Smog and car exhaust can take a toll on the heart, and the latest research explores how.
environmental health
Oh, Baby: There May Be Arsenic in Your Formula
A new study suggests that organic brown-rice syrup — a sweetener used in many organic and gluten-free foods, including baby formula — may be a hidden source of arsenic
Arsenic and Old Rice: Should We Worry About a Toxic Chemical in a Popular Food?
Arsenic is nasty stuff. Concentrated doses of the chemical can be fatal — one reason it’s long been a popular poison for assassins and unhappy widows. And chronic high exposure has been linked to skin lesions, certain cancers …
Why Air Fresheners Can Trigger Respiratory Problems
They may smell sweet, but popular air fresheners can cause serious lung problems.
Why Pregnant Women in California Have High Levels of Toxic Chemicals
Unintended consequences are a pain. California has long had some of the strictest flammability regulations in the country for furniture and other household items. As a result, in the 1970s flame retardant chemicals called …
Why the Federal Government Finally Acted on Chemical Safety
Our chemical safety system is an outdated mess — and for years, the failure of the government to act on formaldehyde was proof positive of that fact.
Dengue Fever Creeps Back Into the U.S. — and Climate Change Isn’t Helping
Dengue fever is nasty. Transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, dengue infects an estimated 220 million people a year — 2 million of whom develop a severe form called dengue haemorrhagic fever, which has no known …
Arsenic, Chicken and Old Regulatory Standards
Now, before, I get started on this post, I want everyone to take a deep breath. O.K.? So it turns out that a common drug given to chickens — 3-Nitro, also known as Roxarsone — contains arsenic. You know, arsenic, that popular …
No Decline in Sperm Counts After All, Danish Data Show
In the dystopian book and film Children of Men, human beings suddenly stop being able to have children. There’s no real explanation given for the change — though there’s talk of a precipitous decline in sperm count quality — but the loss of the ability to reproduce essentially robs humanity of its future, and leads to the utter …
BPA Exposure in Pregnancy May Be Linked to Childhood Asthma
Endocrine disruption, diabetes, obesity — to the list of ills potentially associated with exposure to the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA), you can add one more: childhood asthma.
Hold the Armadillo Burger — It Might Just Give You Leprosy
Here at Healthland, it can sometimes seem that we spend most of our time trying to scare you. Or maybe that’s just my posts — I tend to get the environmental danger of the week. But, sorry to say, I’ve got another thing for you …
Want to Reduce Your Exposure to BPA? Cut Out Canned, Packaged Foods
(Updated) There’s a lot we don’t know about bisphenol-A (BPA), a common chemical used in food packaging and polycarbonate plastics that may also mess with hormones.
Study: Even “BPA-Free” Plastics Leach Endrocrine-Disrupting Chemicals
Plastics. They seem so…inert. Slow to erode or decay, with a biodegradation time measured in the hundreds of years, plastics appear cut off from the organic environment in the way that no other product is, safe and secure and sterile.