• Fukushima radioactive plume to reach U.S. next year

    The radioactive ocean plume from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster will reach the shores of the United States within three years from the date of the incident, but is likely to be harmless, according to a new study. While atmospheric radiation was detected on the U.S. west coast within days of the incident, the radioactive particles in the ocean plume take considerably longer to travel the same distance.

  • Irradiated mosquitoes provide malaria vaccine

    A new malaria vaccine is derived from mosquitoes that have been irradiated but not killed. The radiation critically weakens the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, which is extracted from the insects’ salivary glands and administered intravenously to subjects.

  • Rapid response, imaging of injuries aided Boston Marathon bombing victims

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bombing survivors have the highest incidence of injury to soft tissue and musculoskeletal systems with the most extreme injury being traumatic amputation, which is reported in up to 3 percent of cases. The Boston Marathon bombings resulted in three fatalities and 264 casualties, with the most severe injuries involving lower extremities of those located closest to the blasts. Blast injuries within civilian populations are rare in the United States, so when they do occur they challenge the medical community rapidly to respond to concurrent evaluation and treatment of many victims.

  • Drones help kill bugs dead

    The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is considering using a drone to spot shallow-water pools where mosquitoes breed along the Keys. The 2.2-pound, 2.5-foot-long drone would use infrared cameras to locate the shallow pools and allow the district rapidly to treat those areas with larvicide.

  • U.S. radiation exposure guidelines based on unvalidated assumptions: toxicologist

    In the 1950s regulators came to adopt the linear no threshold (LNT) dose-response approach to ionizing radiation exposure, which was later generalized to chemical carcinogen risk assessment. A UMass Amherst toxicologist now offers further evidence to support his earlier assertions that two geneticists deliberately suppressed evidence to prevent the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) from considering an alternative, threshold model, for which there was experimental support. “This isn’t an academic debate; it’s practical, because all of our rules about chemical and low-level radiation are based on unvalidated assumptions and scientific panel decisions made without sound evidence,” the toxicologist says.

  • Bacteria in drinking water are essential to keeping it clean

    Researchers point the way to more sophisticated and targeted methods of ensuring our drinking water remains safe to drink, while still reducing the need for chemical treatments and identifying potential hazards more quickly.

  • In arid regions, irrigation can increase malaria risk for a decade

    Malaria risk in arid regions often rises when irrigation is introduced, due to increased amounts of standing water that serve as mosquito breeding sites. Globally, the number of people at risk of contracting malaria due to proximity to irrigation canals and related infrastructure has been estimated at 800 million, which represents about 12 percent of the global malaria burden. New irrigation systems in arid regions benefit farmers but can increase the local malaria risk for more than a decade — which is longer than previously believed — despite intensive and costly use of insecticides, a new University of Michigan-led study in northwest India concludes.

  • Groundwater in Vietnam threatened by a new source of arsenic

    In Southern Asia, an estimated 100 million people have been exposed to risks from groundwater contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic. The tainted water, used for drinking, agriculture, and industry, has resulted in a variety of serious health risks, including cancer. “Dig deep” to avoid naturally occurring arsenic contamination has been promoted as an answer to obtaining safe water in South Asia, but arsenic has been found in numerous deep wells drilled in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam.

  • Effective screening of airline passengers arriving from areas of infectious disease outbreaks

    New study shows that exit-screening at thirty-six airports would have assessed all air travelers at risk of transporting H1N1 out of Mexico at start of 2009 pandemic. Screening at 99 percent of the world’s international airports could have been forgone with negligible missed opportunities to prevent or delay the spread of disease. Screening at just eight airports worldwide would have led to the assessment of 90 percent of all at-risk air travelers.

  • Lawmakers criticize FDA, CDC for Cyclospora outbreak foot-dragging

    Lawmakers want to know why it has taken so long for food-safety authorities to respond to the cyclospora outbreak which, so far, has sickened at least 418 people in sixteen states. They also want to know why the FDA and CDC have been tight-lipped about the specific products carrying the parasite — health authorities in Nebraska and Iowa have pointed to bagged salad containing romaine and iceberg lettuce as well as carrots and cabbage as the source – and who is the manufacturer of the contaminated products.

  • New journal articles offer useful information for farmers, soldiers

    A new study of the Research Program for Deployed Warfighter Protection (DWFP) program discusses the program’s accomplishments, including the rodent feed-through technique with insecticidal baits for controlling phlebotomine sand flies; developing attractive targeted sugar bait for use against mosquitoes and sand flies; developing a lethal oviposition trap for container-breeding mosquitoes and evaluating using pyriproxyfen (an insect growth regulator) and autodissemination by these mosquitoes to block their reproduction and metamorphosis; defining the limitations of insect repellents against infected vectors; and developing the Florida Fly Baiter and several types of novel sprayer equipment for insecticide application.

  • CDC warns of parasites-related illnesses in fifteen states

    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Monday that the number of Cyclospora cases has risen to 373 in fifteen states. State and federal health officials have not named the food or water source responsible for to the outbreak, but fresh produce is the likely source.

  • Tick rover robot kills ticks dead

    The day may not be too far away when homeowners can schedule monthly tick clearing service, drastically reducing the risk of tick-borne illness in their pets and children. This is because the “tick rover” robot has just cleared a major hurdle. Testing last month indicated unequivocally that the device kills between 75 and 100 percent of the ticks in its path.

  • Natural pest control protein for fighting hookworm: billion to benefit

    Hookworms, and other intestinal parasites known as helminths infect more than one billion people in poverty-stricken, tropical nations, sucking the vitality from the body, and leaving hundreds of millions of children physically and mentally stunted. A benign crystal protein, produced naturally by bacteria and used as an organic pesticide, could be a safe, inexpensive treatment for parasitic worms.

  • Mass religious gatherings in Middle East increase risk of MERS coronavirus spreading globally

    Researchers say that the life-threatening MERS coronavirus which has emerged in the Middle East could spread faster and wider during two international mass gatherings involving millions of people in the next few months – the umrah pilgrimage and the hajj. The researchers describe the most likely pathways of international spread based upon worldwide patterns of air travel.