Showing posts with label enviroment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enviroment. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Sewage Monitoring As Real-Time Epidemiology
What Our Sewage Can Teach Us by Joshua A Krisch. Well Blog. The New York Times. November 10, 2014
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Obesity in Offsprings Linked To Endocrine Disrupting Compounds
Fetal Exposure To PVC Plastic Chemical Linked To Obesity In Offspring. Science Daily. January 15, 2013.
TBT, tributyltin, is used in PVC plastic and marine hull paint. According to Dr. Bruce Blumberg, UC Irvine professor of pharmaceutical sciences and developmental & cell biology, TBT is an obesogen. This class of chemicals acts in part by modifying mesenchymal stem cells during development, giving them a propensity to become fat cells. While the study focused on mice, there perhaps could be implications for children and pregnant women.
TBT, tributyltin, is used in PVC plastic and marine hull paint. According to Dr. Bruce Blumberg, UC Irvine professor of pharmaceutical sciences and developmental & cell biology, TBT is an obesogen. This class of chemicals acts in part by modifying mesenchymal stem cells during development, giving them a propensity to become fat cells. While the study focused on mice, there perhaps could be implications for children and pregnant women.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Segregation Linked With Lung Cancer: Differential Racial Impact Noted
Segregation Linked In Study With Lung Cancer by Sabrina Tavernise. The New York Times. January 18, 2013.
After dividing the country into three levels of segregation, the study authors found a lung cancer mortality rate of about 20 higher in the most segregated counties. This differences persisted even controlling for smoking and socio-economic status. For whites, the effects of segregation were the opposite though it was unclear whether the difference was meaningful. In an editorial accompanying the research article in JAMA Surgery, Dr. David Change of the University of California San Diego noted: "We don't need drugs or genetic explanations to fix a lot of the health care problems we have." Environmental factors play a role in the stark difference in health outcomes in the United States.
After dividing the country into three levels of segregation, the study authors found a lung cancer mortality rate of about 20 higher in the most segregated counties. This differences persisted even controlling for smoking and socio-economic status. For whites, the effects of segregation were the opposite though it was unclear whether the difference was meaningful. In an editorial accompanying the research article in JAMA Surgery, Dr. David Change of the University of California San Diego noted: "We don't need drugs or genetic explanations to fix a lot of the health care problems we have." Environmental factors play a role in the stark difference in health outcomes in the United States.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Could Epidemiological Techniques Be Used To Show a Relationship Between Lead Exposure and Crime?
America's Real Criminal Element: Lead by Kevin Drum. Mother Jones. January/February 2013.
Kevin Drum uses a method to categorizing epidemics employed by a professor of economic and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to provide a possible framework for understanding crime trends from the 60's to the 90's. The framework is basically this as presented in the article: If the epidemic spreads along communications lines the cause is information; If it spreads along transportation lines, the cause is microbial; If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect; If the epidemic occurs everywhere, the cause is a molecule. Drum then goes on to build a case that the molecule linked to crime outbreak is lead. Of course, a major concern of such an effort would be to insure that correlation is not confused with causality. The significance of this article is that it is a case study of an application of traditional epidemiological techniques to a broader class of problems.
Kevin Drum uses a method to categorizing epidemics employed by a professor of economic and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to provide a possible framework for understanding crime trends from the 60's to the 90's. The framework is basically this as presented in the article: If the epidemic spreads along communications lines the cause is information; If it spreads along transportation lines, the cause is microbial; If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect; If the epidemic occurs everywhere, the cause is a molecule. Drum then goes on to build a case that the molecule linked to crime outbreak is lead. Of course, a major concern of such an effort would be to insure that correlation is not confused with causality. The significance of this article is that it is a case study of an application of traditional epidemiological techniques to a broader class of problems.
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