Danger Dust

Workers in solid waste management and remediation face a variety of dangers—excessive noise, poor ergonomics, pollution and extreme weather, among others—in addition to regular exposure to a broad range of biohazards and chemicals. As a result, they experience higher rates of injuries and illnesses compared to workers across all private industries.

Until now, little was known about how the half a million waste workers in the United States view their jobs and the numerous work-related factors that affect their physical and mental well-being.

Source:

A pilot study on psychosocial factors and perceptions of organizational health among a sample of U.S. waste workers

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-59912-9

Highlights

• Ten PhACs detected in Red Sea corals, indicating pharmaceutical contamination.

• The antibiotic sulfamethoxazole prevalent in 93% of samples.

• Elevated PhAC concentrations in shallow sites underscore human impact.

• Urgent need for conservation measures to mitigate PhAC pollution in coral reefs.

Conclusions

Our study provides novel insights into the presence of pharmaceutically-active compounds (PhACs) in reef-building stony corals from the Red Sea. The detection of ten different PhACs in coral tissues, with elevated concentrations in shallow sites and areas with heavy human activity, underscores the urgent need for conservation efforts to mitigate anthropogenic contamination in coral reef ecosystems. These findings highlight the vulnerability of coral reefs to pharmaceutical pollution

While most cancers are not transmissible, there are rare cases where cancer cells can spread between individuals and even across species, leading to epidemics. Despite their significance, the origins of such cancers remain elusive due to late detection in host populations. Using Hydra oligactis, which exhibits spontaneous tumour development that in some strains became vertically transmitted, this study presents the first experimental observation of the evolution of a transmissible tumour.....

The resulting tumours are characterized by overproliferation of large interstitial stem cells and are not associated with a specific bacteriome. Furthermore, despite only five generations of transmission, these tumours induced notable alterations in host life-history traits, hinting at a compensatory response.

This work, therefore, makes the first contribution to understanding the conditions of transmissible cancer emergence and their short-term consequences for the host.

Cholera is a deadly diarrheal disease that continues to threaten millions worldwide, with up to 4 million cases and as many as 143,000 deaths each year. In Bangladesh alone, where cholera is a persistent danger, 66 million people are at risk, with more than 100,000 cases and 4,500 deaths annually.

Vibrio cholerae, is evolving in ways that make the disease more severe and harder to control, but until now, scientists have struggled to pinpoint the exact genetic factors driving these changes.

There is even less knowledge about the genomic traits responsible for the severity of cholera resulting from these lineages. About 1 in 5 people with cholera will experience a severe condition owing to a combination of symptoms (primarily diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration).

Intelligent microrobots could one day be used in medicine

Do you take any inspiration from bacteria for your microrobots?

Absolutely. The way they navigate through their environment is incredible. They use this brilliant strategy I never would have thought of — at first, they kind of just randomly move around, but when they start sensing something good, like an amino acid or other nutrient, they will swim a little bit longer, which tends to move them gradually in that direction. It’s what we call a “biased random walk.” As an engineer, you start thinking, “Oh, that’s good.” They’re basically following a chemical gradient.

In short, microplastics are widespread, accumulating in the remotest parts of our planet. There is evidence of their toxic effects at every level of biological organisation, from tiny insects at the bottom of the food chain to apex predators.

Microplastics are pervasive in food and drink and have been detected throughout the human body. Evidence of their harmful effects is emerging.

The scientific evidence is now more than sufficient: collective global action is urgently needed to tackle microplastics – and the problem has never been more pressing.

Swarms of spherical nanobots barely larger than a virus could one day save hundreds of thousands of lives globally each year by staunching deadly bleeds in the brain.

An international team of researchers, led by clinicians from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Edinburgh, developed the magnetically-controlled devices to deliver precise doses of clotting agents through a body's blood vessels to prevent blow-outs.

In a demonstration of their potential effectiveness, billions of the drug-carrying microscopic structures were guided through a test animal's body to safely defuse a model aneurism in its carotid.

Antifungal drug development is hampered because of the close similarities between fungal and human cells compared with bacterial and human cells; the search for compounds that selectively inhibit fungi with minimal toxicity to the patient is laborious and requires substantial financial resources.

Despite this complication, several promising new agents, including entirely new classes of molecules, have entered clinical trials in the past decade. But even before they reach the market after years of development and clinical trials, fungicides with similar modes of action are developed by the agrochemical industry resulting in cross-resistance for critical priority pathogens such as A fumigatus. 

We are back where we started in terms of the future sustainability of treating azole-resistant A fumigatus with currently available antifungals. As large proportions of essential crops are affected by fungi, antifungal protection is required for food security. The question is, how do we balance food security with the ability to treat current and future resistant fungal pathogens?

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), electronic components based on flexible organic materials that can amplify biological signals, have proven promising for developing wearable technologies that monitor subtler health related signals. For instance, these flexible transistors could pick up information about glucose, lactate, cortisol and pH levels, as well as neurotransmitters and metabolites, which could be highly beneficial for diagnosing or monitoring specific medical conditions.

Despite the advantages of OECTs, the data they collect must then also be transmitted to external devices, which entails the use of wireless communication circuits. These circuits are typically based on inorganic and rigid materials, which can increase the size and thickness of devices, while reducing their mechanical flexibility.

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) recently developed a new wireless device that can monitor various biomarkers, including glucose, lactate and pH levels. This device, presented in a paper in Nature Electronics, effectively integrates components based on organic and inorganic materials, resulting in good performance and excellent mechanical stability, with an overall thickness of 4 μm.

Better than blood tests? Nanoparticle potential found for assessing kidneys

In a study published July 29 in Advanced Materials, University of Texas at Dallas researchers found that X-rays of the kidneys using gold nanoparticles as a contrast agent might be more accurate in detecting kidney disease than standard laboratory blood tests. Based on their study in mice, they also found that caution may be warranted in employing renal-clearable nanomedicines to patients with compromised kidneys.

While our findings emphasize the need for caution when using these advanced treatments in patients with compromised kidneys, they also highlight the potential of gold nanoparticles as a noninvasive way to assess kidney injuries using X-ray imaging or other techniques that correlate with gold accumulation in the kidneys

Instead of drawing from the region's lakes, one of the world's largest freshwater reserves, officials decided to draw from a polluted, acidic river, exposing its 100,000-strong population to severely lead-contaminated water for more than a year.

The health scandal had international repercussions, and—among other issues—caused learning disabilities in many children.

It saw a spike in cases of Legionnaires' disease, leading to the death of a dozen people and widespread mistrust of public officials.

Those same authorities have said that the vast majority of lead pipes have since been replaced and that the water is now safe to drink.

Key Points

Question  Is air pollution in the form of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µm or less (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) associated with the risk and clinical characteristics of Parkinson disease (PD)?

Findings  This case-control study including 346 patients with PD matched with 4813 controls found that PM2.5 and NO2 exposure was associated with statistically significant increases in PD risk and risk of developing dyskinesia. Higher exposure to PM2.5 was associated with a statistically significant increase in risk of the akinetic rigid PD subtype in subcohort analysis among patients with PD.

Meaning  These findings suggest that a reduction in air pollution may help reduce PD risk, modifying the PD phenotype and the risk of dyskinesia in patients with PD.

Iron is a micronutrient indispensable for life, enabling processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and DNA synthesis. Iron availability is often a limiting resource in today's oceans, which means that increasing the flow of iron into them can increase the amount of carbon fixed by phytoplankton, with consequences for the global climate.

Iron ends up in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems through rivers, melting glaciers, hydrothermal activity, and especially wind. But not all its chemical forms are "bioreactive," that is, available for organisms to take up from their environment.

Here we show that iron bound to dust from the Sahara blown westward over the Atlantic has properties that change with the distance traveled: the greater this distance, the more bioreactive the iron.

Highlights

• Microplastic (MP) accumulation was analyzed in four coral species.

• MPs were present in all parts (mucus layer, tissue, and skeleton) of each species.

• Pocillopora cf. damicornis exhibited the highest MP accumulation.

• Large-polyp corals exhibited significant variation in polymer types across different parts.

Individual coral polyps contain three distinct components—the surface mucus layer, tissue, and skeleton; each component may exhibit varying extent of microplastic (MP) accumulation and serve as a short- or long-term repository for these pollutants.

In this study, we investigated MP contamination in various coral species with respect to their surface mucus layers, tissues, and skeletons. The branching small-polyp coral P. cf. damicornis exhibited significant accumulation of MPs (particles g−1 w.w.). Additionally, this coral species exhibited a high rate of MP accumulation in its skeleton, whereas large-polyp corals, such as Lobophyllia sp., showed high amounts of MPs that adhered to their surfaces.

United States embassies and consulates, along with American citizens traveling and living abroad, now have a powerful tool to protect against polluted air, thanks to a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. State Department.

Since 2020, ZephAir has provided real-time air quality data for about 75 U.S. diplomatic posts. Now, the public tool includes three-day air quality forecasts for PM2.5, a type of fine particulate matter, for all the approximately 270 U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. These tiny particles, much smaller than a grain of sand, can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing respiratory and cardiovascular problems.

Aerosols are tiny airborne particles that come from both natural sources, like dust, volcanic ash, and sea spray, and from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. PM2.5 refers to particles or droplets that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter — about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

What if construction materials could be put together and taken apart as easily as LEGO bricks? Such reconfigurable masonry would be disassembled at the end of a building's lifetime and reassembled into a new structure, in a sustainable cycle that could supply generations of buildings using the same physical building blocks.

That's the idea behind circular construction, which aims to reuse and repurpose a building's materials whenever possible, to minimize the manufacturing of new materials and reduce the construction industry's "embodied carbon," which refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with every process throughout a building's construction, from manufacturing to demolition.

In mechanical testing, a single glass brick withstood pressures similar to that of a concrete block. As a structural demonstration, the researchers constructed a wall of interlocking glass bricks. They envision that 3D-printable glass masonry could be reused many times over as recyclable bricks for building facades and internal walls.

Twenty years after the first publication using the term microplastics, we review current understanding, refine definitions and consider future prospects.

Microplastics arise from multiple sources including tires, textiles, cosmetics, paint and the fragmentation of larger items.

They are widely distributed throughout the natural environment with evidence of harm at multiple levels of biological organization.

They are pervasive in food and drink and have been detected throughout the human body, with emerging evidence of negative effects.

Environmental contamination could double by 2040 and widescale harm has been predicted.

Public concern is increasing and diverse measures to address microplastics pollution are being considered in international negotiations. Clear evidence on the efficacy of potential solutions is now needed to address the issue and to minimize the risks of unintended consequences.

In the complex landscape of cancer, tumors create their own microenvironment, often marked by low oxygen levels, a condition known as hypoxia. Hypoxia arises as tumors grow rapidly, outpacing their blood supply due to the lack of an efficient vascular system within the tumor. This oxygen-starved environment forces cancer cells and surrounding tissues to adapt in ways that typically promote tumor survival and growth.

This is also the case for the immune cells already in the tumor microenvironment, that are taught by cancer cells to tolerate the condition and even promote cancer growth by failing to comply with their main job. Therefore, hypoxia is generally associated with more aggressive cancers and poor patient outcomes, as it drives changes that make tumors more resistant to treatment.

This well-established paradigm is not absolute, however. Dr. Esteban Ballestar's group at the Josep Carreras Institute has recently published a study in the journal Science Advances reporting the identification and characterization of an immune cell population that, under hypoxia, is more effective in their responses against cancer cells.

This surprising discovery expands our understanding of the effects of hypoxia in cancer. While hypoxia is known for contributing to cancer progression, this new study reveals that at least part of the body's immune system can fight back.

For the first time, scientists are able to directly compare the different kinds of injury that mechanical ventilation causes to cells in the lungs.

In a new study, using a ventilator-on-a-chip model developed at The Ohio State University, researchers found that shear stress from the collapse and reopening of the air sacs is the most injurious type of damage.

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested plastic particles on the intestine and other organs and tissues

Rutgers received a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of micronanoplastics on the digestive system.

The byproduct of environmental and industrial processes, micro- and nano-scale plastic particles and fibers increasingly contaminate the environment. These plastics — now found in our food, air and water — are a potential health hazard.

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested micronanoplastics on the intestine and other organs and tissues as well the cellular process behind this. The research also will examine the roles that plastic type and chemistry (e.g., polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate), size and other properties play in their uptake and toxicity. They also will look at the impact of micronanoplastics on intestinal inflammation.

Three people had died and nine were hospitalized as of yesterday morning after eating millet dumplings that might have contained toxic pesticides.

Liu said he asked the family if it might have been food poisoning, but they said it was unlikely and suspected it was an age-related illness.

Six more people came to the Mackay Hospital branch throughout the night and two of them exhibited the same smell, causing doctors to suspect food poisoning, he said.

It appeared to be a neurotoxin, potentially an organophosphate used in pesticides or another type found naturally in plants, he said, adding that those affected had constricted pupils and were trembling, with body stiffness and secretions from the mouth and nose.

Investigators were focused on toxins and not infectious diseases because the symptoms manifested quicker than most pathogen’s incubation period.

One of the critically ill people showed symptoms consistent with poisoning by organophosphate or carbamic acid-based pesticides, including increased secretions, respiratory failure, slow heartbeat and loss of consciousness, he said.

The substances are frequently applied to protect Trichodesma calycosum plants, the leaves of which were used in the traditional millet dish, to kill snails or slugs, he said, adding that the victims had reported that the wrappings had a strange smell.

The possibility that cyanide had been used as a pesticide had not been ruled out.

Jimsonweed, a poisonous plant, had been inadvertently used as a wrapping for millet dumplings before, but no one had died from such incidents, he said, adding that the possibility of foul play has not been excluded.

EPA size comparisons for PM particles

PM stands for particulate matter (also called particle pollution): the term for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets found in the air. Some particles, such as dust, dirt, soot, or smoke (such as our endemic bushfire smoke) are large or dark enough to be seen with the naked eye. Others are so small they can only be detected using an electron microscope.

Particle pollution includes:

PM10 : inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 10 micrometres and smaller; andPM2.5 : fine inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometres and smaller.

How small is 2.5 micrometres? Think about a single hair from your head. The average human hair is about 70 micrometres in diameter – making it 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.

What are the harmful effects of PM?

Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Some particles less than 10 micrometres in diameter can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health.

Substances that might otherwise be considered non-hazardous or inert may cause serious harm if the particle size is small enough that the powder or dust is respirable- especially if the process causes said dust to become airborne.

Particle size range and distribution determines how much of the dust is inhalable (passes into the mouth, trachea and bronchi) and respirable (able to pass beyond this point into the lungs)

The exact particle size that is respirable varies for the substance and the person but by convention it is considered to be less than 10 microns.

When material enters the lungs and airways the body must work to get rid of it and the exposure will be prolonged. Biologically active material such as dust (containing dander, pollen etc) and sawdust can cause sensitisation, especially in those with asthma or existing allergies.

Common construction materials (concrete, brick etc) contain Respirable Crystalline Silica or RPS. This silica becomes entrained in the lungs and can lead to silicosis, COPD and cancer- serious occupation illnesses linked to the construction industry.

Juan Lopez is the fourth member of an environmental activism group based in in Tocoa to be killed since 2023. President Xiomara Castro condemned the murder and has ordered an investigation.

An anti-mining environmental activist in Honduras who protested to preserve tropical forests and rivers was killed over the weekend, even after warnings to better ensure his safety.

Juan Lopez, 46, was gunned down as he left church Saturday in the northeastern town of Tocoa, police said on Sunday.

Lopez belonged to the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods, an environmental organization in Tocoa on the country's Atlantic coast.

Three other members of the group were killed last year in what the organization saw as retaliation. 

The group had suffered threats and harassment for years amid efforts to preserve the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, and the Carlos Escaleras nature reserve, as the presence of mining and hydro-electric companies increased. 

Global Witness, a British NGO, says Honduras is one of the world's most dangerous countries for environmental activists.

Latin America accounted for 85% of all the world's environmentalists who were killed last year, with 18 deaths registered in Honduras, according to Global Witness.

Moon dust, or regolith, isn’t like the particles on Earth that collect on bookshelves or tabletops – it’s abrasive and it clings to everything. Throughout NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon, regolith posed a challenge to astronauts and valuable space hardware.

During the Apollo 17 mission, astronaut Harrison Schmitt described his reaction to breathing in the dust as “lunar hay fever,” experiencing sneezing, watery eyes, and a sore throat. 

Rebranded as Canary-S (Solar), the sensor is now meeting a need for low-cost, wireless air-quality and meteorological monitoring on Earth. The self-contained unit, powered by solar energy and a battery, transmits data using cellular technology. It can measure a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds, among others.

The oil and gas industry uses the Canary-S sensors to provide continuous, real-time monitoring of fugitive gas emissions, and the U.S. Forest Service uses them to monitor forest-fire emissions.

Firefighters have been exhibiting symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning for decades. They thought it was just part of the job but the sensors revealed where and when carbon monoxide levels were sky high, making it possible to issue warnings for firefighters to take precautions.