The chorus is growing louder, but is it being heard? More smart people, in books and television shows, are arguing for the urgency of dealing with climate change, presenting heaps of despair at the damage being done to our planet along with hints of hope.
Review of numerous studies shows there is strong evidence–despite an industry narrative to the contrary–that fracking exposure is associated with an increased risk of certain health problems, including preterm birth and high-risk pregnancy, asthma flare-ups
A rising tide of garbage on land and in the seas, and the related health hazards, help make a case for a global ban on single-use plastics.
An obscure program that has judged vaccine injury and death claims for three decades passes a financial milestone.
The Ocean State v. Big Oil: Rhode Island, which has more than 400 miles of coastline, has become the first state in the country to sue oil companies for the cost of protecting itself from rising seas. More than a dozen cities and counties in four other states have filed similar [...]
Federal health officials have worked overtime to assure the public that vaccines are safe, and barely acknowledge any exceptions. Federal health officials have worked overtime to assure the public that vaccines are safe, and barely acknowledge any exceptions. But there are exceptions, as our family knows well.
Mercury is considered such a dire health threat that delegates from more than 140 nations have drafted a global treaty to minimize mercury emissions. But there's one form of mercury the treaty won't touch.
Chinese vaccine makers are gearing up to boost their exports over the next few years. The move is raising hopes that lower-cost immunizations will become available for the world's poor -- as well as fears that vaccine quality standards will be threatened. As USA Today reports, China captured world attention [...]
Smallpox was eradicated worldwide by 1978. If a rogue regime ever acquired the virus and tried using it in a bioterrorism attack, Americans would be protected by the nation's $1 billion stockpile of smallpox vaccine. Even so, according to an investigative report in the Los Angeles Times, the Obama administration [...]
An influential U.S. advisory panel is urging that boys and young men be vaccinated against HPV, a controversial recommendation that would expand the use of an immunization intended to prevent cancers related to sexual activity. The recommendation by the panel follows five years of efforts by health authorities to encourage [...]
To fend off the flu, many people every autumn head off to the doctor or pharmacy for a vaccination. The trouble is, as the Los Angeles Times reports, influenza is a wily opponent — the strain posing the biggest threat can change every year, foiling the medical profession's best efforts [...]
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome still takes an estimated 2,300 lives a year, but these tragedies have fallen dramatically since 1992, when the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that all babies be placed on their backs to sleep. To cut SIDS fatalities further -- as well as to combat the rise [...]
Many parents are veering off the recommended vaccine schedule for their children, often because they are skeptical about the value of the immunizations. An online survey by University of Michigan researchers, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that 13 percent of parents reported taking an alternative path. That included 2 percent [...]
The World Health Organization has issued an alert that a dangerous strain of polio has spread from Pakistan to China and that the risk is high that it will emerge in other countries. It is the first time that polio has been confirmed in China since 1999. CNN reports that [...]
New research suggests that the effectiveness of the vaccine for whooping cough wears off after three years, a finding that provides a possible explanation for a troubling outbreak of the respiratory infection in California last year. As The Associated Press reports, the preliminary results of the research show that children [...]
