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Arsenic in Drinking Water: Increased Risk of Respiratory Infections and Lung Damage Following Fetal Exposure
By Roberta Attanasio Odorless and tasteless, arsenic lurks everywhere – in rice and in chicken breasts, in apple juice and in drinking water. It’s all around, but not in amounts sufficient to cause acute (short-term) poisoning. On the other hand, chronic (long-term) exposure to lower arsenic doses occurs way too often, and may lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers and other human disorders. Contamination of drinking water by arsenic is a global health threat. Presence of arsenic in groundwater is largely the result of minerals dissolving from weathered rocks and soils. In addition, arsenic enters the drinking water supply because of runoff from orchards, electronics production waste or other industrial…
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Change of Mind: The Influence of Hurricanes
By The Editors Traumatic weather events, such as hurricanes, may lead people to think more seriously about climate change, express a greater belief that climate change is caused by human activity, and become more supportive of environmentally sustainable policies – all together, these are the findings and implications of a study recently published in the journal Psychological Science. The study, entitled “When Truth Is Personally Inconvenient, Attitudes Change: The Impact of Extreme Weather on Implicit Support for Green Politicians and Explicit Climate-Change Beliefs” examined the support of New Jersey residents for politicians committed or opposed to policies designed to combat climate change — before and after residents experienced Hurricanes Irene…
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Food Waste Harms Climate, Water, Land and Biodiversity
By The Editors The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released a few days ago a report detailing the first study to analyze the impacts of global food wastage from an environmental perspective, looking specifically at its consequences for the climate, water and land use, and biodiversity. Key facts and figures from the report are: The global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tonnes of “primary product equivalents.” Total food wastage for the edible part of this amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes. Food wastage’s carbon footprint is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent of GHG released into the atmosphere per year. The total…
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Maternal Antibodies, Brain Development and Autism
By Roberta Attanasio The world of autism is a diverse one — autism and autism spectrum disorder are general terms for a group of complex and extremely heterogenous life-long neurodevelopmental conditions. Autism is also one of medicine’s greatest challenges. The current general consensus is that autism has multiple causes, and these causes can be as varied as the types of autism, which are not very well defined, yet. It is almost certain, though, that autism has its roots in very early brain development, development that can be influenced by a variety of factors. In a subset of childrem with autism, one of these factors may involve production of antibodies by…
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Anthropogens: Inducers of Chronic Inflammation and Degenerative Diseases
By Roberta Attanasio Injuries and infections are facts of life, and we need to deal with them. Thus, it’s not surprising we have developed efficient and magnificent sets of mechanisms that defend us from whatever is perceived as a danger, for example micro-organisms and irritant substances. Inflammation (or inflammatory response) is one of these sets of mechanisms, and not only — inflammation is our first line of defense, as well as the process that leads to repair of the damaged tissue. When the need arises, the inflammatory response stages a battle that results in the classical four signs of inflammation — swelling, redness, heat and pain — with the final…
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Global Threats: The Spread of Crop Pests
By Roberta Attanasio One of the major global threats to food security is the current spread of crop pests, unintentionally moved by human activity across world regions at unprecedented rates. Crop pests include viroids, viruses, bacteria, oomycetes, fungi, nematodes, and insects. In the past, this spread was limited by physical barriers such as mountains, seas and deserts. However, such natural limits are now bypassed because of the rapid increase in international and intercontinental agricultural trade. To date, more than 12,000 alien species have been documented in Europe by DAISIE (Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventory for Europe), a unique three-year research project involving more than 100 European scientists and funded by…
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Do Sunscreen Products Harm the Coastal Marine Ecosystem?
By The Editors When new products based on mixtures of several chemicals become widely used, and the use of these products increases exponentially, it is reasonable to expect some sort of environmental impact, at least on specific ecosystems. Therefore, the recent finding that sunscreen products may cause deleterious effects in the coastal ecosystem is not surprising. Sunscreen products contain organic and/or inorganic UV chemical filters, as well as a variety of other ingredients, as for example preservatives, coloring agents and fragrances. What is surprising, however, is that this potential environmental problem has not been given the attention it deserves – until this year. Findings on the effects of sunscreen products…
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Nanotechnology: Lycurgus Cup and Sensors
By Roberta Attanasio Nanotechnology is technology based on extremely small structures, the so-called nanostructures. How small are nanostructures? We’re talking nanoscale – about 1 to 100 nanometers. One nanometer is a billionth of a meter (there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch). These are the dimensions of atoms and molecules and, therefore, nanotechnology involves the manipulation of atoms and molecules. How, then, is nanotechnology different from molecular biology (sometimes called the nanoscience of living things), physics, or chemistry? The distinction can be blurred. However, when considering nanotechnology and nanostructures, it is important to take into account that nanostructures are man-made and exhibit special size-dependent properties, in other words properties resulting…
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What Are Endocrine Disruptors?
By Roberta Attanasio According to the International Programme on Chemical Safety, World Health Organization (WHO) (2002), an endocrine disruptor is an exogenous substance or mixture that alters function(s) of the endocrine system and consequently causes adverse health effects in an intact organism, or its progeny, or (sub) populations. This year, a group of experts convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WHO defined the growing impact of hormone disruptors on human health problems a “global threat“. What is the endocrine system? The endocrine system is one of the communication systems of our body and is found in all mammals, birds, fish, and many other types of living organisms. It’s made up of…
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Central Asia Large Mammals: Victims of (Cashmere) Fashion
By Roberta Attanasio One thing here affects something else there. This is the principle at the basis of The Global Fool’s mission — To raise awareness of environmental problems and their global nature. Last month, a team of international researchers published the results of a study entitled “Globalization of the Cashmere Market and the Decline of Large Mammals in Central Asia”. As the title suggests, the results of the study show a disturbing link between the global cashmere trade and declining native wildlife species in India, Mongolia and China’s Tibetan plateau. In other words, there is a link between Western world fashion (one thing here) and native wild animals in Central Asia…
