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How money, mail and power affect our health

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Saturday, July 27, 2024

Marty Makary’s July 12 op-ed, “For a wasteful Medicare rule, location is everything,” made a clear case: Too many Americans have been blindly led into a health-care affordability crisis. Even if they never set foot in a hospital, patients receiving care from hospital-affiliated providers face higher prices caused by so-called site-of-service payment differentials. As a community oncologist, it angers me to see these disparities sometimes triple costs for services such as chemotherapy.These payment differentials incentivize hospitals to acquire independent practices to boost their revenue. The differentials also drive health systems to further expand their market share through anti-competitive tactics. After my practice refused an acquisition attempt from a large health system, my oncology privileges were revoked — leaving me unable to provide care to my own cancer patients when they were admitted to the hospital. Restricting trusted care teams leaves patients confused, frustrated and in the dark.This trend is bad news for everyone — except hospitals. To prevent such practices from becoming widespread, Congress must pass the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act without delay.Moshe Chasky, Bensalem, Pa.So-called site-neutral policies fail to recognize that not all care sites are created equal. Current payment rates appropriately take into account that hospitals treat sicker, lower-income and more complex patients compared with other sites. Hospitals are also held to higher regulatory and safety standards, and they provide benefits such as 24/7 capacity for emergencies. The argument also disregards the fact that the lower rate paid to physicians is completely inadequate, as we hear from them all the time.Medicare already reimburses hospitals just 82 cents for every dollar spent caring for patients. Additional site-neutral cuts, like those supported by the writer, would exacerbate these shortfalls. Medicare also fails to cover the full costs of resident salaries for teaching hospitals, which is a far cry from the “big bonuses” the author alleged Medicare’s graduate medical education program gives to hospitals.Physician polling data has shown that the burden from corporate insurers is driving physicians away from independent practices. Physicians are also seeking to become integrated with hospitals because of the costs associated with technologies such as electronic health records. And it is corporate health insurers that have been driving independent practice acquisitions for the past five years, not hospitals.Instead of advocating flawed policy proposals, let’s focus on ways we can support hospitals and health systems and ensure they can be there for their communities.The writer is president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association.The mail isn’t just mailRegarding Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s July 8 online op-ed, “We’re fixing the Postal Service. We can’t stop now.”:Within the past three years, many of Mr. DeJoy’s proposed “cost-saving measures” include closing some processing centers and trucking mail to other consolidation centers. This might sound good at first glance, but it fails in reality.The Upper Peninsula Processing Facility in Kingsford, Mich., processes mail for the entire Upper Peninsula, which it has done faithfully for years. Now, there is talk of closing it. Mail from the region would be shipped to Green Bay, Wis., a four-hour round-trip drive in good weather. If the processing center closes, jobs will be lost and the fragile mail-delivery system will be further threatened.Before there was any talk of closure, the Postal Service changed its trucking schedule and stopped offering overnight shipping, which endangered the health of every man, woman and child who lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. How so? Two words: water samples. The Environmental Protection Agency requires that drinking water in the United States be tested for bacterial infection. Such testing is critical to fighting waterborne illnesses such as dysentery and typhoid fever.For water testing to be accurate, it must be completed within a short time frame. There is only one lab in the Upper Peninsula, White Water Associates, that tests all of the water samples from the region. Until Jan. 8, it had been possible for water samples sent anywhere in the Upper Peninsula to reach White Water Associates in time for testing. That is no longer possible, which is resulting in expired samples. Without valid water testing, the chances of outbreaks of waterborne illnesses greatly increase. The shipping changes have made it next to impossible for water to be tested within the required time frame.The Postal Service is vital for Americans. It doesn’t just deliver letters and packages; it also delivers medicine, water testing kits and, yes, absentee ballots. Postal workers are doing their best to deliver our nations’ mail, and they deserve to work under a postmaster general who understands the effects of his policies. The postmaster general should not care only about swift delivery of packages. He or she should also understand that, for many people who live in rural America, mail is a lifeline to the rest of the world.Mr. DeJoy’s actions have endangered that lifeline, and for that, he should be replaced. To ensure the health of our nation’s water supply, Postal Service trucking schedules must return to how they were before Jan. 8. To refuse to do so is to raise the question: Is the Postal Service attempting to save money at the expense of Americans’ lives?Tracy Asanuma, Iron Mountain, Mich.In a stunning display of denial, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s recent op-ed attempts to sugarcoat the disastrous effects of his leadership.Mr. DeJoy suggests the Postal Service was a sinking ship upon his arrival, but his “Delivering for America” plan — which raised prices, slashed services and shuttered post offices nationwide — has only made a precarious situation worse. His publicly proclaimed goal to hike prices to “uncomfortable” rates shows a shocking disregard for the needs of everyday Americans, including seniors, rural residents and small-business owners. His plan to close and consolidate up to 10,000 offices, stations, branches and annexes betrays the Postal Service’s mission to serve every community. Just look at Georgia, where the plan’s initial stages have thrown mail delivery into chaos.But don’t just take it from us. After congressional leaders urged the Postal Regulatory Commission to reject the latest price increases, the commission itself expressed concern that the plan “does not reflect reasoned consideration of the potential widespread effects,” is imprudent and is not in the best interests of stakeholders. This stinging critique underscores the urgent need for a change in leadership. Mr. DeJoy has attempted to run the Postal Service like a hedge fund manager intent on gutting an enterprise to show short-term revenue improvements. But America needs the Postal Service for the long term; it is an institution that binds the country together, providing critical deliveries on items like Social Security checks, medications and mail-in ballots. We need investments and innovation, not service cuts.The future of the Postal Service depends on bold leadership and an unwavering commitment to its public service mission. Time and time again, Mr. DeJoy has shown he is simply not up to the task.Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robert Weissman, WashingtonRaja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat, represents Illinois’s 8th Congressional District in the House. Robert Weissman is co-president of public interest at Public Citizen.Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s op-ed failed to mention the relentless price hikes under a well-intended but struggling strategic plan. July 14 marked the fifth increase in three years, covering mail, newspapers, magazines, catalogues and more. Package prices have also been raised significantly, and the price of the first-class “forever” stamp is now 73 cents.These recent price increases total more than 184 percent of inflation. Businesses and customers are stressed trying to keep up, not only on price but also as service has declined.America needs a reliable, affordable postal system for everyone. We urge Congress to better invest Postal Service funds and strengthen regulatory oversight to preserve the Postal Service’s viability and sustainability.The writer is executive director of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service.Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s op-ed was outrageous. Mail delivery is worse than ever in Houston, and it interferes with doing business. And the danger for mail-in ballots with a reduced Postal Service is alarming. The blame is squarely on the postmaster general, not the local postmasters or carriers who cannot believe what is happening.Fredericka Hunter, HoustonPower in TexasMore than 1 million of us in Houston had no power for days after Hurricane Beryl. I was one of them.This isn’t the first time this has happened. It happened in 2021, when more than 200 Texans died because of power outages from extreme cold. Massive outages also happened with Hurricanes Harvey and Ike. More than 15 years after Ike, there is still no “Ike Dike.”The Texas GOP can’t keep the lights on while it wastes billions of dollars on a wall on the southern U.S. border. During Hurricane Beryl, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was off in Asia. The chief executive of CenterPoint Energy makes more than $1 million as a base salary, not to mention other bonuses. Meanwhile, we regular people sit in the dark and sweat.Michael Fjetland, Houston

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Marty Makary’s July 12 op-ed, “For a wasteful Medicare rule, location is everything,” made a clear case: Too many Americans have been blindly led into a health-care affordability crisis. Even if they never set foot in a hospital, patients receiving care from hospital-affiliated providers face higher prices caused by so-called site-of-service payment differentials. As a community oncologist, it angers me to see these disparities sometimes triple costs for services such as chemotherapy.

These payment differentials incentivize hospitals to acquire independent practices to boost their revenue. The differentials also drive health systems to further expand their market share through anti-competitive tactics. After my practice refused an acquisition attempt from a large health system, my oncology privileges were revoked — leaving me unable to provide care to my own cancer patients when they were admitted to the hospital. Restricting trusted care teams leaves patients confused, frustrated and in the dark.

This trend is bad news for everyone — except hospitals. To prevent such practices from becoming widespread, Congress must pass the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act without delay.

Moshe Chasky, Bensalem, Pa.

So-called site-neutral policies fail to recognize that not all care sites are created equal. Current payment rates appropriately take into account that hospitals treat sicker, lower-income and more complex patients compared with other sites. Hospitals are also held to higher regulatory and safety standards, and they provide benefits such as 24/7 capacity for emergencies. The argument also disregards the fact that the lower rate paid to physicians is completely inadequate, as we hear from them all the time.

Medicare already reimburses hospitals just 82 cents for every dollar spent caring for patients. Additional site-neutral cuts, like those supported by the writer, would exacerbate these shortfalls. Medicare also fails to cover the full costs of resident salaries for teaching hospitals, which is a far cry from the “big bonuses” the author alleged Medicare’s graduate medical education program gives to hospitals.

Physician polling data has shown that the burden from corporate insurers is driving physicians away from independent practices. Physicians are also seeking to become integrated with hospitals because of the costs associated with technologies such as electronic health records. And it is corporate health insurers that have been driving independent practice acquisitions for the past five years, not hospitals.

Instead of advocating flawed policy proposals, let’s focus on ways we can support hospitals and health systems and ensure they can be there for their communities.

The writer is president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association.

The mail isn’t just mail

Regarding Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s July 8 online op-ed, “We’re fixing the Postal Service. We can’t stop now.”:

Within the past three years, many of Mr. DeJoy’s proposed “cost-saving measures” include closing some processing centers and trucking mail to other consolidation centers. This might sound good at first glance, but it fails in reality.

The Upper Peninsula Processing Facility in Kingsford, Mich., processes mail for the entire Upper Peninsula, which it has done faithfully for years. Now, there is talk of closing it. Mail from the region would be shipped to Green Bay, Wis., a four-hour round-trip drive in good weather. If the processing center closes, jobs will be lost and the fragile mail-delivery system will be further threatened.

Before there was any talk of closure, the Postal Service changed its trucking schedule and stopped offering overnight shipping, which endangered the health of every man, woman and child who lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. How so? Two words: water samples. The Environmental Protection Agency requires that drinking water in the United States be tested for bacterial infection. Such testing is critical to fighting waterborne illnesses such as dysentery and typhoid fever.

For water testing to be accurate, it must be completed within a short time frame. There is only one lab in the Upper Peninsula, White Water Associates, that tests all of the water samples from the region. Until Jan. 8, it had been possible for water samples sent anywhere in the Upper Peninsula to reach White Water Associates in time for testing. That is no longer possible, which is resulting in expired samples. Without valid water testing, the chances of outbreaks of waterborne illnesses greatly increase. The shipping changes have made it next to impossible for water to be tested within the required time frame.

The Postal Service is vital for Americans. It doesn’t just deliver letters and packages; it also delivers medicine, water testing kits and, yes, absentee ballots. Postal workers are doing their best to deliver our nations’ mail, and they deserve to work under a postmaster general who understands the effects of his policies. The postmaster general should not care only about swift delivery of packages. He or she should also understand that, for many people who live in rural America, mail is a lifeline to the rest of the world.

Mr. DeJoy’s actions have endangered that lifeline, and for that, he should be replaced. To ensure the health of our nation’s water supply, Postal Service trucking schedules must return to how they were before Jan. 8. To refuse to do so is to raise the question: Is the Postal Service attempting to save money at the expense of Americans’ lives?

Tracy Asanuma, Iron Mountain, Mich.

In a stunning display of denial, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s recent op-ed attempts to sugarcoat the disastrous effects of his leadership.

Mr. DeJoy suggests the Postal Service was a sinking ship upon his arrival, but his “Delivering for America” plan — which raised prices, slashed services and shuttered post offices nationwide — has only made a precarious situation worse. His publicly proclaimed goal to hike prices to “uncomfortable” rates shows a shocking disregard for the needs of everyday Americans, including seniors, rural residents and small-business owners. His plan to close and consolidate up to 10,000 offices, stations, branches and annexes betrays the Postal Service’s mission to serve every community. Just look at Georgia, where the plan’s initial stages have thrown mail delivery into chaos.

But don’t just take it from us. After congressional leaders urged the Postal Regulatory Commission to reject the latest price increases, the commission itself expressed concern that the plan “does not reflect reasoned consideration of the potential widespread effects,” is imprudent and is not in the best interests of stakeholders. This stinging critique underscores the urgent need for a change in leadership. Mr. DeJoy has attempted to run the Postal Service like a hedge fund manager intent on gutting an enterprise to show short-term revenue improvements. But America needs the Postal Service for the long term; it is an institution that binds the country together, providing critical deliveries on items like Social Security checks, medications and mail-in ballots. We need investments and innovation, not service cuts.

The future of the Postal Service depends on bold leadership and an unwavering commitment to its public service mission. Time and time again, Mr. DeJoy has shown he is simply not up to the task.

Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robert Weissman, Washington

Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat, represents Illinois’s 8th Congressional District in the House. Robert Weissman is co-president of public interest at Public Citizen.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s op-ed failed to mention the relentless price hikes under a well-intended but struggling strategic plan. July 14 marked the fifth increase in three years, covering mail, newspapers, magazines, catalogues and more. Package prices have also been raised significantly, and the price of the first-class “forever” stamp is now 73 cents.

These recent price increases total more than 184 percent of inflation. Businesses and customers are stressed trying to keep up, not only on price but also as service has declined.

America needs a reliable, affordable postal system for everyone. We urge Congress to better invest Postal Service funds and strengthen regulatory oversight to preserve the Postal Service’s viability and sustainability.

The writer is executive director of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s op-ed was outrageous. Mail delivery is worse than ever in Houston, and it interferes with doing business. And the danger for mail-in ballots with a reduced Postal Service is alarming. The blame is squarely on the postmaster general, not the local postmasters or carriers who cannot believe what is happening.

Fredericka Hunter, Houston

Power in Texas

More than 1 million of us in Houston had no power for days after Hurricane Beryl. I was one of them.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. It happened in 2021, when more than 200 Texans died because of power outages from extreme cold. Massive outages also happened with Hurricanes Harvey and Ike. More than 15 years after Ike, there is still no “Ike Dike.”

The Texas GOP can’t keep the lights on while it wastes billions of dollars on a wall on the southern U.S. border. During Hurricane Beryl, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was off in Asia. The chief executive of CenterPoint Energy makes more than $1 million as a base salary, not to mention other bonuses. Meanwhile, we regular people sit in the dark and sweat.

Michael Fjetland, Houston

Read the full story here.
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Living Near Polluted Missouri Creek as a Child Tied to Later Cancer Risk

By I. Edwards HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, July 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Folks who grew up near a polluted Missouri creek during the 1940s...

THURSDAY, July 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Folks who grew up near a polluted Missouri creek during the 1940s through 1960s may have higher odds for cancer now, new research shows.The study focused on Coldwater Creek in St. Louis County. The area was contaminated with radioactive waste from the U.S. government’s atomic bomb program during World War II.Back then, uranium was processed in St. Louis and nuclear waste was stored near the city’s airport. That waste leaked into Coldwater Creek, which runs through several residential neighborhoods.Researchers found that people who lived within one kilometer (0.62 miles) of the creek as kids had an 85% higher risk of developing certain cancers later in life compared to those who lived more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away.Those cancers include leukemia, thyroid cancer and breast cancer, which are known to be linked to radiation exposure.“The closer the childhood residence got to Coldwater Creek, the risk of cancer went up, and pretty dramatically," lead researcher Marc Weisskopf, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Wall Street Journal.For the study, Weisskopf’s team surveyed more than 4,200 adults who lived in the St. Louis area as children between 1958 and 1970.These people had donated their baby teeth years ago for radiation research. The new survey asked about cancer and other health issues.About 1 in 4 participants said they had been diagnosed with cancer. Risk dropped the farther someone lived from the creek as a child.Outside experts who reviewed the findings described them as concerning.“It emphasizes the importance of appreciating that radioactive waste is carcinogenic, particularly to children, and that we have to ensure that we have to clean up any remaining waste that’s out there,” Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiation risk expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Journal.In 2024, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began placing warning signs along parts of the creek that still have radioactive waste, The Journal reported.The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reported in 2019 that contamination have raised the risk of leukemia and lung and bone cancer. Later exposures, starting in the 2000s, were linked to a slight increase in lung cancer for those who lived nearby.But the agency said it’s hard to link any one person’s cancer directly to radiation. Genetics, lifestyle and other factors could also play a role.In this study, radiation exposure wasn’t directly measured. Cancer cases were also self-reported, not confirmed by medical records. Weisskopf plans to measure radiation levels using the stored baby teeth in future research.Radiation exposure has long been tied to cancer, but this study is among the first to look at lower, long-term environmental exposure in the U.S., not just high levels from nuclear disasters or bombings."Radiation, when it’s given unnecessarily, only causes risk," Dr. Howard Sandler, chair of radiation oncology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, told The Journal.SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Disposable Vapes Release Toxic Metals, Lab Study Says

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, July 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — People using cheap disposable vape devices are likely inhaling high...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, July 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — People using cheap disposable vape devices are likely inhaling high levels of toxic metals with every puff, a recent study says.After a few hundred puffs, some disposable vapes start releasing levels of toxic metals higher than found in either last-generation refillable e-cigarettes or traditional tobacco smokes, researchers reported in the journal ACS Central Science.These metals can increase a person’s risk of cancer, lung disease and nerve damage, researchers said.“Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement,” senior researcher Brett Poulin, an assistant professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California-Davis, said in a news release.Earlier studies found that the heating elements of refillable vapes could release metals like chromium and nickel into the vapor people breathe.For this study, researchers analyzed seven disposable devices from three well-known vape brands: ELF Bars, Flum Pebbles and Esco Bar.Before they were even used, some of the devices had surprisingly high levels of lead and antimony, researchers reported. The lead appears to have come from leaded copper alloys used in the devices, which leach into the e-liquid.The team then activated the disposable vapes, creating between 500 and 1,500 puffs for each device, to see whether their heating elements would release more metals.Analysis of the vapor revealed that:Levels of metals like chromium, nickel and antimony increased as the number of puffs increased, while concentrations of zinc, copper and lead were elevated at the start. Most of the tested disposables released higher amounts of metals than older refillable vapes. One disposable released more lead during a day’s use than one would get from nearly 20 packs of tobacco cigarettes. Nickel in three devices and antimony in two devices exceeded cancer risk limits. Four devices had nickel and lead emissions that surpassed health risk thresholds for diseases other than cancer. These results reflect only three of the nearly 100 disposable vape brands now available on store shelves, researchers noted.“Coupling the high element exposures and health risks associated with these devices and their prevalent use among the underage population, there is an urgent need for regulators to investigate this issue further and exercise regulatory enforcement accordingly,” researchers wrote.SOURCES: American Chemical Society, news release, June 20, 2025; ACS Central Science, June 25, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Trying to Quit Smoking? These Expert-Backed Tips Can Help

By David Hill, MD, Chair, Board of Directors, American Lung Association HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, July 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — According to...

THURSDAY, July 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2022, the majority of the 28.8 million U.S. adults who smoked cigarettes wanted to quit; approximately half had tried to quit, but fewer than 10% were successful.Many folks say quitting smoking was the hardest thing they have ever done. This includes people who have climbed mountains, corporate ladders, tackled childbirth and raised families.Successfully overcoming tobacco addiction is a process, and it takes time. It can’t be done at once. Individuals taught themselves how to smoke, vape or chew tobacco products and practiced for so long that the behavior became as automatic as breathing, eating or sleeping.Quitting, then, is a process of overcoming addiction and learned behaviors. Individuals must learn to manage nicotine addiction, unlearn their automatic behavior of tobacco use, and replace it with healthy new alternatives.Because tobacco dependence is a chronic relapsing condition, Freedom From Smoking® identifies quitting tobacco use and maintaining abstinence as a process in which a person may cycle through multiple periods of relapse and remission before experiencing long-term lifestyle and behavior change.The CDC suggests that it takes eight to 11 attempts before quitting permanently.It’s essential to understand three challenges associated with quitting and create a plan to address each with proven-effective strategies:1. Psychological Link of Nicotine Addiction Over time, using tobacco products becomes an automatic behavior that needs to be unlearned.  After quitting, emotions can overwhelm a person.  Grief can also play an important role in the quitting process.  Create support systems through counseling classes, and among family, friends and co-workers. Mark a calendar for every day you are tobacco-free and reward yourself for days you avoid use. Use positive self-talk when cravings arise, such as “the urge will pass whether I smoke or not” or “smoking is not an option for me.”2. Sociocultural Link of Nicotine AddictionCertain activities and environmental cues can trigger the urge to smoke. As people mature, social factors or cues play a role in continuing use.  People who use tobacco may be reluctant to give up those connections or routines.  Identify your triggers and use replacements such as cinnamon sticks, doodling on a notepad or finding another activity to keep your hands busy. Create change and break routine by using the 3 A’s — AVOID (the situation), ALTER (the situation) or ALTERNATIVE (substitute something else). Keep a quit kit/survival kit with you at all times with items you can use to replace tobacco product use when the urge comes.3. Biological (Physical) Link of Nicotine AddictionAddiction occurs when a substance — like nicotine, alcohol or cocaine — enters the brain and activates the brain’s receptors for that substance, producing pleasure.  When a person quits, the brain’s nicotine receptors activate, creating cravings and withdrawal symptoms.  Over time, the receptors become inactive, and the withdrawal symptoms and urges to use fade away. Use cessation medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (prescription or over-the-counter) in the proper doses for the full time period recommended by a clinician. Do not stop treatment early. Exercise alternative ways to release dopamine such as physical activity or listening to music.  Use stress management techniques, including deep breathing and relaxation exercises, daily if possible.Nearly 2 in 3 adults who have ever smoked cigarettes have successfully quit, according to the CDC You can, too! To learn more about strategies for countering the challenges associated with the three-link chain of nicotine addiction, visit Quit Smoking & Vaping | American Lung Association.Dr. David Hill is a member of the Lung Association's National Board of Directors and is the immediate past chair of the Northeast Regional Board of the American Lung Association. He serves on the Leadership Board of the American Lung Association in Connecticut and is a former chair of that board. He is a practicing pulmonary and critical care physician with Waterbury Pulmonary Associates and serves as their director of clinical research. He is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine, an assistant clinical professor at the Frank Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, and a clinical instructor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Lead Exposure Can Harm Kids' Memory, Study Says

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, July 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Even low levels of lead exposure can harm kids' working memory,...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, July 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Even low levels of lead exposure can harm kids' working memory, potentially affecting their education and development, according to a new study.Exposure to lead in the womb or during early childhood appears to increase kids' risk of memory decay, accelerating the rate at which they forget information, researchers reported July 9 in the journal Science Advances.“There may be no more important a trait than the ability to form memories. Memories define who we are and how we learn,” said senior researcher Dr. Robert Wright, chair of environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.“This paper breaks new ground by showing how environmental chemicals can interfere with the rate of memory formation,” Wright said in a news release.For the study, researchers took blood lead measurements from the mothers of 576 children in Mexico during the second and third trimester of pregnancy. Later, the team took samples directly from the kids themselves, at ages 4 to 6.Between 6 and 8 years of age, the kids took a test called the delayed matching-to-sample task, or DMST, to measure their rate of forgetting.In the test, kids had to remember a simple shape for up to 32 seconds after it had been briefly shown to them, and then choose it from three offered options.The test lasted for 15 minutes, with correct responses rewarding the child with tokens that could be exchanged for a toy at the end of the experiment.“Children with higher levels of blood lead forgot the test stimulus faster than those with low blood lead levels,” Wright said.Researchers noted that the Mexican children in the study had higher median blood lead levels than those typically found in U.S. kids 6 to 10 years old – 1.7 Ug/dL versus 0.5 Ug/dL. (Median means half were higher, half were lower.)Children in Mexico are exposed to lead through commonly used lead-glazed ceramics used to cook, store and serve food, researchers said.However, the Mexican kids’ blood lead levels were still lower than the 3.5 Ug/dL level used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify kids in the United States with more lead exposure than others, researchers added.“In the U.S., the reduction of environmental exposures to lead, such as lead-based paint in homes, lead pipes, and lead in foods such as spices, is still of continued importance as even low levels of lead can have detrimental effects on children’s cognitive function and development,” researchers wrote in their paper.This study also shows that the DMST test can be used to help test the effect of other environmental hazards on kids’ memory, researchers said.“Children are exposed to many environmental chemicals, and this model provides a validated method to further assess the effect of additional environmental exposures, such as heavy metals, air pollution, or endocrine disruptors, on children’s working memory,” co-lead researcher Katherine Svensson, a postdoctoral fellow in environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a news release.SOURCES: Mount Sinai, news release, July 9, 2025; Science Advances, July 9, 2025Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Nearly Half of Americans Still Live With High Levels of Air Pollution, Posing Serious Health Risks, Report Finds

The most recent State of the Air report by the American Lung Association found that more than 150 million Americans breathe air with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution

Nearly Half of Americans Still Live With High Levels of Air Pollution, Posing Serious Health Risks, Report Finds The most recent State of the Air report by the American Lung Association found that more than 150 million Americans breathe air with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor April 25, 2025 12:50 p.m. For 25 of the 26 years the American Lung Association has reported State of the Air, Los Angeles—pictured here in smog—has been declared the city with the worst ozone pollution in the United States. David Iliff via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 Since 2000, the American Lung Association has released an annual State of the Air report analyzing air quality data across the United States. This year’s report, released on Wednesday, found the highest number of people exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution in a decade. According to the findings, 156 million Americans—or 46 percent of the U.S. population—live with levels of particle or ozone pollution that received a failing grade. “Both these types of pollution cause people to die,” Mary Rice, a pulmonologist at Harvard University, tells NPR’s Alejandra Borunda. “They shorten life expectancy and drive increases in asthma rates.” Particle pollution, also called soot pollution, is made up of minuscule solid and liquid particles that hang in the air. They’re often emitted by fuel combustion, like diesel- and gasoline-powered cars or the burning of wood. Ozone pollution occurs when polluting gases are hit by sunlight, leading to a reaction that forms ozone smog. Breathing in ozone can irritate your lungs, causing shortness of breath, coughing or asthma attacks. The 2025 State of the Air report, which analyzed air quality data from 2021 to 2023, found 25 million more people breathing polluted air compared to the 2024 report. The authors link this rise to climate change. “There’s definitely a worsening trend that’s driven largely by climate change,” Katherine Pruitt, the lead author of the report and national senior director for policy at the American Lung Association, tells USA Today’s Ignacio Calderon. “Every year seems to be a bit hotter globally, resulting in more extreme weather events, more droughts, more extreme heat and more wildfires.” Those wildfires produce the sooty particles that contribute to particulate pollution, while extreme heat creates more favorable conditions for ozone formation, producing smog. While climate change is contributing to heavy air pollution, it used to be much worse. Smog has covered cities like Los Angeles since the early 20th century. At one point, these “hellish clouds” of smog were so thick that, in the middle of World War II, residents thought the city was under attack. The Optimist Club of Highland Park, a neighborhood in northeast Los Angleles, wore gas masks at a 1954 banquet to highlight air pollution in the city. Los Angeles Daily News via Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY 4.0 The passage of the Clean Air Act and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 marked a turning point in air quality, empowering the government to regulate pollution and promote public health. Now, six key air pollutants have dropped by about 80 percent since the law’s passage, according to this year’s report. But some researchers see climate change as halting—or even reversing—this improvement. “Since the act passed, the air pollution has gone down overall,” Laura Kate Bender, an assistant vice president at the American Lung Association, tells CBS News’ Kiki Intarasuwan. “The challenge is that over the last few years, we’re starting to see it tick back up again, and that’s because of climate change, in part.” At the same time, federal action against climate change appears to be slowing. On March 12, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced significant rollbacks and re-evaluations, declaring it “the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.” Zeldin argued that his deregulation will drive “a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.” Included in Zeldin’s push for deregulation is a re-evaluation of Biden-era air quality standards, including those for particulate pollution and greenhouse gases. The EPA provided a list of 31 regulations it plans to scale back or eliminate, including limits on air pollution, mercury emissions and vehicles. This week, the EPA sent termination notices to nearly 200 employees at the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. “Unfortunately, we see that everything that makes our air quality better is at risk,” Kate Bender tells CBS News, citing the regulation rollbacks and cuts to staff and funding at the EPA. “If we see all those cuts become reality, it’s gonna have a real impact on people’s health by making the air they breathe dirtier.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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