'Striking' discovery that may shed light on bowel cancer spike in young people
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NBC News
14 hours ago
- NBC News
Dozens of beaches close before July Fourth weekend due to fecal bacteria
Just ahead of the Independence Day long weekend, beaches across the country have closed and issued advisories due to excessive levels of harmful bacteria. The culprit is fecal waste, a common summer problem in both freshwater and oceans that can cause gastrointestinal illness and skin infections. At least six states have issued closures or advisories for certain beaches and lakes that have tested positive for fecal bacteria above safe levels. In Massachusetts, almost two dozen beaches are closed due to excessive bacteria levels. Four beaches in New York are closed. Illinois has issued at least eight advisories in the past few weeks. Los Angeles County had released eight ocean water quality advisories as of Tuesday. Michigan has closed three beaches. The bacteria causing havoc for summer swimmers include and Enterococcus — nasty germs often found in the feces of people and animals. The contamination can occur because of sewage, manure or storm runoff. is more likely to be found in freshwater, whereas enterococcus can form in both marine and freshwater. Edward Dudley, director of the E. Coli Reference Center at Pennsylvania State University, said testing bodies of water used for swimming is routine and common, as are closures. Beach closures are more likely around the summer months, when ocean surface temperatures are high and bacteria can grow more easily, said Antarpreet Jutla, associate professor of environmental engineering sciences at the University of Florida. However, a variety of factors — including human activity, temperature and water movement — can affect bacterial growth, he said. Jutla also said that beach closures due to fecal bacteria are very common. In North Carolina, officials warned about cyanobacteria algae blooms in Lake Norman, urging people to keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue or scummy. Different from fecal bacteria, cyanobacteria are the most common cause of algae blooms in freshwater, such as lakes or rivers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research suggests that climate change may be triggering cyanobacterial algae blooms more frequently. Although the Environmental Protection Agency sets guidelines on safe levels of fecal bacteria, states can set their own water quality and monitoring standards. Some, such as Illinois, test public beaches every two weeks. 'I would say, the higher the levels, probably the higher the risk,' Dudley said. While fecal waste can lead to many harmful diseases, experts are worried by recent increasing levels of another harmful bacteria: vibrio. Vibrio is a potentially deadly bacteria that has caused similar beach closures in recent years. The flesh-eating bug thrives in warm, coastal waters. Jutla, who researches vibrio bacteria, has seen vibrio gradually migrate north across the United State. Testing for vibrio depends on each state as well as its concentration limits, he said. 'It's a rare thing right now with increasing trends in the entire country, but that's something that we are really concerned about — what is going to be present in the coastal waters,' Jutla said about vibrio.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Startling discovery about The Pill and cancer that's rising in young people
Thousands of women who take the Pill are not at higher risk of potentially deadly liver cancer, research today suggested. Studies have long suggested there may be a link between the combined oral contraceptive pill and the risk of developing tumours in the liver. This is because the birth control pill contains the hormone oestrogen, which scientists believe can stimulate some cancer cells to grow. But now, in one of the largest studies to date involving more than 1.5million British women, researchers discovered there was 'little to no association' between taking the Pill and liver cancer. Experts, who said the study was the 'most comprehensive to date', concluded there was 'no overall link'. Liver cancer now kills 5,800 people in the UK each year compared with 2,200 in the late 1990s, making it the UKs fastest rising killer and responsible for double the deaths of skin cancer. It's currently the eighth most common cause of cancer death in the UK, but by 2040, the charity warns that it could rank sixth. Cancer Research UK figures also suggest rates of the disease have increased by 86 per cent among 25-to-49-year-olds since the 1990s. In the study, researchers analysed data from 23 previous studies as well as the UK biobank health study involving over a million women. They compared women who had ever used a birth control pill with those who never used them and found there were 5,400 liver cancer cases logged across all studies. Writing in the journal The Lancet Oncology, the researchers said there was 'no association with liver cancer risk'. However, they added, there was 'weak evidence that women who used the birth control pill for longer periods had a very slight increased risk of liver cancer (6 per cent) per 5 years of use.' This they said, was likely to due to unmeasured factors such as patients who had Hepatitis B or C infection—a major risk factor for liver cancer. Around one in four liver cancer cases in the UK are also caused by obesity, while a fifth are related to smoking, and one in 14 are due to excessive alcohol, research shows. Latest NHS figures for suggest there were almost 3million prescriptions for the combined pill and more than 4million for the mini pill, which just contains progestogen. Around a quarter of all women aged 15 to 49 are on either the combined or progesterone only pill. The proportion of women taking oral contraceptives has fallen by more than two-thirds, from 420,600 in 2012/13 to 126,400 in 2022/23, according to the NHS data. Around 555,400 women turned to the health service's sexual and reproductive health services in 2022/23 — equivalent to four per cent of 13 to 54-year-olds Taken every day, it works by stopping the ovaries releasing an egg each month. It also thickens the cervical mucus and thinning the womb lining to stop sperm reaching an egg, and attaching itself in the womb. It is over 99 per cent effective with perfect use but if used incorrectly—such as missing a pill or experiencing nausea and diarrhoea while on it—around one in ten women (9 per cent) may get pregnant. Known side effects of the Pill include nausea, breast tenderness, mood swings and headaches. Others claim they pile on pounds while taking the because of increased fluid retention and appetite, yet the NHS says there is no evidence it leads to weight gain. Decades of research has failed to provide any conclusive evidence that this supposed side effect is real. However, rarer side effects include blood clots and a slightly heightened risk of breast and cervical cancer.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Air pollution and herbal medicines could be behind lung cancer in non-smokers, study finds
Air pollution and traditional herbal medicines could be major risk factors contributing to the development of lung cancer in people with no history of smoking, a groundbreaking new study has found. While smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer, rates of the malignancy appear to be increasing among those who have never smoked, even with tobacco use declining globally. Previous studies have shown that lung cancer disproportionately affects non-smoking women, particularly those with Asian ancestry, and is more prevalent in East Asia than in Western nations. Now, a new study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, provides compelling evidence that air pollution and herbal medicines could be behind genetic mutations linked to the development of lung cancer in non-smokers. 'We are seeing this problematic trend that never-smokers are increasingly getting lung cancer, but we haven't understood why,' said Ludmil Alexandrov, an author of the study from the University of California San Diego. 'Our research shows that air pollution is strongly associated with the same types of DNA mutations we typically associate with smoking.' Most lung cancer prevalence studies haven't separated data of smokers from that of non-smokers, providing limited insights into potential causes in those patients. The latest study collected data from never-smokers worldwide and used genomics to find environmental factors likely behind these cancers. 'This is an urgent and growing global problem that we are working to understand regarding never-smokers,' said Maria Teresa Landi, co-author of the study from the US National Cancer Institute. While previous studies have shown a potential link between air pollution and lung cancer in never-smokers, the new research goes further by revealing a genomic link. In this comprehensive study, scientists analysed lung tumours from 871 never-smokers living in 28 regions with different levels of air pollution across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Researchers used genome sequencing methods to identify distinct patterns of genetic mutations which act like molecular fingerprints of past exposures. They then compared the genomic data with pollution estimates based on satellite and ground-level measurements of fine particulate matter. This helped them estimate long-term exposure of the patients to air pollution. The study found that never-smokers living in more polluted environments had significantly more mutations in their lung tumours, particularly the kinds which directly promote cancer development. Scientists also found more molecular signatures in this group, which are linked to cancer and serve as a record of all past exposures to mutation-causing environmental factors. For instance, these individuals had a nearly 4-fold increase in a mutational signature molecule linked to tobacco smoking and a 76 per cent increase in another signature linked to ageing. 'What we see is that air pollution is associated with an increase in somatic mutations, including those that fall under known mutational signatures attributed to tobacco smoking and ageing,' said Marcos Díaz-Gay, co-author of the study. Scientists found that the more pollution someone was exposed to, the more mutations were found in their lung tumours, as well as greater signs of their cells undergoing accelerated ageing. Another environmental risk unravelled by the study was aristolochic acid, a known cancer-causing chemical found in some traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic herbal medicines. This chemical, extracted from plants of the birthwort family, was found linked to a signature mutation in lung tumours of never-smokers from Taiwan. Although ingestion of this plant chemical has been linked previously to bladder, gut, kidney, and liver cancers, the latest study is the first to report evidence that it may contribute to lung cancer. 'This raises new concerns about how traditional remedies might unintentionally raise cancer risk,' Dr Landi said. 'It also presents a public health opportunity for cancer prevention, particularly in Asia.' The study also found an intriguing new mutation signature which appears in the lung tumours of most never-smokers but is absent in smokers. 'We don't yet know what's driving it,' Dr Alexandrov said. 'This is something entirely different, and it opens up a whole new area of investigation.'
