Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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Released: 5-Aug-2016 3:05 PM EDT
New Virus Found During Investigation Into Largemouth Bass Fish Kill
University of Wisconsin–Madison

A new virus has been identified in association with a die-off of largemouth bass in Pine Lake in Wisconsin’s Forest County. The previously unknown virus was isolated at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s La Crosse Fish Health Center from dead fish collected by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) during an investigation into a May 2015 fish kill in the northeastern Wisconsin lake.

Released: 5-Aug-2016 11:05 AM EDT
NSU Researchers Studying Toxic Effects of Oil on Corals
Nova Southeastern University

In a marine oil spill, a high priority for responders is the protection of corals and coral reefs, which, for a myriad of other reasons, are under stress throughout the world. To accomplish this, responders need the best possible scientific information on the effects oil has on corals. To that end, researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography have been studying the effect hydrocarbons have on these unique marine creatures.

Released: 4-Aug-2016 12:05 PM EDT
Bloom and Bust: Algae Takes a Heavy Toll on Florida Tourism
University of Florida

The harmful algae bloom affecting some South Florida beaches has driven away half of people considering visiting the Sunshine State and could deter nearly three-fourths of those thinking of traveling to the affected counties, a new study shows.

Released: 3-Aug-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Trading Farmland for Nitrogen Protection
American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

Excess nitrogen from agricultural runoff can enter surface waters with devastating effects. Algal blooms and fish kills are a just a couple of possible consequences. But riparian buffer zones – areas of grasses, perennials, or trees – between farmlands and streams or rivers can help.

Released: 3-Aug-2016 10:55 AM EDT
New Technique Shows Protein Changes in Intact Microbial Communities
Department of Energy, Office of Science

Thanks to a new technique, scientists can analyze proteins collected from an intact microbial community, gaining insights into how the broader system works.

Released: 2-Aug-2016 7:00 AM EDT
Indiana University Experts Available to Discuss 2016 Summer Olympics
Indiana University

With 2016 Summer Olympic Games set to begin Aug. 5 in Rio de Janeiro, Indiana University experts in economics, public health, media studies, cybersecurity, public and environmental affairs and business and are available to discuss a variety of issues. Topics include Zika and other health concerns for athletes and spectators, how coverage and marketing of the games has changed and how it might frame public discussion on other topics, and Brazil's ability to pull off a successful worldwide event and its long-term futur

Released: 1-Aug-2016 5:05 PM EDT
Health Tips to Have Your Best Summer Yet
Texas A&M University

The lazy, hazy days of summer are here! Barbecues, swimming, pool parties, what’s not to love? The only downside: A few environmental hazards follow our fun in the sun, but, don’t sweat it; we’ve got your back. Here’s a few common problems to look out for while you’re out with family and friends.

   
Released: 29-Jul-2016 10:40 AM EDT
Research Concludes Waste From Test Fracking Wells Safe to Be on Highways
West Virginia University

Researchers at West Virginia University studied drilling wastes produced at two research wells near Morgantown and found they are well below federal guidelines for radioactive or hazardous waste.

Released: 28-Jul-2016 6:30 PM EDT
Start-Up Company Uses Novel Technology to Mitigate Risks From Sea-Level Rise, Flooding
Florida Atlantic University

Coastal Risk Consulting, a new start-up company formed by an FAU professor, has developed novel technology to assist coastal homeowners, businesses, and government to evaluate and mitigate risks from encroaching seas along Florida’s southeast coast as well as other vulnerable areas in the United States and overseas.

Released: 27-Jul-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Endocrine Society Experts Concerned EU Chemical Criteria Will Not Protect Public
Endocrine Society

The European Commission’s narrow criteria for endocrine-disrupting chemicals will make it nearly impossible for scientists to meet the unrealistically high burden of proof and protect the public from dangerous chemicals, the Endocrine Society said in a response sent to the Commission today.

Released: 26-Jul-2016 10:55 AM EDT
Researchers ID Cancer Gene-Drug Combinations Ripe for Precision Medicine; Many Skin Cancer Patients Still Too Likely to Sunburn; Researchers Block Common Type of Colon Cancer Tumor in Mice, and More in the Cancer News Source
Newswise

Personalized Medicine Leads to Better Outcomes; Phase 1 Study Results of Selinexor Combination Therapy for Multiple Myeloma Patients; and the Latest from ASCO Sessions in the Cancer News Source

Released: 26-Jul-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Idle Hands: New and Improved Idlebox Tool to Aid in Reduction of Idling
Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory, with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program, has relaunched IdleBox, an electronic education and outreach toolkit aimed at promoting idling reduction across the country. The new IdleBox is now available to anyone seeking an authoritative resource on idling reduction.

Released: 25-Jul-2016 9:05 AM EDT
WSU Students Work to Save the Destruction of the Iconic Palm Tree
Wichita State University

When a monster beetle arrived in Hawaii and began chomping down palm trees, students with Wichita State University's Bug Lab took action.

   
Released: 25-Jul-2016 8:05 AM EDT
UF/IFAS Research Could Lead to More and Healthier Sorghum
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

A UF/IFAS scientist has identified two areas of the sorghum genome that could boost the plant’s resistance to the anthracnose disease. Sorghum is a grain known to produce feed for livestock and biofuel.

Released: 22-Jul-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Cambodia’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary Sells First Carbon Credits
Wildlife Conservation Society

The Royal Government of Cambodia, through a long-running partnership with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), has sold to Disney the first carbon credits from a climate change mitigation project in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, which encompasses a total area of 292,690 hectares.

Released: 20-Jul-2016 2:05 PM EDT
USF Researchers Find Dangerous Bacteria After Sewer Spills
University of South Florida

TAMPA, Fla. (July 20, 2016) - University of South Florida researchers investigating the aftermath of a September, 2014 sewer line break in St. Petersburg, Florida, have found dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the untreated wastewater that gushed into neighborhoods and into Boca Ciega Bay at a rate of 250 to 500 gallons per minute.

Released: 20-Jul-2016 10:05 AM EDT
ACI Chronicles Decades of Cleaning Product Safety Research
American Cleaning Institute

Cleaning product manufacturers and suppliers have a lengthy history of carrying out and supporting research on the environmental fate and effects of cleaning product ingredients, according to an article by scientists at the American Cleaning Institute. Writing in SETAC Globe – a technical communication of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry – ACI’s science team lays out highlights of the Institute’s research over much of its 90-year history, including examples of novel approaches applied to down-the-drain consumer chemicals.

Released: 19-Jul-2016 12:05 PM EDT
Kidney Toxins and Kidney Injury Biomarker Detected in Children
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Water supply contamination has become a global issue, affecting communities in both the United States and around the world. Exposure to environmental toxins - such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and other heavy metals - early in life via contaminated water or other sources can have long-term health consequences as children grow. Investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Sciences at Harvard Medical School have assessed environmental exposure to multiple toxins in children living in a region of Mexico with a high incidence of chronic kidney disease, especially among young adults. Not only did the team detect high levels of the arsenic and chromium in urine samples from the children, they also were able to detect elevated levels of KIM-1, a biomarker that is being studied as an early sign of kidney injury. The team's findings are published this week in Environmental Research.

Released: 18-Jul-2016 2:05 PM EDT
New ORNL Tool Probes for Genes Linked to Toxic Methylmercury
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Environmental scientists can more efficiently detect genes required to convert mercury in the environment into more toxic methylmercury with molecular probes developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

14-Jul-2016 1:30 PM EDT
Study: Fracking Industry Wells Associated with Increased Risk of Asthma Attacks
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

People with asthma who live near bigger or larger numbers of active unconventional natural gas wells operated by the fracking industry in Pennsylvania are 1.5 to four times likelier to have asthma attacks than those who live farther away, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

Released: 18-Jul-2016 9:20 AM EDT
Toxicological Cross-Check
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology

Flame retardants are invisible assistants in car seats, gasket sealants, furniture and even in aeroplanes. However, their ingredients are not always harmless. Empa researchers developed three innovative flame retardants and tested them for toxicity; not all of them passed the test.

Released: 18-Jul-2016 9:05 AM EDT
Can Synthetic Clays Save a World Awash in Pollution?
Penn State Materials Research Institute

A Penn State researcher has developed materials that can clean up multiple radioactive pollutants and heavy metals. The next step is to get them out of the laboratory.

Released: 14-Jul-2016 2:05 PM EDT
UK Researchers Partner With Kentucky Bourbon Distillery to Convert Waste Into Useful Products
University of Kentucky

Researchers at UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) are always on the lookout for abundant and sustainable materials that can be converted into value-added products. In this case, CAER has partnered with Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville, Kentucky to convert stillage, a by-product left over during the bourbon production process, into materials that can be used in batteries, capacitors and water filtration systems.

Released: 13-Jul-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Upstream Trenches, Downstream Nitrogen
American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

Researchers reduce the amount of nitrogen that moves downstream from fields with woodchip-filled trenches, bioreactors. Bacteria that live in them neutralize the nitrogen threat to downstream waters.

Released: 12-Jul-2016 1:05 AM EDT
The True Cost of Crime -- in Carbon Footprints
University of Surrey

Recent research by the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy has found that despite policy makers currently examining the economic and social impacts of crime, the environmental impacts have not, to date, been included.

   
Released: 11-Jul-2016 8:05 AM EDT
Q-Biotype Whitefly Expands to 8 Florida Counties
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Crops that could eventually be affected include tomatoes, squash, beans, watermelons and many other vegetables and ornamentals, said Lance Osborne, an entomology professor at UF/IFAS.

Released: 10-Jul-2016 11:05 PM EDT
Increase in Childhood and Adult Asthma Linked to London's 1952 Great Smog
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health

London's Great Smog of 1952 resulted in thousands of premature deaths and even more people becoming ill. The five December days the smog lasted may have also resulted in thousands more cases of childhood and adult asthma. Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the University of California, San Diego and University of Massachusetts studied how London's Great Smog affected early childhood health and the long-term health consequences. Findings are published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Released: 8-Jul-2016 12:15 AM EDT
London’s 1952 Great Smog May Have Increased Childhood and Adult Asthma
American Thoracic Society (ATS)

July 8, 2016─London’s Great Smog of 1952 resulted in thousands of premature deaths and even more people becoming ill. The five December days the smog lasted may have also resulted in thousands more cases of childhood and adult asthma, according to research published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Released: 7-Jul-2016 12:30 PM EDT
Recycled Plastic Lumber Invented by Pioneering Rutgers Professor
Rutgers University

Imagine a material lighter than steel, longer-lasting than lumber and strong enough to support 120-ton locomotives. Now imagine that material is made from milk containers, coffee cups and other plastics that we recycle. It’s called structural plastic lumber, and the ingenious, nontoxic material was invented by Thomas Nosker, an assistant research professor at Rutgers University. The late Richard W. Renfree, Nosker’s graduate student who later became a Rutgers professor, helped invent the revolutionary material.

Released: 5-Jul-2016 12:05 PM EDT
Day-Biting Invasive Mosquito Species Spreading Its Range in Austria
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna

Until a few years ago the Asian bush mosquito, Aedes japonicus, was not yet present in Europe. Now it is spreading its range in several European countries, including Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Ae. japonicus no longer is an exotic guest - it is here to stay.

Released: 28-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Pipelines Affect Health, Fitness of Salmon, Study Finds
University of Guelph

Pipelines carrying crude oil to ports in British Columbia may spell bad news for salmon, according to a new University of Guelph-led study. Exposure to an oil sands product – diluted bitumen – impairs the swimming ability and changes the heart structures of young salmon.

Released: 28-Jun-2016 12:05 PM EDT
People in Hotter, Poorer Neighborhoods at Higher Risk of Death During Extreme Heat
University of British Columbia

New research from the University of British Columbia shows a higher risk of mortality during extreme heat events in neighbourhoods that tend to get hotter and where people tend to be poorer.

24-Jun-2016 5:00 PM EDT
From Fire Break to Fire Hazard
McMaster University

The peat bogs of the world, once waterlogged repositories of dead moss, are being converted into fuel-packed fire hazards that can burn for months and generate deadly smoke, warns a McMaster researcher who documents the threat – and a possible solution ¬– in a paper published today in the journal Nature Scientific reports.

Released: 21-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Tracking the Aluminum Used to Purify Tap Water
Kobe University

A Kobe University research group including Associate Professor Maki Hideshi (Center for Environmental Management), PhD candidate Sakata Genki (Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, currently employed at Central Glass Co., Ltd.) and Professor Mizuhata Minoru (Graduate School of Engineering) have developed a new analysis method that uses magnetic fields to quickly and accurately measure the concentration of aluminum used to purify tap water. These findings can potentially be used in developing efficient and environmentally-conscious coagulants for water treatment. The findings were presented on May 29, 2016 at the 76th Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry Symposium.

Released: 20-Jun-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Mysterious Enzyme Does Damage Control, Can Help with Health, Environment
University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

A previously mysterious family of enzymes removes abnormal versions of some very common chemicals found in all life forms, opening many possibilities for health and agricultural applications, a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher says.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 6:30 PM EDT
Endocrine Society Experts Urge EU to Protect Public from Chemical Exposure
Endocrine Society

To protect human health, Endocrine Society members called on the European Commission to adopt science-based policies for regulating endocrine-disrupting chemicals in an opinion piece published today in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 2:05 PM EDT
El Nino Drives Fastest Annual Increase on Record of Carbon Dioxide
University of Exeter

The human-caused rise in atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is being given an extra boost this year by the natural climate phenomena of El Niño, say climate scientists in a paper published in today's edition of the journal Nature Climate Change. As a result, 2016 will be the first year with concentrations above 400 parts per million all year round in the iconic Mauna Loa carbon dioxide record.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Predicting Disease Outbreaks Using Environmental Changes
University College London

A model that predicts outbreaks of zoonotic diseases -- those originating in livestock or wildlife such as Ebola and Zika -- based on changes in climate, population growth and land use has been developed by a UCL-led team of researchers.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 1:05 PM EDT
Predicting Disease Outbreaks Using Environmental Changes
University College London

A model that predicts outbreaks of zoonotic diseases -- those originating in livestock or wildlife such as Ebola and Zika -- based on changes in climate, population growth and land use has been developed by a UCL-led team of researchers.

Released: 13-Jun-2016 12:05 PM EDT
Food and Environment Course Examines Sustainability of Student Cafés
University of Chicago

A food and environment course took the students out of the classroom to learn about food service operations and their sustainability options.

7-Jun-2016 7:05 AM EDT
Climate Change Mitigation: Turning CO2 Into Rock
University of Southampton

An international team of scientists have found a potentially viable way to remove anthropogenic (caused or influenced by humans) carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere – turn it into rock.

Released: 9-Jun-2016 10:05 AM EDT
Metal Exposure -- a Factor in Bat Population Decline
University of York

Scientists at the University of York have led the first full-scale national assessment of metal contamination in bats, showing that many bats in the UK contain levels of metals high enough to cause toxic effects.

Released: 8-Jun-2016 3:05 PM EDT
Gulf of Mexico Alliance Releases Governors’ Action Plan III for Healthy and Resilient Coasts
Gulf of Mexico Alliance

The Gulf of Mexico Alliance (Alliance) released the Governors’ Action Plan III For Healthy and Resilient Coasts today. This is the third major effort by the Alliance, approved by all five U.S. Gulf Coast State governors. The states of Alabama and Mississippi issued proclamations, declaring support for the plan and emphasizing the vision to improve the health and sustainability of our coastal areas. They noted millions of people depend on it – to live, work, and vacation. In the plan, the Alliance addresses six major regional issues: coastal resilience; data and monitoring; education and engagement; habitat resources; water resources; and wildlife and fisheries.

Released: 8-Jun-2016 11:05 AM EDT
Air Pollution Affects Young People's Psychiatric Health
Umea University

New research from Umeå University in Sweden indicates that dispensed medication for psychiatric diagnosis can be related to air pollution concentrations. The study covers a large part of the Swedish population and has been published in the journal BMJ Open.



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