Just in time for World No Tobacco Day - which is today - the World Health Organization (WHO) has unleashed a barrage of statistics on the toll tobacco takes on lung health. For starters, tobacco kills at least eight million people a year across the globe. That’s according to WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who noted that millions more live with lung cancer, tuberculosis, asthma or chronic lung disease caused by tobacco.
Surprising finding suggests obesity epidemic may not fully explain increasing rates
May 30, 2019
Early-onset colorectal cancer –cancer occurring before age 50—is rising most rapidly in Western states, where healthy behaviors are prominent, according to a new study. The authors of the study, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, say the findings indicate the need for further etiologic studies to explore early-life colorectal carcinogenesis.
The opioid overdose epidemic continues to claim lives across the country with a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017[i]. The crisis is taking an especially devastating toll on certain parts of the U.S. workforce. High rates of opioid overdose deaths have occurred in industries with high injury rates and physically demanding working conditions such as construction, mining, or fishing[ii],[iii].
Jeremy Westfall was cutting the grass last month at his home in Mineralwells, West Virginia, when he decided to put his riding mower in reverse. He didn’t see his 6-year-old daughter Michaela walking up behind him, and backed over her.
Mother’s Day brought an unwelcome research result in a study done in Ecuador: high blood pressure among children exposed to pesticides sprayed during that country’s big flower harvest.
Ecuador is among the largest commercial flower growers in the world, with significant rose exports to North America, Europe and Asia – especially for Mother’s Day, a holiday with one of the highest sales of flowers.
Activity trackers and mobile phone apps are all the rage, but do they really help users increase and maintain physical activity? A new study has found that one mobile phone app designed for inactive women does help - when combined with an activity tracker and personal counseling.
Avoiding risk, preventing asthma and fast-tracking self-driving autos were among the top occupational safety and health, environment, transportation, and regulation stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
In March 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people onboard. An investigation found that the copilot deliberately steered the plane into the mountainside. It also revealed that he had a history of depression. Among workers, untreated depression can affect the ability to perform tasks and—as the Germanwings incident shows—in rare instances, can result in devastating consequences.
Improved air quality in the Los Angeles region is linked to roughly 20 percent fewer new asthma cases in children, according to a USC study that tracked Southern California children over a 20-year period.
The research expands on the landmark USC Children’s Health Study, which found that children’s lungs had grown stronger in the previous two decades and rates of bronchitic symptoms decreased as pollution declined throughout the region.
Pool chemical injuries led to an estimated 4,535 U.S. emergency department visits annually during 2008-2017, according to a report published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Although injuries from pool chemicals are preventable, the number of serious injuries from these chemicals has not changed much in the last 15 years.