Health + Wellness

The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed a federal rule that, if finalized, would remove the potentially hazardous chemical triclosan from antibacterial body washes and hand soaps. Under the proposed rule, the FDA will require manufacturers to prove their antibacterial soaps and body washes are safe and more effective than plain soap and […]

Infants and toddlers are likely becoming exposed to potentially harmful substances called parabens at a higher level than adult women in the U.S. through lotions, shampoos and other personal care products, new research says. Potential daily skin exposure to parabens by infants and toddlers could be as much as two to three times higher than […]

Pregnant women in Washington, D.C. experienced an unusually high number of late-term miscarriages during the same time period that lead levels were dangerously high in the city’s drinking water and the public was unaware of the problem, a study has found. Authors of the study, scheduled to be published in the journal Environmental Science and […]

Many of us who get the flu this winter will demand antibiotics from our doctors. And hopefully, your doctor will turn you down. Antibiotics, which kill bacteria, don’t cure the flu. That’s because the flu is caused by a virus, not bacteria. So your doctor would be prescribing an unnecessary drug. Photo credit: Shutterstock But […]

By Brian Bienkowski Traces of 18 unregulated chemicals were found in drinking water from more than one-third of U.S. water utilities in a nationwide sampling, according to new, unpublished research by federal scientists. Included are 11 perfluorinated compounds, an herbicide, two solvents, caffeine, an antibacterial compound, a metal and an antidepressant, reports Environmental Health News. […]

An estimated 6 percent of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. and the United Kingdom—11,000 deaths per year—may be due to diesel exhaust, according to a new study. While emission standards for diesel engines have become more stringent in recent years, their exhaust still plays a significant role in lung cancer deaths among truckers, miners and […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under a court agreement signed Thursday, will end decades of delay and decide how to protect consumers from triclosan, a suspected endocrine disruptor linked to reproductive and developmental harm in laboratory studies. The FDA first proposed in 1978 to remove triclosan from certain consumer products. But because it […]

State and federal governments must institute new policies to protect the public from exposure to flame retardants, says a recent research report from Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI). The report closely examines the health risks that flame retardants pose to the general population and recommends sweeping policy changes to protect the public.  Photo credit:  […]