Physicians group says actions could endanger public health
A group of clinicians is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to remove massive amounts of public health information from government websites, citing dangerous gaps in science that is used to guide health and medical decisions.
On Feb. 4, Doctors for America, a nonprofit organization representing physicians and medical trainees, sued the Office of Personnel Management, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services in U.S. District Court for removing thousands of pages of health information from their websites.
Deleting the information hinders the ability of health professionals to respond to disease outbreaks, deprives researchers of information for clinical studies and cuts off access to information needed for treating patients, plaintiffs said in the legal complaint. The removal also violates federal law requiring advance notice, they contended.
Other health organizations that criticized the information removal included the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Association for Schools and Programs of Public Health, and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
Information removed from the HHS, FDA and CDC sites covered topics such as sexually transmitted infections, contraception, HIV prevention, LGBTQ+ health, reproductive health, vaccines, youth behavior, environmental justice and discrimination in health programs.
An investigation by The New York Times found more than 8,000 webpages on U.S. government websites had been removed by the Trump administration over just three days, including 3,000 pages from CDC’s website. Visitors to that site are met with a message stating that “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
The health information removal is not the only Trump administration action being challenged in U.S. District Court. A directive from the Office of Management and Budget to freeze disbursement of federal grants was halted twice by a judge following a lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward.
The freeze would have harmed health department programming, food assistance, clinical research and more, according to plaintiffs. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia also filed suit in U.S. District Court to stop the funding freeze from being implemented.
Chemicals linger in blood of firefighters, study of Maui responders finds
Firefighters who combated the August 2023 wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, had high levels of “forever chemicals” in their blood at least a month after responding to the disaster, new research finds.
Compared to other responders, median concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, were higher among firefighters, according to a Feb. 6 study in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In one case, a firefighter’s blood had concentrations of perfluorohexane sulfonic acid — a highly persistent PFAS used in firefighting foams and as a water repellent in textiles — that was 2.5 times higher than elevated levels usually found in the U.S. population. The firefighter was referred for additional screening and medical follow-up.
Four wildfires burned across the island of Maui from Aug. 8 to 16, destroying thousands of structures and vehicles and killing more than 100 people. Up to 40% of Maui County employees involved in response to the fires had high levels of PFAS chemicals in their blood as of September 2023, according to study researchers, who were with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Firefighters who had been working for 30 years or more had higher PFAS levels in their blood than those who had not been on the job as long. Other sources may also have contributed to the elevated PFAS concentrations, the study said.
PFAS are referred to as forever chemicals because of their inability to break down in the environment or human body. They have been linked to cancer, reproductive health issues and other harms.
Firefighters can be exposed to PFAS through smoke, firefighting foams, protective clothing, contaminated equipment and other occupational sources. Previous research, reported by Public Health Watch, has found increased risks for cancer deaths among firefighters, with firefighting foam a suspected contributor.
A second study in the same issue of MMWR found the percentage of emergency department visits for fire and smoke inhalation increased eightfold during the first six days of two major wildfires in Los Angeles County, which began Jan. 7 and were declared fully contained on Feb. 1.
The Feb. 6 MMWR is the first issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publication released since President Trump took office. The administration had blocked all public communication from the agency, including research findings, vital statistics and health alerts, citing a need for review.
Other recent public health news of note:
• Gaps in the public health workforce limit the ability of communities to respond to public health emergencies, hamper disease investigation and make it difficult to identify hazards, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
• Big cities can offer higher wages and career experience for workers. But Black and Hispanic workers gain fewer advantages from working in urban areas than white workers do, finds a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• Occupational exposure to gasoline is associated with an increased incidence of anemia, with higher exposure linked to more severe anemia, says a study in BMC Public Health.
• Medicaid users who have their prescriptions denied are at higher risk for emergency department visits and hospitalizations later, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.
• Research published Feb. 3 in Nature Medicine finds that accumulation of microplastics in the human brain is increasing, and that people with dementia have higher levels of the tiny fragments in their brains. Another study, released Jan. 30, finds microplastics levels are higher in placentae of babies who are born preterm.
• Exposure to ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment, can increase osteoarthritis risks, new research in Frontiers in Public Health reports.
• Hospital emergency department workers are more likely to miss migraines among children of color, who are less likely to get tests and intensive treatment, a study in Neurology says.
• Low-level air traffic pollution is linked to liver damage, a mouse study in the Journal of Environmental Sciences finds.
• New findings in BMC Public Health show occupational dust exposure among coal miners can interfere with sleep and worsen anxiety and depression.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.