Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are living in an environment that contains higher levels of potentially harmful chemicals than seen in American homes, new research reveals. The discovery is important because it could guide the design of future spacecraft. “Our findings have implications for future space stations and habitats, where it may be possible to exclude many contaminant sources by careful material choices in the early stages of design and construction,” said study co-author Stuart Harrad, from the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. “While concentrations of organic contaminants discovered in dust from the ISS often exceeded median values found in homes and other indoor environments across the U.S. and western Europe, levels of these compounds were generally within the range found on Earth,” he explained in a university news release. Among the contaminants found in this “space dust” were polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), “novel” brominated flame retardants (BFRs), organophosphate esters (OPEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). BFRs and OPEs are used in many countries to meet fire safety regulations in consumer and commercial applications, such as electrical and electronic equipment, building insulation, furniture fabrics and foams, according to the study. PAH can be found in hydrocarbon fuels and emitted from combustion processes. PCBs were used in building and window sealants and in electrical…  read on >  read on >

Underage drinking is an issue in many U.S. communities, but the number of law enforcement agencies using alcohol-related enforcement strategies has remained low or dropped in the past decade. In a new study, researchers tracked law enforcement strategies for underage drinking, impaired driving and sales to obviously intoxicated persons between 2010 and 2019. The research updated an earlier study on the topic. Among the findings were that, back in 2010, nearly 42% of agencies used compliance checks, in which law enforcement supervise undercover youth who attempt to purchase alcohol. But by 2019, only 36.4% of agencies used this strategy. Enforcement of laws prohibiting adults from providing alcohol to underage persons also dropped, from 48.5% to almost 34%. Enforcing underage possession and/or consumption of alcohol also declined, 84.7% in 2010 to 66.5% in 2019. “Use of all three types of underage drinking enforcement efforts that we examined significantly decreased from 2010 to 2019,” said lead study author Kathleen Lenk, a researcher at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “In addition, enforcement aimed at underage drinkers themselves, versus the alcohol outlets and adults who supply alcohol, were the most commonly used enforcement strategies at both time points,” she said in a university news release. “This is a common enforcement approach, but studies demonstrate it is more effective to focus on reducing access to alcohol, rather…  read on >  read on >

FRIDAY, Aug, 4, 2023Steroids are often unnecessarily prescribed to pregnant women thought to be at risk of preterm birth, a new evidence review contends. As a result, millions of babies are needlessly exposed to long-term health problems associated with steroid use in gestation, such as increased risk of infection and delayed brain development, researchers say. Steroids can’t prevent preterm birth, but they can accelerate the maturation of developing organs and give preemies a fighting chance for survival, said lead researcher Dr. Sarah McDonald, a professor of obstetrics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. However, two out of every five infants given steroids in the womb wound up being born full-term anyway, according to pooled data on 1.6 million babies from 17 previous studies. Compared to other at-term babies not given steroids, those infants had an increased risk of requiring neonatal intensive care, being put on a respirator, and developing long-term brain development and behavioral disorders, according to the review published Aug. 2 in the BMJ. “I like to say that steroids are powerful medications, and with great power comes great responsibility,” McDonald said. “We need to try to tailor the administration of these medications to pregnancies that are really at risk of preterm birth so we’re not exposing babies who go on and be born at term to these powerful medications.” In the same issue…  read on >  read on >

Workers may sense it intuitively but their mouse clicks prove it: Friday afternoon is the least productive time of the work week. It’s also when workers make the most typos. A Texas A&M University team studied this using the computer usage metrics of 789 in-office employees at a large energy company over two years. “Most studies of worker productivity use employee self-reports, supervisory evaluations or wearable technology, but these can be subjective and invasive,” said co-author Mark Benden, head of the university’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. “Instead, we used computer usage metrics — things like typing speed, typing errors and mouse activity — to get objective, noninvasive data on computer work patterns,” he said in a university news release. The researchers compared computer use across different days of the week and times of the day to see what kinds of patterns emerged. “We found that computer use increased during the week, then dropped significantly on Fridays,” said study leader Taehyun Roh, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. “People typed more words and had more mouse movement, mouse clicks and scrolls every day from Monday through Thursday, then less of this activity on Friday.” Computer use fell off every afternoon — especially on Fridays — the data revealed. “Employees were less active in the afternoons and made more typos in the afternoons —…  read on >  read on >

Ever feel like your job is pointless? A big part of the population feels just that way — that the jobs they do matter little to society. And a Swiss study that delved into what’s been dubbed the “bullshit jobs theory” found that feeling was especially likely for folks in financial, sales and management jobs. About 19% of employees found their work rarely or never gave them “a feeling of making a positive impact on community and society” and “the feeling of doing useful work,” the study found. That finding is in line with the “bullshit jobs theory” espoused by the late American anthropologist David Graeber, who maintained that some jobs are socially useless. “Employees’ assessment of whether their work is perceived as socially useless is a very complex issue that needs to be approached from different angles,” study leader Simon Walo, a sociologist at the University of Zurich, said in a university news release. “It depends on various factors that do not necessarily have anything to do with the actual usefulness of work as claimed by Graeber. For example, people may also view their work as socially useless because unfavorable working conditions make it seem pointless,” Walo explained. In addition to Graeber’s theory, other researchers have suggested that people consider their jobs useless not because of the importance of their work but because it…  read on >  read on >

When studying which personality types were more likely to resist getting vaccines, researchers got a surprise. It was the extroverts who were more vaccine resistant. Compared to other personality styles, extroverts were 18% more likely to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, the new study finds. “We expected that people who were especially high in extroversion would be more likely to get the vaccine,” said lead author Melissa Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. “We figured those people would want to get back out in the world and socialize, right? It’s actually the opposite,” she added in a university news release. The researchers hope their findings may help with future public health messaging and vaccination campaigns. “We wanted to look at vaccine hesitancy a different way,” Baker said. “Of course, politics can help explain some of it, but there are personal differences between people, too — and that led us to this personality aspect.” Joining with a researcher from the University of Toronto, the study team used surveys of more than 40,000 Canadian adults, taken between November 2020 and July 2021. Questions evaluated each participant’s personality, based on a model known as “big five.” This gauges someone’s openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. Other questions were focused on vaccination, including, “When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, will you be vaccinated?”…  read on >  read on >

The trauma and unhappy family dynamics of childhood may follow kids into old age, affecting both their mind and body, according to new research. “We looked at self-reported disability, as well as objectively measured physical and cognitive impairment, and learned that early-life stressful experiences can have ramifications all the way into older age,” said senior author Dr. Alison Huang, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine. “This can mean a higher likelihood of difficulty walking, or carrying out activities of daily living, or problems with memory when people are in their 60s, 70s, 80s or older,” she said in a university news release. Exposure to physical violence or abuse, severe illness, family financial stress or separation from parents are considered major childhood stressors. The study found that those who experienced violence in childhood were 40% more likely to have mobility impairment and 80% more likely to have difficulty with daily activities. Those who came from unhappy families were 40% more likely to have mild cognitive impairment. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 60% of adults in the United States have experienced one or more types of adverse childhood experiences. These can undermine a child’s sense of safety or stability, and are tied to later heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease and depression. California was the first state to mandate…  read on >  read on >