Arsenic, other metals linked to rapid onset of diabetes
People who are exposed to arsenic and other toxic metals may develop diabetes more quickly, a new study in Diabetes Care says.
Researchers looked at long-term data on people living in Starr County, Texas, a region along the U.S.-Mexico border where arsenic and other metals have been found in local groundwater. They found that people with high levels of arsenic, selenium, copper, molybdenum, nickel or tin in their urine progressed more rapidly toward diabetes in later years than people with lower levels.
People with the highest levels of arsenic in their urine were estimated to become prediabetic about two years sooner than those with the lowest exposure to the metal, and to become diabetic five-and-a-half years sooner. The biological reason for the faster increase is not known, the researchers said.
Arsenic is found in groundwater in Texas and other states because of natural deposits, but also can be spread by agricultural and industrial pollution, such as through irrigation. The metal can also be ingested through foods and medicine.
Starr County — a producer of livestock and crops such as sorghum and sunflower seeds — has one of the nation’s highest rates of diabetes and related deaths. About 98% of the county’s population of 66,000 is Hispanic.
A 2021 survey in the county’s northern community of San Isidro, where residents rely on private wells for drinking water, found arsenic in a third of samples, with some showing five times the maximum recommended limit.
Chemicals from food packaging found in humans
Thousands of food packaging-related chemicals are making their way into people’s bodies, raising concerns about their impact on health, according to a new review.
Published Sept. 16 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, the systemic review found that about a quarter of synthetic chemicals used in food packaging and other items that come in contact with food can be detected inside humans. Of the 3,600 detected chemicals, about 80 are of high concern as hazards, the review said.
Human urine, blood and breast milk samples were found to contain food-contact chemicals such as bisphenols, phthalates, metals and volatile organic compounds. Also detected were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of “forever” chemicals that don’t break down in human bodies or the environment, and photoinitiators, which are found in printing inks and adhesives.
While some of the detected chemicals are already monitored and studied for their impacts on human health, others — such as oligomers and synthetic antioxidants from plastics — are not, the review said.
Researchers said they would like the evidence to be used to form regulations that can protect people from exposure and to guide improvements in packaging. They warned that humans may be exposed to more food contact chemicals than were detected, as the review was limited to what researchers searched for in existing studies.
Data from the review can be accessed through the Food Packaging Forum’s FCChumon database.
GAO review: Long work hours may up health risks
Millions of Americans work very long hours every week, which could be putting their health at risk, a new federal review finds.
About 7.4% of working Americans — around 9.9 million people — labor 55 or more hours a week, a length classified as “very long” in a Government Accounting Office report released Sept. 11. Research has linked long workweeks with increased risks for stroke, heart disease, stress, poor sleep, occupational injuries and other health issues.
Overall, average work hours for U.S. workers have remained stable over the past 20 years, at an estimated 38 to 39 hours per week, according to GAO’s analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Working hours have increased for older workers, however, with people over 65 putting in about 32 hours a week in 2023. About 19% of people ages 65 and older were employed that year, which is almost double the rate of 35 years ago, according to a December report from Pew Research Center.
While the average number of hours worked by men fell by one hour during the review period, they increased by one hour for women, according to the GAO report.
The longest average hours in the U.S. were worked by people in fields that included mining, transportation, utilities and agriculture. People in Wyoming, Alaska and Washington, D.C., worked the longest hours.
Long-hour workers were more likely to be white, male and earn higher wages. However, people with multiple jobs who worked very long hours were more likely than to be female, Black or Hispanic, and earn middle or low wages.
Firearm deaths disproportionately occur among youth of color
Gun violence continues to be a leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens, with youth of color most impacted, a new report finds.
For the third year in a row, firearms killed more youth ages 1 to 17 than any other cause, according to an analysis of 2022 federal data by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. More than 2,500 children and teens died by a firearm that year.
Gun-related deaths for U.S. youth have increased by 106% overall since 2013, replacing motor vehicle crashes as the group’s leading cause of death for the first time in 2020. Black children and teens have been disproportionately affected, with a gun-related death rate that was 18 times higher than white youth in 2022.
For suicides, which make up the bulk of U.S. gun-related deaths, rates tripled among Black youth ages 10 to 17 from 2013 to 2022. They also doubled for Hispanic youth of the same age.
The gun homicide rate among Black children and teens rose 5.6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the report, which was based on data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database. American Indian and Alaskan Native youth were five times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white peers.
Other recent public health news of note includes:
• A new study in Environmental Health Perspectives finds a potential link between exposure to PFAS during pregnancy and fetal chromosomal abnormalities.
• Out-of-pocket drug prices have grown faster for consumers than prices faced by insurers, says research in Health Affairs, with lower income households disproportionately affected.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a Southern California policy aimed at reducing pollution from warehouses, which could open the door for such measures in other states.
• New research published in JAMA Network Open has found microplastics in brain tissue located above the human nose, raising concerns for their spread to other parts of the brain.
• Heat waves, which are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change, can increase the likelihood of seizures in people with epilepsy, says a study in Brain Communications.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.
