Leaded gasoline linked to rise in mental health disorders and mysterious outbreak in DRC
A mysterious explosion occurs in the Democratic Congo, and researchers find evidence that exposure to leaded gasoline was linked to increased mental illness. We also talk about orcas wearing salmon as hats.
Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/American scientific
Happy Monday, listeners! In fact Scientific American’s Fast ScienceI’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s take a few minutes to discover some science stories you might have missed.
last week Health officials of the Democratic Republic of the Congo reported that an unidentified illness with flu-like symptoms killed dozens of people in November. A World Health Organization spokesman said last Tuesday that the agency was aware of the outbreak and was working with local public health researchers to learn more.
as we discussed in previous episodes DRC is already facing a serious epidemiological problem: the country is considered the epicenter of the current global mpox outbreak and accounts for 99 percent of related deaths, according to the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SciAm The editors are closely following this as-yet-unidentified new outbreak, so we’ll share more information as soon as we have it.
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In other public health news a new exam Looking back at the impact of leaded gasoline they came to some disturbing conclusions.
Before we get into the details, here’s a little background on what lead can do to us. Lead is a toxic heavy metal that can accumulate in the body and can affect a child’s brain development. Researchers have previously shown that the use of lead in gasoline, which began in the 1920s and was widespread in the U.S. before it was finally banned in 1996, likely affected many Americans. A 2022 exam they estimated that half of Americans alive at the time had been exposed to harmful levels of lead during childhood, with millions exposed to five times or more the recommended level.
In a new study published last Wednesday, the same researchers believe that lead exposure may be responsible for 151 million cases of mental health disorders over the past 75 years. These lead-related impacts were greatest among members of Generation X.
While leaded gasoline is thankfully a thing of the past, lead exposure is not. It is estimated to be one in four homes in the US they contain lead levels that can warrant cleanup in the soil. Old paint and pipes can also pose a threat. If you are concerned about lead exposure, you can order blood tests for you or your child from your primary care physician. the tests for heavy metals your soil is also an option. You can do it too contact your state or local health department to inquire about your home’s paint and dust analysis.
We will end the health part of our news list with something more optimistic. You probably already know that exercise is an important part of staying healthy, but it’s easy to feel like you’re a gym junkie or a guilty gym goer.
A new study It provides a great reminder that every little bit really counts. Researchers looked at more than 22,000 middle-aged people in the UK to see how “vigorous periodic lifestyle physical activity”, or VILPA for short, affected their risk of major cardiovascular events, such as strokes and heart attacks.
VILPA is not a burst of intense activity during a gym workout; it’s the type of increase in heart rate that you experience while doing everyday activities. Maybe you could join shameless VILPA session climbing a few stairs, carrying a heavy load of clothes or chasing a pet.
Men who did an average of 5.6 minutes of VILPA per day were 16 percent less likely to experience cardiac events than men who did not have these bursts of activity. But the results they were even more hopeful about women: An average of about one and a half minutes per day was associated with a 33 percent decrease in heart risk, while an average of 3.4 minutes was associated with a 51 percent fewer heart attacks.
These results do not mean that structured exercises are not worth doing; As long as you don’t exhaust yourself or injure your body, more movement is generally better than less. But if you’re pretty sedentary at the moment, the answer probably isn’t to dive into a challenging workout next month on January 1st.
And even if you take it slow, you may never become a gym rat. Research like this shows that increased movement means you’re improving your cardiovascular health. Exercising doesn’t have to make you miserable!
Now let’s go to Venus for some space news. Lots of science nerds and Mitski fans they know, one school of thought says that Venus was Earth-like but turned into hell thanks to a runaway effect of greenhouse gases. And I mean hell, it has clouds of sulfuric acid and a surface temperature of about 870 degrees Fahrenheit.
Last Tuesday Nature AstronomyA new study cast a serious shadow on that idea. The study reports that despite being similar in size to Earth and at a distance from the sun, Venus was never like our home world.
Researchers studied the Venusian atmosphere and found a distinct lack of steam in its volcanic emissions, suggesting the planet’s interior is very dry, so dry in fact that they don’t think the planet ever had liquid water. That’s not to say Venus was never habitable, but any life there would have to be something weird we’ve never seen before, like the microbes that evolved to survive in those nasty sulfuric acid clouds.
We return to land for a couple of marine mammal stories. First: New Zealand scientists have got their hands on it in a whale so special that even finding a dead one is exciting. i like really exciting
When this beaked whale washed up this summer, it marked just the seventh documented specimen of the species since the 1800s. These deep-beaked whales have never been seen alive, and this is the first complete specimen that scientists have been able to dissect.
Whales are sacred animals in the Māori traditions of the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand), so the scientists want to take a whole week to calmly and carefully dissect the animal. to participate and observe with members of a local iwi or tribe.
We have an orca of a tale to end this week’s round. The story begins in 1987when scientists noticed that a certain female killer whale kept showing up wearing a strange accessory: a dead salmon balanced on her head like a hat.
Within a year or so, scientists saw other killer whales jump on the trend, but then it died down. Fashion is so fickle! But everything comes back in the end, and it looks like the dead fish hats are making a comeback. In November, a 32-year-old man was caught with a dead salmon on his head. Scientists aren’t sure why this happened in the first place or why it’s happening again, but they suspect that fish caps may have been a way to store food later.
That’s all for this week’s news roundup. And that really sums up the news for 2024. After diving into Google’s curious new AI podcast tool this Wednesday, we’re sharing a fascinating four-part series about the changing science of animal conservation. Then we’ll wrap up the year with a retrospective of 2024’s wildest science before taking a break for the holidays. We have a lot of good things coming before the end of the season, so stay tuned!
Fast Science produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck check out our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. subscribe American scientific for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
In fact american scientific this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!
