Environmental News, Articles & Information | Global Warming News | EcoWorld

PITTSBURGH, June 30 (UPI) — U.S. researchers say children of non-smoking women exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy have genetic mutations that can affect their health permanently.

The study, published online in the Open Pediatric Medicine Journal, found the smoking-related abnormalities were indistinguishable from those found in newborns of mothers who were active smokers.

Study author Stephen G. Grant of the Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health says the effects of the secondhand smoke may affect survival, birth weight and lifelong susceptibility to diseases like cancer.

Grant found the mutation was the same level and type in newborns of mothers who were active smokers and those of non-smoking mothers exposed to tobacco smoke.

“These findings back up our previous conclusion that passive, or secondary, smoke causes permanent genetic damage in newborns that is very similar to the damage caused by active smoking,” Grant says in a statement. “We were able to pick up a completely distinct yet equally important type of genetic mutation that is likely to persist throughout a child’s lifetime. Pregnant women should not only stop smoking, but be aware of their exposure to tobacco smoke from other family members, work and social situations.”

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

NASHVILLE, June 30 (UPI) — A U.S. researcher says sedentary white women are more apt than sedentary African-American women to become obese.

Study leader Maciej Buchowski of Vanderbilt University in Nashville said the odds of severe obesity were nearly 4.5 times higher in white women, among those in the highest quartile of sedentary behavior.

Buchowski and colleagues analyzed data from 22,948 African-American women and 7,830 white women living in 12 southeastern U.S. states. The study participants — mostly in their fifth decade — were enrolled in the ongoing Southern Community Cohort Study from 2002 to 2006.

“The key take-home message here is that reducing time in sedentary behavior is important,” Buchowski said in statement. “Our population was economically disadvantaged, so it is unlikely that they could join a club to participate in structured physical activity.”

Buchowski said researchers did not do a controlled trial and the reasons for the racial disparities remain unclear. He suspects a cultural explanation, a difference in metabolism between the two groups or another difference.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

MINNEAPOLIS, June 30 (UPI) — The vast majority of U.S. adults say winter is the most dangerous time for driving but the Fourth of July weekend is the deadliest time, a survey indicates.

The survey by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety found 83 percent of Americans consider winter to be the most dangerous season to be driving on rural roadways, while 8 percent say summer, 4 percent say spring and 4 percent say fall.

“Americans’ sense of seasonal driving risk is skewed,” research director Tom Horan says in a statement. “We are wary of winter driving, but let our guard down during summer holidays, when fatalities are most likely to occur.”

Rural roads are particularly perilous — 57 percent of highway deaths occur on rural roads — because the lighter traffic and pleasant scenery can lull drivers into a false sense of security, Horan says.

To help drivers plan safer trips, the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety created SafeRoadMaps, a Google Maps-based system that allows visitors to saferoadmaps.org to enter a Zip code, municipality name or street address and see a map or satellite image all of the road fatalities that have occurred in the chosen area over the past eight years.

The survey of 1,205 registered voters has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

DENVER, June 30 (UPI) — Colorado health officials are calling for more vaccinations following an outbreak of meningococcal disease that has killed three people and infected two others.

Joni Reynolds, director of immunization for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the deaths of two Fort Collins men this month, and the April death of a Metropolitan State College of Denver student may have been prevented, had the men been vaccinated, The Denver Post reported.

State health officials said Tuesday people ages 11 to 18 and people in communal-living situations such as college dorms or members of the military are at higher risk for the disease and should be vaccinated.

“The vaccine has not historically been pushed by pediatricians and the medical community, compared to traditional immunization, such as measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough,” said Steve Monaco, director of health services for the Metropolitan State College of Denver, Auraria, campus.

Meningococcal disease can occur as either viral or bacterial. The bacterial form is more severe and can develop into meningitis, an infection of the tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord; pneumonia, an infection of the lung; or sepsis, an infection of the blood.

The Colorado health department says coughing and kissing are common ways of spreading the disease, as well as any type of direct contact with mouth and nasal fluid, the Post reported.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

STANFORD, Calif., June 30 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say hand washing can improve the bacterial count of water collected at sources and brought home in containers.

Alexandria Boehm, Jenna Davis of Stanford University say about half of the world’s population, more than 3 billion people, have no access to municipal drinking water and obtain drinking water from wells, springs and other sources and store it in jugs and other containers. Past research showed stored water can have higher levels of bacterial contamination than the water at its source.

Boehm, Davis and students find a strong link between fecal contamination on the hands of household residents and bacterial contamination in stored water in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The water stored in containers had nearly 100 times more fecal bacteria than the source where it was collected.

“The results suggest that reducing fecal contamination on hands should be investigated as a strategy for improving stored drinking water quality and health among households using non-networked water supplies,” the study says.

The study is published in the Environmental Science & Technology.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

MAYWOOD, Ill., June 30 (UPI) — Eleven deaths were reported and nearly 10,000 people were injured by fireworks 2006, the latest available government figures indicate, a U.S. researcher says.

Dr. Thomas Esposito of Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago reports physicians across the Illinois area are already beginning to treat patients injured by fireworks.

“Even fireworks that are classified as ‘safer,’ such as bottle rockets and sparklers, are responsible for some of the most serious wounds treated by emergency physicians,” Esposito says in a statement.

Esposito notes even minor injuries to the hands, and particularly the thumbs, can cause major problems with the essential activities of life — like texting and buttoning a shirt.

“Those are major functional losses,” he says. “Fireworks are basically explosives and all are capable of causing severe injuries, but even minor injuries can cause significant disability when it comes to sight and hand function.”

Esposito warns fireworks and drinking, like drinking and driving, don’t mix.

“If you’re too impaired to drive, you’re too impaired to set off fireworks,” he adds.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

UTRECHT, Netherlands, June 30 (UPI) — Dutch researchers found cycling is healthier than driving, despite the increased risk of a cyclist’s injury and exposure to car exhaust.

Jeroen Johan de Hartog of the Utrecht University and colleagues did an integrated health risk assessment of cycling versus driving and concluded cyclists may breath in more car exhaust fumes more deeply and face more serious injury, but they are healthier than those taking cars due to their increased exercise.

The study, published online ahead of print in Environmental Health Perspectives, suggested not only does the health of the individual cyclist improve as he or she drives less and exercises more, the resulting reduction in exhaust emissions benefit the whole community.

“The promotion of walking and cycling is a promising way to increase physical activity across the population by integrating it into daily life,” the study authors said in a statement.

The study estimated the health impacts if 500,000 Dutch people ages 18-64 were to switch from driving to cycling one round trip daily.

The researchers estimated that in the Netherlands the health benefits of cycling are at least nine times greater than the hazards, with the average person who switches to cycling living 3-14 months longer, while potentially losing 0.8-40 days of life due to increased exposure to air pollution and an average of 5-9 days due to fatal traffic accidents.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

LONDON, June 30 (UPI) — A British study says harbor sears are giving birth to their pups earlier every year as a result of changes in the marine ecosystem.

The mammals, also known as common seals, are being born 25 days earlier in the year compared with 35 years ago, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Scientists suspect depletion of species of large fish by fishing has allowed populations of smaller fish species favored by the seals to thrive, the BBC said.

This, in turn, means abundant food supplies for the seals, which could effect their mating and birth cycles.

Females undergo rapid weight loss during the weaning and mating seasons, leading the researchers to suggest that the animals needed to “acquire a fatness threshold” before they can mate again.

“In other words, the better the food acquisition during and after lactation, the earlier they regain the mass needed” for mating, the study said.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) — The American College of Physicians is calling for a comprehensive U.S. strategy to control tobacco use, rather than the current piecemeal state action.

Dr. J. Fred Ralston Jr., president of the American College of Physicians, said recommendations outlined by the organization could form the basis of such a strategy. They include:

– All states should establish and adequately fund, with federal assistance, comprehensive tobacco control efforts to prevent tobacco use among young people; provide information about the dangers of tobacco products; minimize exposure to secondhand smoke; and help tobacco users quit.

– Public and private insurers should provide tobacco cessation benefits and physicians should also help their patients quit.

– States should establish tobacco control efforts.

– Youth tobacco education and prevention efforts should be enhanced.

– The federal government should ban menthol flavoring in all tobacco products.

– State and local governments should establish smoke-free laws banning smoking in all nonresidential indoor areas.

– Comprehensive efforts must seek to reduce the use of cigars and pipes, in addition to cigarettes.

– The government should regulate electronic cigarettes.

– Tobacco use in movies and television should be discouraged.

“A comprehensive tobacco control and prevention effort must be undertaken and consistently maintained to ensure that a new generation of smokers does not replace those who have quit or died because of their addiction,” Ralston said in a statement.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

ATHENS, Ga., June 30 (UPI) — University of Georgia researchers say they developed a tool to help officials warn parents against leaving a child in a vehicle, risking exposure to heat.

Study leader Andrew Grundstein said there is never a reason to leave a child in a car unattended because the risks of abduction or injury abound, but about 40 U.S. children die each year from being left in cars that become too hot.

“Most of the time, caregivers simply forget their children, but more than a quarter of deaths in this situation involve children intentionally left in cars,” Grundstein said in a statement. “In some cases, parents just don’t want to disturb a sleeping child. Such behavior shows a clear lack of understanding about the dangers of leaving children unattended in vehicles.”

Grundstein and colleagues developed a table of vehicle temperature changes indicating that in hot weather in an open parking lot, the inside temperature of a vehicle can rise by 7 degrees Fahrenheit in 5 minutes, 13 degrees in 10 minutes, 29 degrees in 30 minutes and 47 degrees in an hour.

For example, on a 90-degree F day, temperatures within a vehicle would reach an “excessive heat advisory” in about 10 minutes and an “excessive heat warning” in less than 30 minutes.

The findings are published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.