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The European Seafloor: More Litter Than We Thought
By Roberta Attanasio We’re all familiar with the global threat of ocean pollution — and the widespread presence of plastic on beaches and in the great garbage patches. However, until very recently, we did not know that marine litter is present in large amounts on the seafloor, in the deepest areas and at very remote locations. Marine litter is defined by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as ‘‘any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment”. Results of a survey published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE on April 30, 2014, reveal the magnitude of the problem. Researchers gathered data from surveys…
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Prenatal Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants: Influence on Masculine and Feminine Behavior in School-Age Children
By Roberta Attanasio Persistent environmental pollutants – such as DDT, dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls – are a major global health threat. These toxic chemicals resist degradation and persist in the environment for long periods of time. They can be transported by wind and water across international boundaries, and reach regions far from where they are produced or used. People are exposed to these chemicals mostly by eating contaminated fish, meat, and dairy products and, once exposed, may develop a variety of adverse health effects, including birth defects, dysfunctions of the immune and reproductive systems, damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, and certain cancers. Now, results from a study…
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Climate Change: Influence on the Spread of Lyme Disease
By Roberta Attanasio Blacklegged ticks feed on blood — they attach to the skin of humans and many animals and, slowly, suck for several days. To get there, they patiently wait on the tip of grasses and shrubs using their lower legs to hold on, until a human or an animal passes by. Ticks can’t jump or fly, so they keep their upper pair of legs outstretched, ready to climb aboard. Once there, they insert their feeding tube into the skin and start to suck the blood — this is how they become infected by or transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the micro-organism that causes Lyme disease. Lyme disease is one of the most common infectious diseases in…
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J.M.W. Turner’s Sunsets: A Guide to Air Pollution
By Roberta Attanasio During the past few weeks, London-born Joseph Mallord William Turner — one of Britain’s greatest landscape painters — has been in the news more than one time. His latest paintings were considered by his critics the result of a senile mind. Now, they’re presented as evidence of his radical brilliance. Many of these paintings will be shown at an exhibition in London, which will start in September 2014 and, in 2015, will go to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sam Smiles, the co-curator of the exhibition, told The Guardian: “The myth is that Turner’s mind and hand increasingly failed him, especially after 1845, that his work declined and…
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Tuberculosis in China: A Success Story for a Global Problem
By Roberta Attanasio Sometimes called “The Silent Killer”, tuberculosis, or TB for short, is a huge worldwide public health problem — according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the human population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the micro-organism that causes the disease. In 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from it. The number of TB deaths is unacceptably large, given that most are preventable — indeed, a cure for TB, consisting of a six-month course of drugs, has been available for more than 50 years. If treatment is incomplete, TB can come back, often in a form resistant to treatment. Years ago, the WHO developed a strategy known…
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Minute 319: The Delta of the Colorado River Gets a New Life
By Roberta Attanasio For six million years, the Colorado River ran from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California—through 1,450 miles of mountains, deserts, canyons, and the lush delta in Mexico. Now, it no longer reaches the sea. The once vast and fertile delta of the river is dry—a parched wasteland. In 1931, the United States Bureau of Reclamation built the first of a series of large dams along the lower Colorado River, which now provides water to two states in Mexico and 30 million people in seven U.S. states. Until the 1950s, the delta was still a network of freshwater and marine wetlands with meandering river channels—an opulent habitat…
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Psychological Stress in Children: Effects on the Immune Response
By Roberta Attanasio Stress is part of life — but while a little bit of it (good stress) may keep us active and alert, and sometimes even motivate us, the long-term type (bad stress) can have negative effects on our health. Elevated blood pressure and heart disease are just some examples of the so-called “stress-related diseases”. In addition to good stress and bad stress, there is another type of stress — toxic stress. Professor Pat Levitt defines toxic stress as “a term used by psychologists and developmental neurobiologists to describe the kinds of experiences, particularly in childhood, that can affect brain architecture and brain chemistry. They typically are experiences that are…
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A New Kind of Global Die-Off: Bananas Hit by Rapidly Spreading Diseases
By Roberta Attanasio The world loves bananas. Actually, the world loves the Cavendish bananas, mostly because it is (almost) the only variety commercially available worldwide. The entire global banana industry relies on this seedless and, therefore, sterile variety made of bananas all essentially identical to each other — and equally susceptible to infection by the same harmful microbes, which can spread very easily across plantations around the world. This is not a hypothetical scenario — instead, it’s happening as we speak. Two species of fungi are threatening the world supply of the Cavendish bananas. One is Mycosphaerella fijiensis, a fungus that causes a disease dubbed Black Sigatoka, also known as…
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Breastfeeding: Benefits of Early Exposure to Maternal Antibodies
By Roberta Attanasio “Breastfeeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Virtually all mothers can breastfeed, provided they have accurate information, and the support of their family, the health care system and society at large. Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by World Health Organization as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after birth.” According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Babies are born ready to learn to breastfeed. During pregnancy a woman’s body gains weight and changes to support breastfeeding. Think of the first…
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Sex Differences in the Immune Response to Vaccines
By Roberta Attanasio Women and men respond differently to infectious microbes and vaccines – it is said, indeed, that the immune system of women is stronger than the immune system of men. Stronger or weaker, one thing is certain – men and women are not the same in terms of immune response. A few years ago, the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases published “ The Xs and Y of immune responses to viral vaccines” – a comprehensive article that clearly shows how the biological differences between sexes influence the immune response to vaccines, as for example the influenza, yellow fever and hepatitis vaccines. There are not many published studies on the…
