A weekly roundup of public health news
Data center boom puts pressure on US water supplies
Data centers, which are multiplying across the U.S., are often built where water supplies are already strained, new research finds.
About 21% of the nation’s 3,600 data centers are located in areas where demand for water exceeds the supply for at least one month annually, according to a study in the October issue of Environmental Science & Technology. Climate change could increase that share to 35% in coming decades, researchers estimated.
The U.S. accounts for nearly 40% of the world’s data centers, with another 1,500 facilities in the works. That expansion could put additional pressure on local water supplies, particularly in communities where communities, farmers and businesses already compete for limited resources.
More than half of U.S. data centers are located in areas where public water supplies account for the largest share of water consumption. Another 20% are in areas where agricultural irrigation is the largest water use.
Data centers house thousands of heat-generating computer systems that are cooled using water. Unlike electricity, water generally must come from nearby sources, making data centers particularly vulnerable to local droughts and seasonal shortages.
While most data centers in the eastern U.S. are located in areas with adequate water supplies, facilities in parts of the West and South face shortages for four to eight months annually, researchers said.
Coal miners in high-dust jobs face outsized black lung risk
Black lung disease continues to threaten U.S. coal miners, with workers in Appalachia facing particularly high risks, new federal research finds.
Despite decades of regulations designed to protect miners, cases of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease, continue to impact the workforce, according to an Oct. 20 study in Frontiers in Public Health.
Underground dust may be playing a major role. Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health examined 1991-2024 data collected through a U.S. coal worker health surveillance program, finding mining workers in dusty jobs are more at risk for the deadly disease.
Continuous miner operators — workers who rip materials such as coal and stone from mine faces — and roof bolters — who reinforce and secure mine shafts and tunnels — were much more likely to develop black lung disease and progressive massive fibrosis, the disease’s severe, late-stage form, the study found.
Both jobs involve heavy machinery that cuts or drills through coal and rock, releasing fine dust that workers can inhale deep into their lungs. The dust often contains coal particles and crystalline silica, which can cause permanent lung damage.
Continuous miner operators had nearly twice the prevalence of black lung disease and three times the prevalence of progressive massive fibrosis compared with miners without those jobs. Roof bolters also faced elevated risks.
The disparities were particularly severe in Central Appalachia, including Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. More than 8% of miners there had black lung disease, compared with less than 2% elsewhere in the U.S.
Even after accounting for years of work, Appalachian miners had nearly four times the prevalence of black lung disease and 10 times the prevalence of its most severe form, researchers found. The region’s thinner coal seams often require miners to cut through more silica-containing rock, increasing exposure to dangerous dust.
More PFAS may lurk in US drinking water than known
Contamination of U.S. drinking water with “forever chemicals” could be much worse than reported.
New research published Oct. 23 in Cell Reports Sustainability estimates levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, could be twice as high as current monitoring shows.
Researchers examined 1.8 million PFAS measurements that were shared with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by public water systems, finding that standard reporting practices can overlook substantial amounts of the chemicals.
At issue is the practice of excluding PFAS concentrations from calculations if they fall below certain levels. As a result, reporting may capture only 44% of the average concentration of 25 PFAS in community water systems, the study estimated.
For six PFAS covered by federal drinking water standards, concentrations modeled by researchers were twice as high as those calculated using conventional reporting methods. The gap was larger for water systems relying on surface water than those using groundwater.
PFAS are used in consumer and industrial products and have been linked to cancer, liver damage and other health issues. The chemicals persist in the environment and can accumulate in the human body, hence the name “forever chemicals.”
World on course to blow past climate safety limits
New estimates of increasing global temperatures paint a bleaker-than-expected picture for human health.
The world is on track to warm by 2.8 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels this century if current climate policies continue, according to an Oct. 21 report from the U.N. Environment Program. The estimate is higher than last year’s projections and far above international goals for limiting climate change.
The additional warming threatens to intensify deadly heat waves, flooding, wildfires and droughts, exposing millions more people to dangerous conditions and significantly increasing risks to health.
Even if countries fulfill all their current commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures are projected to rise by 2.6 degrees Celsius, the report found. Meeting additional long-term targets would still leave warming increases at about 2.1 degrees.
The 2015 Paris Agreement, approved by about 200 nations, set a goal of keeping warming increases below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing a more protective limit of 1.5 degrees. A U.N. report released last month said that exceeding 1.5 degrees is now unavoidable.
The worsening projections reflect the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement under President Donald Trump as well as revised estimates of past emissions. Along with China and India, the U.S. is one of the world’s top three greenhouse gas emitters.
To limit further warming, global greenhouse gas emissions would need to fall 18% by 2030 and 45% by 2035 from 2025 levels, the report estimated.
Other recent public health news of note includes:
• Even with insurance, mental health appointments can be hard to come by, according to new findings in JAMA Health Forum. Researchers contacted nearly 6,000 psychiatrists and psychologists listed in insurance directories in five states. Only 24% of calls that reached a person resulted in an appointment with the requested clinician. Provider information was often inaccurate, and many providers were unavailable or not accepting new patients. People who were able to get appointments had average waits of about three weeks, with longer delays for psychiatrists than psychologists.
• People who visit an emergency department for work-related injuries are more likely to be hurt enough to require surgery, new research in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine shows. About 4% of nearly 6 million injury ED visits in the U.S. from 2017 to 2022 were work-related, according to the research, which was conducted by scientists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Nearly 20% of work-related injury cases required surgery, compared with 11% of other injuries. Almost a third of those involved construction workers.
• Climate change may be making wheat — a global food staple — less nutritious and digestible, a new study in Food Chemistry says. Higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide can change wheat’s protein composition, potentially affecting its nutritional value, and how well wheat products can be broken down by the human body. Wheat provides about 20% of calories and protein consumed worldwide.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public health journalist.
