Danger Dust

New research from the University of Zurich, based on data from more than 28,000 caregivers in three countries, shows that the longer individuals spend caring for loved ones, the more their well-being suffers, regardless of the caregiving context. These findings underscore the need for policy discussions to alleviate the burden of informal care.

The prevalence of informal caregiving continues to rise globally, bringing abrupt changes to caregivers' lives. But how does caregiving affect their well-being? Past research offers conflicting views: some suggest it enhances well-being by providing a sense of purpose, while others report declines due to emotional strain. To address this, a new study from the University of Zurich (UZH) analyzed data from 28,663 caregivers, who contributed 281,884 observations across panel studies in the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia. The results show a consistent drop in life satisfaction and emotional health, with an increase in loneliness and anxiety – particularly for women.

Well-being suffers over time

Scientists at Örebro University have identified specific protein patterns in blood tests that can predict inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) up to 16 years before diagnosis. In particular, Crohn's disease can be detected with very high accuracy.

One of the major problems with IBD is that the disease can progress in your body for a long time without manifesting symptoms, allowing damage to the gastrointestinal tract to occur before treatment is initiated.

Despite a terrific increase in the number of drugs available, none of them can repair any damage already done. The earlier we can start treatment, the better the patient's prognosis and their chances to avoid complications.

In 1999, researchers found that these tiny electrophoresis systems could also separate intact pathogens by differences in their electrical charge. They placed a mixture of several types of bacteria in a very thin glass capillary that was then exposed to an electric field. Some bacteria exited the device faster than others due to their distinct electrical charges, making it possible to separate the microbes by type. Measuring their migration speeds allowed scientists to identify each species of bacteria present in the sample through a process that took less than 20 minutes.

1 in 3 air quality tests during construction of Metro City & Southwest exceeded the Workplace Exposure Standard (WES), some by 208 times, according to documents obtained from Transport for NSW (TfNSW).

Air quality reports at the three Metro West sites currently being bored show that toxic silica dust levels have exceeded the WES 1 in 7 times. The WES is .05 milligrams per cubic metre.

Worryingly, the data shows tunnelling using roadheaders exposes workers to silica dust levels far greater than engineered stone kitchen benchtops, which were banned after an AWU campaign.

Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study, after adjusting for measured confounders, long-term exposure to wildfire and nonwildfire PM2.5 over a 3-year period was associated with dementia diagnoses. As the climate changes, interventions focused on reducing wildfire PM2.5 exposure may reduce dementia diagnoses and related inequities.

'The ‘Monday effect’

Various studies across different regions confirm the “Monday effect” in construction. For example, a Chinese study found fatal accidents were 12.6% more common on Mondays compared with other weekdays. There was a similar trend in Spain and Hong Kong.

We also see the “Monday effect” in other industries, such as agriculture, forestry, mining and manufacturing.

A Spanish study that looked at the records of nearly 3 million occupational accidents, including construction, confirmed the Monday effect across industries, in companies of all sizes, for all types of workers, and for different types of injury.

Combined data of all occupational accidents in Queensland also confirms the Monday affect.

Evolutionary medicine examines how evolutionary processes can influence health and disease. Insights from this research could be used to develop innovative approaches to treating chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Recent studies by members of the Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation” (PMI) from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (MPI-EB) in Plön and Kiel University (CAU) show that an evolutionary perspective has significant potential to expand treatment options for diseases like IBD.

In a 2023 study published in the journal Gut Microbes, the research team demonstrated that gut bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, can rapidly adapt to inflammatory environments, becoming more mobile and aggressive. These adaptations enhance the survival and spread of the bacteria in the gut and could play a central role in patients with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. In a recent review article, which compares this study with other work by international research groups, the researchers further highlight the potential of evolutionary medicine in treating chronic inflammatory diseases. This review was recently published in the journal Gastroenterology.

Thousands of nurses who contracted long Covid during the pandemic are still being denied vital financial support, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.

In a letter sent last week to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), unions representing nurses and doctors have criticised the government's failure to recognise Covid-19 as an occupational disease.

Environmental Factors

Accumulating evidence suggests that environmental factors participate in the development of AAV.

A group of geoepidemiological triggers have been identified, including latitude-dependent and seasonality factors such as UV radiation.

In the 1990s, an increasing positive rate of ANCA was observed among practitioners in the mining and construction industries.

One of the most commonly reported substances associated with the occurrence of AAV is silica. 

The role of silica is further supported by the increasing frequency of AAV observed following 3 large earthquakes in Asia.

Silica-induced apoptosis of macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes might act as a trigger of AAV, notably MPO-ANCA-positive MPA

Multiple case reports have shown that continuous exposure to silica increases the risk of positive ANCA.

Studies have confirmed the dose-related effects of silica exposure. A meta-analysis showed that silica exposure was positively associated with AAV. A case-control study suggested a 3.4-fold increased risk of ANCA serology positivity in individuals with occupational silica exposure.

Another study suggested that silica can induce the expression of MPO in the cell membrane of neutrophils and monocytes, causing ANCA-related autoimmune responses.

However, research on the relationship between sustained exposure to silica and severity of AAV remains inadequate.

More than 90 percent of plastic is not recycled, with over 20 million tonnes leaking into the environment, often after just a few minutes of use. Microplastics have been found in the deepest parts of the ocean, the world's highest mountain peaks and just about every part of the human body.

Plastic also accounts for around three percent of global emissions, mostly linked to its production from fossil fuels.

Studies have shown that certain activity-boosting mutations in the ion channel TPC2 are associated with fair skin, blond hair, and albinism. These traits make people particularly susceptible to melanoma, as their skin offers less protection against harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Conversely, loss of TPC2 is associated with decreased melanoma risk. The ion channel controls the breakdown of important proteins in endolysosomes—cell organelles that are involved in transport and degradation processes—and thus influences signaling pathways that regulate tumor growth.

As expected, the researchers found that the fine dust — ranging from one to hundreds of micrometres in size — contained a mixture of grains from different geological epochs. The constant bombardment by micrometeorites and high-energy solar particles breaks up rocks into dust, which can then fly unimpeded by an atmosphere and land elsewhere.

Evidence is mounting on the health problems linked to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of manufactured chemicals used in consumer products that accumulate in the body and take a very long time to break down. These substances increase risk for a number of medical concerns, including cancer, liver damage and fertility issues.

The world's thinnest spaghetti, about 200 times thinner than a human hair, has been created by a UCL-led research team. The spaghetti is not intended to be a new food but was created because of the wide-ranging uses that extremely thin strands of material, called nanofibers, have in medicine and industry.

In a new study, researchers sought a more definitive answer by using electrical muscle stimulation to literally force people to curl the corners of their mouth up or down into a smile or a frown. They found evidence that the physical act of making those expressions seems to directly impact human emotions, cause the person to feel more positive or negative.

In geological terms, asbestos is a whole group of minerals, but there are six fibrous asbestos minerals that are known to cause mesothelioma; chrysotile (white), amosite (brown), crocidolite (blue), anthophyllite, fibrous tremolite and fibrous actinolite.

When observed using a microscope, these asbestos minerals are bundles of fibres, known as a fibrous asbestiform. The fibrous bundles are similar to rope; and, much like rope, an asbestiform bundle can fray and break up into smaller fibres.

If a bundle of asbestiform fibres breaks up into smaller, microscopic, fibres, such as during deconstruction work, they can become dust particles that are easily inhaled. Once in the lungs, they can find their way to the mesothelium – a tissue membrane that lines the lungs, abdomen and heart.

Once an asbestos fibre is in the lung mesothelium it can remain there for decades, where it will cause microscopic scratches. The body recognises asbestos fibres as a foreign body. To heal the damage, immune cells are sent to the area to break down the asbestos fibres.

However, asbestos fibres are resistant to the immune attack. And the chemicals produced by the immune cells to break down the asbestos fibres attack the mesothelium, producing mesothelioma.

Asbestos in make-up

There are no records of asbestos being intentionally used in cosmetics – but there is a risk of low level asbestos contamination in talcum minerals.

Tires are composite materials that have a lot of components in them, including a molecule known as 6PPD, which provides UV protection to help the rubber found in tires last longer. The 6PPD accomplishes this by absorbing the sun's rays and preventing the material from breaking down due to reactions with ozone and other reactive oxygen species in the air.

As tires wear down through contact with road surfaces, however, they release particles of 6PPD into the environment. Stormwater runoff carries these toxic particles into freshwater systems and other bodies of water, where the chemical can quickly kill fish, even in small doses. Recently, tribes in the Pacific Northwest filed a petition asking the Environmental Protection Agency to consider establishing regulations prohibiting the use of this chemical.

Internet use may be associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, better self-reported health, and fewer symptoms of depression among adults aged over 50 in 23 countries, suggests a study published in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings have potential implications for public health policies and practices, particularly in countries with aging populations and limited mental health services.

In California’s San Joaquin Valley, groundwater overdraft has caused dramatic and continued land subsidence during two main periods, 1925–1970 (“the historic period”) and post-2006.

Considering the extraordinary 2006–2022 Valley-wide subsidence, we make high-level recommendations for subsidence mitigation, highlighting the importance of focusing groundwater overdraft reductions on the deeper aquifers where subsidence originates, and on localities where subsidence impacts are greatest.

Going to the toilet is a basic human necessity, yet more than half the world's population uses toilets that do not treat human waste before it reenters the environment, typically into rivers.

Moreover, a 2021 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF found that about 673 million people have no toilets at all and are forced to defecate out in the open.

The findings, published recently in Nature Immunology, offer important insights into how seemingly harmless substances such as dust mites, pet dander and pollen can overcome the immune system to trigger allergic reactions and could eventually pave the way for identifying new therapeutics to treat and manage allergic asthma.

Rescue operations involving volunteers under way in Stilfontein amid reports that hundreds are still trapped underground.

Two men have been pulled out from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa after a court ordered the police to lift a blockade and allow the rescue of hundreds of workers believed to be involved in “illegal” mining activities.

Rescue operations involving volunteers were under way on Sunday in Stilfontein, southwest of the executive capital Pretoria, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Haru Mutasa, reporting from the site.

In this study, we present the utilization of urinary miRNAs derived from urinary EVs, including exosomes, captured by nanowires.

The nanowires could capture more than 99% of the EVs in urine, and the captured EVs had expression of the membrane proteins (CD63, CD81, and CD9).

Moreover, the nanowire-based method showed the ability to extract about 2500 species of urinary miRNAs.

Compared with serum miRNA species, the urinary miRNA species extracted by the nanowire-based method showed almost the same number of miRNA species, meaning that urine includes almost all human miRNAs. And, we used the identified urinary miRNA ensembles to distinguish lung cancer and noncancer subjects with an AUROC of 0.997; even when the lung cancer was stage I, an AUROC of 0.987 was achieved.

These results suggested that miRNAs are transferred via blood circulation and nonselectively filtered out by kidneys. Furthermore, we used identified miRNA ensembles to distinguish three classifications among brain tumor, lung cancer, and noncancer subjects with 86% sensitivity and 93% specificity.

The rod-shaped tuberculosis (TB) bacterium, which the World Health Organization has once again ranked as the top infectious disease killer globally, is the first single-celled organism ever observed to maintain a consistent growth rate throughout its life cycle. These findings, reported by Tufts University School of Medicine researchers on November 15 in the journal Nature Microbiology, overturn core beliefs of bacterial cell biology and hint at why the deadly pathogen so readily outmaneuvers our immune system and antibiotics.

The most basic thing you can study in bacteria is how they grow and divide, yet our study reveals that the TB pathogen is playing by a completely different set of rules compared to easier-to-study model organisms.

These experiments showed that the TB bacterium doesn't follow expected patterns of cell growth. In other bacterial species, growth is exponential, which means cells grow slower when they are smaller. For TB bacteria, growth rates can be the same whether they are newly born (and small) or far along in their cell cycle and soon to divide.