• PUBLIC HEALTHBacteria-Killing Viruses as Alternative to Antibiotics

    The public is in favor of the development of bacteria-killing viruses as an alternative to antibiotics – and more efforts to educate will make them significantly more likely to use the treatment, a new study shows.

  • GUNSBirth Year Predicts Exposure to Gun Violence

    By Christy DeSmith

    In long-term study, risk of getting shot or witnessing a shooting varied by respondents’ race, sex, and when they came of age. The study found that more than half of Black and Hispanic respondents witnessed a shooting by age 14 on average.

  • SCHOOL VIOLENCEStudents’ Troubling Reaction to School Violence Compounds the Problem

    Among U.S. high school students, the decision to carry a weapon to school is tied to experiencing violence at school, reports a new study. But weapons increase the potential for injury and death when there is interpersonal conflict, so understanding the relationship between exposure to violence and weapon carrying is essential for developing effective public health interventions.

  • CLIMATE CHALLENGESPossible Future Health Impacts Related to Climate Mitigation

    Reduce fossil fuel use and air quality will improve, right? It might not be as straightforward as it appears, according to researchers. Some climate change mitigation measures may cause worsening of air quality.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHBenefits of Lead- and Copper-Clean Drinking Water Far Exceed Initial Estimates

    The cost-benefit analysis of the EPA’s Lead and Copper Drinking Water Rule Revision (LCRR) far exceeds the EPA’s public estimates and could help inform improvements to current regulations. (LCRR) costs $335 million to implement while generating $9 billion in health benefits annually, exceeding the EPA’s public statements that the LCRR generates $645 million in annual health benefits.

  • NUCLEAR POWEREnhancing Advanced Nuclear Reactor Analysis

    By Mollie Rappe

    Nuclear power is a significant source of steady carbon-neutral electricity, and advanced reactors can add more of it to the U.S. grid, which is vital for the environment and economy. Sandia Lab researchers have developed a standardized screening method to determine the most important radioactive isotopes that could leave an advanced reactor site in the unlikely event of an accident.

  • SUPERBUGSOutsmarting Superbugs, One Germ at a Time

    It’s an old story: Pathogen sickens humans. Humans create medicine. Pathogen evolves a way around the medicine. Humans are back to square one.

  • THREAT LANDSCAPEPoorly Understood Environmental Trends Could Become Tomorrow’s Security Threats

    There is an urgent need to understand how a range of emerging ecological challenges could trigger catastrophic instability and insecurity, argues a new report. The authors stress that uncertainty and knowledge gaps should galvanize rather than delay both research and action to prevent, mitigate or adapt to consequences that could be catastrophic.

  • PIPE MIGHTMAREAs States Replace Lead Pipes, Plastic Alternatives Could Bring New Risks

    By Joseph Winters

    Across the country, states and cities are replacing lead pipes to address concerns over lead-contaminated drinking water, an urgent health threat. But critics say that substituting PVC for lead pipes “may well be leaping from the frying pan into the fire.”

  • OPIOID EPIDEMICFentanyl and the U.S. Opioid Epidemic

    By Claire Klobucista and Alejandra Martinez

    Opioid addiction and abuse in the United States has become a prolonged epidemic, endangering public health, economic output, and national security. Since 2000, more than a million people in the United States have died of drug overdoses, the majority of which were due to opioids.

  • GUNSNew Statistical Model Accurately Predicts Monthly U.S. Gun Homicides

    The United States experiences a staggeringly high rate of gun homicides, but accurately predicting these incidents – especially on a monthly basis – has been a significant challenge. A new methodology, overcoming limitations of official government data, could change that.

  • EPICEMICSCOVID Omicron Variant Infection Deadlier Than Flu: Studies

    By Mary Van Beusekom

    Two new studies suggest that COVID-19 Omicron variant infection is deadlier than influenza, with one finding that US veterans hospitalized with Omicron in fall and winter 2022-23 died at a 61% higher rate than hospitalized flu patients.

  • PERSPECTIVE: GUNS & CHILDREN Guns Now Kill More Children and Young Adults Than Car Crashes

    For the past few decades, motor vehicle crashes were the most common cause of death from injury— and the leading cause of death in general—among children, teenagers, and young adults in the U.S. But now, firearms exceed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury-related death for people ages one to 24.

  • CHEMICAL SPILLSA Spill Outside Philadelphia Adds to the Growing List of Chemical Accidents This Year

    By Max Graham

    There have already been 50 chemical spills or fires in the U.S. this year, and it’s only March.

  • GUNSPhysicians Get Trained on Gun Safety

    By Emily Moskal

    For the past three years, Winslow and Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of epidemiology, have worked on an online, self-paced course called Clinicians and Firearms. The aim is to promote education for clinicians, teaching how to reduce firearm injuries and deaths, including tips on how to talk to patients about safe storage and temporary removal of firearms from the home during times of high risk.