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Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Map shows US states with highest use of harmful pesticides
You may think you're being healthy by filling your plate with fruits and vegetables, but experts are warning the nutritious staples may actually be covered in cancer-causing chemicals. Based on the most recent data collected by the US Geological Survey in 2019, harvesters across Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Oklahoma and parts of Texas have been using the toxic herbicide 2,4-D at high amounts. Due to its ability to completely destroy vegetation, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified 2,4-D as a 'possible human carcinogen' in 2015. The classification came as a result of multiple studies suggesting that high exposure to the herbicide could damage human cells and was seen to cause cancer in animals. While direct exposure to Pesticide 2,4-D is rare for most Americans, the toxins from the herbicide can accumulate in the body through eating unwashed grains and other crops. And while the chemical may only be used on crops in select states, the crops from those states are shipped nationwide - indicating that all Americans are at a risk. David Goldsmith, an environmental epidemiologist at George Washington University in Washington, DC, said: 'The public needs to be informed and vigilant about the use of herbicides, keeping them away from children and schools.' He told Newsweek : 'I am concerned if farmers or farmworkers are not using effective safety gear and thus may be excessively exposed via inhalation or skin contact. 'I am also concerned that 2,4-D may contaminate drinking water sources. Although, I believe that there is a direct risk for people who buy produce from fields that have had 2,4-D used on them.' Talking about why the herbicide was being heavily used only in certain states, Gurumurthy Ramachandran, director of the Johns Hopkins Education and Research Center for Occupational Safety and Health noted that it was due to their particular type of produce. He said: 'The Midwest, Great Plains, and Northwestern US have the highest 2,4-D usage, largely because these regions are the primary producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other field crops that are commonly treated with 2,4-D.' No usage of the toxic pesticide was seen in states such as California - known for producing artichokes, broccoli, carrots and lettuce - and states in the New England region. Sparse use of 2,4-D was reported in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming - all known for producing onions, potatoes, carrots, lentils, sweet corn, beans, peppers and pumpkins. The data also showed low use by farmers in Florida, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, where agricultural produce is mostly focused on celery, peas, brussels sprouts, okra, radishes, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. Shockingly, data from the CDC also shows that Kentucky has the high rates of cancer in the US - particularly lung, colon and pancreatic cancers - followed closely by Iowa and Louisiana. Federal agencies across the US, including the Environmental Protection Agency, have deemed 2,4-D as safe for humans, despite research suggesting otherwise. While not completely banned across the entire European Union, 2,4-D is heavily restricted and its use is significantly curtailed in many countries in the region. In one such instance, the herbicide not been approved for use on lawns and gardens in countries like Denmark and Norway. A 2022 BMC study found that one in three Americans had higher than acceptable levels of exposure to the toxic herbicide and were at the risk of leukemia in children, birth defects and reproductive problems in adults. According to Natural Resources Defense Council, scientists have also previously found links between exposure to 2,4-D and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a form of blood cancer) and sarcoma (a soft-tissue cancer). Additionally, the agency warned that high exposure to the herbicide can negatively alter the functioning of various hormones including estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormones - paving the way for the development for cancer. Gerald LeBlanc, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, told Newsweek: 'IARC has classified 2,4-D as a Group 2B carcinogen, which means that it is possibly carcinogenic to humans. 'In my estimation, 2,4-D might cause cancer in humans, but only at unrealistically high exposure levels.' However, it is possible that the herbicide can cause internal body damage over time if consumed through foods. Toxins are often stored in fat tissues, organs such as the liver and kidneys and even within nerve cells and bone marrow when ingested. An overload of harmful toxins in the body can eventually cause fatal damage to cells, tissue and crucial organs.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Reform Should Not Be Revenge
Almost 6 months into the second Trump administration, Trey reviews his conversation with George Washington University Law Professor and Fox News Contributor Jonathan Turley on the legal parameters of the executive branch. Professor Turley also shares the judicial advice he would offer incoming presidential administrations. Original air date: February 11, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sexual Synesthesia Paints the World in Color at the Moment of Orgasm
Sometimes, when the sex is really good, the colors come. As Holly approaches orgasm, a pastel filter descends over her vision, lasting through her climax and into the afterglow. She tends to see just one or two hues in the form of blurry orbs: seafoam green, bright yellow, black and red, hot pink or white. It's like peering through tinted glasses, she says, or looking up at an aurora-splashed sky. (Because of the intimate nature of the subject matter, some of the sources interviewed for this story asked to be identified only by their given name or to remain anonymous.) 'It's been happening as long as I've been having sex, as far as I know,' says Holly, a 26-year-old from California—though it doesn't happen every time. 'It's gotten more intense and colorful as my connections have been better and my orgasms have been better.' When, at 20 years old, she first talked about her experiences with her friends, they were bemused. 'I didn't feel surprised,' she says. 'It was just kind of affirming that it was special.' [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] In people with synesthesia, the brain's sensory wiring can get crossed. Orgasm synesthesia, or sexual synesthesia, is a little-known form of the phenomenon. Roughly 4 percent of people experience some kind of synesthesia; a common form is the association of colors with certain letters, numbers or sounds. In people with sexual synesthesia, it's the sensation of orgasm (or occasionally even sensual touch) that provokes the wash of color. This experience might be more common than we realize: to seek personal accounts, I reached out to friends and my wider communities in New Zealand, asking to hear from anyone who sees colors when they orgasm—and around a dozen immediately responded with their stories. Some people describe their colors as 'like stained glass in a cathedral,' while for others, they're more like 'artisanal soaps' or 'paint being hurled at a canvas.' Francesca Radford, a 33-year-old who lives in Auckland, says she tends to see patterns, usually zebra print or reptile scales. Rob, a Web developer in Wellington, says he has had orgasms that begin with pinprick of light and grow into a chaotic mandala, accompanied by vibrations and a roaring in his ears. Cherry Chambers, a bookkeeper from Auckland, once felt she was 'shot up out of the deep ocean into a night sky—basically a whirl of colors rushing past,' she says. 'That was one of the most intense orgasms I have ever had.' This curious phenomenon has been sporadically documented for decades—the first academic mention is in a 1973 book by psychologist Seymour Fisher called The Female Orgasm—but it has received very little scientific attention, says Richard Cytowic, a pioneering synesthesia expert and a professor of neurology at George Washington University. In the 1980s Cytowic had to convince colleagues that synesthesia itself was worthy of scientific investigation. This type of sensory crossover is now widely accepted and studied, but its sexual variety is less so. 'It's the kind of thing that's going to raise eyebrows in university departments,' Cytowic says. 'Even though sex is wildly popular, science about it is not.' Now, though, neuropsychology researcher Cathy Lebeau is trying to learn more. Lebeau, whose own form of synesthesia makes her perceive letters as colored, became fascinated by accounts that suggested that sexual synesthesia could alter consciousness. For her doctoral research at the University of Quebec, she and her supervisor, neuropsychologist François Richer, interviewed 16 people with sexual synesthesia (who all also had other forms of synesthesia) and 11 people with no synesthesia, and had them complete a series of standardized questionnaires. All but one of the participants were women, but that doesn't mean the phenomenon is necessarily linked to the female brain. Scientists used to think all forms of synesthesia were more common in women, Lebeau points out, but subsequent studies have shown that's likely because of selection bias. 'Women like to talk about their experiences, and they're more comfortable doing it,' she says. While conducting the study—which was released as a preprint paper and has been not yet been peer-reviewed—Lebeau was surprised by how similar the participants' reported experiences were, regardless of age or whether they were from Quebec, the U.S. or Europe. 'People who didn't know each other ... were telling me almost the same thing,' she says. For instance, almost all of them reported that they needed to feel comfortable and confident with a sexual partner to see the colors and that the phenomenon rarely happened during masturbation or casual encounters. Many interviewees said they had to be in a relaxed, passive state—and often in the missionary position. And though the specifics of their visions differed, many mentioned dissociative experiences, particularly 'the feeling that they're expanding over the room and that they're not there anymore—that they're tripping, really,' Lebeau says. In fact, some people with sexual synesthesia say they are momentarily transported to bizarre, one-off scenes at the moment of orgasm. Once, an intricate architectural image of a staircase and lamp grew out of a beige mist before Ruby Watson's eyes. On another memorable occasion, she says, she briefly felt like she had become a panda chilling alongside another panda. She's mystified by where these images come from. 'We weren't sexy pandas,' she says. 'We were just chewing bamboo, getting on with life.' Such scenes can completely overwhelm Watson's spatial awareness and vision, and they don't necessarily enhance her connection with her husband. 'I'm not staring into my lover's eyes,' she explains. 'I'm seeing a baroque light fitting.' A previous study found that although people with sexual synesthesia reported better sexual function overall than people without synesthesia, there was some evidence that they had slightly less sexual satisfaction because of feelings of isolation caused by their unusual sensory experiences. Others insist synesthesia improves their sexual experience. Michelle Duff sees colors and occasionally scenes—a coven of witches on broomsticks, a sea alive with jellyfish—but because she feels like she's one of the witches or jellies, perhaps 'see' isn't the right word. 'It feels more immersive, like what I'm seeing is a visual embodiment of what I'm feeling. It's all-consuming, but it doesn't feel like I've gone off somewhere [without my partner],' she says. 'It feels like we're living out the scene together.' For some, it can be awkward explaining these rainbow journeyings to their sexual partners. For others, that's part of the fun. 'My partners love it,' Holly says. 'That's such a thing, somebody popping their head up and being like, 'What color?' It's one of the perks of being my lover.' Rob, the Web developer, says he once had the rare joy of making love to someone else with the condition. 'That was a very fun time where we would compare notes afterwards,' he says. 'It was so euphoric and shared and beautiful.' Almost everyone Lebeau interviewed felt positively about their synesthesia, telling her it made their sexual experiences richer. One person told her that the absence of these sexual 'fireworks' would turn her off a potential partner, even if he was otherwise perfect. 'If I don't have synesthesia when we sleep together, it's a no,' she says. Clashing or ugly colors can also be turnoffs. Another person I spoke with says she used to feel disturbed by the colors, textures, music and patterns she saw only during sex, and she worried that they were harbingers of schizophrenic hallucinations that run in her family. When she stumbled upon an article that explained how such symptoms can represent a type of synesthesia, she says she felt a 'huge relief and freedom.' There's no established connection between sexual synesthesia and mental health conditions, though synesthesia in general has been linked to higher rates of anxiety in children and is a significant risk factor for developing post-traumatic stress disorder. None of the 16 people with synesthesia in Lebeau's study had psychiatric or neurological conditions. But 13 of them did report surprisingly intense consciousness alterations in daily life—a tendency that has also been observed in some studies of people with synesthesia in general. Some reported symptoms of a type of delusion called Capgras syndrome, in which a person momentarily thinks that a friend or family member has been replaced with an imposter, or Alice in Wonderland syndrome—which involves distortions of reality, including the impression that one's body is shrinking or growing. Lebeau hopes people with sexual synesthesia might help researchers learn more about the underlying mechanisms of consciousness by providing a kind of 'healthy model' of severe consciousness alterations. Qualifying the differences in the brain between these benign perceptual disturbances and harmful hallucinations might help scientists better understand psychosis. For now, scientists don't know what's happening in the brain during sexual synesthesia experiences. 'It is hard to speculate on the anatomical or chemical basis of this type of synesthesia from the case descriptions alone,' says psychologist Jamie Ward of the University of Sussex in England. 'It is an important first step,' he says of Lebeau and Richer's research, though 'in this particular study, it is hard to know which findings are specifically attributable to this phenomenon and which are due to synesthesia more generally. It would have been good to compare two groups of synesthetes directly—with and without these experiences.' Lebeau would love to capture the brain activity of a person with sexual synesthesia at the multicolored moment of orgasm. Getting people to have connected, relaxed sex inside of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, however, presents certain practical and financial constraints. 'Still, I think it's doable,' she says. 'If I had the money, in a perfect world..., that would be my dream.' Further studies into this intriguing phenomenon would be worthwhile, Cytowic says. 'Nature reveals herself through her exceptions,' he says, 'and I think synesthetic orgasms might give us an additional clue into how synesthesia operates that we didn't have before.'
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Heather Stebbins is making music from sounds inside her home and her head
Music is made of memory — sounds heard, feelings felt, lessons learned, all funneled through the intentionality of the moment. If you need a reminder of this fundamental truth, the music of Heather Stebbins can make it feel as vivid as life. Rich in timbre and exploratory in form, her latest compositions somehow involve just three main memory layers: the synthesizers Stebbins began studying in college (she teaches students at George Washington University how to use them today); the cello she took up in childhood, then abandoned in adulthood, then retrieved in recent years; and various field recordings of her everyday life — a practice Stebbins traces back to the private plot of real estate inside Maryland's Patapsco Valley State Park where she grew up paying sharp attention to the sound of the birds and the breeze. 'My formal musical training started when I was 6. I started cello lessons,' Stebbins says, 'but prior to that, I was just so absorbed in the sound of my natural environment. … Now, I'm like a hoarder of sound, always recording stuff.'
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time Magazine
Trump's Return to Office Push is a Mistake
After the Trump Administration intensified its push for federal workers to return to the office, a new study highlights the potential downsides of this by Alessandra Fenizia and Tom Kirchmaier, researchers from the George Washington University and the London School of Economics, the study focuses on productivity impacts of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements for public sector jobs. They found that working from home boosts productivity by 12% compared to in-office work. The prevailing sentiment is that physical presence ensures better accountability and productivity. However, the study's findings suggest that these arguments might be more rooted in perception than reality. The study, which evaluated detailed administrative data from police staff alternating between home and office settings, indicates that employees working from home managed more cases per day, without any increase in errors or loss of quality. These findings held true even when researchers controlled for variables such as shift length and nature of tasks, ensuring that the results were not merely artifacts of different work schedules. Moreover, the productivity boost was amplified when tasks were assigned by supervisors rather than through automated systems, suggesting that the structure and management of remote work can play a critical role in maximizing its benefits. One of the primary reasons for increased productivity was a reduction in workplace distractions. The study found that in the office, employees were more likely to be interrupted by conversations, coffee breaks, and other non-work-related interactions. By contrast, the relative isolation of remote work allowed for sustained focus, contributing to the higher case numbers logged from home. This challenges a common narrative promoted by some legislators, who argue that employees who work from home are more likely to slack off without the direct supervision afforded by office settings. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, for example, during the Jan. 15 2025 'Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce' hearing, blamed service backlogs on officials 'coddling federal workers with a perk—telework—that allowed them to shirk their duties.' Similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana told reporters on Dec. 5 2024 that only 'about 1 %' of federal employees are 'actually working in the office,' adding that workers must 'return to their desks and get back to the work they are supposed to be doing,' a claim that Politifact rated as 'Pants on Fire.' However, Fenizia and Kirchmaier's data showed no such shirking; instead, it demonstrated that remote work can enhance efficiency without sacrificing quality. The study's findings are nuanced. The researchers found that productivity gains were greatest when supervisors were actively involved in assigning tasks based on workers' strengths, rather than relying on an automated system. This suggests that remote work, when coupled with good management practices, can unlock even greater productivity gains than those seen in a standard office environment. The benefits of telework, therefore, go beyond just flexibility—they can include better task alignment, reduced distractions, and greater efficiency. Yet, despite this evidence, the push for a return to in-office work has been gaining momentum. Lawmakers argue that local economies, such as small businesses in downtown areas, suffer when federal offices remain empty. For instance, in the words of Rep. Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, stated in an April 30 2024 subcommittee hearing on commercial real-estate risks that 'Even Mayor Bowser has told President Biden that his administration's telework policies are killing Washington, D.C.'s local businesses.' However, the study suggests that a blanket return-to-office policy may be solving the wrong problem. If telework improves efficiency, the real question should be how to make remote work sustainable and secure, not how to force a return to the pre-pandemic status quo. Ultimately, insistence on returning to the office could undermine federal efficiency and employee morale. The data paints a clear picture: remote and hybrid work, when thoughtfully implemented and managed, can be more than just a temporary fix. It's a viable long-term strategy for boosting productivity, reducing costs, and creating a more satisfied workforce. Instead of focusing on filling desks, policymakers should prioritize performance outcomes and find ways to blend the benefits of remote and in-office work.
