News by Subject Medicine & Health

Air pollution in the US has decreased since about 1990, and a new study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill now shows that this air quality improvement has brought substantial public health benefits. The study, published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, found that deaths related to air pollution were nearly halved between 1990 and 2010.

A new approach to genetic analysis finds associations between environmental factors and pharmacogenes -- genes associated with a person's response to drugs -- sparking ideas for new research at the interface of population genetics and medicine. Findings were presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

In a recent study, researchers from Harvard University wanted to know how replacing coal-fired powerplants in China and India with clean, renewable energy could benefit human health and save lives in the future. The researchers found that eliminating harmful emissions from powerplants could save an estimated annual 15 million years of life in China and 11 million years of life in India.

A new study shows that infants that are breastfed for at least six months have less antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their gut compared with babies breastfed for a shorter time. On the other hand, antibiotic use by mothers increases the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in infants.

Economists have found that in the United States, watershed groups have had a positive impact on their local water quality.

Urban farmers growing vegetables to feed millions of people in Africa's ever-growing cities could unwittingly be helping to spread disease by irrigating crops with wastewater, a new study reveals.

The study found that people living in all areas of Puerto Rico faced an elevated risk of mortality during the first two months after the storm, but this risk elevation was most prominent, and prolonged, for people living in the poorest parts of the island.