White noise is a type of noise that is produced by combining sounds of all different frequencies together. If you took all of the imaginable tones that a human can hear and combined them together, you would have white noise. The adjective "white" is used to describe this type of noise because of the way white light works. White light is light that is made up of all of the different colors (frequencies) of light combined together (a prism or a rainbow separates white light back into its component colors).

Children and teens exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution have evidence of a specific type of DNA damage called telomere shortening, reports a study in the May Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

A new American Cancer Society study concludes that sugar-sweetened beverages have become more affordable in nearly every corner of the globe, and are likely to become even more affordable and more widely consumed. The study appears in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, and concludes that without policy action to raise prices, global efforts to address the obesity epidemic will be hampered.

Soon after Erin Card moved to within two miles of the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia two years ago, she began to notice threads of smoke that occasionally rose above the heavily wooded site. She started asking about the source, and eventually was stunned by what she learned: Toxic explosives were being burned in the open air.

Voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico have defeated a measure that would have levied a 2-cents-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. The revenues raised by the tax would have gone toward making pre-kindergarten education available to approximately 1,000 children and funded nearly 200 jobs in early education.

The USDA’s decision to “relax” guidelines for healthier school lunches established under an initiative by Former First Lady Michelle Obama is getting sharp criticism from public health experts and policy makers.

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is an illness that causes sores in or on the mouth and on the hands, feet, and sometimes the buttocks and legs. The sores may be painful. The illness usually doesn't last more than a week or so. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is common in children but can also occur in adults.

A recent study by Michigan State University shows that of almost 4,000 people observed in a field test only five percent washed their hands effectively and more than 10 percent didn’t wash them at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend people wash for 15 to 20 seconds with soap and water in order to kill infection-causing germs.

Despite widespread knowledge of the importance of handwashing, there is still room for improvement. A recent study showed that only 31% of men and 65% of women washed their hands after using a public restroom.

In the workplace, irritant contact dermatitis can develop after a short, heavy exposure or a repeated or prolonged, low exposure to a substance. The appearance of irritant contact dermatitis varies considerably according to the conditions of exposure. For example, an accidental contact with a strong irritant causes immediate blisters. Contact with a mild irritant may only produce redness of the skin. However, if the irritation continues, small lesions or sores appear on the reddened area; afterwards crusts and scales form. The skin damage usually heals a few weeks after exposure ends if no complications have arisen (e.g., no infections occurred).