Category «Health Care»

If Opiates Are Killing Americans, Why Won’t the FDA Let Us Try an Alternative?

Reason: “For more than a decade, patients who’ve needed certain controlled medications have suffered from ill-advised, untenable policies the U.S. government has instituted, allegedly to mitigate the ever-surging numbers of drug overdose deaths. These policies have been a dismal failure on multiple fronts: Not only have deaths continued to surge, but the terrifying intrusion of …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Medicine

One in Four US Households Likely Exceed New Soil Lead Guidance Levels

Gabriel M. Filippelli, Matthew Dietrich, John Shukle, Leah Wood, Andrew Margenot, S. Perl Egendorf, Howard W. Mielke. One in Four US Households Likely Exceed New Soil Lead Guidance Levels. GeoHealth, 2024; 8 (6) DOI: 10.1029/2024GH001045 “Lead exposure has blighted communities across the United States (and the globe), with much of the burden resting on lower …

Subjects: Environmental Law, Health Care

COVID Data Report is a daily resource to stay safe and informed

BoingBoing: “COVID-19 is definitely on the rise again across the United States. Dr. Michael Hoerger, who tracks COVID-19 data, shared yesterday that currently: about 1.2% of the U.S. population is actively infectious, which is quite high for the summer, when COVID is not consciously in everyone’s thoughts. We’re talking about 4 million U.S. infections per week, …

Subjects: Health Care, Medicine

Check out these new ‘HeatRisk’ tools to stay up to date on US heatwaves

The Verge: “Extreme heat is in store for communities across the US this week, and the CDC and National Weather Service (NWS) have new tools to help people prepare for the health risks. Heat is the top weather-related killer in the US, a threat that’s growing worse with climate change. But even though heatwaves kill …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Health Care

‘Off the charts’: the key breakthroughs giving new hope in treating cancer

The Guardian: ‘Off the charts’: the key breakthroughs giving new hope in treating cancer. World’s largest cancer conference in Chicago shares ‘impressive’ findings in vaccines, drug trials and AI. At the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference, doctors, scientists and researchers shared new findings on ways to tackle …

Subjects: AI, Education, Health Care, Medicine

So What Is Going On With the Supreme Court in 2024?

Slate [read 5 articles free before paywalled] – “If you’re interested in understanding more about what the high court is, how it functions, and why it seems to have recently lurched to the right, start here…The 5 Circuit Court of Appeals covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Trump appointed six judges to this bench, some of …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

What Animal Studies Are Revealing About Their Minds and Ours

TIME – “…The last few months alone have been something of a boom time for research into the intelligence and behavior of animals. German researchers discovered a sort of pre-verbal stage in finches—similar to the babbling stage in humans—that leads to their becoming fluent in song. Studies in Sweden and Vienna explored the role of …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Environmental Law, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Medicine

Common sunscreen myths, debunked

Vox: “Despite the extremely well-established science linking sun exposure to skin cancer, bad sun safety advice on social media simply will not stop — and a lot of people are buying it. In several recent surveys, between one and three out of every 10 adults believed a range of falsehoods about sunscreen and sun exposure; …

Subjects: Health Care

US Postpartum Mortality Rate 395 Percent Higher Than Other Wealthy Countries

TruthOut: “A new report from The Commonwealth Fund shows that, despite better outcomes since the pandemic, the United States “continues to have the highest rate of maternal deaths of any high-income nation” in the world. Around four out of five of these deaths “are likely preventable,” the report states, suggesting that the U.S. could save …

Subjects: Health Care, Medicine

Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19

National Academies: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection (2024) – “Since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020, many individuals infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have continued to experience lingering symptoms for months or even years following infection. Some symptoms can …

Subjects: Health Care, Medicine

All the place where you can now find microplastics

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Microplastics have popped up in rivers, oceans, soil, food, tea and even Antarctic snow — and now these tiny plastic particles are showing up in clouds. A group of researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo recently found microplastics in the clouds above Mount Fuji. In a paper published in Environmental Chemistry Letters, …

Subjects: Climate Change, Environmental Law, Health Care