Environmental

Environmental Factors Found To Have An Impact On The Sex of A Child

A latest study shows that its not just a man’s sperm but environmental factors that could have an impact on the sex of a child . The study shows environmental pollutants could be changing the ratio of sperm carrying the X or Y chromosomes.// Specifically, the research finds there’s a slight increase in the number of sperm bearing the Y chromosome in men exposed to pollutants. Researchers...

Environmental Factors Found To Have An Impact On The Sex of A Child

A latest study shows that its not just a man’s sperm but environmental factors that could have an impact on the sex of a child . The study shows environmental pollutants could be changing the ratio of sperm carrying the X or Y chromosomes.// Specifically, the research finds there’s a slight increase in the number of sperm bearing the Y chromosome in men exposed to pollutants. Researchers...

Environmental estrogens can cause breast cancer

Exposure to environmental estrogen 4-nonylphenol may increase the incidence// of breast cancer. Dr. William S. Baldwin and research team from University of Texas has reported that risk of breast cancer may be increased if exposed to environmental estrogen 4-nonylphenol. 4-nonylphenol is an estrogen like chemical which is released from cleaning agents, from industrial wastes of textiles,...

Athletes Are More Prone To Environmental Pollutants Due To Choice Of Diet

The alliance between diet and health is well recognized, however, it is frequently difficult to establish a causal relationship between a particular dietary component and a specific health endpoint. This is of special interest // particularly for environmental pollutants, as most of them reach humans through the food chain. In recent years, a number of studies have determined the occurrence of va...

Industrial and Environmental pollutants increase diabetes risk

Researchers have found that exposure to pollutants increase the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The study was conducted on fisherman families eating// salmon fish containing high levels of chemicals and pollutants known as Persistent Organochlorine Pollutants which includes Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and DDT. Type 2 diabetes generally develops after age 40 and can develop grad...

Environmental Abuse Causes Health Hazards

World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that the incidence of new diseases and rise in infectious diseases is due to increased abuse of the natural environment,// which has led to an imbalance in between natural reservoirs and human needs. Increase in livestock production has lead to spread of new virus infections such as SARS, bird flu from poultry birds to humans as these virus...

Genes And Environmental Factors Determine Stress Response

Researchers from Duke university Medical Center have established that an individual’s health and well being is largely influenced by a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors//. In addition, genes might play a crucial role in determining the psychological and biological response to a stressful environment. The results of four such studies that examined the genetic...

Air Pollution in Tamil Nadu is a Cause of Concern for Environmentalists

Environmental agencies in Tamil Nadu are demanding monitoring stations in heavily industrialised pockets after a study found air samples //from the state among the most polluted in India. The groups have urged the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to apply for central funds to set up volatile organic compounds (VOC) and sulphur gas monitoring stations in Manali, Mettur, Cuddalore, Tut...

WHO Outlines the Link between Environmental Hazards and Disease

Environmental exposures are the sole cause of nearly 24% of all diseases in adults and 33% of diseases in children. World Health Organization (WHO) said // that all this can be prevented by living in a healthy environment. These diseases are extensively seen in developing countries and could be prevented thereby saving four million lives a year. The diseases which are influenced by hazardous envi...

Environmental Factors Leads to Obesity in Rural Communities

Researchers have found that physical inactivity due to lack of recreational facilities, stores, churches and schools within the surrounding area make rural people obese.// The study is thought to be the first to examine the link between obesity and the environmental factors within rural communities. It builds upon previous Saint Louis University School of Public Health research that ex...

Environmental Factors Trigger Onset of Diabetes

Recent research has further confirmed the theory that environmental factors such as common infections may be a trigger for diabetes //in children and young adults. The authors of the study, from Leeds and Newcastle Universities and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, carried out a sophisticated statistical analysis using information from the register on the times and places where th...

Pharmaceuticals May not Pose Major Aquatic Environmental Risks

A Canadian study of high-use drugs released from eight sewage treatment plants indicates that effects on invertebrates, bacteria, and plants// in the aquatic receiving environment are unlikely. The study is published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. The pharmaceutical market is a booming industry. The manufacture of drugs is increasing to match its demand...

Environmental Surrounding Affects Human Behaviour

The North Desert Village landscaping experiment was conducted in the Arizona State University's (ASU) Polytechnic campus. The findings of this experiment were that the graduate student families //in the cluster of six houses adjoining the green and fertile lawns and ornamental bushes spend time together talking while their kids play outside whereas, the families in a nearby cluster of six homes o...

Environmental Pollutants Could Impact the Size of Sexual Organs

High levels of certain environmental pollutants could impact the size of sexual organs in animals and probably humans, say scientists.// Christian Sonne and colleagues at National Environmental Research Institute at Denmark checked 55 male and 44 female East Greenland polar bears for a correlation between the pollutant levels in body tissue and the size of sexual organs. Ex...

Environmental Toxin Causes Heritable Adult-Onset Diseases

A disease you are suffering today could be a result of your great-grandmother being exposed to an environmental toxin during pregnancy – and you may already have passed it along to your children. // That’s the conclusion reached by researchers at Washington State University, who have found that exposure to an environmental toxin during embryonic development can cause an animal, and a...

Narcolepsy May Be Caused By Environmental Exposures: Study

A comprehensive review published in the January 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that, as with other diseases// characterized by selective cell loss, narcolepsy may be caused by environmental exposures before the age of onset in genetically susceptible individuals - a possible contradiction to common belief that a person's body mass index, immune responses and stressful life events are factor...

Environmental Toxicants Target Stem Cells

A study published today in the on-line journal PLoS Biology concluded that the low levels of toxic substances cause critical stem cells in the central nervous system to// prematurely shut down. This research, which is the first to identify a common molecular trigger for the effects of toxicant exposure, may give scientists new insights into damage caused by toxicant exposure and new me...

Obesity And Environmental Chemicals: Research Probes Potential Link

A team of researchers is investigating whether the increasing ubiquity of chemical flame-retardants might be related to the climbing rate of obesity// in the United States. “Environmental chemicals are a possible third component to the obesity epidemic, along with diet and exercise,” says Gale Carey, professor of nutrition and a leader of the research project, along with professor of...

Environmental Factors Linked to Increased Risk of Breast Cancer

Women can encounter environmental factors that increase their risk of breast cancer at// various periods of their physical development, beginning before birth and extending until menopause. These non-inherited, or epigenetic, changes in DNA can correlate with risk factors for breast cancer, according to research by the American Association for Cancer Research. To study the effects of...

Study Focus on Environmental Hazards Posed by IT Scraps

When people think of climate change, they usually focus on cars or factories. Yet a study commissioned by chipmaker AMD has shown that 14 large-scale //power production plants must run worldwide just to provide electricity to computer centers. Then there are millions of PCs in private or corporate settings to be figured in as well. Not to mention the manufacture and disposal of the mac...

Environmental Problems Take Huge Toll of Lives Across the Globe

A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says as many as 13 million deaths could be prevented yearly by reducing environmental risks . The study released on Wednesday said that Afghanistan and the African countries of Angola, Burkina Faso and Mali are among the most affected by environmental troubles. In 23 countries, more than 10 per cent of deaths can be traced...

UN Report Warns of 'environmental Refugees'

Climate change will not only hit drier cities like the Indian capital but also modify the migration patterns of rural and urban areas, warns a UN report released Wednesday. "Much of the environmental refugees never return to the rural areas from which they were first displaced," says the 'State of the World Population 2007' report of the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa)....

Indian Government Asks the Supreme Court to Keep Off Environmental Issues

Envirohealth? What is it, seems to ask the government of India.Clearly positing development against environment, it has asked Supreme Court to wind up the so-called Green Bench that sits over environmental issues. Seeking the vacation of stay on the functioning of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), constituted under the Forest Conservation Act, the federal government bluntly ask...

Common Environmental Chemicals Hamper Ovary Development in Foetus

Researchers have found that exposing a developing female sheep foetus to low doses of commonly present environmental chemicals can disturb the development of the ovary. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Paul Fowler at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. As part of the study to know the effect of long-term, low-level exposure to a cockta...

UN Calls for Pedal Power to Reduce Environmental Damage

More bicycle riding and other lifestyle changes are urgently needed to reduce climate-altering carbon emissions that are damaging Asia's health and could also threaten the economy, the World Health Organisation said Monday. Climate change contributes directly or indirectly to about 77,000 deaths per year in the region, according to WHO estimates. "So far the impact is...