New Delhi’s decades-old regime to control vehicular pollution, including a heavy reliance by commercial vehicles on compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel, has been challenged by a new study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).  The report upends the narrative the that CNG is a ‘clean’ fuel, pointing to its high level of health-damaging […] Continue reading ->
A little known, but potentially lethal virus is spreading throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, prompting the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health agencies to issue warnings for travelers and clinicians. Oropouche virus, an arbovirus like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, is spread through certain midge or mosquito bites. Oropouche symptoms are similar […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have appealed for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the grinding Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in August and September to facilitate a massive polio booster campaign – as three suspected polio cases were being investigated by a Jordanian laboratory. The appeal came as the entire region see-saws between the possibility […] Continue reading ->
Humans are ingesting and inhaling more microplastics than at any time in recorded history, a Cornell University study revealed. The research shows microplastic consumption has risen sixfold globally since 1990, with Asian, African, and American countries all experiencing increases. People in China and the United States are among those consuming record levels of tiny plastic […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to begin a major polio booster vaccination campaign in Gaza next week with the dispatch of over 1.2 million vaccines to the war-torn Palestinian enclave – against a backdrop of spiralling regional tensions.   WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned again on Wednesday that the presence of polio virus […] Continue reading ->
Climate change is endangering children’s health at every stage of development, threatening to reverse decades of progress in reducing child mortality worldwide, according to a new UNICEF report. The U.N. children’s agency’s “Threat to Progress” report released last week consolidates growing evidence of climate change’s effects on children’s health, identifying six major hazards: extreme heat, […] Continue reading ->
New research suggests long-term exposure to wildfire smoke may significantly increase dementia risk, posing a greater threat to brain health than other forms of air pollution. The study, presented this week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, examined a decade of electronic medical records for 1.2 million older adults in Southern California from 2009 to […] Continue reading ->