Questions tagged [environmental-health]
Use this tag for questions regarding physical, chemical and biological factors that may affect human health.
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Am I drinking myself sick from the plastic in tea bags?
You’d probably be surprised to learn that most tea bags contain up to 25% plastic.
... says Green Child magazine, and thus
A cup of tea contains ... plastic ... at 16 micrograms per cup... plastic ...
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Can pressurized air directed on the skin cause an embolism?
At my workplace we are warned against using compressed air to blow dust of working clothes etc, except when a special nozzle is affixed to the to the hose, reducing the pressure of the released air.
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Do we unknowingly eat 5 grams of plastic per week?
I just saw a DW (Deutsche Welle the German public state own international broadcaster) short documentary on You-Tube named "How to avoid micro plastic in your food" and is about how much ...
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Does a 400ppm ambient CO2 increase result in a 21% decline in cognitive function "across all domains"?
Apparently VOCs and CO2 in a conventional building will make you half or around 3/4 as smart/performing as you are.
On average, cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% ...
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Do beeswax candles "purify" the air?
It's a common claim on sites promoting beeswax candles over paraffin or soy candles that they "purify" the air and reduce allergies and asthma (Cleanup Expert,Ebeehoney, Pathways Arts, ...
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Does dry air promote the spreading of respiratory viruses better than wet air, ceteris paribus?
A DW article states that
Air humidity also influences the transmissibility of respiratory viruses. Once the pathogens have been expelled from the respiratory tract with a strong sneeze, they ...
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Do air-conditioning systems help to spread SARS-CoV-2?
Newshub in New Zealand reported on March 9, 2020:
Scientists in Singapore may have found a clue as to how so many people aboard cruise ship the Diamond Princess ended up getting infected with COVID-...
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Do long sessions of computer use damage the user's skin?
I believe that regularly spending long periods of time facing computers monitors while using them significantly damages the skin.
The Daily Mail reported in 2018:
According to [Rebecca Mason, skin ...
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Do some people take several weeks to adjust to the spring DST clock change?
In this proposal on the European Parliament website about Daylight Savings Time (DST), it is claimed that (emphasis mine):
Some studies indicate that summer-time arrangements could ...
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Are US sunscreens less effective due to FDA regulations?
A recent answer to the question Best sun protection for swimming on a sister site makes the claim "The US market version is hamstrung in order to pass FDA regulations" and expands with the ...
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Is food becoming less nutritious because of depletion of soil minerals and nutrients?
Over and over, I have heard and read claims that the soil growing much of the planet's crops is "depleted" and thus our foods do not have sufficient minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Five ...
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Does forest therapy (Shinrin-yoku) improve the immune system?
According to shinrin-yoku.org, forests help to improve the immune system, including the part that fights cancer:
But in the past several decades there have been many scientific studies that are ...
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Are there major negative health effects from living next to a coal power plant? [closed]
EnergyJustice writes:
Health Impacts & Coal Plants: There’s no shortage of data to show that individuals living near a coal plant are at higher risk for health problems than those who do not live ...
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Is the European NO₂ limit of 40 µg/m³ for outside air backed by strong evidence?
According to the Umwelt Bundesamt, the average annual limit for the NO₂ concentration is set to 40 µg/m³ with the intention to protect people with asthma, small children and older people, especially ...
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Does 5G pose health risks?
Among others, the website RadiationHealthRisks claims:
Second, according to experts, because of the shorter length of
millimeter waves (MMV) required by 5G to support the bandwidth, these
shorter ...
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Does commercially-produced cotton cloth contain unhealthy chemicals that cause fertility problems?
The article Czy Twoje ubrania Cię trują? "Wchłaniamy chemię przez skórę. Stąd np. problemy z płodnością" (Do your clothes poison you? "We absorb chemicals through the skin, hence, for example, ...
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Does too much deuterium clog up our mitochondria?
I recently came across a strange idea that appears to be popular in the biohacking and alternative health community. The essence of it is that many of the ills of modern life are cased by a buildup to ...
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Does CS tear gas permanently damage children?
In the final assault ending the 1993 siege of a compound in Waco, Texas , in which 76 people were killed, the FBI fired 40mm M651 CS and Ferret CS rounds into buildings containing adults and children ...
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Do UV air purifiers reduce the risk of being infected by the common cold or the flu?
I've seen several manufacturers make the claim that UV-C air purifiers can prevent the common cold and flu - primarily due to the destruction of viruses. (The ones that only purify air by filtering ...
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Do fireworks kills birds, dogs and other animals?
Diwali is a Hindu festival of lights, celebrated with fireworks.
My closest friend on Facebook shared this picture on my wall:
Happy Diwali
Thousands of birds, dogs & other animals die out of ...
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Do more people drown in deserts than die of thirst?
I had first heard about the claim that more people drown in deserts than die of thirst in school maybe 30 years ago. The explanation is that sudden rains can create dangerous flooding in normally dry ...
user22213
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Does each car in inner London cost society £8,000 in health and environmental cost over its lifetime?
The topic of air quality is getting a load of attention in newspaper headlines in the days leading up to Clean Air Day (21st June, apparently).
For example, The Independent reports a recent study on ...
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Does a dairy-free diet reduce autistic behaviour?
PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) suggest the existence of a link between milk consumption and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (see here on the PETA website).
More research is needed, ...
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Does drinking cattle urine have health benefits?
Recently, a provincial government in India has decided to promote cattle urine as a health drink:
Cow urine to be promoted as health drink in Uttar Pradesh
BJP government in UP prepares proposal ...
user42178
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Does using BlueTooth devices cause leakage of the blood-brain barrier?
In 2012, the EMFacts Consultancy blog quoted Cindy Sage as saying:
People should realize that Bluetooth devices that fit in or around the ear typically radiate at 0.23 watts per kilogram (W/Kg). [...]...
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Is it true that other cultures don't see having two windows opened as a health risk? [closed]
I live in Romania and since I was a kid, I heard people talking about something we call, here in Romania, current—basically, the air flow which is being formed if at least two exterior windows are ...
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Does sensitatization require less allergens than elicitation?
In Evidence that Food Proteins in Vaccines Cause the Development of Food
Allergies and Its Implications for Vaccine Policy Vinu Arumugham claims:
It has been demonstrated that a smaller ...
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Does eating seedless fruit cause infertility?
Eden Tosch of The Ayurveda Experience argues against eating seedless fruit (such as seedless watermelon, grapes, lemons, tangerines and oranges).
Eating the fertile, nutritious and rich part of a ...
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Is the illegal nuclear waste at the Coldwater Creek Nuclear Landfill a risk to public health?
NOTE: This is not a copy of: Is the illegal nuclear waste at The Westlake Nuclear Landfill a risk to public health? which is a different nearby nuclear landfill that has a different issue of a ...
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Is the illegal nuclear waste at The Westlake Nuclear Landfill a risk to public health?
This Question refers to the 1 of 3 the nuclear landfill sites in residential/commercial areas in the St. Louis, MO area. These landfills are a result of the leftovers from the Manhattan Project
...
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Is it healthy to sleep with the head under the blanket?
According to g9sleeptight.com (and many other websites), sleeping with the head under the blanket
increases the risk of suffocation
can trigger sleep apnea
can cause brain damage stating "some ...
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Is air pollution reaching a crisis point?
A recent report by the Lancet Commision on Pollution and Health led to some scary headlines in the news:
Pollution linked to one in six deaths
Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens 'survival ...
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Is there plastic microfiber in 83% of tap water?
I've recently come across this Guardian article which cites a story by Orb Media.
Tests show billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles, with 83% of samples ...
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Smell of a Body [closed]
There's many fictional and nonfictional stories about passerby detecting dead bodies inside buildings and such by an "overwhelming stench of decay" or something equivalent, usually even through thick ...
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Does the DuPont/Denka plant in Lousiana emit 250,000 pounds of chloroprene annually?
I was a bit surprised when reading the following paragraph in the article "The Louisiana Environmental Apocalypse Road Trip":
The risk of cancer in Reserve, a community founded by freed slaves, is
...
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Is the EPA's regulation of particulate matter justified with evidence?
The US Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has restrictions on "Particulate Matter".
A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece article claims it is based on a
scientifically unsupported ...
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Can mold cause GERD (acid reflux)?
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is more commonly known as acid reflux.
According to Metabolic Healing is can be triggered by mold spores:
This is a little known but potentially major cause ...
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Are Unvaccinated Children Healthier?
Got this today on my facebook wall...
Alarming New Study: Unvaccinated Kids are Healthier
The study’s findings really make you wonder. Here’s some of the specifics:
Vaccinated children ...
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Does residential radon cause lung cancer?
Radon causes lung cancer; a typical statement is this:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified radon as the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. Many ...
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Is flying the worst choice of travelling, considering the greenhouse effect and carbon-dioxide emission? [closed]
The communities I live in in Germany keep telling everybody that flying should be avoided by all circumstances, because it has a far bigger ecological footprint than any other mode of transportation. ...
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Are the chemical compounds BPA, BPS and BPF harmful to humans?
According to the following article by Time, and the study that it cites, several compounds of the chemical bisphenol - used in commonly-handled products like shopping receipts and plastic containers ...
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Are cell phones harmful to male fertility if kept in trousers pocket? [duplicate]
Several studies or press articles suggest that keeping a cell phone in a male's trousers pocket (and cell phone usage in general) may harm that men's fertility (increase sperm issues):
http://www....
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Do Ultra-dense H11-grade HEPA filters remove up to 99% of PM0.3 particles?
The Xaiomi Air Purifier 2 website claims:
HEPA (High-efficiency Particulate Arrestance) is frequently used in hospitals and labs to filter out micron-sized particles. Mi Air Purifier uses an ultra-...
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Is drinking water stored in copper vessels (copperware) good for your health?
It's a wide spread belief in India (Ayurveda) that drinking water stored in copper ware (like copper jugs and pots) is better for health.
There's even a website about it: Dr. Copper's "Scientifically ...
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Does the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) meaningfully increase the risk of water contamination?
There are many environmental problems with fossil fuels (climate change being the most obvious), but specifically regarding water pollution, how big of a threat to local water supplies is the Dakota ...
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Is the safety advice regarding asbestos consistent with advice about other risks?
The HSE in England advise in the FAQ section of their website here "Many cases of inadvertent, short-term exposure to asbestos will most likely have led to minimal exposure to fibres, with little ...
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Does releasing hydroxyl (OH) into the air purify it safely?
Companies like Air Oasis have products that promise to purify the air by:
The Air Oasis brands of Air Purifiers that we carry use a unique nano Nickle catalytic hydration process to create powerful ...
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Does grounding (earthing) reduce inflammation? [duplicate]
This seems to be an article in a peer-reviewed journal:
The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory ...
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Are activities in which both people bleed on each other considered "No Risk" for the transmission of HIV?
My friend, who was a HIV care provider, claims explicitly that "no one has ever transmitted HIV through wound to wound contact" and that therefore there is no significant risk to hockey players ...
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Does sharing earphones increase the risk of middle ear infections?
A Google search reveals many claims that sharing earphones is unhealthy.
Marie Claire magazine provides an example:
Kelly Reynolds, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental health at the ...
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