The “baby bust” that hit the United States during the first year of the COVID pandemic did not affect all states equally — with states that were more racially diverse or more “blue” seeing bigger drops in their birth rates. That’s among the findings of a new study that probed a now well-documented phenomenon: The pandemic triggered a drop-off in the U.S. birth rate, as it did in many other countries. That was the national picture at least. But the United States is geographically huge and diverse in many ways, said Linda Kahn, the senior researcher on the study and an assistant professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in New York City. And as the new study demonstrates, the pandemic’s effects on birth rates differed from state to state. On the national level, Kahn’s team found what others have: Nine months into the pandemic, the U.S. birth rate was down compared to the year before — with 18 fewer births per month for every 100,000 women of childbearing age. But by the pandemic’s “second wave,” in 2021, the national birth rate had gotten back on track: That is, it returned to the declining trajectory it had been on in 2019. A deeper look, though, showed that states varied widely in how the early pandemic affected births. New York state, for example, saw a huge…  read on >  read on >

Over the past few years the escalating opioid crisis has touched off a complex debate about how best to reign in suicide risk among patients who are prescribed the addictive painkillers. The question: Could rapidly cutting back on legal opioid prescriptions help, or might patients’ desperation over lack of access inadvertently drive up suicide risk? Now new research suggests that opioid prescription rates and suicide risk appear to go hand-in-hand. As prescription rates fall, so does suicide risk. “People who are prescribed opioids, especially at higher doses, are at increased suicide risk,” said lead author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of psychiatry, medicine and law at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. Roughly 4 in 10 overdose suicide deaths across the U.S. involve opioids, Olfson pointed out. And suicide risk is twice as high among patients prescribed high-dose opioids as among those who receive low-dose options. But the role of legal prescribing patterns has been a matter of controversy and competing considerations, he said. “On one hand, increasing opioid prescriptions might increase suicide risks by expanding access to medications that are potentially fatal when mixed with other drugs — such as benzodiazepines — or when taken in excess.” Olfson said, adding that opioids also increase depression risk in some people. “On the other hand, lowering the dose of opioids too quickly or…  read on >  read on >

Adding menthol flavoring to electronic cigarettes may damage your lungs more than regular e-cigarettes do, a new study reveals. The common mint flavoring helps deliver lots more toxic microparticles, compared with e-cigarette pods that don’t contain menthol. It’s those microparticles that damage lung function, researchers say. “Beware of additives in the e-cigarettes,” said senior researcher Kambez Benam, an associate professor in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. “If you vape, they can make you inhale more particles into your lungs. Don‘t assume that since menthol is a substance naturally found in mint plants and added to some food and beverages, it would be fine to inhale,” he said. “Menthol flavoring leads to a significantly higher number of particle counts that one would take into their lungs by vaping them,” he said. “E-cigarette aerosols are known to contain many harmful substances, such as nicotine and formaldehyde.” A number of studies have suggested that e-cigarette vapor can cause lung inflammation, oxidative stress, DNA damage and airway hyper-responsiveness that can trigger asthma, Benam said. Vaping these substances can cause lung damage that impairs lung function. Menthol, he added, is such a toxic substance. To look at the potential danger of menthol, Benam’s team developed a “vaping robot” that mimics the temperature, humidity, puff volume and duration of…  read on >  read on >

Jouncing along to school in a fume-spewing, rattletrap yellow bus is practically a rite of passage for most American students. But outdated buses actually wind up costing kids many days of education, thanks to the clouds of diesel exhaust left in their wake, a new study argues. School districts that upgrade to a “greener” bus fleet have higher attendance rates than those with older, dirtier-running buses, researchers report. Replacing all school buses built prior to 2000 could add more than 1.3 million additional student days of attendance each year in the United States, the study estimated. About 25 million children ride the bus to school every day, the researchers said. Older buses cough out higher levels of diesel exhaust, which can trigger asthma attacks in kids, said lead researcher Meredith Pedde, a research fellow in epidemiology with the University of Michigan. “Air pollution can even affect those without asthma,” Pedde added. “It has been linked to upper respiratory infections, pneumonia and other types of respiratory illness, so it might be impacting a larger student body than just asthmatic students.” To see whether cleaner buses cut down on student absences, Pedde and her colleagues examined data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s School Bus Rebate Program. The EPA program doled out more than $7 million annually to replace or retrofit old polluting buses between 2012 and…  read on >  read on >