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Childhood Blood Cancers Linked to Radiation From Medical Imaging Scans
Children might be at greater risk from blood cancers due to radiation exposure from medical imaging, a new study says. About 1 in every 10 cases of pediatric blood cancer may be due to radiation from imaging scans, researchers reported Sept. 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“While medical imaging can be lifesaving, our findings underscore the critical need to carefully evaluate and minimize radiation exposure during pediatric imaging to safeguard children’s long-term health,” lead researcher Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a radiologist with the University of California-San Francisco, said in a news release.
“This involves ensuring that imaging is performed only when it provides essential information for the child’s care and, in cases such as CT scans, using the lowest possible radiation doses,” Smith-Bindman added. Radiation is a known carcinogen, and children are particularly susceptible because they are more sensitive to radiation compared to adults and have a longer life expectancy, researchers noted.
For the study, researchers tracked the health of 3.7 million children born between 1996 and 2016 and treated at six health care systems in the U.S. and Canada. Among the children, nearly 3,000 blood cancers were diagnosed during the study period.
Gestational Diabetes Linked to Autism and ADHD in New Study
A major new analysis is drawing fresh attention to the possible links between gestational diabetes and long-term brain health in both mothers and their children. The review, which combined data from 48 studies conducted over nearly 50 years, suggests that diabetes during pregnancy may have effects that extend well beyond childbirth, influencing memory, learning and mental health.
Gestational diabetes occurs when blood sugar rises during pregnancy, usually in the second or third trimester. Unlike type 1 or type 2 diabetes, it usually disappears after the child has been born. However, women who experience it are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. The condition is also becoming more common worldwide, partly because more women begin pregnancy overweight and are having children at an older age. Current estimates suggest it now affects one in seven pregnancies.
The new research, which is yet to be peer reviewed, found notable differences in outcomes for children exposed to gestational diabetes in the womb.
Childhood Plastic Exposure Could Be Fueling Obesity, Infertility, and Asthma
Plastic chemicals tied to hormone disruption, inflammation, and brain development issues may fuel chronic diseases that begin in childhood. Experts call for both personal lifestyle changes and sweeping global policies to reduce unnecessary plastic use.
Childhood exposure to chemicals used to make plastic household items presents growing health risks that can extend long into adulthood, experts from NYU Langone Health report.
This is the main conclusion after a review of hundreds of the latest studies on the topic, publishing online Sept. 21 in the journal The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. The article is being released to coincide with a gathering of experts the same week in New York City to discuss the global impact of plastics on human health. In their report, the authors outline decades of evidence that substances often added to industrial and household goods may contribute to disease and disability, particularly when they are encountered early in life.
The review focuses on three classes of chemical — phthalates used to make plastic flexible, bisphenols, which provide rigidity, and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which help materials resist heat and repel water. The results of the studies, which together assessed thousands of pregnant mothers, fetuses, and children, tied these toxins to a wide range of long-term health concerns, including heart disease, obesity, infertility, and asthma.
Toxic Plumes From Aliso Canyon Gas Blowout Harmed Babies, Study Shows
Scientists studying the health effects of one of the largest blowouts of natural gas in U.S. history just confirmed what residents long suspected: the massive release of fossil gas carried serious health risks. On Oct. 23, 2015, employees of SoCalGas discovered a leak in a well at the utility’s Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility, about 25 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Billowing clouds of toxic gases and the climate super-pollutant methane filled the air for nearly four months as SoCalGas workers tried to fix the leak in a pipe hundreds of feet underground. Pregnant women who lived within 6 miles of the uncontrolled emissions during their final trimester had up to a 50% higher chance of having low birth weight babies than normal, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles reported in a new peer-reviewed study.
Mothers who lived closest to the leak were twice as likely to have underweight babies as women who lived farther away. Low birth weight — when newborns weigh less than 5.5 pounds — increases a child’s risk of dying before their first birthday and their chances of having developmental issues in adolescence and chronic health problems as adults.
