More US kids lack stable access to safe water, food
Food and water insecurity is growing for U.S. children, with Hispanic and Black kids at highest risk.
The number of children facing simultaneous water and food insecurity in the U.S. more than doubled from 2005 to 2020, according to a new study in Nature Water.
While about 4.6% of all U.S. children experienced a lack of consistent and safe access to both food and water at the start of the study period, the percentage who faced both problems increased to 10.3% by 2020, adding up to more than 7.3 million children.
Hispanic children were seven times more likely than white children to experience concurrent food and water insecurity, while Black children were 3.5 times more likely, the researchers found. A number of high-profile contamination incidents occurred during the study period, including water crises in Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey. But smaller incidents also occurred regularly across the U.S., often affecting low-income communities.
Food and water insecurity in children is linked to problems with mental health and physical health, nutrition and economic well-being.
Tire chemicals found in supermarket lettuce
Leafy greens sold in some supermarkets can contain chemicals that slough off car tires.
In a study published June 5 in Frontiers in Environmental Science, researchers detected a range of chemical additives from car tires in field-grown lettuce sold in commercial supermarkets. While they estimated that the amount of the chemicals consumed by consumers through lettuce may be low, the scientists warned that further research is needed to determine health impacts.
The team of international researchers sampled lettuce from supermarkets and fields in four countries — Israel, Italy, Spain and Switzerland — and examined them for 16 compounds commonly used to protect tires and increase their performance. Six tire-derived chemicals were detected, with at least one compound in 71% of samples.
The most commonly detected tire chemical was benzothiazole, a chemical used in rubber production that has been linked to cancer risks, respiratory irritation and skin problems among people who work with the product.
Previous research has linked 6PPD, one of the tire chemicals, to the deaths of salmon and other wildlife in the Pacific Northwest, prompting a group of American Indian tribes to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for action last year. In response, the agency began work in November to characterize the environmental risk of the chemical with an eye toward rulemaking.
Tire and roadway erosion are a major source of environmental microplastics worldwide. As much as 10% of tire and roadway particles are estimated to become airborne. They can reach food crops through the atmosphere, via irrigation with reclaimed wastewater and by sewage sludge fertilizer, also known as biosolids.
Pollution from wildfire smoke killing Californians
Thousands of Californians are dying sooner than they should every year because of wildfire-related air pollution, a new study finds.
From 2008 to 2018, more than 52,000 state residents died prematurely from exposure to fine-particle pollution, also known as PM2.5, emitted by wildfires, according to research published June 7 in Science Advances.
While PM2.5 from wildfires impacted all parts of the state during the study period, concentrations tended to be highest in the northern half of the state. In years with the worst wildfire air pollution, average annual PM2.5 concentrations exceeded 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, compared to less than 1 microgram per cubic meter of air in most of the state in 2010, the year with the lowest PM2.5 levels.
The pollution-related deaths were not distributed equally throughout California. When researchers mapped lives lost by ZIP code, they found a higher concentration of deaths stretching from Redding in the north to Los Angeles in the south, along with clusters in the San Francisco region.
The health impacts of wildfire-related PM2.5 exposure in California across the study period cost at least $456 billion, the researchers estimated.
As climate change increases temperatures and fuels droughts, wildfire risk and severity have both grown California. Wildfire season in the state has also gotten longer, creating more opportunity for harm to the health of the state’s 40 million residents.
Wildfire smoke can account for as much as half of PM2.5 in air throughout the U.S., with especially high levels in the western part of the nation, previous research has found.
Hotter weather can stress heart, worsen other health issues
New research confirms that high temperatures, which are worsening with climate change, threaten human health in multiple ways.
Just 100 minutes of exposure to high heat can double myocardial blood flow, creating significant stress on the heart, a study published June 11 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found. In some study participants, an increase in heat led to myocardial ischemia, which decreases blood flow to the heart and can cause chest pain.
Short-term exposure to high temperatures also can worsen mental health problems for pregnant women, a study published June 3 in Environmental Health Perspectives shows. Researchers in North Carolina found that emergency department visits among pregnant women for anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns increased on days with warmer ambient temperatures. Risk of hospital admission increased with cumulative exposure to hot temperatures during the prior week.
Hot weather is also bad for people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and kidney disease, a May study in eBioMedicine says. Researchers examined records on more than two million emergency hospitalizations that occurred from 2004 to 2016, finding that when the mean temperature increased, the odds of being hospitalized rose significantly for patients with multiple chronic diseases. Risks were highest for men and older adults.
Other recent public health news of interest includes:
• People who live near facilities that manufacture and use ethylene oxide are at considerable risk for exposure, according to a study in Environmental Science & Technology that found high levels of the toxic gas in Louisiana’s petrochemical corridor.
• Black, American Indian and Alaska Native pedestrians are at higher risk of being struck and killed by vehicles, says a new report from Smart Growth America.
• Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural fertilizer and waste are speeding up climate change, according to research in Earth System Science Data.
• The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has finalized new standards aimed at decreasing fuel usage for U.S. cars. But some health advocates say they do not go far enough to curb vehicle pollution.
• Drug-related poisoning deaths have more than doubled for U.S. infants, particularly for white and Black children, a study in the Journal of Perinatal Medicine finds.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.