Recent studies hint that exposure to the toxic chemicals, such as methylmercury can cause harm at levels previously considered safe. A new analysis of the epidemiological evidence in the International Journal of Environment and Health, suggests that we should take a precautionary approach to this and similar compounds to protect unborn children from irreversible brain damage.
Philippe Grandjean of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, and the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, explains that the causes of suboptimal and abnormal mental development are mostly unknown. However, severe exposure to pollutants during the development of the growing fetus can cause problems that become apparent as brain functions develop - and ultimately decline - in later life. Critically, much smaller doses of chemicals, such as the neurotoxic compound methylmercury, can harm the developing brain to a much greater extent than the adult brain.
Rare infection slowly making its way down Washington-Oregon coast
Sugar present in red meat and dairy found to be a risk factor for E. coli infection
some harmful strains of E. coli might rely on something sweet to do harm.
At Carnegie Mellon University, it's standing room only for this autism conference.
Organizers expected just 120, but 400 to 500 people showed up, including professors, students and parents.
A University of Calgary scientist confirms that it is how our immune system responds, not the rhinovirus itself, that causes cold symptoms. Of more than 100 different viruses that can cause the common cold, human rhinoviruses are the major cause.
The research, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, is the first study to comprehensively review gene changes in rhinovirus. "The study's findings are a major step toward more targeted cold prevention and treatment strategies while also serving as a valuable roadmap for the broader respiratory science community," says David Proud, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Faculty of Medicine, and lead author of the study.
Proud adds that while colds are usually considered to be minor infections of the nose and throat, they can have much more serious health repercussions. "Rhinovirus is the major cause of the common cold, but it is also an important pathogen in more serious conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)," Proud says.
© AP
New York - Turning your clock back on Sunday may be good for your heart. Swedish researchers looked at 20 years of records and discovered that the number of heart attacks dipped on the Monday after clocks were set back an hour, possibly because people got an extra hour of sleep.
But moving clocks forward in the spring appeared to have the opposite effect. There were more heart attacks during the week after the start of daylight saving time, particularly on the first three days of the week."Sleep - through a variety of mechanisms - affects our cardiovascular health," said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who was not involved in the research. The findings show that "
sleep not only impacts how we feel, but it may also affect whether we develop heart disease or not."
US software behemoth Microsoft has doubled a cash reward for information on the whereabouts of a Canadian boy who ran away from home after his father took away his Xbox game console, it said Tuesday.
Whether we choose to admit it or not, we all experience memory errors from time to time. Research has suggested that false memory may be a result of having too many other things to remember or perhaps if too much time has passed. However, previous studies have indicated that a specific type of false memory known as "boundary extension" occurs for different reasons. Boundary extension is a mistake that we often make when recalling a view of a scene - we will insist that the boundaries of an image stretched out farther than what we actually saw. Although this error is very common and occurs in people of all ages (from young children to the elderly), few studies have been done examining how quickly boundary extension occurs. That is, it was unknown how long a scene needs to be interrupted before the viewer experiences boundary extension and is convinced they saw more than they actually did.
Just when it seemed that contaminated vegetables posed a bigger risk of food poisoning than eating meat, along comes a pathogen that will only attack those of us who are carnivores.
The bacterium - a strain of Escherichia coli - makes a toxin that does its worst by latching onto a sugar molecule that humans don't have naturally. We can, only acquire it by eating red meat or dairy products.
"This toxin originally evolved to attack cattle or some other animals," says Ajit Varki, an expert in molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who was involved in the study. By eating the toxin's intended target we made ourselves vulnerable too, he says.
When unlucky meat-eaters ingest this particular E. coli strain, its toxin kills the cells that line the gut, eventually causing bloody diarrhoea, Varki says. It also heads for blood vessels and the kidneys.
Fungus expert Joan Bennett did not believe in so-called toxic mould - the cause of "sick building syndrome" and many lawsuits - until her New Orleans home was flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
When she got a whiff of the foul air that the black goo had created in her home, she decided to change her research focus and try to find out how and if the fungi that took over most of the flooded homes on the Gulf Coast might make people ill.
