Met Office has predicted this year’s El Niño could be the strongest on record since 1950, warning that famine could grip west Africa.
•••••
El Niño-like conditions were expected last year but failed to materialise. The El Niño now brewing in the Pacific Ocean is expected to end in January but may, in the long term, become more frequent. Research published in Nature Climate Change last year predicted El Niño frequency could double because of climate change fuelled by the release of greenhouse gases.
Last year was the warmest year globally on record, with 2015 and 2016 potentially set to cause this record to topple again.
•••••
Grandmother's smoking habits increase asthma risk in grandchildren
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/elf-gsh092515.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Grandmother's smoking habits increase asthma risk in grandchildren
European Lung Foundation
Children with grandmothers who smoked have an increased risk of asthma even when mothers did not smoke, according to new findings.
The new study, presented today (30 September, 2015) at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress, 2015, is the first to investigate the risk in a whole population and use evidence about smoking habits taken directly from grandmothers at the time they were pregnant.
There has been a rapid increase in asthma in the last 50 years. Changing environmental exposures are thought to be responsible for this and more recently researchers are looking at these exposures in previous generations. It is known that tobacco use can affect the activity of genes and the researchers in this new study hypothesised that these changes could then be passed to subsequent generations.
•••••
The results found that if grandmothers had smoked whilst they were pregnant, there was an increased risk of asthma in grandchildren, even if their mothers had not smoked during pregnancy. The risk of asthma was increased by 10 to 22%.
Dr Caroline Lodge, an author of the study and Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, said: "We found that smoking in previous generations can influence the risk of asthma in subsequent generations. This may also be important in the transmission of other exposures and diseases."
•••••
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Grandmother's smoking habits increase asthma risk in grandchildren
European Lung Foundation
Children with grandmothers who smoked have an increased risk of asthma even when mothers did not smoke, according to new findings.
The new study, presented today (30 September, 2015) at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress, 2015, is the first to investigate the risk in a whole population and use evidence about smoking habits taken directly from grandmothers at the time they were pregnant.
There has been a rapid increase in asthma in the last 50 years. Changing environmental exposures are thought to be responsible for this and more recently researchers are looking at these exposures in previous generations. It is known that tobacco use can affect the activity of genes and the researchers in this new study hypothesised that these changes could then be passed to subsequent generations.
•••••
The results found that if grandmothers had smoked whilst they were pregnant, there was an increased risk of asthma in grandchildren, even if their mothers had not smoked during pregnancy. The risk of asthma was increased by 10 to 22%.
Dr Caroline Lodge, an author of the study and Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, said: "We found that smoking in previous generations can influence the risk of asthma in subsequent generations. This may also be important in the transmission of other exposures and diseases."
•••••
People carrying a certain genetic variant are more likely to benefit from a high-protein weight loss diet than those without it.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/d-pwg092515.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
People with genetic variant increasing vitamin D metabolism improve blood sugar control with high protein weight loss diet
Diabetologia
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that people carrying a certain genetic variant relating to vitamin D metabolism are more likely to benefit from a high-protein weight loss diet than those without it. The research is by Dr Qibin Qi, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, Bronx, NY, USA and Dr Yan Zheng, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, and Dr Lu Qi, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA and colleagues.
Previous research has shown that low levels of circulating vitamin D are associated with obesity, insulin resistance and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Other genetic studies have identified several genes involved in vitamin D metabolism. In this new research, the authors analysed whether diets high in fat or protein--both good sources of vitamin D--interact with these genetic variants in a way that improves weight loss and metabolic outcomes such as blood sugar control. They analysed interactions with three gene variants:
•••••
The authors analysed overweight/obese participants from a 2 year weight-loss trial conducted in the USA (the POUNDS Lost study). They assessed genotype effects on changes in body weight, fasting levels of glucose and insulin, and insulin resistance at both 6 months (656 participants) and 2 years (596 participants) in response to low-protein versus high-protein diets, and low-fat versus high-fat diets.
They found significant interactions between DHCR7 and diets varying in protein, but not in fat, which brought about changes in insulin and insulin resistance at both 6 months and 2 years. People with the DHCR7 variant which leads to increased vitamin D showed greater decreases in fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance in response to high-protein diets, while there was no significant genotype effect on changes in these traits in the low-protein diet group. There was no significant interaction found between the other two genetic variants and dietary protein, or any of the three variants with dietary fat.
•••••
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
People with genetic variant increasing vitamin D metabolism improve blood sugar control with high protein weight loss diet
Diabetologia
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that people carrying a certain genetic variant relating to vitamin D metabolism are more likely to benefit from a high-protein weight loss diet than those without it. The research is by Dr Qibin Qi, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, Bronx, NY, USA and Dr Yan Zheng, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA, and Dr Lu Qi, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA and colleagues.
Previous research has shown that low levels of circulating vitamin D are associated with obesity, insulin resistance and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Other genetic studies have identified several genes involved in vitamin D metabolism. In this new research, the authors analysed whether diets high in fat or protein--both good sources of vitamin D--interact with these genetic variants in a way that improves weight loss and metabolic outcomes such as blood sugar control. They analysed interactions with three gene variants:
•••••
The authors analysed overweight/obese participants from a 2 year weight-loss trial conducted in the USA (the POUNDS Lost study). They assessed genotype effects on changes in body weight, fasting levels of glucose and insulin, and insulin resistance at both 6 months (656 participants) and 2 years (596 participants) in response to low-protein versus high-protein diets, and low-fat versus high-fat diets.
They found significant interactions between DHCR7 and diets varying in protein, but not in fat, which brought about changes in insulin and insulin resistance at both 6 months and 2 years. People with the DHCR7 variant which leads to increased vitamin D showed greater decreases in fasting insulin levels and insulin resistance in response to high-protein diets, while there was no significant genotype effect on changes in these traits in the low-protein diet group. There was no significant interaction found between the other two genetic variants and dietary protein, or any of the three variants with dietary fat.
•••••
Use of explosive weapons in Syria has disproportionately lethal effects on women and children
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/b-wc092515.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Use of explosive weapons in Syria has disproportionately lethal effects on women and children
New evidence shows the ongoing severe impact of war on civilian deaths
BMJ
Using explosive weapons in populated areas in Syria has disproportionately lethal effects on women and children and should be urgently prohibited, say a team of international experts in The BMJ today.
For Syrian children, explosive weapons such as bombs and missiles, were the most lethal, the findings show.
•••••
The results show that children are more likely to be fatal victims of air bombardments, shells, and ground level explosives than men or women.
In government held areas, child deaths were 5 times as likely to be due to ground level explosives, such as car bombs than deaths among men.
Women were the second most likely to die due to explosive weapons, while the likelihood of death for men was higher for shootings and executions.
The government and rebel factions in Syria typically claim that the targets of their bombs and shells are enemy combatant strongholds, write the authors, "but our findings indicate that for Syrian children these are the weapons most likely to cause death."
•••••
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Use of explosive weapons in Syria has disproportionately lethal effects on women and children
New evidence shows the ongoing severe impact of war on civilian deaths
BMJ
Using explosive weapons in populated areas in Syria has disproportionately lethal effects on women and children and should be urgently prohibited, say a team of international experts in The BMJ today.
For Syrian children, explosive weapons such as bombs and missiles, were the most lethal, the findings show.
•••••
The results show that children are more likely to be fatal victims of air bombardments, shells, and ground level explosives than men or women.
In government held areas, child deaths were 5 times as likely to be due to ground level explosives, such as car bombs than deaths among men.
Women were the second most likely to die due to explosive weapons, while the likelihood of death for men was higher for shootings and executions.
The government and rebel factions in Syria typically claim that the targets of their bombs and shells are enemy combatant strongholds, write the authors, "but our findings indicate that for Syrian children these are the weapons most likely to cause death."
•••••
Climate change negatively affects birth weight
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uou-ccn092815.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Climate change negatively affects birth weight, University of Utah study finds
University of Utah
From melting glaciers to increasing wildfires, the consequences of climate change and strategies to mitigate such consequences are often a hotly debated topic. A new study led by the University of Utah adds to the ever-growing list of negative impacts climate change can have on humans--low birth weight.
The first of its kind, the two-year project led by U geography professor Kathryn Grace examined the relationship among precipitation, temperature and birth weight in 19 African countries. Grace and her team utilized high quality, detailed climate data in conjunction with extensive health data to focus on climate change and its effects on birth weight in the developing world.
The new findings show that a pregnant woman's exposure to reduced precipitation and an increased number of very hot days indeed results in lower birth weight.
•••••
Kids allowed to be kids make better parents
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/msu-kat092915.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Kids allowed to be kids make better parents
Michigan State University
Mothers who took on burdensome caregiving roles as children -- and weren't allowed to just "be kids" -- tend to be less sensitive to their own children's needs, finds new research led by a Michigan State University scholar.
The findings suggest these parents do not understand appropriate child development and end up parenting in a similar harmful manner in which they were raised. The study is online now in advance of print publication in the Journal of Family Psychology.
If your childhood was defined by parents expecting you to perform too much caregiving without giving you the chance to develop your own self-identity, that might lead to confusion about appropriate expectations for children and less accurate knowledge of their developmental limitations and needs as infants," said Amy K. Nuttall, assistant professor in MSU's Department of Human Development and Family Studies and lead author on the study.
"If mothers don't understand their children's needs," Nuttall concluded, "they're not able to respond to them appropriately."
Burdensome, adult-like caregiving, or "parentification," can involve routine parenting and disciplining of one's siblings, excessive chores and responsibilities around the house, and serving as the main emotional support system for parents.
For the study, 374 pregnant women from low-income households in four U.S. cities were surveyed about their upbringing. After birth, the mothers' parenting techniques were observed several times during an 18-month period.
Mothers who engaged in excessive, adult-like caregiving as children were less likely to respond warmly and positively to their infant's needs and interests and to put their child's need for exploration and independence over their own agenda.
A previous study led by Nuttall, which also appeared in the Journal of Family Psychology, found the children of mothers who engaged in excessive caregiving during childhood went on to display behavioral problems. Together, the studies have important implications for developing parent-education programs for mothers who were overburdened by caregiving roles in childhood.
Nuttall said instruction about infant development might be best served in prenatal classes. Women are more likely to attend prenatal classes than parenting classes offered after birth.
"Prenatal parenting classes may be particularly useful for teaching accurate knowledge of child development and appropriate expectations about children's abilities even before mothers give birth and begin parenting," Nuttall said.
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Kids allowed to be kids make better parents
Michigan State University
Mothers who took on burdensome caregiving roles as children -- and weren't allowed to just "be kids" -- tend to be less sensitive to their own children's needs, finds new research led by a Michigan State University scholar.
The findings suggest these parents do not understand appropriate child development and end up parenting in a similar harmful manner in which they were raised. The study is online now in advance of print publication in the Journal of Family Psychology.
If your childhood was defined by parents expecting you to perform too much caregiving without giving you the chance to develop your own self-identity, that might lead to confusion about appropriate expectations for children and less accurate knowledge of their developmental limitations and needs as infants," said Amy K. Nuttall, assistant professor in MSU's Department of Human Development and Family Studies and lead author on the study.
"If mothers don't understand their children's needs," Nuttall concluded, "they're not able to respond to them appropriately."
Burdensome, adult-like caregiving, or "parentification," can involve routine parenting and disciplining of one's siblings, excessive chores and responsibilities around the house, and serving as the main emotional support system for parents.
For the study, 374 pregnant women from low-income households in four U.S. cities were surveyed about their upbringing. After birth, the mothers' parenting techniques were observed several times during an 18-month period.
Mothers who engaged in excessive, adult-like caregiving as children were less likely to respond warmly and positively to their infant's needs and interests and to put their child's need for exploration and independence over their own agenda.
A previous study led by Nuttall, which also appeared in the Journal of Family Psychology, found the children of mothers who engaged in excessive caregiving during childhood went on to display behavioral problems. Together, the studies have important implications for developing parent-education programs for mothers who were overburdened by caregiving roles in childhood.
Nuttall said instruction about infant development might be best served in prenatal classes. Women are more likely to attend prenatal classes than parenting classes offered after birth.
"Prenatal parenting classes may be particularly useful for teaching accurate knowledge of child development and appropriate expectations about children's abilities even before mothers give birth and begin parenting," Nuttall said.
I just learned a new word - phubbing: to ignore (a person or one's surroundings) when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile devicehttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/bu-bsc092915.php
Public Release: 29-Sep-2015
Baylor study: Cellphones can damage romantic relationships, lead to depression
'Cellphone use can undermine the bedrock of our happiness -- our relationships with our romantic partners,' researcher says
Baylor University
Research from Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business confirms that cellphones are damaging romantic relationships and leading to higher levels of depression.
•••••
"What we discovered was that when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction," Roberts explained. "These lower levels of relationship satisfaction, in turn, led to lower levels of life satisfaction and, ultimately, higher levels of depression."
•••••
Results of the survey showed that:
46.3 percent of the respondents reported being phubbed by their partner
22.6 percent said this phubbing caused conflict in their relationships
36.6 percent reported feeling depressed at least some of the time
Overall, only 32 percent of respondents stated that they were very satisfied with their relationship, the study shows.
•••••
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