If you were to envision the kind of accident that would cause a person's bowels to explode out of their body, you might imagine some sort of gruesome stabbing or grisly car accident.

You'd probably never imagine that something as commonplace and harmless as a sneeze would cause this kind of ghastly injury – but that's exactly what happened to a Florida man earlier this month.

The man was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery where his bowels were returned to his abdomen.

Sneezing is normally a protective mechanism that keeps potentially harmful things – such as dust, bacteria and viruses – out of our respiratory system. The process is controlled by the so-called “sneezing centre” in the brain’s medulla (which governs autonomic functions, including breathing). It’s activated by the presence of irritants in the lining of the nose and airways, which send impulses to the centre.

People may be at increased risk from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease—as rising global levels of micro- and nanoplastics (MnPs) are absorbed into the human body, a new study reveals.

The researchers highlight that the relationship between MnPs and NCDs resembles those of other particles, including natural sources such as pollen or human-made pollutants like diesel exhaust, and MnPs, and engineered nanomaterials, all acting in a similar biological manner.

The body treats these as foreign entities triggering the same protective mechanisms—presenting a risk of bodily defenses becoming overwhelmed and boosting the frequency and severity of NCDs.

Humans are exposed to MnPs in outdoor and indoor environments through food stuffs, drinks consumption, air and many other sources including cosmetics and human care products.

MnPs have been found in fish, salt, beer, and plastic bottled drinks or air, where they are released from synthetic clothing materials, plastic fabric bedding during sleep, plastic carpet or furniture. Other sources can include fertilizer, soil, irrigation, and uptake into food crops or produce.

What are the health risks associated with poor IAQ?

Poor IAQ means that the air is laden with dust particles that can land on or be inhaled by workers. Depending on their chemical composition, these particles can cause various health issues such as eye irritation, dermatitis and allergic reactions, including rashes and asthma. The severity of the issues is correlates to the duration of exposure.

If dust is inhaled, individuals may experience respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and even lung cancer. The type of dust particles significantly affects the severity of lung injuries. Metals and crystalline silica, for example, are highly toxic. If swallowed, silica particles can release toxic substances.

Acute health problems associated with toxic dust can lead to chronic diseases over time. For instance, a persistent cough can develop into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Wood dust, especially from hardwood, causes nasal and sinus cancer in woodworkers. Some of the species known to cause cancer include the hardwoods oak, mahogany, beech, walnut, birch, elm and ash. As with formaldehyde, these cancers take years to develop and generally require significant, ongoing exposure for a long period of time.

Wood dust particles tend to settle mostly in the upper airways where they are trapped and can cause eye irritation, nasal dryness or irritation, prolonged colds, nose bleeding and obstruction, sneezing, sinusitis and headaches. Some particles may penetrate deep into the respiratory track causing asthma, chronic bronchitis and hypersensitivity pneumonia.

The damage produced by silica has some special characteristics that prompt us to call it a polyhedric disease.

The fact that it is a slowly progressing disease that is rare in terms of the overall population makes randomized trials difficult, and the reduced “market” limits the interest of the pharmaceutical industry. In contrast to other fibrotic lung diseases and common lung diseases such as asthma, very little use has been made of modern research techniques to understand this ancient disease or identify new therapeutic options.

However, our knowledge of the pathogenic mechanisms of damage caused by silica inhalation is steadily growing.

Firstly, silica-induced lung injury presumably results from the combined action of several interacting pathogenic mechanisms, including the direct cytotoxic effect of silica on macrophages, activation of macrophage surface receptors, lysosomal rupture, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), activation of inflammasome, cytokine and chemokine production, cell apoptosis/pyroptosis, and pulmonary fibrosis.

Then there is the accompanying immune dysfunction.

Silica inhalation causes the activation and apoptosis of macrophages, while the excess antigen generated is ingested by other activated macrophages. These can migrate to lymph nodes, eventually leading to the activation of T and B lymphocytes.

The likelihood of developing connective tissue disease is enhanced in subjects with exposure to silica and silicosis.

Furthermore, there is strong evidence for a very high risk of tuberculosis in the presence of radiological silicosis

THE BRITISH Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), a leading scientific body and the UK’s Chartered body for Workplace Health Protection has issued specific guidance for anyone working with stone worktops on how to stay safe, healthy and legal.

The move comes in the face of a cluster of younger kitchen worktop finishers contracting aggressive forms of silicosis. This follows a pattern seen around the world of the crippling disease afflicting 30-40 year old men working in the kitchen fitting and fabrication industry and leading to the need for urgent surgery, including heart and lung transplants

The Society does not advocate a ban on artificial stone itself, but wants to raise awareness amongst workers in kitchen materials fabrication and installation that they run high risk of serious long-term health issues when using engineered stone, natural stone, wood and laminate. When installing kitchens, kitchen installers also are likely to encounter hidden asbestos as well.

Key Points

The US Environmental Protection Agency recently reduced its soil lead screening recommendations

We find that nearly one in four households may now contain a soil lead hazard based on the new recommendations

This finding challenges the current expensive approach, sometimes termed "dig and dump," to mitigation at this scale

The US Environmental Protection Agency recently lowered the recommended screening levels for soil lead, dropping it by one half to 200 parts per million. Based on a wide network of citizen-science collected household soil samples, we find that nearly one in four households may now contain a soil lead hazard based on this new, more protective standard. This finding challenges the current expensive approach, sometimes termed “dig and dump” to mitigation.

Conclusions

Given the scale of the urban soil lead contamination issues and the disproportionate exposure potential faced by environmental justice communities, this issue finally needs to be fully grappled with. The USEPA has taken a critical first step by developing and implementing new soil lead screening standards—it is now up to the network of people concerned about soil lead exposure to consider reasonable, feasible, and equitable ways to reduce exposure and to regain the vitality, health, and fertility of this critical resource of the commons.

It contains Saccharomyces cerevisiae UFMG A-905, a strain of brewer's yeast with probiotic properties that has been shown to attenuate the symptoms of asthma in mice.

Asthmatic patients can benefit from ingestion of probiotics thanks to the link with gut microbiota.These beneficial bacteria are typically administered on their own or blended with dairy products such as milk, yogurt and kefir, but nothing prevents the use of other vehicles, which is advisable for patients who suffer from lactose intolerance or milk protein allergy.

In this study researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) included S. cerevisiae UFMG A-905 in naturally fermented bread for the first time.

The new rule will limit the amount of time miners can spend around silica dust. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the rule lowers the permissible exposure to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a full 8 hour shift.

It’s up to the mining companies to take corrective actions if the threshold is met.

Silica dust is a known carcinogen and is linked to black lung, an incurable lung disease. It’s different than coal dust, which carries its own dangers.

Highlights

•PM2.5-related mortality was assessed in relation to rapid population aging in Korea.

•The proportion of older adults (ages 65+) is projected to increase to 40% by 2050.

•Due to rapid aging, PM2.5-related mortality is expected to increase by 79,375 by 2050.

•To offset the aging impacts, PM2.5 levels need to decrease to 5.8 μg/m3.

Particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) can infiltrate deep into the respiratory system, posing significant health risks. Notably, the health burden of PM2.5 is more pronounced among the older adult population. With an aging population, the public health burden attributable to PM2.5 could escalate even if the current PM2.5 level remains stable. This study evaluated the number of deaths attributable to long-term PM2.5 exposure in the Republic of Korea between 2020 and 2050 and identified the PM2.5 concentration required at least to maintain the current PM2.5 health burden. 

 Conclusions

Our health impact assessment projects a substantial public health burden of PM2.5-related mortality due to rapidly aging populations in South Korea. Low birth rate and extended life expectancy are anticipated to substantially increase both the number and proportion of elderly populations for 2020–2050. In an age-specific analysis, the older adult population emerged as the predominant contributor to total mortality, accounting for approximately 83% in 2020 and 96% by 2050.

Researchers find that excess nutrients in cells trigger inflammation and organ dysfunction, accelerating aging. Their study suggests that interventions in inflammation might improve lifespan.

When animals with the modified protein reach maturity, their cellular functions begin to deteriorate, leading to aging symptoms such as thinner skin and damage to organs like the pancreas, liver, and kidneys. Immune system cells come to repair them but are overwhelmed by the amount of damage. They accumulate and, instead of repairing, trigger inflammation that further increases problems in those organs.

This cycle of damage and ineffective repair shortens the animals’ lifespans by 20%, equivalent to about 16 years in humans.

The researchers aimed to disrupt this cycle by inhibiting the immune response that causes inflammation. As a result, organ damage improved enough to gain what in humans would be a few years of life.

Where trees used to stand there are now deep sinkholes flooded with brown water where dredges sift through mountains of rubble for the valuable particles.

"The community can no longer plant their corn, their bananas, their cassava, because this land is practically dead.

In 2022, official data showed Peru produced 96 tons of gold—but exported about 180 tons to Canada, India, Switzerland and the United States.

"Forty-five percent of exports have no production record," according to an official body tasked with overseeing Peruvian banks and combating money laundering.

Independent studies have named Peru as the largest exporter of illegal gold in South America, with 44 percent of the total, ahead of Colombia with 25 percent and Bolivia with 12 percent, according to the Peruvian Institute of Economics, a think tank.

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.

Any process that leads to generation of dust must control it by using extract systems to remove the majority of the dust. Workers will also need suitable FFP masks and limits on how long they carry out the task.

Note that masks will need to be competently fitted and are incompatible with beards- poorly fitted masks simply do not work.

The Queensland government is investing almost $600,000 to research on improving return-to-work processes for workers who have been diagnosed with early-stage dust lung diseases.

In a mining context, there are ways for workers to stay at the mine and continue on in more administrative positions – but there are ways of doing this well and not so well.

For the engineered stone industry, where the businesses are much smaller, it is much harder as there are often no jobs out of the dust that people can move into.

84 sewage workers have died in 19 districts of Pakistan over the past five years, according to advocacy group.

It is not the army of cockroaches and the stink that greets you when you open the manhole lid to get in, or the rats swimming in filthy water, but the blades and used syringes floating that are a cause for concern for many as they go down to bring up the rocks and the buckets of filthy silt.

More than the physical hazards, it is the invisible danger stalking these men, in the form of gases like methane, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide — produced when wastewater contains chlorine bleaches, industrial solvents and gasoline — when mixed with concrete in drainpipes — that have taken the lives of these cleaners.

According to Sweepers Are Superheroes, an advocacy campaign group, around 84 sewage workers have died in 19 districts of Pakistan over the past five years. In neighboring India, one sewer worker dies every five days, according to a 2018 report by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis.

IF A MINER STRIKES A rich vein of silver in Cerro Rico, a mountain looming over the Bolivian city of Potosí, it is thanks to El Tio. If a miner is crushed to death by a loose rock in the mountain, it is also the work of El Tio. 

All the miners can do to sate the ambivalent spirit that guards the mountain in the heart of the Andes is leave offerings. The mines are home to more than 600 shrines in his likeness, which the men ritually soak in liquor, bestow with lit cigarettes, and shower in coca leaves. El Tio also accepts the blood of llamas. The church-going miners are happy to oblige.

It’s no exaggeration to say that El Tio’s dark domain shaped the modern world. The mountain was once home to the greatest silver deposit on earth, and its extraction by imperial Spain on the backs of slaves bankrolled their conquest of the New World and fueled the European Renaissance.

By 1600, Bolivian silver had increased the supply of exchangeable currency throughout Europe eightfold; Macalester College Anthropology professor Jack Weatherford calls Potosí “the first city of capitalism.”

Somewhere between four and eight million Quechuan Indians and enslaved Africans died mining the mountain, earning “The Rich Hill” a darker, if not more accurate nickname: “The Mountain That Eats Men.”

During the process of bagging silica flour, workers described plumes of silica dust escaping from the bags at head height and, on occasion, faulty bags bursting and leaving the machine operator covered in material.

A number of workers were placed at risk by this process between 2012 and 2020, including two who have since been diagnosed with silicosis.

Insidious diseases like silicosis do not discriminate so it is critical that employers continuously review and update their systems and processes to ensure they are best practice.

In Beawar, Rajasthan awareness and history of deaths from silicosis has led locals to withdraw from this work and these jobs are being taken up by inter-state migrant workers.

Currently, the 1,600 small stone crushing units, within which only 100 are registered, rely on migrant labor from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal. These workers face limited access to social security measures in Rajasthan due to their non-local status and not possessing the Jan Aadhar card; further their roles in these units increase their exposure to silicosis.

Rajasthan has the largest yearly incidence of silicosis cases in India, which is mostly related to sandstone mining. Since 2009, the state's silicosis prevalence has received more attention due to greater awareness. In that year, the National Human Rights Commission reported 22 deaths and 52 cases; between 2012 and 2014, there were over 800 cases and 57 deaths.

The amount of laundry washed by European consumers has grown excessively for reasons that cannot be explained by demographics alone. Initiatives trying to curb this trend have repeatedly failed.

Previous studies have largely overlooked the psychological dimensions of laundering behaviour. In three separate studies we investigate how disgust, shame, cleanliness norms and environmental identity, mediated through a set of preceding behaviours, affect washing frequency.

Our results highlight how conflicting psychological goals between disgust sensitivity and pro-environmental identity can undermine willingness to change laundry behaviour.

Policy recommendations are suggested, and future research challenges are discussed.

In this article we argue that people are confronted with an implicit dilemma when deciding whether to wash or not: reducing emissions but risking social repercussions. Since the latter take priority for the general consumer, it comes as no surprise that previous interventions have been unsuccessful in steering behaviour.

Of special interest is the potential influence of the emotion of disgust for cleanliness evaluations regarding clothes, and by extension wash frequency. Specific policy recommendations for laundering include treating reduced emissions as a beneficial by-product rather than the main objective. This means focusing more on the underlying behaviours that create a need to wash rather than the act of running the washing machine.

More specifically, efforts should be made to extend the use frequency of clothes between washes by desensitizing feelings of disgust.

Further avenues to be explored include a better understanding of the relative importance of shame and guilt for laundering behaviours. This would allow for better adjustments of pro-environmental initiatives when these are deployed in either honour-related societies, or societies that emphasize individualistic values.

A low vitamin B6 level has negative effects on brain performance. A research team from Würzburg University Medicine has now found a way to delay the degradation of the vitamin.

Vitamin B6 is important for brain metabolism. Accordingly, in various mental illnesses, a low vitamin B6 level is associated with impaired memory and learning abilities, with a depressive mood, and even with genuine depression. In older people, too little vitamin B6 is linked to memory loss and dementia.

Although some of these observations were made decades ago, the exact role of vitamin B6 in mental illness is still largely unclear. What is clear, however, is that an increased intake of vitamin B6 alone, for example in the form of dietary supplements, is insufficient to prevent or treat disorders of brain function.

With success: "In our experiments, we identified a natural substance that can inhibit pyridoxal phosphatase and thus slow down the degradation of vitamin B6," explains the pharmacologist. The working group was actually able to increase vitamin B6 levels in nerve cells that are involved in learning and memory processes. The name of this natural substance: 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone.

Today’s fossil energy system is incredibly inefficient: almost two-thirds of all primary energy is wasted in energy production, transportation, and use, before fossil fuel has done any work or produced any benefit. That means over $4.6 trillion per year, almost 5% of global GDP and 40% of what we spend on energy, goes up in smoke due to fossil inefficiency. Literally.

Summary

Today’s energy system is incredibly inefficient. We waste almost 400 exajoule (EJ) of all energy going into our energy system (two-thirds of total), worth over $4.5 trillion, or almost 5% of global GDP — all before any value is created with energy.

The main culprit is the widespread use of fossil fuels. The majority of energy losses are driven by the inherent inefficiencies of producing and delivering fossil fuels (177 EJ per year), transportation (19 EJ per year), and use (183 EJ per year).

The standout waste is from fossil fuel power plants and Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs). These two technologies combined are responsible for almost half the energy waste globally.

Fossil inefficiency is fossil fragility. Inefficient energy use is vulnerable to more efficient alternatives, as competition by more efficient solutions can deliver more or better services, more conveniently, at lower cost.

We have seen this before. Fossil fuel technologies themselves rose to prominence a century ago through competing on efficiency, pushing out less efficient technology and fuels along the way.

It is happening again. Both more efficient end-use and new clean supply technologies – solar, wind, heat pumps, electric vehicles, and many more – all undercut fossil fuels where they are at their weakest: rampant inefficiency.

Fracking entails cracking layers of earth with pressurized, chemical-laden liquid to access stores of oil and gas thousands of feet underground. Many of the chemicals used in that liquid, like benzene and formaldehyde, are carcinogenic, and the extraction itself can stir up radium and other heavy metals in the shale’s subsurface, creating radioactive waste that can contaminate watersheds.

The companies that drill in the region and officials who support the industry have long insisted that fracking is safe and well-regulated. But many residents, who have seen unfamiliar sicknesses invade their community over the past 20 years, now feel misled.

Some of the health risks associated with fracking, such as asthma, pre-term births and heart problems, have been established for years. However, cancer is both rare and slow to progress, which means that it can take many years to produce a meaningful study connecting it to relatively novel environmental hazards, like fracking.

But research linking proximity to unconventional wells and developing certain types of cancer is gradually emerging.

Cool new cutting-edge biomedical research:

Microrobots made of green algae carrying nanoparticles coated with red blood cell membranes can move through the lungs to carry chemo drugs directly to tumors, potentially improving lung cancer treatment

Study in mice found that more of the drugs accumulated in the tumor this way than with directly delivering the drugs or using nanoparticles that couldn't swim.

Making & Administering Pharmaceuticals

THE FOUR STANDARD INGREDIENTS OF ANCIENT ROMAN PHARMACEUTICALS WERE OIL, VINEGAR, WINE, & HONEY.

Plant, animal, and mineral ingredients were ground and mixed using basic tools like mortar and pestle. They could then be combined into an almost infinite array of ointments, lozenges, pills, and suppositories. Medicinal draughts and teas could be drunk or sopped up with pieces of bread. Washes and rinses were often used to treat wounds and afflictions of the ears or eyes. Another common method of administering medicine involved burning ingredients and fumigating bodily orifices with the smoke.

The other ingredients of Roman medications included a spectrum of beneficial, neutral, and actively harmful substances. Plants and their derivatives were the most widely used class of ingredients. Ash and metals, especially lead and copper oxides, were also commonly employed. Roman medications also sometimes included blood, excrement, urine, insects, and animal parts. Blistering beetles, which contain the potentially fatal chemical cantharidin, were applied to chemically burn off warts and consumed to induce erections.

While we are currently watching a pathetic party-political war being played out on our TV screens and social media platforms during the general election, we are also under attack.

You would be quite right to think I am referring to the last 14 years of austerity that has led to the decimation of our NHS or perhaps the destruction of our local and primary care services. I mean, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that this has something to do with our disgusting water companies that have been allowed to release tonnes of sewage into our rivers, lakes, and beaches. But this battle isn’t on our beaches… this is an attack from E-coli, and it’s becoming an outbreak.

Unlike the pantomime that is our general election, this bacteria isn’t messing around. And whoever claims to be able to save the UK, it is ultimately the decisions of past governments that has left the UK in the state it is currently in.

So where does that leave us?

Well, we know to wash our hands often and drink plenty of water… just maybe not tap water…