Autism advocates respond to RFK Jr.

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This week is one Nature paper shared a new method that can convert Teflon – and toxic ‘forever chemicals’ or PFAS – into harmless charcoal (and fluoride).

Remember how a few weeks ago I said my PhD was about destroying chemicals forever? The article heavily quotes my PhD research (our article is ref. 16.) Now I know how great you academics feel when you move science forward.

On to the news.

Autism, vaccines and what lies ahead

While RFK Jr., who has falsely claimed links between vaccines and autism, may have headed to Health and Human Services, STAT’s Timmy Broderick asked autism advocates about their concerns about future perceptions of autism, as well as autism research.

“The belief that vaccines cause autism is not only factually incorrect,” said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. “When you say that vaccines cause autism and that therefore people should not get vaccines, you are also saying that it is worse to be autistic than to die from measles. That is not a belief that autistic people are happy with.” Read more from Timmy here.

And in a STAT First Opinion, Caitlin Gilmet of the pro-vaccine organization SAFE Communities Coalition says the pro-vaxx community is not only on the defensive, but also ready to play offense.

“While anti-vaccination voices make headlines, the majority of Americans continue to immunize themselves and their children. We have been a silent majority, but we are finally experiencing a wave of grassroots vaccine advocacy,” she wrote. Read more here.

The growing gap in life expectancy between different races and ethnicities

The life expectancy gap in the United States between those who live the longest and those who live the shortest has increased from 12 years to 20 years in the past 20 years, according to a study by analysis published Thursday in the Lancet.

The study, which analyzed longevity by race and ethnicity, geographic location, and factors such as income and residential segregation, found that longevity varied widely depending on these factors, and that the differences divide the country into ‘ten Americas’ . The study “confirms the continued existence of distinct Americas within the US,” wrote the authors, a team drawn largely from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

The report found that Asian Americans lived the longest, with an average of 84 years, while American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) populations lived the shortest, with an average of 63.3 years. The AIAN population was the only population to see a massive decline in life expectancy before the Covid-19 pandemic, and also the largest decline of any group between 2019 and 2021 (6.6 years).

The study updates a “eight Americasstudy published in 2006 by adding two additional groups that make up the U.S. Latino population. The authors said it was important to better disaggregate health data to prioritize efforts to “reduce the massive longevity inequality in the US.” — Usha Lee McFarling

A visit to ‘Dad and Mom’s Nipple Factory’

When Randi Johnson was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, her husband, Brian, often felt unable to help. But when he and Randi met with a surgeon to discuss reconstructing her breast, he was struck by something he could do. A lifelong tinkerer, the Midwestern father of five decided to make the best possible prosthetic nipple for his wife.

That moment led the conservative Christian couple from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to become the owners of naturallyimpressive.coma prosthetic nipple company that they see as a ministry.

On the First Opinion Podcast, STAT’s Torie Bosch spoke with Randi and her son Justin, who recently documented his parents’ work in a new documentary. They talk about how the nipple trade and the documentary made the family more open to each other and brought Randi friends who have also experienced breast cancer and reconstruction. Listen to your podcasts here, or on any platform.

Mysterious Water Pollutant Revealed (Don’t Panic)

Water systems use chlorine to kill pathogens. But chlorine reacts with bits of natural material in water to form compounds linked to cancer, miscarriages and low birth weight. So in 1998, the EPA enacted a rule that led many water systems to switch to using chloramines to disinfect water, thus avoiding those toxic byproducts.

It turns out that chloramine disinfection creates another set of disinfection byproducts – the existence of which has been known for forty years, but its identity remained a mystery. In one Scientific research published yesterdaya team of scientists identified Cl–N–NO₂^– or chloronitramide anion, as the mystery compound. They also found it in American drinking water samples at toxicologically relevant concentrations. Although the compound is similar to others that are toxic, the exact toxicity of the compound has yet to be investigated.

But don’t panic: While we don’t know exactly how concerned to be about the health effects of chlornitramide anion, we do know that disinfecting water prevents diseases like cholera and dysentery, both of which are fatal. Federal support will be needed to fund NIH and EPA toxicology studies that will tell us what levels of chlornitramide anion are safe, what alternatives are available, and whether household activated carbon water filters can indeed remove the compound from water, such as the researchers suspect.

Asian food as medicine

My father has said that for my ancestors – and for him growing up – meat was simply to flavor the rice, since the cheap rice (and water or soup) could fill you up. But as a non-profit organization Notes from Asian HealthcareWhen Asian immigrants fled war and poverty to the US, they found a “land of plenty” where meat is plentiful and daily life is more sedentary. Combined with viewing whole grains as “peasant food” and eating fewer vegetables, the combination can be a recipe for poor health.

That’s where cooking classes from Asian Health Services, based in Oakland, California, come in. Classes in English, Cantonese and Vietnamese teach people how to enhance flavor without relying on unhealthy additives and how to adapt cultural dishes with “healthy trade-offs” that preserve flavor. the ‘taste of home’. The program won a grant to expand the “Food as Medicine” initiative incubator competition at last week’s Milken Summit, hosted by the National Association for Community Health Centers and medical device company Abbott, and aims to reach more people on social media through a partnership with the bilingual, James Beard Award-winning Chinese family of food influencers Made with Lau.

What we read

• How science lost America’s trust and surrendered health policy to skeptics Wall Street Journal

• Why cancer advocates like me are leaving X, STAT

• There are three main reasons why you are alive now. RFK Jr. fight tooth and nail against one of them, Slate

• A documentary on menopause contains ‘misinformation’ and should not be used to educate doctors, critics say, STAT

• Only 1 percent of neuroscience faculty are black. Kaela Singleton hopes to change that, Vox