Study demonstrates the lasting effects of redlining
Historically redlined neighborhoods are more likely to have a paucity of greenspace today compared to other neighborhoods.
The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, demonstrates the lasting effects of redlining, a racist mortgage appraisal practice of the 1930s that established and exacerbated racial residential segregation in the United States. Results appear in
Environmental Health Perspectives.
In the 1930s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) assigned risk grades to neighborhoods across the country based on racial demographics and other factors. Hazardous areas often those whose residents included people of color were outlined in red on HOLC maps.
Gut Microbes, scientists have uncovered the surprising role that air pollution in cities can play in altering gut bacteria and increasing diabetes risk.
“In diabetes care, we focus on the whole person. What is their environment? How do they live? Where do they live?” says Melissa Young, PharmD, BC-ADM, CDCES, a clinical pharmacist and spokesperson for the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES). Dr. Young provides telehealth primary care for the Department of Veterans Affairs across several states, including Colorado and Idaho.
RELATED:
Can Exposure to Air Pollution Affect a Person’s Risk of Diabetes?
Lancet Planetary Health. An estimated 3.2 million cases of diabetes globally could be attributed to elevated air pollution in 2016, with increasing burden falling on people living in low- and lower- to middle-income countries.
Published in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives, the study takes a look at the impact of the global microplastic pollution problem not just on the world’s oceans but also on human health.
Experts still do not fully understand the effects of microplastics on the human body. But according to Evangelos Danopoulos, the study’s lead author and a postgraduate student at Hull York Medical School, quantifying the amount of microplastics humans are ingesting is a critical step to understanding this.
Microplastic contamination highest in mollusks
For their research, Danopoulos and his colleagues studied more than 50 reports on microplastic contamination in both fish and shellfish between 2014 and 2020. Their data showed that microplastic content was zero to 10.5 microplastics per gram (MPs/g) in mollusks, 0.1–8.6 MPs/g in crustaceans and zero to 2.9 MPs/g in fish.
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IMAGE: Karin Broberg, Professor at the Department of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and the study s last author. view more
Credit: IMM
The ability of our skin to protect us from chemicals is something we inherit. Some people are less well-protected which could imply an increased risk of being afflicted by skin disease or cancer. A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden that has been published in
Environmental Health Perspectives shows how the rate of uptake of common chemicals is faster in people with a genetically weakened skin barrier.
We are continually exposed to chemicals from many different sources, for example, food, hygiene products, cosmetics and textiles. Many people are also exposed to chemicals at their place of work which can constitute a work environment problem.
A study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Clinica de Salud del Valle Salinas has demonstrated how taking even a short break from various cosmetics, shampoos, and other personal care products can lead to a substantial drop in the levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals present within the body.
The results from the study were published in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers gave 100 Latina teenagers various personal care products that were labeled to be free of common chemicals including phthalates, parabens, triclosan, and oxybenzone. These chemicals are used regularly in almost all conventional personal care products such as cosmetics, soap, sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, and other hair products, and animal studies have shown that they directly interfere with the body’s endocrine system.