The economic value of unconventional natural gas resources has stimulated rapid globalization of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, natural radioactivity found in the large volumes of “produced fluids” generated by these technologies is emerging as an international environmental health concern. Current assessments of the radioactivity concentration in liquid wastes focus on a single element—radium. However, the use of radium alone to predict radioactivity concentrations can greatly underestimate total levels.

Climate change may lead to more severe and extreme heat waves in the future, but its potential impact on sudden infant death—a leading cause of infant mortality—is unclear. The researchers sought to determine whether risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is elevated during hot weather.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the associations between long-term exposure to air pollution and non accidental and cause-specific mortality in the Netherlands based on existing national databases.

In 2010 an estimated 31% of the food in U.S. stores and homes went uneaten, and Americans shipped approximately 34 million tons of food waste to landfills. When food decomposes under anaerobic conditions—for instance, buried beneath other waste in a landfill—it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills are the third largest producer of methane in the United States, accounting for about 18% of methane emissions in 2013.2

Traditional approaches for development of antibodies are poorly suited to combating the emergence of novel pathogens, as they require multiple steps of laborious optimization and process adaptation for clinical development.

Heat stress at the workplace is an occupational health hazard that reduces labour productivity. Assessment of productivity loss resulting from climate change has so far been based on physiological models of heat exposure. These models suggest productivity may decrease by 11–27% by 2080 in hot regions such as Asia and the Caribbean, and globally by up to 20% in hot months by 20503. Using an approach derived from health economics, we describe self-reported estimates of work absenteeism and reductions in work performance caused by heat in Australia during 2013/2014.

In May 2014, a traveler from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was the first person identified with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in the United States. To evaluate transmission risk, we determined the type, duration, and frequency of patient contact among health care personnel (HCP), household, and community contacts by using standard questionnaires and, for HCP, global positioning system (GPS) tracer tag logs. Respiratory and serum samples from all contacts were tested for MERS-CoV. Of 61 identified contacts, 56 were interviewed.

We perform global-scale inverse modeling to constrain present-day atmospheric mercury emissions and relevant physiochemical parameters in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We use Bayesian inversion methods combining simulations with GEOS-Chem and groundbased Hg0 observations from regional monitoring networks and individual sites in recent years.

Original Source

Lung reactions to exposure to dust, gases, and fumes at work places have been studied in different populations. The emission level of pollutants that emit particulate matter less than 10 micrometers in size (PM 10) has been found very high in Ahmedabad. Hence, petrol pump workers in Ahmedabad are likely to get exposed to a high level of air pollution along with petrol and diesel vapors. Both of these factors can affect the respiratory health of petrol pump workers.

Exposure to traffic noise has been associated with adverse effects on neuropsychological outcomes in children, but findings with regard to behavioral problems are inconsistent. The researchers investigated whether residential road traffic noise exposure is associated with behavioral problems in 7 year old children.