Posts Tagged ‘pollution’

Life with Microplastics, Maybe Not Fantastic

July 18, 2023 — Barbie Girl (the song) told us life in plastic is fantastic, but the knowledge that we’re swimming in microplastics gives us reason for second thoughts. These tiny particles of plastic are accumulating in the oceans (even the Arctic), in the air, in the soil, in our food, and even in our bodies. This is an emerging […]

PFAS vs Diet for Weight Outcomes

April 21, 2023 — Could it be that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals such as PFAS has more of an effect on body weight and adiposity than diet? Philippe Grandjean and colleagues this week published a new study in Obesity that points to this possibility. Grandjean tells us: “We’ve previously shown that children with increased PFAS concentrations tend to […]

It’s Raining PFAS – Should We Worry?

August 5, 2022 — This news snippet definitely caught our eye. All over the world – even on the mountains of Tibet and Antarctica – it’s raining PFAS. In fact, there’s so much PFAS in rainwater all over the world that rainwater is no longer safe to drink. This news comes from an analysis published by the American Chemical […]

How Much Obesity Do Pesticides Cause?

April 25, 2022 — Why? This is the basic question that remains unanswered after four decades of rising obesity. Why do we see such a persistent rise in obesity prevalence – all over the world? Broadly, we can lump the suspects into four groups: food, stress, physical environment, and chemicals. Of course, the most common presumption is that it’s […]

Disparities in the Air We Breathe and in Obesity

May 4, 2021 — Patterns of disparities surround us so completely that we become immune to them. In fact, disparities even extend to the air we breathe. People of color have dirtier air to breathe and that contributes to disparities in health in countless ways. New research offers evidence that air pollution contributes to the risk of childhood obesity. […]

BPA: Would You Like a Receipt for Mortality Risk?

August 23, 2020 — Sage advice from an attorney about making safety claims for any product: safe is a four-letter word. In other words, an absolute assurance of safety is almost always a lie. So the challenge is to figure out if something is safe enough. For example,consider the “everywhere chemical” known as BPA (bisphenol-A). A new study in […]

Examining the Pollution in Our Fat

February 16, 2020 — It’s a disquieting thought. Pollution in our fat is a real, measurable thing. But that’s precisely why it deserves a closer look. Vicente Mustieles‍‍ and Juan Arrebola explain in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Fat tissue is an important endocrine organ. And it’s also the place in our bodies where endocrine disrupting chemicals […]

Our Daily Diet of Plastic

June 18, 2019 — It’s not part of anyone’s dietary guidelines, but we’re consuming it nonetheless. Plastic is all around us – in the form of microparticles. We drink them, eat them, and breathe them. They’re in our food and our stools. By 2050, the world’s oceans will be filled with more plastic than fish. How Much? A new […]

Is Air Pollution Giving Us More Diabetes?

June 30, 2018 — New research in Lancet Planetary Health finds that air pollution is adding to the global burden of diabetes. In fact, researchers estimate that it contributed to 3.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes in 2016 alone. Published yesterday, the study suggest that cuts in air pollution might help reverse global trends toward a crushing […]

Magical Thinking about Diet and Exercise

September 24, 2016 — Another study – this one published in Diabetes – tells us that air pollution might contribute to insulin resistance and ultimately to diabetes. It addresses a genuinely interesting subject for scientific inquiry. But it doesn’t tell us that a healthy diet and exercise is the antidote for the harms that air pollution might cause. Nevertheless, the New York […]