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Washington Post
23-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
The truth about using cannabis for health problems
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with any advertisers on this site. Many U.S. states have legalized cannabis, and there has been a significant increase in the number of older adults using it, says Jeffrey Quinlan, a family physician and professor of family medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City. In fact, 21 percent of people ages 50 and up have smoked, vaped or consumed cannabis (in what's usually called an edible) in the past year, according to a recent poll from the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan. And 12 percent do so at least once a month. The reasons? To relax, improve sleep, feel good, relieve pain and improve mental health or mood. But is this safe? 'There's not a lot of research,' Quinlan says. That said, we have at least some evidence that cannabis may help some people, but there are risks — for older adults in particular. Some patients tell Quinlan they use cannabis to help with pain, anxiety and sleep — similar to the medical reasons mentioned in the Michigan poll. Of these, the evidence is strongest for treating chronic pain. There's also substantial evidence that it may ease nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and may help control muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis, according to a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. And some evidence suggests that cannabis may provide some short-term help for people who have trouble sleeping due to obstructive sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and MS. But we still have much to learn about the right dosages, which vary from person to person and can change over time, as well as the efficacy of cannabis compared with other treatments, says Erin Bonar, a professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She's one of the researchers associated with the poll. Some doctors say that cannabis is a safer way to manage chronic pain than powerful, potentially addictive opioid drugs. But about 21 percent of regular users develop cannabis use disorder. This can increase the likelihood of risky behaviors like driving while high, and it can affect relationships and increase tolerance for cannabis, which causes some people to use it more and more. And higher doses can elevate heart rate and increase blood pressure, Quinlan says, which may raise heart attack and stroke risks, especially in people who already have heart disease. People who use cannabis for mental health problems like anxiety also need to be wary, Bonar says. In some cases, it might improve the condition short-term, she says. But some people then feel worse when not using it, which can escalate anxiety over time. And recent research suggests that it's associated with a greater likelihood of mental health and substance abuse problems, as well as accidents and injuries. High dosages can also cause paranoia and in rare cases can increase the risk of psychosis. Tell your doctor. According to the Michigan poll, 44 percent of monthly cannabis users said they had not discussed it with their health care providers. Your doc can tell you if medications you may be taking — such as blood thinners, statins, antihistamines, antidepressants and medications with sedative effects — interact with cannabis. Your doctor may also be able to give you guidance on how to access medical cannabis — though it won't be covered by Medicare or other insurance because it's still illegal on the federal level — and help you monitor your use to see whether it's helping. Avoid smoking and vaping. Using cannabis in these forms may cause health problems just like smoking or vaping tobacco, Quinlan says. Be wary of THC content labels. Most research indicates they're not reliable. So if you're going to use cannabis, opt for the lowest possible dosage (which may be an edible with 5 milligrams of THC or less), especially if you haven't used the substance before, Quinlan says. Plus, it's now easy to find cannabis products with a strength of 20 to 30 percent. The average potency in the 1990s was around 4 percent, Bonar says. Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Read more at
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Efforts to reduce dust from dry Owens Lake bed are helping, report finds
The dry bed of Owens Lake has long been a major source of dust in the Owens Valley, but mitigation efforts have reduced those emissions to a point that other dust sources in the surrounding desert now cause most of the poor air quality days in the area, according to a new report. Owens Lake was left desiccated after Los Angeles began tapping the eastern Sierra watershed for its own needs more than a century ago. But the amount of dust coming from the lake bed has been declining in recent years as the L.A. Department of Water and Power has taken mitigation measures such as spreading water on parts of the lake bed. 'This is a success story in process,' said Ted Russell, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and chair of the Owens Lake Scientific Advisory Panel. 'You want to be able to understand where these sources are, such that you can better control them.' The panel, which was established in 2018 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, released its report this week detailing research and data on off-lake sources of dust — also known as PM10, particulate matter that measure 10 microns or smaller, and that penetrate into the lungs and can cause health problems. Read more: A century after Owens Valley aqueduct protest, event marks tense time in L.A. water history The team said in the report that significant dust sources in areas around the lake include land where floods have left deposits of sand and debris, the Keeler Dunes, the Olancha Dunes, alluvial fans and areas where soil has been disturbed for road infrastructure. The scientists said some of these areas are naturally sources of dust, while others are emitting more of it because of diversions of water or alterations of the landscape by people. Russell said research shows that the DWP's dust control efforts have been successful in reducing PM10 emissions from the lake bed, as well as the frequency of exceedances of air quality standards. The DWP has invested about $2.5 billion in dust mitigation projects on the dry lake bed, using methods including the shallow flooding of the lake bottom, placement of gravel, tillage that roughens the soil and the planting of vegetation that serves as a windbreak. The days with air quality exceedances caused by sources other than the lake have gone up and down in recent years, without a clear trend, Russell said. 'Off-lake sources in this arid environment are significant and are driving a large number of the PM10 exceedances at this time,' Russell said. He said that means bringing the area into attainment with national air quality standards will require additional effects to control the dust sources other than the lakebed. The report was sponsored by the DWP and the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, which regulates air pollution in an area of about 32,000 people. The DWP had no immediate comment on the panel's findings. Read more: L.A.'s quest for water leaves costly bill: Higher rates for customers, choking air pollution The scientists noted that on the northeastern side of Owens Lake, the Keeler Dunes transitioned during the last century from a 'largely vegetated dune system' to one that releases more dust. They wrote that 'increased sand transport following the diversion of water from Owens Lake destabilized the Keeler Dunes.' The scientists said ongoing efforts to stabilize the Keeler Dunes have been effective in mitigating dust. The work there has included arranging bales of straw on the sand, which has enabled native shrubs to take root and begin to keep down the blowing dust. The panel said these and other efforts to establish native vegetation hold promise to control dust in other areas and further improve air quality in the Owens Valley. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- General
- New York Times
New Report Highlights Air Traffic Control Staffing Woes
A new report released on Wednesday highlighted the Federal Aviation Administration's struggles to address critical staffing shortages among air traffic controllers and called on Congress to help the agency reverse the trend. The report by a nonprofit that does research for Congress faulted some towers for inefficient practices. But it also pointed to external obstacles, including government shutdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic, that compounded the F.A.A.'s difficulty in keeping control towers staffed overall. The shortages have contributed to near-misses and other accidents that, combined with outmoded and problematic technology, have heightened concerns about the safety of air travel. 'Scanning the horizon, it's become clear that the U.S. needs to make a few important course corrections to ensure that F.A.A.'s facilities are adequately staffed, helping keep our skies safe for decades to come,' William J. Strickland, the chair of the committee that wrote the 250-page report, said in a statement accompanying its release. Mr. Strickland is the former head of the Human Resources Research Organization, which provides staffing assessments for companies and the government. The report from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a nonprofit authorized by Congress to provide advice to the federal government on matters of science and technology, was ordered by lawmakers as part of legislation authorizing the F.A.A. to embark on new key ventures. Those include accelerating the hiring of air traffic controllers and investments in advancements in aviation infrastructure and advanced technology. It was published at a moment of heightened scrutiny of aviation safety and the air traffic control system in particular, following a deadly Jan. 29 crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport. Since then, there has been a series of near-misses and outages, including multiple failures at Newark International Airport, where staffing at the facilities monitoring air traffic remains alarmingly low. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Reuters
18-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
FAA air traffic overtime costs soar as hiring lags, report says
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration's overtime costs for air traffic controllers have jumped by more than 300% since 2013 as the agency faces hiring constraints and a misallocated workforce, a report from the National Academies of Sciences released Wednesday said. The FAA air traffic control workforce in 2024 logged 2.2 million hours of overtime costing $200 million, according to the report, which added that "widespread overtime use may be partly due to inefficient scheduling of the controllers available at facilities." Annual overtime is up 308% per air traffic controller, or 126 hours per year since 2013, to 167 hours on average. The report also said the time controllers spend on position managing air traffic has declined despite a 4% increase in traffic. A 2024 report from an independent FAA panel assessing the risks of controller fatigue called for mandatory rest periods after raising "serious concerns." From 2013 to 2023, the FAA hired only two-thirds of the air traffic controllers called for by its staffing models as staffing fell by 13%, the report said, adding the agency has also been unable to implement a robust shift scheduling software package it acquired in 2012 that may be making the issue worse, the report said. Controllers in many locations must often work six-day workweeks and mandatory overtime. The FAA said it will analyze the study and its recommendations and noted it is on track to hire at least 2,000 controllers this year. The Trump administration wants at least $20 billion to modernize air traffic control, including new airport equipment to prevent near-miss incidents and new incentives to boost air traffic controller hiring and retention, which is 3,500 short of targeted staffing. By 2024, nearly a third of air traffic control facilities had fallen 10% below staffing targets and about 22% had fallen 15% below, citing hiring constraints in part from two government shutdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Academies report said the FAA should "critically evaluate its models and improve them where possible, and return to its practice of adjusting individual staffing targets as needed to reflect facility-specific factors."
Medscape
14-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Marijuana Use Is Rising, But Is It a Cancer Risk?
The trends are clear: Americans are in the midst of a marijuana high. Over the past 30 years, daily or near-daily marijuana use soared 15-fold, surpassing daily alcohol use for the first time in 2022. That same year, marijuana use reached historic levels among Americans aged 19-50 — with 11% of 19- to 30-year-olds saying they used the drug every day. A key reason for the surge is that more states are legalizing both medical and recreational marijuana use. Another driver, which is closely tied to legalization, is the changing public perceptions around marijuana: Many people just don't see much harm in the habit, or at least view a daily marijuana joint as safer than smoking cigarettes. And they're not necessarily wrong: Although it's obvious marijuana use can have consequences — including intoxication, dependence, and respiratory symptoms such as chronic bronchitis — there is little, or not enough, evidence to definitively conclude that it's a cancer risk. But that also doesn't mean marijuana is completely in the clear. 'Insufficient evidence doesn't mean the risk isn't there,' said Nigar Nargis, PhD, senior scientific director of tobacco control research, American Cancer Society (ACS). 'The Crux of the Problem' Marijuana smoke does contain many of the same carcinogens found in tobacco smoke, so it seems logical that a cannabis habit could contribute to some cancers. Yet studies have largely failed to bear that logic out. In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a comprehensive research review on cannabis smoking and cancer risk. It found modest evidence of an association with just one cancer: a subtype of testicular cancer. In the cases of lung and head and neck cancers, studies indicated no significant association between habitual cannabis use and risk for these cancers. When it came to other cannabis-cancer relationships, the evidence was mostly deemed insufficient or simply absent. However, the overarching conclusion from the NASEM review was that studies to date have been hampered by limitations, such as small sample sizes and survey-based measurements of cannabis use that lack details on frequency and duration of use. In addition, many marijuana users may also smoke cigarettes, making it difficult to untangle the effects of marijuana itself. 'That's the crux of the problem,' Nargis said. 'We have a huge knowledge gap where existing evidence doesn't allow us to draw conclusions.' That long-standing gap is becoming more concerning, she said, because legalization may now be sending a 'signal' to the public that cannabis is safe. This concern prompted Nargis and her colleagues to explore whether studies conducted since the 2017 NASEM report have lifted the marijuana-cancer risk haze at all. Their conclusion, published in February in The Lancet Public Health : not really. 'Unfortunately, the evidence base hasn't improved much,' Nargis said. However, she added, some studies have hinted at links between cannabis use and certain cancers beyond testicular. Although these studies have their own limitations, Nargis stressed, they do point to directions for future research. Head and Neck Cancers While the NASEM report cited reassuring data on head and neck cancers, a study published last year in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery reached a different conclusion. The researchers tried to overcome some limitations of prior research — including small sample sizes and relatively light and self-reported marijuana use — by analyzing records from patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder at 64 US healthcare organizations. The study involved over 116,000 patients with cannabis use disorder, matched against a control group without that diagnosis. Head and neck cancers were rare in both groups, but the overall incidence over 20 years was about three times higher among patients with cannabis use disorder (0.28% vs 0.09%). After propensity score matching — based on factors such as age and tobacco and alcohol use — patients with cannabis use disorder had a 2.5-8.5 times higher risk for head and neck cancers, especially laryngeal cancer: any type (risk ratio [RR], 3.49), laryngeal cancer (RR, 8.39), oropharyngeal cancer (RR, 4.90), salivary gland cancer (RR, 2.70), nasopharyngeal cancer (RR, 2.60), and oral cancer (RR, 2.51). But although the study was large, 'it's not particularly strong evidence,' said Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, MPH, PhD, an epidemiologist and senior research fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Meyerowitz-Katz pointed to some key limitations, including the focus on people with cannabis use disorder, who are not representative of users in general. The study also lacked information on factors that aren't captured in patient records, such as occupation — which, Meyerowitz-Katz noted, is known to be associated with both head and neck cancer risk and cannabis use. Beyond that, the risk increases were generally small, even with extensive use of the drug. 'If we assume the study results are causal,' Meyerowitz-Katz said, 'they suggest that people who use cannabis enough to get a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder get head and neck cancer at a rate of around 3 per 1000 people, compared to 1 per 1000 people who don't use cannabis.' Cannabis and Childhood Cancers As marijuana use has shot up among Americans generally, so too has prenatal use. One study found, for instance, that the rates almost doubled from about 3.4%-7% of pregnant women in the US between 2002 and 2017. Many women say they use it to manage morning sickness. Given the growing prenatal use, however, there is a need to better understand the potential risks of fetal exposure to the drug, said Kyle M. Walsh, PhD, associate professor in neurosurgery and pediatrics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. The fortunate rarity of childhood cancers makes it challenging to study whether maternal substance use is a pediatric cancer risk factor. It's also hard to define a control group, Walsh said, because parents of children with cancer often have difficulty recollecting their exposures before and during pregnancy. To get past these limitations, Walsh and his colleagues took a different approach. Instead of trying to track cannabis use and tie it to cancer risk, Walsh's team focused on families of children with cancer to see whether prenatal substance use was associated with any particular cancer subtypes. Their study, published last year in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, surveyed 3145 US families with a child diagnosed with cancer before age 18. The study, however, did not focus on just marijuana; it looked at illicit drug use during pregnancy more generally. Although the authors assumed that would mostly mean marijuana, it could include other illicit drugs, such as cocaine. Overall, 4% of mothers reported using illicit drugs during pregnancy. Prenatal use of illicit drugs was associated with an increased prevalence of two tumor types: intracranial embryonal tumors, including medulloblastoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (prevalence ratio [PR], 1.94), and retinoblastoma (PR, 3.11). 'Seeing those two subtypes emerge was quite interesting to us, because they're both derived from a cell type in the developing fetal brain,' Walsh said. That, he added, 'aligns in some ways' with research finding associations between prenatal cannabis use and increased frequencies of ADHD and autism spectrum disorders in children. Interestingly, Walsh noted, prenatal cigarette smoking — which was also examined in the study — was not associated with any cancer subtype, suggesting that smoking might not explain the observed associations between prenatal drug use and central nervous system tumors. But, he stressed, it will take much more research to establish whether prenatal marijuana use, specifically, is associated with any childhood cancers, including studies in mice to examine whether cannabis exposure in utero affects neurodevelopment in ways that could promote cancer. Testicular Cancer Testicular cancer is the one cancer that has been linked to cannabis use with some consistency. But even those findings are shaky, according to Meyerowitz-Katz. A 2019 meta-analysis in JAMA Network Open concluded that long-term marijuana use (over more than a decade) was associated with a significantly higher risk for nonseminomatous testicular germ cell tumors (odds ratio, 1.85). But the authors called the strength of the evidence — from three small case-control studies — low. All three had minimal controls for confounding, according to Meyerowitz-Katz. 'Whether this association is due to cannabis or other factors is hard to know,' he said. 'People who use cannabis regularly are, of course, very different from people who rarely or never use it.' In their 2025 Lancet Public Health review, Nargis and her colleagues pointed to a more recent study, published in 2021 in BMC Pharmacology and Toxicology, that looked at the issue in broader strokes. The study found parallels between population marijuana use and testicular cancer rates, as well as higher rates of the cancer in US states where marijuana was legal vs those where it wasn't. However, Nargis said, observational studies such as this must be interpreted with caution because they lack data on individuals. If regular cannabis use does have effects on testicular cancer risk, the mechanisms are speculative at best. Researchers have noted that the testes harbor cannabinoid receptors, and there is experimental evidence that binding those receptors may alter normal hormonal and testicular function. But the path from smoking weed to developing testicular cancer is far from mapped out. Risk for Other Cancers? The recent Lancet Public Health overview also highlights emerging evidence suggesting a relationship between cannabis use and risks for a range of other cancer types. A handful of observational studies, for instance, showed correlations between population-level cannabis use and risks for several cancers, such as breast, liver, thyroid, and prostate. The observational studies, mostly from a research team at the University of Western Australia, made headlines last year with a perspectives piece published in Addiction Biology, claiming there is 'compelling' evidence that cannabis is 'genotoxic' and raises cancer risk. But, as Meyerowitz-Katz pointed out, the paper is only a perspective, not a study. And the human data it cites are from the same limited evidence base critiqued in the NASEM and ACS reports. Meyerowitz-Katz does not discount the possibility that marijuana use contributes to some cancers. 'I wouldn't be surprised if we find that extensive cannabis use — particularly smoking — is related to cancer risk,' he said. But based on the existing evidence, he noted, the risk, if real, is 'quite small.' Where to Go From Here? What's needed, Nargis said, are large-scale cohort studies like those that showed cigarette smoking is a cancer risk factor. For the ACS, she said, the next step is to analyze decades of data from its own Cancer Prevention Studies, which included participants with a history of cannabis use and cancer diagnoses verified using state registries. Nargis also noted that nearly all studies to date have focused on marijuana smoking, and 'almost nothing' is known about the long-term health risks of newer ways to use cannabis, including vaping and edibles. 'What's concerning,' she said, 'is that the regulatory environment is not keeping up with this new product development.' With the evolving laws and attitudes around cannabis use, Nargis said, it's the responsibility of the research community to find out 'the truth' about its long-term health effects. 'People should be able to make their choices based on evidence,' she said.
