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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Go here for the latest research, experts and features on Zika in the Zika Virus News Source
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A food and environment course took the students out of the classroom to learn about food service operations and their sustainability options.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A multi-institutional collaboration, including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health, has been awarded a $1.3 million training grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to fund the Biosafety and Infectious Disease Training Initiative.
Researchers at Penn State are refining a natural, low-cost process that will help remove some of the most abundant pollutants, such as iron, from mine-contaminated water.
Decades of unregulated industrial waste dumping in areas of the Great Lakes have created a host of environmental and wildlife problems. Now it appears that Lake Michigan painted and snapping turtles could be a useful source for measuring the resulting pollution, according to University of Notre Dame researchers.
Biodiversity Research Institute, working as an executing agency for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, is now conducting Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA) activities in Cabo Verde, Chad, Guatemala, Nepal, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sri Lanka. MIAs are designed to assist countries in developing strategies to ratify and ultimately implement the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
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The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory has received two national awards for its green purchasing program, adding to a long list of honors for PPPL's environmental programs.
Reducing energy imports and mitigating climate change are often portrayed as complementary. However, new research shows that while ambitious climate policies would lower energy imports, energy independence would not bring significant climate benefits.
Working in a more intellectually challenging job is associated with better memory and other aspects of cognitive functioning, reports a study in the June Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Phosphorus is a crucial nutrient regularly applied to crops such as corn and soybeans to help them grow efficiently. However, excess phosphorus can be carried by rainwater runoff into lakes and streams, creating potential problems for aquatic environments and the ecosystem services they provide to humans.
The American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) today announced its support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate methane and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can contribute to worker wellbeing and health.
A program encouraging overweight or obese adolescents to increase their physical activity through use of their everyday environment, rather than organized classes or sports programs, produced significant increases in participants' daily physical activity that were sustained for at least three to four months. A report on a pilot study conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) health center in Revere, Mass., is being published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Get the latest research and features in healthcare, including hospital administration, patient care, and health economics in Newswise's Healthcare News Source.
Carl Lieb, Ph. D. is the Associate Curator of the LEB Herpetology collections, a Professor and member of the Graduate Faculty of UTEP's Department of Biological Sciences.
A training program will help approximately 35,000 first responders and workers, whose jobs may expose them to infectious diseases, protect themselves while also minimizing the spread of disease to others.
In Observance of World Environment Day, the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), Rutgers University School of Public Health and the Rutgers University Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) are sponsoring a UNAI START Conference on “Our Environment & Our Health: Science and Solutions.” The conference will be held 10 am – 1 pm, 6 June 2016 at the United Nations Secretariat Building, Conference Room A.
In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers, including FSU Professor of Oceanography Jeff Chanton, lay out their findings that contaminants released during the spill combined with a bloom of phytoplankton to create what has been called a “dirty blizzard.” That blizzard then sank to sea floor and essentially stayed put.
The toxic dinoflagellate, Alexandrium fundyense, is a photosynthetic plankton--a microscopic organism floating in the ocean, unable to swim against a current. New research by scientists at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) suggests that ingestion of this dinoflagellate changes the energy balance and reproductive potential of a particular copepod--a small crustacean--in the North Atlantic, which is key food source for young fishes, including many commercially important species.
Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study.
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