Articles Tagged with ''public health''

More Americans than previously estimated live within a city block of aged, underground natural gas storage wells, some more than a century old and most of them lacking modern designs to prevent major leaks, according to researchers from Harvard University.

With recent bouts of extreme heat affecting large parts of the nation – and more likely up ahead - heat stroke – when the body’s cooling system fails - has gained considerable attention as a risk for outdoor workers. Symptoms include a rapid heartbeat, hot, red skin due to the inability to sweat and internal temperatures rising to dangerous levels.

There is a broad scientific consensus that alcohol is a carcinogen, and that even moderate drinking increases one’s chances of getting cancer. But surveys show that most Americans remain unaware of that fact. Now a coalition of consumer and public health groups have launched a long shot effort to put a cancer warning on alcohol bottles and cans.

Does vaping have a long-term impact on someone’s lungs? Does the air quality where a person grows up put them at higher risk for respiratory conditions later in life? These are among the issues that will be examined in a large, first-of-its-kind longitudinal study of lung health led by Northwestern Medicine scientists in partnership with the American Lung Association (ALA).

The rise of measles cases overall in the U.S. has been widely reported on and includes, this year alone, outbreaks in California, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Although the disease was thought to be eradicated in the United States at the start of the 21st century, a resurgence has occurred in recent years, attributed in part to a resistance to vaccinations that stems from a study linking vaccinations to autism which has since been discredited.