SAN JACINTO RIVER, Texas — Over the past 30 years, federal and state agencies in Texas have allowed hundreds of oil and chemical barges to amass in a once-tranquil section of the San Jacinto River, just east of Houston. Only about 100 barges were on the six-mile stretch of water in 1990, according to a Public Health Watch analysis of archival satellite imagery. Today, at least 600 crowd the…
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The sight of a cloud-covered sky signaling the threat of chilling rain has become a nightmare for thousands of displaced families in Gaza — particularly those who have set up their tents along the beach, as the sea level rises due to heavy rainfall. Families have been desperately trying to protect themselves from drowning by building sand barriers around their tents using shovels…
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The Department of Health and Human Services has cut millions in dollars in grants from a leading children’s health association after the group criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s unscientific policies. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was informed this week that the Trump administration was terminating seven grants awarded by federal agencies, The Washington Post first…
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When pregnant women drink water that comes from wells downstream of sites contaminated with PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” the risks to their babies’ health substantially increase, a new study found. These risks include the chance of low birth weight, preterm birth and infant mortality. Even more troubling, our team of economic researchers and hydrologists found that PFAS exposure…
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Recent weeks have brought good news about vaccines, with studies indicating that flu vaccination reduces heart disease, shingles vaccines can prevent or slow dementia, and a single human papillomavirus shot protects a girl from cervical cancer for the rest of her life. But in the upside-down world of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccines are on the ropes.
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BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. — Near the back corner of the local library’s parking lot, largely out of view from the main road, the South Carolina Department of Public Health opened a pop-up clinic in early November, offering free measles vaccines to adults and children. Spartanburg County, in South Carolina’s Upstate region, has been fighting a measles outbreak since early October…
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