#public-health

#public-health

Smoking, being overweight, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and sunbeds are the top preventable causes of cancer, experts have warned. Researchers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) analysed 30 risk factors that cause cancer, such as smoking, drinking alcohol and air pollution. Using data from across 185 countries, they estimate that about 7.1 million of the 18.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed globally in 2022 were preventable.

Dr Lucie Nield, co-lead investigator from the University of Sheffield, said: People deserve greater transparency about the food they are ordering online, and these businesses must be held to the appropriate regulatory standards. Without this, dark kitchens risk falling through the gap, with potential consequences for public health, particularly by encouraging increased use of online takeaways, greater availability and therefore greater consumption of high fat, salt or sugar food.

Brain drain refers to circumstances in which highly trained experts from underdeveloped and overexploited countries migrate to wealthier international job markets. Such loss of human capital can be catastrophic for a nation's development, as a shortage of trained workers tends to strain critical sectors like healthcare and education. Now the United States government - which once fielded as many as 281,000 scientists and engineers - is experiencing a similar phenomenon.

Last year, I found myself at a milk-themed basement dance party. At the time, perhaps, I should have turned around on the dance floor: I could have found an AI-generated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. behind me, swaying while sipping a glass of the white stuff. The exclusive invite for the party featured a black-and-white portrait of a gaunt child in wartime hugging bottles of milk.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a union representing nurses across the state, is planning vigils for Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was shot and killed by federal agents. The MNA plans to host vigils for Pretti, who worked at a veteran's hospital, Thursday night at Boston Medical Center, Worcester VA Clinic, and Northampton VA Medical Center, the union said. The MNA aims to honor Pretti's service as a nurse, his advocacy for human rights, and the veterans and communities he served, said a spokesperson for the union.

It's the result of not only the dissipation of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also waning death rates from all the nation's top killers, including heart disease, cancer and drug overdoses. What's more, preliminary statistics suggest a continued improvement in 2025. Life expectancy, a fundamental measure of a population's health, is an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live, given death rates at that time.

Meth. We're On It.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Officials in Contra Costa County reported the death on Tuesday. The case is the latest in an "unprecedented outbreak" of wild mushroom poisonings due to Amanita phalloides or "death cap" mushrooms that have sickened 39 people and left four dead in California since November. Earlier this month, health officials from across the state warned residents to avoid foraging for mushrooms and said this might be the largest outbreak of wild mushroom-related poisoning in California.

A 38-year-old man, Evan Perez Villanueva, has been arrested in connection with the fatal January 15th shooting at 16th and San Bruno, in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. Villanueva was found on the 200 block of San Bruno Avenue, and a search of his car turned up a shotgun, the SFPD says. [KRON4] A large home went up in flames around 5 am this morning in Angwin, in Napa County, and appears to have burned to the ground. The fire was initially reported as a debris fire, before becoming a structure fire. [Chronicle]

The patchwork efforts to identify and safely remove contamination left by the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires has been akin to the Wild West. Experts have given conflicting guidance on best practices. Shortly after the fires, the federal government suddenly refused to adhere to California's decades-old post-fire soil-testing policy; California later considered following suit. Meanwhile, insurance companies have resisted remediation practices widely recommended by scientists for still-standing homes.

A bill that would have banned smoking on casino gaming floors in Iowa didn't go anywhere this week, after a Senate subcommittee voted to shelve the proposal indefinitely. The legislation, Senate File 2051, was introduced as "An Act relating to the elimination of the exemption of gaming floors from the prohibitions of the smokefree air Act." The bill proposed a change to state law by amending Iowa Code section 142D.4 "by striking the subsection" that currently allows smoking on certain gaming floors.

The 6-foot-7 inch Foege literally stood out in the field of public health. A whip-smart medical doctor with a calm demeanor, he had a canny knack for beating back infectious diseases. He was director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later held other key leadership roles in campaigns against international health problems.

Australians are struggling through one of the most brutal heatwaves and hottest summers on record. Day after day, temperatures into the high 30s are turning homes into ovens, workplaces into hazards, and everyday tasks into endurance tests. All of us are feeling it. But spare a thought for the millions of renters trying to survive this heat in homes that were never designed to cope with it.

"crowded" and "appalling" conditions.

House burping is what America's content creators have christened the German practice of Luften, or airing out their homes by opening windows, presumably because it's a bit like burping a baby. TikTok is full of them enthusiastically describing it as a mom hack, or explaining it's supposed to keep sickness away. Does this Luften keep sickness away, then? It's supposed to shift stale air, ensure adequate ventilation and prevent mould buildup, all of which are good for people and places.

As water-intensive data centres expand worldwide, their impact on sanitation, inequality and disease is emerging as a serious and under-examined threat. Bubble is probably the word most associated with AI right now, though we are slowly understanding that it is not just an economic time bomb; it also carries significant public health risks. Beyond the release of pollutants, the massive need for clean water by AI data centres can reduce sanitation and exacerbate gastrointestinal illness in nearby communities, placing additional strain on local health infrastructure.

You join us this dry January day as a survey shows that fewer people in Germany are drinking alcohol, with consumption down sharply over the past decade.

Speaking from working right now in the middle of our flu season, where we haven't been able to handle a surge in acute care need anywhere in Canada it seems, I would be concerned going forward about having a surge in need for hospital resources, said Varner, CMAJ's deputy editor and an emergency doctor in downtown Toronto, in an interview with CBC News.

In some counties, vaccination rates increased after the pandemic, which got them past the recommended level of protection. Many more counties decreased their rates though.