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Microplastics Are Changing Your Insides in Unexpected Ways
A new study has shown that microplastics can alter gut microbiome, where those changes resemble patterns associated with depression and colorectal cancer. The research, conducted within microONE, a project led by the CBmed research center in Graz, Austria, in collaboration with international partners, was presented at the United European Gastroenterology Week 2025 on Tuesday.
“We live in a close relationship with our gut microbiome, and even subtle changes could have implications for our health,” Christian Pacher-Deutsch, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student at the research institution CBmed GmbH and the Medical University of Graz, Austria, told Newsweek. “While it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions, the patterns we observed in our bioreactor experiments suggest that this is something worth paying attention to,” he said.
Microplastics, which are plastic particles smaller than five millimeters commonly found in the environment, and their impact on human health have been gaining increasing attention in recent years.
A Community Burdened by Chemical Waste Is Demanding Cancer Data. Texas Health Officials Won’t Give It to Them.
Eight months ago, Texas health officials delivered alarming news to residents of a string of industrialized communities east of Houston: A new study had found that they may be at elevated risk of developing several types of cancer, especially leukemia. But few conclusions about the severity of the threat in specific locations can be drawn because state epidemiologists have refused to release the cancer data at the census-tract level — a move advocates and experts are calling into question.
This granular data can pinpoint areas with high cancer burdens and help connect those discrepancies to risk factors like environmental exposures. It can also be used to identify cancer clusters.
Two independent epidemiologists told Public Health Watch the state’s decision not to release this data was illogical and indefensible. A Houston-area congresswoman and three Harris County commissioners sent letters to the state’s health commissioner, asking her to remedy the error. A local activist accused health officials of suppressing information that could reflect poorly on the state’s $68 billion oil-refining and petrochemical industries, centered in Houston.
Trump Administration Acts on Majority of Industry Wish List
U.S. manufacturers who late last year asked the incoming Trump administration for a “regulatory reset” have seen roughly 80% of their specific regulatory requests acted on in just the first eight months of Trump taking office. The fast action across various agencies comes after 100 manufacturing industry groups sent a letter to then President-elect Donald Trump last December complaining of a “regulatory onslaught” under the Biden administration that the group said was “strangling” the economy.
The letter, spearheaded by the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents roughly 14,000 US companies across various industries, listed 29 specific requests for regulatory rollbacks and pro-industry policies that have environmental, energy, food, intellectual property and financial impacts.
The industry asks included loosening various air pollution regulations and pausing rulemaking around perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, — a class of chemicals widely used in manufacturing that include many found to be highly hazardous to human health.
Buoyed by a Retro Revival, Kodak’s Dark Environmental Past Is Coming to Light Kodak Is Having a Fashion Moment.
A few weeks ago, a keychain-sized camera-slash-accessory based on a model from 1987 sold out in a day. In some markets, the company’s compact digital cameras have outsold those from Canon or Sony. Things are going so well, Kodak has even developed a popular streetwear brand with a storefront in Seoul, luring young people with bright colors and a fun, retro vibe. Not bad for a 133-year-old company that declared bankruptcy in 2012 and in August refuted reports that it may have to shut down again.
But throughout much of the 20th century, Kodak was also, for all intents and purposes, a U.S. military contractor. Alongside its subsidiary Eastman Chemical, Kodak produced warplane lacquer, gas mask parts, and refined uranium for the Manhattan Project.
All of this left a long trail of environmental damage, most notably in Rochester.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Kodak disposed of low-level radioactive waste in a local landfill. By 1990, the company had been repeatedly cited for mishandling hazardous chemicals, including failing to report toxic spills, illegally discharging solvents into the city’s sewer system, and flouting air pollution regulations. People living near the factory began to notice clusters of rare diseases. In 1994, Kodak agreed to an $8 million settlement to repair leaking sewers that had carried industrial waste beneath the city for decades.
