Freeze 'em, heat 'em, blast them into empty space; with survival skills unlike any other organism on the planet, those hardy critters known as tardigrades will only come back for more.

Tardigrades have already shown they can survive hot and cold temperatures and high levels of radiation that would be fatal to human beings, and long periods without any water – normally so essential to life. They can even survive in space.

Previous research has revealed an impressive number of tricks that tardigrades use to stay alive, built up over hundreds of millions of years. Essentially, they're very good at slowing the processes of life right down with the help of CAHS D, and that could be useful in human cells too.

Amazingly, when we introduce these proteins into human cells, they gel and slow down metabolism, just like in tardigrades.

Early signs are promising in several areas, including the way the proteins are smartly activated when environmental stress is present, and deactivated when it isn't.

When the stress is relieved, the tardigrade gels dissolve, and the human cells return to their normal metabolism.

One of the two chemical classes identified were quaternary compounds. These are used in disinfectant sprays, wipes and hand sanitizers, and personal care products such as toothpaste and mouthwash to kill bacteria and viruses, and can be ingested or inhaled if used incorrectly or in poorly ventilated spaces.

The other class of compounds were organophosphates. Serving as flame retardants, they are commonly found in textiles, glues, and household items such as furniture and electronics and can 'off-gas' into the air of rooms we commonly spend time in. 

Being fat-soluble, organophosphates can be absorbed through the skin and potentially make their way into the brain.

Among the many chemicals we use every day, ammonia is one of the worst for the atmosphere. The nitrogen-based chemical used in fertilizer, dyes, explosives and many other products ranks second only to cement in terms of carbon emissions, due to the high temperatures and energy needed to manufacture it.

The process, called lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis, combines nitrogen gas and a hydrogen-donating fluid such as ethanol with a charged lithium electrode. Instead of cracking apart nitrogen gas molecules with high temperature and pressure, nitrogen atoms stick to the lithium, then combine with hydrogen to make the ammonia molecule.

The reaction works at low temperatures, and is also regenerative, restoring the original materials with each cycle of ammonia production.

At its core, water allergy is believed to arise from an abnormal immune response triggered by water’s interaction with the skin. Think of your immune system as a vigilant guardian, always on alert for invaders. In aquagenic urticaria, water somehow triggers an alarm response. This leads to the release of substances like histamine – causing hives, welts and itching.

Before the war cocaine was a common ingredient in medicines and tonics for hay fever as it cleanses the respiratory track by reducing swelling of the mucosa and nasal discharge.

The most popular American drug, called Ryno’s Hay Fever, the content of which was 99.9 percent cocaine, was touted as the best cure for a clogged, reddened, and sore nose, to be used when it gets “stuffed-up.”

Also the British Burroughs Wellcome & Co. manufactured the already mentioned Tabloid cocaine tablets marketed as perfect for singers and public speakers longing to improve their voices.

Overall, mass-produced cocaine, which was believed to be as harmless as tobacco, had become widespread well before the war, and soldiers were but a minority of its users.

Thus, if the consumption of drugs in Britain developed into a problem, it was a problem not so much of the army alone but of society at large.

People who had dust pneumonia often died. There are no official death rates published for the Great Plains in the 1930s. In 1935, dozens of people died in Kansas from dust pneumonia. Red Cross volunteers made and distributed thousands of dust masks, although some farmers and other people in the affected areas refused to wear them

Published 2018

Our study suggests an association between consistently higher exposures to DE and ALS in men, but not in women. These findings support previous reports of associations between ALS and occupations commonly involving DE exposure.

Although our assessment was of occupational exposures, widespread population exposures to DE do occur, particularly from some traffic pollution, though most often at a lower level than the occupational exposures. Studies of exposure to DE in the general population are warranted. Given the widespread nature of DE exposure but the rarity of ALS, an association with DE could suggest that only certain people are sensitive to DE exposure, possibly determined by genetic profile.

Highlights

• Microplastic (MP) particles are present in archaeological sediment samples.

• MP particles, of 16 polymers, were found in archived and contemporary samples.

• MP levels varied from 0 to 20,588 MP/kg dependant on location and depth.

• MPs may impact scientific value and preservation of archaeological deposits.

Conclusions

This is believed to be the first evidence of MP contamination in archaeological sediment (or soil) samples with polymers and size ranges measured and while accounting for procedural blanks. These results support the phenomenon of transport of MPs within archaeological stratigraphy, and the characterisation of types, shapes and size ranges identified therein. Through contamination, MPs may compromise the scientific value of archaeological deposits, and environmental proxies suspended within significant sediment, and as such represent a new consideration in the dynamism of, as well as arguments for preserving, archaeological deposits in situ.

For scientists who study the human immune system, the penny dropped at different points in the early frenetic months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking back now, many marvel at the realization that they witnessed and were able to chronicle something no other scientists had ever actually seen.

The Covid pandemic marked the first time people armed with powerful scientific tools could study how the immune system awakens to and develops defenses against a new threat, in real time, in the global population. Think about it: At the start of 2020, the immune systems of nearly 8 billion people were effectively blank slates as pertains to this new coronavirus.

"I’ve never had the ability to access samples where I could track the evolution of an immune response from what we call naive cells that have never been activated before to multiple boosts that were timed, we could actually watch an immune system develop in a way that we have never been able to do before.”

Amid increasing scrutiny of a potential link between Iowa farm chemicals and cancer, a new report is generating controversy as it blames rising cancer rates not on the toxins used widely throughout the state, but on something else entirely: binge alcohol consumption.

“Is alcohol responsible for the increase in cancer incidence here since 2014? I personally doubt that,” “What needs to be looked at are things that are probable or possible carcinogens that have increased beginning about 1990, because of the well-recognized latency of environmental cancers,” Merchant said. “Those carcinogens associated with industrial agriculture are the ones that really need to be looked at very closely.”

Iowa farms use more weed killers (237 million pounds) and apply more commercial fertilizer (11.6 billion pounds) every year than any other state.

Researchers have long suspected that exposure to a number of the most popular pesticides, particularly glyphosate (the active ingredient in the Roundup brand of herbicide), may cause human cancers. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic” to humans. Other studies have found that exposure to other common pesticides are associated with cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, brain, and prostate cancer.

Utah has one of the highest incidence rates of multiple sclerosis in the nation, and Intermountain Health physicians are trying to figure out why that’s the case.

“It’s more that there’s a predisposition that can be passed on,” said Dr. Timothy West, an Intermountain Health neurologist who specializes in MS. “Then certain things in the environment, and how you grew up, and things you’re exposed to can then trigger those genes.”

MS is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The disease mistakenly attacks myelin, a protective sheath covering nerve fibers in the central nervous system. When damaged, the myelin forms scar tissue called sclerosis, setting off a disruption of electrical signals to the brain and spinal cord.

MS affects every person differently and no two cases are alike.

" Younger miners are getting diagnosed with stage-three black lung, and they're having to quit mining in their 30s or 40s," King observed. "They're losing possibly 20 years, 30 years of work history, and they're unable to draw down that retirement fund."

Around 16% of the nation's coal workers are living with black lung, and after decades of improvement, the number of cases is on the rise again, according to the American Lung Association.

One National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study found modern coal miners, particularly those in Central Appalachia, are more likely than their predecessors to die from coal worker's pneumoconiosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

We know that about 5,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases every year in the UK. While the cause of their illness was likely exposure from decades ago, we believe that people are still being exposed today, putting them at risk of terminal cancers such as mesothelioma in the years to come.

An estimated 300,000 non-domestic buildings built before 1999 still contain asbestos.

Paraphenylenediamine, 1,4-diaminobenzene (PPDA) is an aromatic amine used for permanent dyeing of hair, furs and textiles since the end of the nineteenth century. Due to its strong sensitizing properties, PPDA was banned for several dozen years in some European countries, and it is currently allowed in the concentration regulated by the European Union (EU) law.

In the majority of cases, PPDA is responsible for delayed type hypersensitivity reactions, less frequently for immediate type allergy.

In rare cases it may cause intravascular hemolysis leading to renal insufficiency .

Hair dyes are the main source of PPDA. Others include textile or fur pigments, cosmetics, tattoos, photographic developers, photocopying and printing inks, black rubber, oils and gasoline.

Paraphenylenediamine may show cross-reactions to other chemicals belonging to the so-called para group that contains an amine group on a benzene ring at the para position, which may also cause allergy to other related compounds

Para-phenylenediamine (PPD) is the commonest and most well-known component of hair dyes. Oxidative hair dyes and dark henna temporary tattoos contain PPD. Individuals may be sensitized to PPD by temporary henna tattooing in addition to dyeing their hair. PPD allergy can cause severe reactions and may result in complications.

Hairdressers are at a high risk for PPD allergy and require counseling regarding techniques to minimize exposure and protective measures while handling hair dye.

For decades, researchers in Irv Weissman’s group at Stanford University in California have painstakingly tracked the fate of blood stem cells. These replenish the body’s stores of red blood cells (which carry oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body) and white blood cells (which are key components of the immune system).

In older mice, however, this balance becomes skewed towards the pro-inflammatory innate immune cells. Similar changes have been reported in the blood stem cells of older humans.

If that were the case, then restoring balance to the populations of blood stem cells could also rejuvenate the immune system.

The team tested this by generating antibodies that bind to the blood stem cells that predominantly generate innate immune cells. They then infused these antibodies into older mice, hoping that the immune system would destroy the stem cells bound by the antibodies.

The antibody treatment rejuvenated the immune systems of the treated mice.

They had a stronger reaction to vaccination, and were better able to fend off viral infection, than older mice who had not received the treatment. The treated mice also produced lower levels of proteins associated with inflammation than did old, untreated mice.

By reinforcing concrete with textiles instead of steel, it is possible to use less material and create slender, lightweight structures with a significantly lower environmental impact. The technology to utilise carbon fibre textiles already exists, but it has been challenging, among other things, to produce a basis for reliable calculations for complex and vaulted structures. Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, are now presenting a method that makes it easier to scale up analyses and thus facilitate the construction of more environmentally friendly bridges, tunnels and buildings.

Cement is a binder in concrete and its production from limestone has a large impact on the climate. One of the problems is that large amounts of carbon dioxide that have been sequestered in the limestone are released during production. Every year, about 4.5 billion tonnes of cement are produced in the world and the cement industry accounts for about 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Intensive work is therefore underway to find alternative methods and materials for concrete structures.

After decades of slow progress, therapeutic vaccines that direct the immune system to attack tumours could soon become a fixture of cancer treatment.

Vaccines are usually used to prevent infectious diseases. A therapeutic cancer vaccine is different. Rather than teaching the immune system to recognize pathogens in advance of an infection, these vaccines use identifying proteins produced by cancer cells, known as antigens, to provoke a powerful immune response to existing tumours.

Numerous therapeutic cancer vaccines, on the basis of a variety of approaches, are showing encouraging results in trials.

In the new proof of principle study, the researchers took a biological approach instead of a chemical one to develop a cocktail of enzymes that attack the cell envelope of mycobacteria. The cocktail of enzymes contains highly specific biochemical catalysts that target and degrade the mycobacteria cell envelope that is essential for mycobacterial viability.

To increase efficacy, the researchers delivered the enzymatic drug inside of host macrophages where mycobacteria grow. In laboratory experiments, the drug was effective against M. tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTMs), both lethal pulmonary lung diseases (PD).

TB kills roughly 1.5 million people per year.

The price of asthma medication has soared in the U.S. over the past decade and a half.

The pharmaceutical company Teva sells QVAR RediHaler, a corticosteroid inhaler, for $286 in the U.S.

In Germany, Teva sells that same inhaler for $9.

The goal of this study was to estimate occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in Slovenia and the associated health risks.

We have failed to achieve the goal of our study, as the obtained data are grossly underestimated and unreliable, but it has opened our eyes as to what needs to be improved. All companies need to systematically be informed about occupational health risks, field inspections need to be consistent, regular, and intensified, and health surveillance of all exposed workers implemented regularly.

Despite all these weaknesses, the main message this study conveys is that permissible silica exposure limits, which have been repeatedly lowered in the last decade, can protect the health of exposed workers only if all the stakeholders are systematically informed, inspections are consistently carried out, and health surveillance of all exposed workers is implemented regularly.

Occupational exposure to crystalline silica also causes diseases such as kidney disease, immune system problems, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, silicosis and lung cancer .

Silica is the most abundant substance on the Earth’s crust and is a proven carcinogen. The aim of this study was to measure the occupational exposure of stone carvers to crystalline silica and to evaluate the health risks.

Results:

The mean exposure to total inhalable dust and crystalline silica among the stone carvers was 1.44 and 0.5 mg/m3, respectively. Exposure to total dust and silica was significantly higher than the occupational standard (P <0.0001). Stone carvers’ exposure to silica was at very high-risk level, and the carcinogenicity of silica considering two cancer slopes was 7.40 × 10-6 and 3.12 × 10-7 and the risk of non-carcinogenicity was unacceptable.

The mortality rate due to silicosis was between 3 and 12 people per thousand, and due to lung cancer was 150.24 people per thousand. Based on the results of risk assessment, serious control measures should be implemented in order to reduce workers’ exposure to silica.

In conclusion, the average exposure to crystalline silica in carvers was higher than the permissible limit. Some workers were at risk of acquiring cancer and the majority of them were at an unacceptable non-cancerous risk.

There is a well established association between silica inhalational exposure and autoimmune disease, particularly in the context of intense exposure. 

Silicosis increases susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. The newer industries of sand-blasting denim and engineered stone have been associated with alarmingly high rates of silicosis

A multinational registry has documented diagnostic details related to autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, autoimmune myositis, mixed connective tissue disease, psoriasis, and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis among individuals with silicosis.

Although osteoarthritis affects more than 500 million people in the world, according to the World Health Organisation, there is no cure or any approved drugs to treat or prevent the disease and the only available treatments are painkillers, anti-inflammatory medications, and total joint replacement.

By the year 2050 1 in 3 will suffer from osteoarthritis, and to this day, there is no cure.

Therefore, the aim of the NetwOArk COST Action – The Open European Network on OsteoArthritis – is to set up a European Society for Osteoarthritis. Launched, in October 2022, the network gathers patients, clinicians, and researchers, from academia and industry in 17 countries. NetwOArk intends to build an inclusive network and a new society that brings together all the major key players, including patients, patient advocacy groups, scientists, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, medical device manufacturers, and policymakers.

It is a silica victims’ disability dossier that HSE accepts now claims over a thousand lives in the UK each year. While HSE knows this, only a tiny proportion of the victims find out what robbed years of their health and life. Official records show just 10 to 20 people each year have silicosis listed as their cause of death.

Family doctors rarely spot a case and by the time someone succumbs from a slow suffocation over decades, it may be other complicating but often related health issues listed as cause of death.

A line in the sand • The Health and Safety Executive doesn't want a tighter exposure standard for crystalline silica, either in the UK or Europe. Hazards unpicks its flimsy – and dangerous – excuses. Hazards 127, July-September 2014

Dust to dust • Crystalline silica exposures kill over 1,000 workers a year in in the UK and leaves many more fighting for breath. But, unlike its US counterpart, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) thinks our deadly silica exposure standard is just fine. Hazards 126, April-June 2014