Over the past year, I've noticed a pattern among some of my colleagues in public health, biomedical research, and the university settings in which I work. It's a strange, reflexive tic: Faced with bad-faith criticism from malign actors, we shrink back, saying, "Oh, it's not you. It's me," and walk onto their terrain with accommodation in our hearts. Some may think that, faced with the full fury of the far right, some kind of retreat is the only option.
More than 50 groups connected to transport and public health have urged the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, to set specific targets for levels of walking and cycling in England, warning that plans as they stand are too vague. A letter from groups including British Cycling, Cycling UK, the National Trust and the British Medical Association says the government's proposals for active travel must move from good intentions to a clear, long-term, fully deliverable national plan comparable to other strategic transport programmes.
The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste. Death cap mushrooms contain potentially deadly toxins that can lead to liver failure, Erica Pan, director of the California department of public health, said in a statement.
"For too long, our Department has been bogged down by bureaucracy and busy-work; even the most productive public servants are mired in paperwork and process. Across our mission space - from research, to health care delivery, to public health - we've layered administrative red tape on innovators," HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill wrote in an introductory letter for the strategy. "We will harness AI technologies to streamline operations and enhance support for care delivery throughout the entire health care industry. We call it OneHHS."
We are used to being concerned about air pollution outdoors, but we aren't used to thinking about air pollution when we're inside our homes," Rob Jackson, the study's senior author and an earth system science professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, told SFGATE. "For the average American, one quarter of all the asthma-triggering nitrogen dioxide that they breathe comes from their stove indoors. That's not something most people are aware of.
Next time you chow down on your morning cereal, you could be consuming dangerous 'forever chemicals', scientists have warned. A new study from Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe has detected a toxic 'forever chemical' in cereal products sold across the continent. The synthetic substance, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), comes from pesticides sprayed over crops like wheat and corn. Worryingly, TFA is known to have several adverse effects on human health. This includes disruptions to breathing pathways, liver function and the development of babies in the womb.
Yes. Lead is toxic for humans, and even low levels can cause serious health problems. Children, women of childbearing age, and those who are breastfeeding could be at higher risk after eating food from cookware that leaches lead. Babies and kids are more susceptible to lead toxicity due to their smaller size, metabolism, and rapidly developing bodies, according to the FDA.
Scores of Britons are being struck down with 'super flu' this winter amid fears the country may be face its 'worse flu season on record'. A troublesome mutant strain of the flu is believed to be more infectious and leading to more severe illness and hospital admissions than last year. Leading virologists also fear the flu outbreak may be leaving people vulnerable to other catching other seasonal illnesses at the same time, such as norovirus and cold-like respiratory syncytial virus ( RSV), in the run up to Christmas worsening symptoms.
Record-breaking heat is now routine. The devastating heatwave that wracked southwestern Europe in 2003 and claimed more than 70,000 lives produced temperatures not experienced in the region since the sixteenth century. Subsequent summers have extended this trend. In 2024, the continent recorded its hottest summer on record. In urban environments, where most of the world's population lives, the problem is especially acute. "If you build a city, inevitably it will be hotter," says Edward Ng, an architect at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
When Brooklyn metal band Contract performs around New York, they expect a mosh pit: thrashing bodies shoving and jumping along to the music. They also want to make sure the amped-up, usually drunk crowd stays hydrated. Without water, a mosher might feel sick, faint or pass out. You don't want anyone to get injured or hurt, frontman Pele Uriel said.
By the numbers: Cases of norovirus have doubled over the last few weeks, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 14% of tests for norovirus came back positive during the week of Nov. 15, double the roughly 7% positivity three months ago, the CDC data show. Test positivity, though imperfect, generally helps health officials understand how many people are confirmed to have an illness when it is suspected.
Rates of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are surging in Texas, Florida, California, Oregon, and other states and localities across the country. The outbreaks are fueled by falling vaccination rates, fading immunity, and delays in public health tracking systems, according to interviews with state and federal health officials. Babies too young to be fully vaccinated are most at risk.
Hackney Council takes a 'health in all policies' approach to everything we do. "Gambling-related harm is well documented but not well recognised as it is often a highly stigmatised form of damage in the lives of some of ourmost deprived citizens."
Air pollution has reached "alarming" levels in the Iranian capital, Tehran, leading authorities to close schools and universities and ban truck travel in the region in the latest environmental crisis to strike the Middle East nation. The Air Quality Index in Tehran and surrounding cities on November 29 climbed to between 170 and 200 -- considered to be "unhealthy" for all age groups, Iranian media reported.
Doherty's story began when he noticed a rise in bizarre medical conditions among the county's 45,000 residents, linked to toxins in the local water. Working with the county health office, the rancher-turned-official began a survey of 70 wells throughout his jurisdiction - 68 of which, his testing found, violated the federal limit for nitrates in drinking water. Of the first 30 homes he visited, Doherty told RS that 25 residents had recently had miscarriages, while six had lost a kidney.
The US navy knew of potentially dangerous levels of airborne plutonium in San Francisco for almost a year before it alerted city officials after it carried out testing that detected radioactive material in November last year, public health advocates allege. The plutonium levels exceeded the federal action threshold at the navy's highly contaminated, 866-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. It was detected in an area adjacent to a residential neighborhood filled with condos, and which includes a public park.
In May this year, France extended its smoking ban to include outdoor spaces such as beaches, parks, bus stops and outside schools (although café terraces are not included in the ban). It went a bit under the radar at the time - because there's not much skiing in May - but the ban also includes ski resorts. Smoking is now banned in ski lifts, the queues for the ski lifts and on the piste, on pain of a €135 fine. Smoking is still allowed while skiing off-piste or in the streets of the ski resorts. Smoking in indoor spaces such as bars, restaurants or hotels has been banned since 2007.
Each day, Kiran Kasbe drives a rickshaw taxi through his home neighbourhood of Mahul on Mumbai's eastern seafront, down streets lined with stalls selling tomatoes, bottle gourds and auberginesand, frequently, through thick smog. Earlier this year, doctors found three tumours in his 54-year-old mother's brain. It's not clear exactly what caused her cancer. But people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop the illness, studies show, and the residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres down the road from one.
Of the 70 people whose blood was tested as part of the investigation, 70% had amounts of lead in their bloodstream that were described as "harmful," including all of the people who worked in recycling facilities. The Times also compared their findings to the lead pollution caused by a now-shuttered auto battery recycling plant in Vernon, California. The investigation noted that soil at a school in Ogijo had around 20 times as much lead as a preschool near the plant in Vernon.
The findings have raised concern among public health experts about the unintended consequences of EU-­mandated picture warnings designed to reduce smoking rates. The research, led by a team at the Technological University of the ­Shannon (TUS), examined reactions to one image of a woman exhaling cigarette smoke. It revealed that despite the intended purpose, to deter use, some of those surveyed reported ­positive emotional responses.
"Research has become an increasingly more important component of medical training, both as an avenue for career development and to showcase ground-breaking insights," said Kelly Bachta, MD, PhD, associate director of Feinberg student research, director of AOSC and assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
