Questions tagged [environmental-health]
Use this tag for questions regarding physical, chemical and biological factors that may affect human health.
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Does regularly drinking from a plastic container cause cancer?
I drink water from my plastic cup regularly and a friend commented that it could cause cancer.
He also added that I should not heat food in plastic containers or wrappings in the microwave as that ...
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Is aluminum in pans, soda cans and antiperspirants correlated to Alzheimer's?
I have not only heard the soda can theory since I was a kid, but more recently when researching the topic I have found many websites that claim pans made of aluminum and antiperspirants are correlated ...
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Is this new study on cell phone / cancer connection legitimate?
Insanely related: Do mobile phones have anything to do with cancer?
I was just sent THIS article, which claims that a new study does show a link between brain cancer and cell phones:
This new study ...
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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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Is water fluoridation harmful?
There’s a controversy going around whether the benefits of water fluoridation outweigh the potential harms.
What is the evidence for the harm this may cause and what evidence supports the health ...
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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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Can running a fan while sleeping in a closed room cause death?
It is a widely held belief in South Korea that you can suffocate if you leave a fan running in a closed room while you sleep.
Is there any truth or science behind this?
(See Wikipedia on Fan Deaths)
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Does grass alone produce enough oxygen for life?
Over a work happy hour tonight, two employees were talking about their different lifestyles -- one likes riding four wheelers, which the other considers to be recreational pollution. Somehow the fact ...
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Has 99% of the western continental Europe banned water fluoridation?
I keep seeing this claim about the unpopularity of water fluoridation parroted.
Despite dental pressure, 99% of western continental Europe has rejected, banned, or stopped fluoridation due to ...
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Does Roundup harm mammals?
In the anti-GMO debate, it is frequently suggested that the use of Glyphosate (trade name: Roundup) on Roundup-ready GMO crops causes environmental harm.
Example claim: Natural News
Monsanto's ...
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Does staring at the sun cause significant, permanent harm?
Of course, I think I can safely assume if an eye is left pointing directly towards sun for a long period of time it does get major damage. However, staring at the sun also hurts very quickly. That ...
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Is wheat the cause of numerous, serious health problems?
This morning, I stumbled across a realfarmacy article which poses the question [Note: the linked page breaks in Chrome but worked in Firefox]:
Why is there such a strong emphasis on the development ...
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Is using a standing desk for several hours healthier than sitting at a desk all day?
Is working at a standing desk more healthy than working at a regular sitting desk?
Source: Crackberry Blog
Over the past couple of years there has been a lot of buzz about the health benefits of ...
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Is prone masturbation detrimental to your sex life?
The term "Prone masturbation" refers to men lying face down and thrusting their penis into or against the bed, pillow, or something else.
Healthy Strokes is claiming that:
Prone ...
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Do cacti absorb harmful radiation emitted by computers?
It is a common belief that cacti absorb radiation; consequently, a lot of people put potted cacti by their computer as a safety means.
Do cacti actually absorb radiation? Even if so, will a small ...
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Is water calcification bad for your health?
I have a friend, who adamantly believes that water calcification causes a number of problems, including poor health. He also said it made the water taste disgusting. He had recently installed a ...
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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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Do electric cars create more fine dust pollution than comparable petrol cars?
According to this Flanders Today (a local Belgian newspaper) article (dead link, archive on archive.org).
a new small car on petrol in the city creates less fine dust than an electric car of average ...
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Does 528 Hz "facilitate DNA repair"?
There is a somewhat common belief that playing a tone at 528Hz can help to facilitate DNA repair.
Examples:
The frequency of 528 Hz supposedly has healing effects on DNA. The
frequency seems to ...
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Are cheap sunglasses bad for your eyes?
Conventional wisdom and tips in magazines often state that you shouldn't buy cheap sunglasses because they don't protect well against UV rays.
There are two claims in one here, I am skeptical about:
...
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Does using a fluoride-based toothpaste or fluoride-supplemented tap water lead to higher fluoride concentration in the pineal gland?
Dr. Edward Group writes in Everything You Wanted to Know about the Pineal Gland:
Calcification is the biggest problem for the pineal gland. Fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland more than any ...
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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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Does Roundup (glyphosate) cause kidney disease in farmers?
A viral photo on Facebook widely, shared by GMO Free USA, claims that Roundup has been linked to kidney disease.
Breaking news: Sri Lanka becomes first country to ban sale of Monsanto's Roundup in ...
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Do glyphosate-based herbicides cause autism?
I just read this article on a 'health news' site:
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/mit-researcher-glyphosate-herbicide-will-cause-half-of-all-children-to-have-autism-by-2025/#sthash.C8EWLSzN.gbpl
In ...
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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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Does Marijuana deposit four times the tar in the lungs as tobacco?
This picture is from Emily Miller's Facebook page shows one lung divided into two parts one labeled Tobacco and one labeled Marijuana. The Marijuana side is substantially less-healthy looking and the ...
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Does organic food have more vitamins than nonorganic food?
Aside from the issue of pesticides there's the claim that organic food has more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than nonorganic food:
Organic food is known to contain 50%
more nutrients, ...
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Is lead exposure responsible for the rise and fall of violent crime in the US?
I just found an article titled "America's Real Criminal Element: Lead" via Hacker News that made an assertion about the cause of violent crimes that I found rather surprising.
The article states that ...
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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 a cell phone emit 1000 times more radiation when its battery is low?
Found this gem on G+:
The rest seems all extremely circumstantial except the very last item. The 'radiation' they're talking about, I'm assuming, is electromagnetic radiation - which would be weaker ...
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Are organic vegetables higher in carcinogens?
My common senses would have told me that organic vegetables are healthier and less harmful compared to vegetables treated with pesticides. A recent post on Quora made me think otherwise.
Organic ...
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Is it possible to get a sunburn if you're behind a (glass) window?
Someone recently told me that windows act as a kind of "magnifying glass". That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Here's an example of someone with that belief (in the comments):
Can a baby get ...
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Can WiFi waves cause headaches?
I saw there was a question about the harmfulness of WiFi waves, but i'd like to focus on the claims that they can cause headaches specifically; not the cancer-claims.
Numerous people come up with ...
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Is Vatican Radio causing childhood leukaemia?
It an ugly, long standing story in Italy: Vatican radio has huge antennas, not subject to Italian law, and the people living in the surroundings lament severe ailments such as leukaemia.
The Santa ...
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Do fluorescent lights cause stress?
I have heard that fluorescent lights are generally bad for you. The explanations range from the light being in the blue area of the spectrum:
The signature "glow" of fluorescent lighting is ...
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Is it possible to train dogs to detect hypoglycemia?
Many people have claimed that dogs can be trained to detect hypoglycemia.
For example:
For example, we have discovered that dogs have the ability to smell chemical changes in our bodies when ...
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Does consuming fluoridated water reduce IQ?
Related:
Is fluoride in water an industry waste product?
Is water fluoridation harmful?
Dr. Mercola is at it again with a new article: 25 Studies Prove This Reduces Your IQ.
The Fluoride Action ...
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Have people died of cancer from the Fukushima daiichi nuclear accident?
A Japanese person wrote in her diary today that her English tutor told her that a lot of people in Japan have got cancer due to the Fukushima daiichi nuclear accident, and were already dead last year (...
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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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Is there hard science behind the benefits of home water softeners? [closed]
Does anyone know of any empirical studies or well-tested scientific theories on the benefits (or lack thereof) of using a home water softener?
I have a water softener in my house that we installed ...
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Do police officers and firefighters have a shorter than average life expectancy?
I have run across several references that mention that police officers and firefighters have a much shorter life expectancy than average. Is this claim true? Are there any reputable studies that have ...
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Is there a health risk from nanoparticles in sunscreens?
There have been various stories in the news in the past couple of weeks in Australia about peoples perception of nanoparticles in sunscreen.
To quote from the linked story above:
This week, the ...
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Can jet lag give you permanent memory and learning problems?
A recent article on Cracked.com, 5 Things You Won't Believe Are Making You Dumber, claims "jet lag gives you permanent memory and learning problems" and cited several studies. But when you look at the ...
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Do cigarettes emit three times as much particulates as an idling diesel engine?
We can see that cities like Melbourne are pushing far the smoking bans
Often smoking is compared to car pollution, and is said to be insignificant
But, according to this experiment
A turbo diesel ...
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Is studying while sick bad for your brain?
The New Straits Times reported:
Working unduly hard or studying while sick may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damaging it.
P-Healthcare blog reports one of the "Top ...
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Do Sugar-Free Gummy Bears cause gastrointestinal distress?
I stumbled across the Amazon page for Haribo Sugar-Free Gummi Bears
The Reviews and Questions posted there were extremely entertaining, however I have my doubts as to if they are true or just some ...
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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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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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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 ...
