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Possible 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.
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Benefits 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.
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Enhancing Advanced Nuclear Reactor Analysis
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.
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Outsmarting 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.
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Poorly 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.
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As States Replace Lead Pipes, Plastic Alternatives Could Bring New Risks
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.”
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Fentanyl and the U.S. Opioid Epidemic
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.
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New 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.
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COVID Omicron Variant Infection Deadlier Than Flu: Studies
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.
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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.
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A Spill Outside Philadelphia Adds to the Growing List of Chemical Accidents This Year
There have already been 50 chemical spills or fires in the U.S. this year, and it’s only March.
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Physicians Get Trained on Gun Safety
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.
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In a Growing Petrochemical Hub, the East Palestine Derailment Triggers “an Uneasy Feeling”
The Upper Ohio River Valley has been layered in industrial pollution for centuries, and residents are fed up.
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Brain-Eating Amoeba Kills Florida Resident
A Florida resident died after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba. The victim was infected after rinsing their nasal sinuses with tap water. The amoeba is deadly: only four of the 154 people infected in the U.S. survived.
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North Korea’s Nuclear Tests Expose Neighbors to Radiation Risks
Tens of thousands of North Koreans and people in South Korea, Japan, and China could be exposed to radioactive materials spread through groundwater from an underground nuclear test site. North Korea secretly conducted six tests of nuclear weapons at the Punggye-ri site in the mountainous North Hamgyong Province between 2006 and 2017.
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The long view
World Risk Report: Where Are Natural Disasters Most Common?
The 2024 World Risk Report is out, highlighting which countries are most at risk from natural disasters, and what can be done to prevent catastrophes and mitigate the effects.
WHO Updates List of Most Dangerous Viruses and Bacteria
The WHO recently published a report outlining the findings of its global pathogen prioritization process that involved more than 200 scientists who evaluated evidence related to 28 viral families and one core group of bacteria, covering 1,652 pathogens.
Public Trust in Drinking Water Safety Is Low Globally
A new study finds more than half of adults surveyed worldwide expect to be seriously harmed by their water within the next two years. The study sought to understand public perceptions of drinking water safety.