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‘Forever Chemicals’ Might Triple Teens’ Risk of Fatty Liver Disease
U.S. News & World Report reported:
PFAS “forever chemicals” might nearly triple a young person’s risk of developing fatty liver disease, a new study says. Each doubling in blood levels of the PFAS chemical perfluorooctanoic acid is linked to 2.7 times the odds of fatty liver disease among teenagers, according to findings published in the January issue of the journal Environmental Research.
Fatty liver disease — also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) — occurs when fat builds up in the organ, leading to inflammation, scarring and increased risk of cancer. About 10% of all children, and up to 40% of children with obesity, have fatty liver disease, researchers said in background notes.
“MASLD can progress silently for years before causing serious health problems,” said senior researcher Dr. Lida Chatzi, a professor of population and public health sciences and pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles.
“When liver fat starts accumulating in adolescence, it may set the stage for a lifetime of metabolic and liver health challenges,” Chatzi added in a news release. “If we reduce PFAS exposure early, we may help prevent liver disease later. That’s a powerful public health opportunity.”
Texas Weighs HHS Changes to Childhood Vaccines; New Mexico Says No
Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week removed several vaccine recommendations for children. The state of New Mexico says it won’t follow suit. As for Texas, the recommendations are still being considered. HHS is reducing the recommended number of vaccines from 17 to 11, though most families will still have free access to all 17 under a process of “shared clinical decision-making” between physicians and parents, according to an explainer from Johns Hopkins University.
Childhood vaccination recommendations by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are now broken down into three categories: immunizations for all, immunizations for high-risk groups and immunizations based on shared clinical-decision-making.
On Wednesday, the New Mexico Department of Health issued a statement that it would continue its full childhood vaccination recommendations despite HHS changes. “The HHS changes, announced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were not based on new scientific evidence or safety data,” NMDOH said. “The department encourages parents and caregivers to discuss vaccination decisions with their health care providers, using the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization schedule as a guide.”
Health Officials Tell Utahns to Consult Their Doctors Amid Federal Child Vaccine Guideline Changes
In the wake of the federal government changing its guidance on childhood vaccine recommendations, Utah health officials are telling Utahns to “determine which vaccines are right for you and your family” while awaiting final recommendations from a federal panel.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, new federal guidelines no longer universally recommend children receive six vaccines (to prevent rotavirus, hepatitis A and hepatitis B, meningitis, RSV, COVID-19 and influenza). Now, the Trump administration says those vaccines should be based on “shared clinical decision-making.”
“It is not always possible for public health authorities to clearly define who will benefit from an immunization, who has the relevant risk factors, or who is at risk for exposure,” say the new guidelines issued earlier this week. “Physicians and parents, who know the child, are then best equipped to decide based on individual characteristics.”
Wisconsin Rejects CDC Vaccine Changes, Recommends Guidance From Pediatrics Group
State health officials won’t change their recommendations for childhood vaccines, endorsing the guidance of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced Thursday.
The announcement comes three days after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday scaled back its list of recommended childhood vaccines — cutting its list of diseases for which childhood vaccines were recommended to 11 from 17.
The change has alarmed public health organizations and providers across the country.
“No new clinical data on either safety or effectiveness were presented that would justify these changes,” wrote Dr. Ryan Westergaard, the DHS chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable disease, in a memo sent Thursday to providers and organizations that offer vaccination services in Wisconsin.
The Simplest Way Teens Can Protect Their Mental Health
Sleeping in on weekends to make up for lost sleep during the week may offer mental health benefits for teenagers and young adults, according to new research from the University of Oregon and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.
The study found that people ages 16 to 24 who caught up on sleep over the weekend were significantly less likely to report symptoms of depression. Compared with those who did not recover sleep on weekends, this group showed a 41% lower risk of depressive symptoms.
The findings, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, add to growing evidence that sleep plays a critical role in adolescent mental health. Teens and young adults face ongoing sleep challenges while also being at higher risk for depression, yet this age group has rarely been examined in studies focused on weekend catch-up sleep.
This research offers one of the first looks at weekend catch-up sleep among typical adolescents and young adults in the United States. Earlier studies on the topic focused largely on school-age teens in China and Korea. Many U.S. teens accumulate sleep debt during the school week as they juggle academic demands, social activities, extracurricular commitments, and in many cases part-time jobs.
“Sleep researchers and clinicians have long recommended that adolescents get eight to 10 hours of sleep at a regular time every day of the week, but that’s just not practical for a lot of adolescents, or people generally,” said Melynda Casement, a licensed psychologist, associate professor in the UO’s College of Arts and Sciences and director of the UO’s Sleep Lab.
California Could Get a 4-Year Ban on Toys With AI Chatbots
California state senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat from San Diego, introduced a bill in the California State Assembly on Monday that would place a 4-year moratorium on the sale of toys with artificial intelligence chatbot capabilities for kids under the age of 18, according to a new report from Techcrunch.
The goal of the legislation, known as Senate Bill 867, is to provide enough time for the development of safety regulations to protect kids from AI-powered toys that engage in inappropriate conversations and tell children how to harm themselves. “Chatbots and other AI tools may become integral parts of our lives in the future, but the dangers they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children,” Senator Padilla said in a statement posted online.
“Our safety regulations around this kind of technology are in their infancy and will need to grow as exponentially as the capabilities of this technology does. Pausing the sale of these chatbot integrated toys allows us time to craft the appropriate safety guidelines and framework for these toys to follow. Our children cannot be used as lab rats for Big Tech to experiment on,” Padilla continued.
Google and Character.AI to Settle Lawsuit Over Teenager’s Death
Google and Character.AI, a maker of artificial intelligence companions, agreed to settle a lawsuit that had accused the companies of providing harmful chatbots that led a teenager to kill himself, according to a legal filing on Wednesday.
The lawsuit had been filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in October 2024 by Megan L. Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III. Sewell, 14, of Orlando, killed himself in February 2024 after texting and conversing with one of Character.AI’s chatbots.
In his last conversation with the chatbot, it said to the teenager to “please come home to me as soon as possible.” “What if I told you I could come home right now?” Sewell had asked. “… please do, my sweet king,” the chatbot replied.
The agreement was one of five lawsuits that the companies agreed to settle this week in Florida, Texas, Colorado and New York, where families claimed their children were harmed by interacting with Character.AI’s chatbots.