Public Health

The presence of antibiotics in surface waters poses risks to aquatic ecosystems and human health due to their toxicity and influence on antimicrobial resistance. After human consumption and partial metabolism, antibiotic residues are excreted and undergo complex accumulation and decay processes along their pathway from wastewater to natural river systems. Here, we use a global contaminant fate model to estimate that of the annual human consumption of the 40 most used antibiotics (29,200 tonnes), 8,500 tonnes (29%) are released into the river system and 3,300 tonnes (11%) reach the world's oceans or inland sinks. Even when only domestic sources are considered (i.e. not including veterinary or industrial sources), we estimate that 6 million km of rivers worldwide are subject to total antibiotic concentrations in excess of thresholds that are protective of ecosystems and resistance promotion during low streamflow conditions, with the dominant contributors being amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, and cefixime. Therefore, it is of concern that human consumption alone represents a significant risk for rivers across all continents, with the largest extents found in Southeast Asia. Global antibiotic consumption has grown rapidly over the last 15 years and continues to increase, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, requiring new strategies to safeguard water quality and protect human and ecosystem health.

Question Is a multicomponent vaccine against seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 (mRNA-1083) immunogenic and well-tolerated in adults 50 years and older?

**Findings ** In this phase 3 study, mRNA-1083 elicited noninferior immune responses against standard care immunization: licensed standard-dose or high-dose seasonal influenza vaccine (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, B/Victoria, B/Yamagata) coadministered with licensed SARS-CoV-2 (Omicron XBB.1.5) vaccine. The multicomponent vaccine mRNA-1083 had an acceptable tolerability and safety profile.

Meaning mRNA-1083 was demonstrated to be at least as immunogenic as recommended standard care vaccines against both seasonal influenza and COVID-19 and well-tolerated in adults 50 years and older.

It's hard to believe opioid deaths are dropping when you're walking on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where B.C.'s drug crisis is most visible.

Open drug use is still common and on a dry day, you can count on seeing dozens of people unconscious on the sidewalk.

But the numbers don't lie: overdose deaths in 2024 decreased 12 per cent in B.C. and across the country compared to the previous 12 months, according to January data from the province and March data from Health Canada.

The downward trend is even more pronounced in the U.S., where drops in fatalities of up to 45 per cent have been seen in states like North Carolina, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which aggregates state numbers.

However, any progress could be undermined if either country sees a dramatic shift in drug supply or harm reduction measures, warns Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the University of North Carolina's Opioid Data Lab, which has been closely monitoring the shift in the U.S.

Dasgupta's team in North Carolina is still trying to nail down the reasons behind the significant decrease in overdose deaths, which have been seen in all U.S. states except Nevada and Alaska.

He has three main theories, which at first appeared like total anomalies.

The first is an apparent shift toward a more varied drug supply that's less based on fentanyl and includes lots of ingredients, like other synthetic opioids or amphetamines. Simply put, the drug supply may be getting saturated with substances that are less dangerous than large amounts of fentanyl.

"People are telling us in our field studies that the dope isn't the same as it used to be," Dasgupta said.

Then there's the drug users themselves. People who regularly crunch the numbers on overdose deaths know there's a certain cohort of people that commonly makes up a majority of fatalities. In Canada in 2024, 73 per cent of overdoses deaths happened to men aged 30 to 39, according to Health Canada.

In the U.S., about 70 per cent of overdose deaths hit men in their late-40s to mid-50s. Dasgupta suspects parts of that cohort may have stopped using drugs or could be dying of other causes.

The last hypothesis for the decline is more hopeful.

Interventions could be having a real impact. Treatment options, including lifesaving opioid reversal drugs like naxolone, which people regularly carry with them, or programs to reduce the stigma of drug use or educate young people on the dangers, might be making a dent.

It adds up, says Sarah Blyth, who says the Overdose Prevention Society saves people every day in different ways.

Still, she remains sceptical of a permanent improvement in the long-running drug crisis, as she personally knows people who have recently died from the supply. Optimism in this rolling crisis is easily broken and people are desperate to see things improve.

"No one wants to see anymore people dying," Blyth said. "I want to see people living the best life that they can."

Downward trend in deaths appears stalled due to lack of urgency among doctors, patients, along with healthcare barriers

Titanium dioxide is the most widely used whitening pigment in the world and has been linked to adverse health effects, particularly genotoxicity and intestinal inflammation. It is applied as food coloring and a whitening agent to a wide variety of foods, including chewing gum, cakes, candies, breads and ice cream.

Because of health risks, France banned titanium dioxide as a food additive in 2020. Two years later the European Union also banned titanium dioxide as a food additive.

But in the U.S., titanium dioxide is found all over the grocery shelves. Candy like Skittles, Starbursts, and Jell-O, gum like Trident White peppermint gum and Mentos Freshmint Gum, cake products like Duncan Hines Creamy Vanilla Frosting, and Nabisco Chips Ahoy! cookies are just a few of the myriad food items that contain the additive.

A significant body of research, mostly from rodent models and in vitro studies, has linked titanium dioxide with health risks related to the gut, including intestinal inflammation, alterations to the gut microbiota, and more. It is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Group 2B, as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

As a food additive, titanium dioxide and its nanoparticles in particular have been associated with DNA damage and cell mutations, which in turn, have potential to cause cancer. When used as a food coloring, it is known as E171.

With the rise of nanotechnology, research in recent years has also shown the dangers of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, and their genotoxicity, which refers to a chemical agent’s ability to harm or damage DNA in cells, thus potentially causing cancer.

Headline was from the CBC newsletter

They cited this link: https://www.cihi.ca/en/child-and-youth-mental-health/who-is-the-most-affected-by-mental-health-disorders

The rate of children and youth (aged five to 24) in Canada visiting emergency departments declined 31 per cent over the past five years according to a new report.

Hospitalizations for mental health disorders among children and youth also declined over the past five years, with a 23 per cent lower rate of hospitalizations between 2023-24 compared with 2018-19, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reported this week.

Over that same period, a larger proportion of young people in several provinces went to their physician about their mental health, and more were prescribed medications for mood and anxiety, said Cheryl Chui, director of health system analytics at CIHI.

The findings suggest that mental health has not necessarily improved in this group. Instead, there's been a shift in the places patients go to for mental health care, Chui said.

Abstract

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and macular degeneration represent major sources of human suffering, yet factors influencing disease severity remain poorly understood. Sex has been implicated as one modifying factor. Here, we show that female sex is a risk factor for worsened outcomes in a model of retinal degeneration and that this susceptibility is caused by the presence of female-specific sex hormones. The adverse effect of female sex hormones was specific to diseased retinal neurons, and depletion of these hormones ameliorated this phenotypic effect, while reintroduction worsened rates of disease in females. Transcriptional analysis of retinas showed significant differences between genes involved in pyroptosis, inflammatory responses, and endoplasmic reticulum stress–induced apoptosis between males and females with retinal degeneration. These findings provide crucial insights into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and how sex hormones can affect disease severity. These findings have far-reaching implications for clinical trial design and the use of hormonal therapy in females with certain neurodegenerative disorders.