Author: Erin Elizabeth

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics has found that thumb sucking kids, between the ages of 5 to 11, may both increase their exposure to microbes and germs AND be less likely to have positive allergic skin tests later in life. For the study, researchers used evidence from an ongoing study of New Zealand children those whose parents described them as thumb-suckers and nail-biters. From the article: “The children were in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, in which 1,037 children born in 1972-73 in Dunedin, a coastal city in New Zealand, were assessed and tested...

Ugh. More bad news from Florida about the status of our water: the state of Florida wants to lighten its restrictions on about two dozen cancer-causing chemicals that could be discharged into rivers, lakes, streams and coastal waters. As if things aren’t already bad enough. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is currently updating human-health criteria for 43 dangerous chemical compounds it currently regulates and adopting standards, for the first time, for another 39. And of the 82 various toxic substances, a large majority would have even lower standards than are currently recommended by the EPA. And further, of the 43...