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Trees and Student Test Scores: What's the Link?

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Thursday, January 2, 2025

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Jan. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Tree-lined streets and lush public parks appear to provide city schoolkids a brain boost.Chicago students’ test scores suffered when an invasive insect wiped out half the city’s ash trees, researchers reported in the journal Global Environmental Change.“We found that test scores in areas with ash borer infestations were reduced after the onset of those infestations, relative to unaffected areas that were similar,” lead researcher Alberto Garcia, an economics professor with the University of Utah, said in a news release from the college.Prior studies have found that students in neighborhoods with greater tree cover have better test scores, researchers said in background notes.The emerald ash borer provided a chance to gather more evidence, unfortunately.The ash borer has killed millions of ash trees along the streets and yards of Midwestern cities, researchers said.The invasive pest killed off half of Chicago’s ash trees between 2010 and 2020, leaving the remaining half dying or in decline, researchers said. Ash trees account for 18% of Chicago’s street trees.For this study, researchers tracked students’ standardized test scores from grades 3 through 8, between 2003 and 2012, to see whether the loss of the trees might affect their academic performance.“We got kind of lucky that the state of Illinois was administering this standardized test in that same window when the ash borer first arrived in the area,” Garcia said. “Every school in Illinois was taking the same test, so we had consistent data across schools and through time.”Results show that 1.2% fewer students met or exceeded standardized testing benchmarks in areas hit by the ash borer -- a seemingly modest drop that carries significant implications considering that there are more than 320,000 Chicago schoolkids.“We found that schools with more low-income students were less likely to experience infestations because these neighborhoods have less tree cover,” Garcia said. “But the low-income students at wealthier schools, where infestations were more common, seemed to bear the brunt of the impacts.”The loss of tree cover could affect student performance by increasing heat on city streets, contributing to air pollution, and robbing kids of the psychological benefits of greenery, researchers speculated.“Some possible explanations are just that those students don't have the same resources to go home and recover from, for example, extreme temperatures or pollution-induced headaches the same way that higher-income students at the same schools might have,” Garcia said.Efforts to maintain and restore urban tree cover could play a vital role in boosting kids’ education, particularly in poorer neighborhoods, Garcia concluded.“It’s not just about access to environmental amenities,” Garcia said. “It’s about understanding how their absence can create inequities that ripple through critical aspects of life, like education.”SOURCE: University of Utah, news release, Dec. 17, 2024Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Jan. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Tree-lined streets and lush public parks appear to provide city...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Tree-lined streets and lush public parks appear to provide city schoolkids a brain boost.

Chicago students’ test scores suffered when an invasive insect wiped out half the city’s ash trees, researchers reported in the journal Global Environmental Change.

“We found that test scores in areas with ash borer infestations were reduced after the onset of those infestations, relative to unaffected areas that were similar,” lead researcher Alberto Garcia, an economics professor with the University of Utah, said in a news release from the college.

Prior studies have found that students in neighborhoods with greater tree cover have better test scores, researchers said in background notes.

The emerald ash borer provided a chance to gather more evidence, unfortunately.

The ash borer has killed millions of ash trees along the streets and yards of Midwestern cities, researchers said.

The invasive pest killed off half of Chicago’s ash trees between 2010 and 2020, leaving the remaining half dying or in decline, researchers said. Ash trees account for 18% of Chicago’s street trees.

For this study, researchers tracked students’ standardized test scores from grades 3 through 8, between 2003 and 2012, to see whether the loss of the trees might affect their academic performance.

“We got kind of lucky that the state of Illinois was administering this standardized test in that same window when the ash borer first arrived in the area,” Garcia said. “Every school in Illinois was taking the same test, so we had consistent data across schools and through time.”

Results show that 1.2% fewer students met or exceeded standardized testing benchmarks in areas hit by the ash borer -- a seemingly modest drop that carries significant implications considering that there are more than 320,000 Chicago schoolkids.

“We found that schools with more low-income students were less likely to experience infestations because these neighborhoods have less tree cover,” Garcia said. “But the low-income students at wealthier schools, where infestations were more common, seemed to bear the brunt of the impacts.”

The loss of tree cover could affect student performance by increasing heat on city streets, contributing to air pollution, and robbing kids of the psychological benefits of greenery, researchers speculated.

“Some possible explanations are just that those students don't have the same resources to go home and recover from, for example, extreme temperatures or pollution-induced headaches the same way that higher-income students at the same schools might have,” Garcia said.

Efforts to maintain and restore urban tree cover could play a vital role in boosting kids’ education, particularly in poorer neighborhoods, Garcia concluded.

“It’s not just about access to environmental amenities,” Garcia said. “It’s about understanding how their absence can create inequities that ripple through critical aspects of life, like education.”

SOURCE: University of Utah, news release, Dec. 17, 2024

Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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It’s Time for Parents to Step Up in the Fight for Clean Air

Fossil fuel pollution is impacting the most vulnerable among us: children. Their future—and health—are at stake.

In 1981, less than a month after evidence of global warming was first reported on its front page, the The New York Times asked B. F. Skinner about the fate of humanity. The famous psychologist had recently argued that a feature of the human mind virtually guaranteed global environmental disaster. “Why do we not act to save our world?” Skinner asked, citing myriad threats to the planet.His answer: Human behavior is governed almost entirely by our experiences—specifically, by which actions have been rewarded or punished in the past. The future, having not yet happened, will never have the same influence over what we do; we will seek familiar rewards today—money, comfort, security, pleasure, power—even when doing so threatens everyone on the planet tomorrow.Science NewsletterYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Delivered on Wednesdays.Skinner was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, yet he rarely gets credit for the prescience of this warning, which predicted the behavior of fossil fuel executives and politicians for the next four decades. I have wrestled with it often. I am a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada, the fastest-warming city in the US. I look into the eyes of babies, children, and teens every day. Skinner argued that only when the consequences of environmental destruction moved from “tomorrow” to “today” would our choices change. I believe that in 2025, the harms to children will become so clear and immediate that parents—the sleeping giant in the climate fight—will wake up to what the fossil fuel industry has done.Over the past decade, for example, my city has been darkened for ever-longer stretches by wildfire smoke from California; 65 million Americans, mostly in the West, now experience such “smoke crises.” Everyone understands that smoke causes respiratory problems; all of us cough and wheeze when the air becomes hazardous for weeks at a time. Fewer understand that children are at more risk from these events for multiple reasons, mostly related to their different physiology, small size, and immature organs—which, because they are still developing, are very vulnerable to environmental injury. Children’s lungs, for example, are literally shaped by the quality of air they breathe. Children who chronically inhale particle pollution—such as those living in the most-polluted neighborhoods of Los Angeles—tend to develop smaller, stiffer lungs.In 2025, the media will realize that harms from these tiny pollutants are even more profound. That’s because a growing body of science shows that fine and ultrafine particles, usually bound to toxic chemicals and heavy metals in wildfire smoke and exhaust, are causing brain injuries in children. Alarmingly, they appear to be contributing to the epidemic-like rise of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as increasing the odds of learning disability, behavior issues, and later dementia.Why? Because these tiny pollutants don’t stop at the lungs; they invade the bloodstream and penetrate other organs, including the brain—which, like the lungs, is still growing and developing in a child, and thus more susceptible to harm.The evidence of particles’ neurologic impacts comes from brain imaging, histology, and epidemiology. We know that even before birth, particles inhaled by pregnant women can cross the placenta and injure the fetus; MRI studies in several countries have shown altered brain architecture in prenatally exposed children, many of whom struggled with cognition and behavior. After birth, particles can also penetrate the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain behind the forehead—after being inhaled through the nose. When scientists studied the brains of children and young adults in Mexico City, notorious for its bad air, they found fossil fuel particles, encased in Alzheimer’s-like plaques, embedded in the prefrontal cortex.Evidence of a link to autism and ADHD has emerged in more than a decade of epidemiological studies from around the world. In a multiyear study of almost 300,000 children from Southern California, for example, prenatal exposure to PM2.5 (the smallest particle regulated by law) was found to significantly increase autism rates. And a recent study of over 164,000 children in China found that long-term exposure to fine particles boosted the odds of ADHD. Though autism and ADHD are complex disorders with multiple causes both genetic and environmental, it is increasingly clear that air pollution—caused by fossil fuels and worsening due to climate change—is a significant risk factor.

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Wildfire Smoke Is Even More Dangerous Than Anyone Knew

Smoke exposure, researchers have found, raises the risk of dementia, poor mental health, fertility problems, and neurodegenerative diseases.

This story originally appeared on High Country News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.The more researchers learn about wildfire smoke, the more worrisome the picture gets. Smoke contains microscopic particles known as PM 2.5 because the PM (particulate matter) measures 2.5 microns or less—small enough to easily wiggle its way into our lungs and then into our bloodstreams. Researchers have already connected the particulate matter in wildfire smoke to a higher risk of strokes, heart disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer, and other serious conditions.Science NewsletterYour weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, new scientific discoveries, and more. Delivered on Wednesdays.And the harmful effects don’t stop there. 2024 was a banner year for research on wildfire smoke and its impact on health, from brain functioning to fertility. While there’s still a lot more to learn, wildfire smoke is thought to be especially insidious compared to other sources of air pollution; its smaller particle size, intermittent spikes, and higher concentration of inflammatory compounds make it more dangerous.This year’s new findings are disturbing. But the more we learn about smoke, the better we can protect ourselves from it, whether we live hundreds of miles away from a fire or confront it directly the way wildland firefighters do. Research underscores the need for some changes, including better indoor air filtration systems in our homes, hospitals, schools, and nursing homes, and clean air centers for people with nowhere else to breathe healthy air. Meanwhile, respirators for wildland firefighters are currently being tested by the federal government. We also need to reduce smoke pollution at the source by taking measures to reduce wildfire risk and intensity, like prescribed burns.Here are some of the biggest advancements in scientists’ understanding of wildfire smoke in 2024:New Estimates Predict 125 Million Americans Will Face Unhealthy Air from Wildfires by 2054Wildfire smoke has erased improvements in air quality in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue. Millions more people will be exposed to unhealthy air in the coming years, according to models released by the First Street Foundation in February. It’s estimated that by 2054, over 125 million Americans each year will be exposed to “red” air quality, considered an unhealthy level by the Environmental Protection Agency—a 50 percent increase from 2024. California’s Central Valley will see the worst of it, with Fresno and Tulare County likely facing three months a year of unhealthy air, according to the study.Smoke Can Hamper Fertility TreatmentsThe fires that started over Labor Day weekend in 2020 blanketed Oregon with some of the worst air quality in the world at the time. Those 10 or so days of smoky air affected everyone, especially patients undergoing in vitro fertilization treatments, or IVF. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University studied 69 patients who received ovarian stimulation and IVF treatment in the six weeks following the wildfires. Their study, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility in May, found that patients exposed to wildfire smoke produced fewer blastocysts—clusters of cells that can develop into embryos—than those who weren’t exposed. Most of the patients still got pregnant, but the study’s lead author said she is worried about how smoke may affect fertility treatments. She told the Idaho Capital Sun that, as an extra precaution, fertility providers may want to delay IVF or embryo transfer for higher-risk patients during times of poor air quality.Eva Sunderlin and her granddaughter Aurora Sunderlin, of Scottsdale, Arizona, observe the Bridal Falls in Yosemite National Park in Yosemite, California, as smoke from the Washburn Fire covers the valley on July 11, 2022. Photograph: Getty ImagesWildfire Smoke Is Prematurely Killing PeopleThousands more have died due to wildfire smoke than previously realized, according to a study from the University of California, Los Angeles. New research published in the journal Science Advances in June found that the fine particulate matter in smoke resulted in from 52,500 to 55,700 premature deaths from 2008 to 2018 in California. According to its authors, this is the first long-term study to assess deaths caused by years of increasing exposure to wildfire smoke in a state that, like other Western states, is seeing more frequent and more severe wildfires.Smoke Exposure Is Bad for Adolescent Mental HealthResearchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that wildfire smoke increases the risk of mental health challenges in adolescents. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in September, analyzed data from 10,000 preteens who participated in the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States, according to the university. Each additional day that the children were exposed to “unsafe” air quality readings in 2016 boosted the likelihood that they would experience symptoms of depression and anxiety—even up to one year later.Years of Firefighting Could Lead to Neurodegenerative DiseasesLab rats aren’t people, of course. But in a controlled setting, they can offer useful insight into human health consequences. Researchers who exposed mice to an amount of smoke equivalent to what a wildland firefighter would breathe over a 15- to 30-year career found that they were more likely to develop brain disease than mice that weren’t exposed. The profiles of the animals’ genes fit a pattern that suggests long-term damage akin to the effects of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. While researchers can’t prove that smoke is the direct cause of the heightened disease risk, lead author Adam Schuller told Boise State Public Radio that wildland firefighters need to be aware of the impact a long career in firefighting can have on the human brain.Wildfire Smoke Is Linked to DementiaBreathing in the particulate matter in air pollution has already been linked to an increased risk of dementia. Now, researchers say, wildfire smoke may pose an even greater risk than other pollution sources. Analysis of more than 1.2 million people in Southern California found that exposure to wildfire smoke over a long period—three years, in this study—was associated with a higher risk of a dementia diagnosis. According to the study, published in the journal JAMA Neurology, the odds of a dementia diagnosis rose by 18 percent for every microgram per cubic meter increase in wildfire pollution over three years, a relatively small amount. For comparison, the average PM 2.5 exposure for a census tract near the 2018 Camp Fire in California was 1.2 micrograms per cubic meter between 2006 and 2020, spiking to an exposure of 310 micrograms per cubic meter during the actual fire.

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Maxine Dexter, to be sworn in as member of Congress today, aims to improve air quality, access to health care

A progressive who backs easing access to abortions, enacting gun control and moving toward a single-payer health care system, Dexter said she will not prejudge any of her congressional colleagues.

Maxine Dexter could have spent the last few weeks of the year relaxing with loved ones while preparing to represent the congressional district that spans Portland, Hood River and Mount Hood.Instead, after sealing her victory in Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District in November, she continued to do what she’s done for nearly two decades: pull 10-hour shifts for six days straight in intensive care and tended to patients with lung disease.Dexter, a former state representative, has been a critical care doctor and pulmonologist at Kaiser Permanente for nearly two decades. She chose to work pretty much to the end of the year to support her patients and colleagues.“Health care systems aren’t doing very well right now, so they’re not necessarily able to replace me,” Dexter told the Capital Chronicle. “And I felt like I needed to get my team or my partners through the holidays.”Dexter, who just turned 52, will be sworn into Congress on Friday along with other newly elected members, including Janelle Bynum, who won Oregon’s 5th Congressional District seat. Both women, Democrats who have served in the majority in Oregon’s House, enter the partisan fray in Washington D.C. in the minority, with Republicans in control of the House, Senate and White House.Republicans also controlled the House over the past two years, a time that’s been marked by political brawls but scant action. Though they continue to hold the power in the House, they hold a majority of only five seats, and that could mean more chaos, analysts say.Dexter, a progressive who backs easing access to abortions, enacting gun control and moving toward a single-payer health care system, said she will not prejudge any of her congressional colleagues. She said she will work with anyone with whom she can find common ground on an issue. But when pressed about the agenda of the incoming Trump administration and his pledge to deport illegal immigrants and expand fossil fuel drilling, she acknowledged a potentially tough road ahead for a progressive like herself.“I’m deeply concerned,” she said. “We are not headed in the right direction.”Her two children, both in college, agree, and they don’t have much faith in government, she said. That’s one reason she decided to run.In preparing for her new life, she leased an apartment within walking distance to the Capitol, attended orientation sessions with other freshmen and combed through policies and procedures. She also reached out to other physicians in Congress, including Minnesota’s Rep. Kelly Morrison, a obstetrician, and consulted the other Democratic representatives in Oregon: Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Val Hoyle, Andrea Salinas and retiring Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who’s 76 and represented Oregon’s 3rd District for nearly three decades.He and his staff worked closely with Dexter to ease her transition.“She’s a very quick study,” Blumenauer told the Capital Chronicle. “I don’t know that I’ve seen a new member of Congress get engaged as quickly and as thoroughly as Maxine. I could not be more impressed.”Maxine Dexter, center in blue hat, poses with wet, cold supporters in the early days of her first campaign for the Oregon House in 2020.Modest backgroundDexter was not destined for Congress. She grew up with a brother in a working class family in Bothell, Washington, about 20 miles northeast of Seattle. Her father sold car parts, barely making enough to get by. Their home life was tumultuous and her parents got divorced.She had no role models to pursue medicine or politics. Her home had no books, and no one in her family had earned a college degree. But Dexter’s family life prepared her for becoming a physician. She learned about mental illness from her mother, who struggled with profound issues, Dexter said, and she learned to care for patients from her grandmother, who had diabetes and suffered a series of amputations. Dexter embraced the role of being a nurse and tending to her grandmother’s wound care.At school, she impressed her teachers and was assigned to classes for gifted students. One of her favorite teachers introduced her to the idea of college and asked what she’d like to be.She decided she wanted to care for people, as she cared for her grandmother, and become a doctor.At 16, she got a job at Albertsons, first working in the bakery, then as a checker and finally as a manager. She also joined the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents grocery store workers.Her earnings helped pay for her college education in Seattle at the University of Washington. Though a pre-med student, she studied journalism and political science as an undergrad because she knew that in med school, she’d have little time for liberal arts. She worked as a sportswriter at the school newspaper and even freelanced some stories for the Seattle Times. She also read the New York Times voraciously, helped by the fact that she could buy it for $1 a week as a student.Her college years, as for many, were a time of discovery.“It was like the whole world was open to me at the University of Washington,” Dexter said. “There were so many really interesting things to study.”She was interested in the political system, constitutional law and health policy and did a Ford Foundation internship on the subject that laid a foundation for her future path.“I knew I was going to work on health policy someday,” Dexter said.Dexter also found love at university.She and her husband both earned their medical degrees from the University of Washington. He became a primary care physician and now works at Kaiser Permanente in Portland. She pursued a postgraduate fellowship in pulmonary and critical care at the University of Colorado in Denver because she enjoys responding to an emergency.“I have always been someone who likes thinking on their feet and being the person who helps in a crisis,” Dexter said.As a physician, she’s seen people at their worst, and she’s cared for many patients who’ve struggled in their lives. Some have had to decide between buying their medications or paying for child care.“At the end of the day, we have got to create a society where people can live dignified, stable lives when they’re working full time,” Dexter said.State Rep. Maxine Dexter won the May 2024 Democratic primary for Oregon's 3rd Congressional District, making her a shoo-in in the fall election.Maxine Dexter campaignTwo initiativesAfter caring for patients for more than a decade, Dexter ran in 2020 for a northwest Portland seat in the Oregon House that had been held nearly two decades by then-retiring Democratic Rep. Mitch Greenlick, a former Kaiser Permanente research director and professor at Oregon Health & Science University. Dexter won the primary and was sworn into office that June after Greenlick died in office.Dexter served nearly two terms in the state House and supported a range of Democratic issues, from safe gun storage and a ban on undetectable ghost guns to reform in the pharmaceutical industry and an expansion of Medicaid benefits to all low-income immigrants.She also worked on bipartisan packages, including a $100 million drought and water security package in 2023 and a right to repair law which took effect Wednesday and is expected to make it easier and cheaper for consumers to fix their devices.But she’s most proud of two initiatives. One stems from a patient in 2022. A young woman who took what she thought was a pain pill overdosed on what turned out to be fentanyl. Dexter said on her website that she worked all night trying to save the woman’s life.“I was the one who had to give their mother, friends and extended family the heart-breaking news,” she said. “I realized this was a tragedy that could happen to anyone’s children, even my own. I had to take action.”The following year she championed the passage of a package aimed at saving people from overdoses by making the opioid reversal drug, naloxone, more available in restaurants, stores, police departments and schools and other public buildings.The other accomplishment she cites was also in 2023, when Dexter chaired the housing committee. Dexter played a central role in putting together a $200 million housing and homelessness package pushed by Gov. Tina Kotek that included rent assistance and money for shelter beds and to get 1,200 homeless people into housing.A fellow Democrat, state Sen. Kate Lieber, remembered being impressed watching Dexter tackle a new issue, delve into the complexities and shepherd it through.“She did a really great job, especially digging into something that she did not have any familiarity with,” Lieber said.Dexter also helped pass last year’s $376 million housing package with money for shelters, renters and housing.In Congress, she said she’ll support many of the same issues, but she hopes to move the needle on lowering emissions and expanding use of clean energy to improve air quality, something that affects people with lung disease in particular, and she wants to improve the country’s health care system by working toward an affordable, single-payer system that includes comprehensive behavioral health, vision, dental and prescription drug coverage.Maxine Dexter takes part in a TV interview at the Democratic Party of Oregon election night party in Portland on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Dexter, a longtime doctor at Kaiser Permanente and former Democratic state lawmaker, replaced Earl Blumenauer as the U.S. representative for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District.Sean Meagher/The OregonianAs a physician, she’s experienced the impact of the high-cost U.S. system on patients, who have motivated her as a lawmaker. She said being a physician also has helped train her to work with other politicians.“(As physicians), we take care of people. We don’t take care of Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “We care for them no matter who they are.”In the Legislature, she said she developed close working relationships with Rep. Jeff Helfrich, a Hood River Republican who was on the housing committee, and former Rep. Daniel Bonham, who now represents The Dalles in the Senate. Both are in the 3rd District and supported her candidacy — as did others.“There’s a really long list of Republican colleagues who really encouraged me to run because I have developed trust with my colleagues,” she said. “We don’t talk about abortion. We don’t talk about guns. Like there are certain things that you’re just never going to agree on.”Dexter doesn’t always agree with fellow Democrats, either. Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Beaverton, said she sometimes disagreed with Dexter and the two talked it out.“She’s not afraid to have the hard conversations,” Grayber said. “I think that’s one of the most special things about Maxine.”Dexter said being a physician gives lawmakers a “superpower” because they have stories of patients to tell about a range of social issues, bringing a face and humanity to the issue.Eventually, she’d like to tell those stories on the powerful Energy and Commerce committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, the environment and energy issues. But for her first term, she’s asked for Veterans Affairs and Natural Resources. The former is relatively bipartisan, she said, and includes oversight of veterans health care, while the latter, though partisan, has jurisdiction over federal lands, tribal affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.She said it’s relevant to the environmental goals she hopes to achieve over time, and time could be on her side. Blumenauer served the Democratic district for 14 terms and likely would have won reelection if he had run again.Blumenauer is optimistic about Dexter’s future — and so are Democrats in the state Legislature.“I think she’s perfect for Congress,” Lieber said. “She’s sort of dogged in her pursuit of the issues, which, I think especially for Congress, you need somebody who is just going to be just really pointed in one direction and continues to walk down the path even with obstacles. I would say Maxine is really good at that.”-- Lynne Terry, Oregon Capital ChronicleOregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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Belgium becomes first EU country to ban sale of disposable vapes

Products banned on health and environmental grounds, while Milan outlaws outdoor smoking Belgium has become the EU first country to ban the sale of disposable vapes in an effort to stop young people from becoming addicted to nicotine and to protect the environment.The sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds from 1 January. A ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force on the same day, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco. Continue reading...

Belgium has become the first country in the EU to ban the sale of disposable vapes, in an effort to stop young people from becoming addicted to nicotine and to protect the environment.From 1 January, the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds. On the same day, a ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco.Announcing the ban last year, Belgium’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, described electronic cigarettes as an “extremely harmful” product that damages society and the environment.“Disposable e-cigarettes is a new product simply designed to attract new consumers,” he told the Associated Press. “E-cigarettes often contain nicotine. Nicotine makes you addicted to nicotine. Nicotine is bad for your health.”The minister also cited the “hazardous waste chemicals” present in the cheap and widely available disposable vapes.Last year, Australia restricted the sale of all vapes to pharmacies as part of a series of anti-smoking measures described as world-leading. In the UK it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes from June 2025 in a move designed to combat their widespread use by children and prevent environmental damage.Vandenbroucke said Belgium was “playing a pioneering role in Europe to weaken the tobacco lobby” and called for an update of EU law.Belgium is seeking to reduce the number of new smokers to zero or near zero by 2040 and is taking other steps to “discourage and denormalise” smoking.Smoking in Belguim is now banned in playgrounds, sports fields, zoos and theme parks. From 1 April, tobacco products cannot be sold in supermarkets larger than 400 sq metres, or displayed at points of sale.An official Belgian Health Interview survey in 2018 found that 15.3% of the population aged 15 and over smoked every day, down from 25.5% in 1997. The 2023 survey, due to be released in September, is expected to show a further decline in smoking, but the government said further action was needed to meet its tobacco-reduction targets.Meanwhile, a ban on outdoor smoking in Milan, the northern Italian business and fashion hub long known for its smog, came into force on Wednesday.Smokers who light up on the city’s streets and in crowded public spaces will face fines of between €40 and €240. The ban is an extension of a measure imposed in 2021 which prohibited smoking in parks and playgrounds, as well as at bus stops and sports facilities.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to This is EuropeThe most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environmentPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionThe city’s officials said the ban was aimed at improving air quality and protecting health, especially against the effects of passive smoking. The ban, however, does not apply to e-cigarettes.Milan is located in the Po Valley, a huge geographical area straddling the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. A Guardian investigation in 2023 found more than a third of the people living in the valley and surrounding areas breathed air four times above the World Health Organization’s guideline limit for the most dangerous airborne particulates.Although the number of smokers in Italy has gradually fallen over the past 15 years, still one in four people, or 24%, are smokers, according to data last year from the Higher Health Institute.An estimated 93,000 deaths each year in Italy are attributed to smoking, according to the health ministry. Italy’s first national anti-smoking measure was introduced in 1975, when smoking was banned on public transport and in classrooms. The ban was extended in 1995 to include public administration areas, and in 2005 smoking was banned in all enclosed public areas.

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Air Quality, Not Just Fitness Level, Impacts Marathoners' Finish Times

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Dec. 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Runners put a lot of thought into how much they must eat and drink...

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTHURSDAY, Dec. 26, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Runners put a lot of thought into how much they must eat and drink to endure a 26.2-mile marathon, properly fueling their bodies to sustain a record-setting pace.But the quality of the air they huff and puff during endurance events could also play a key role in their performance, a new study says.Higher levels of air pollution are associated with slower average marathon finish times, according to findings published recently in the journal Sports Medicine.“Runners at that level are thinking about their gear, their nutrition, their training, the course, even the weather,” lead researcher Elvira Fleury, a doctoral student at Harvard University, said in a news release. “Our results show that those interested in optimizing athletic performance should consider the effect of air pollution, as well.”Runners’ average finish times on a marathon steadily decreased for every increase in particle pollution of one microgram per cubic meter of air, results show.Men finished 32 seconds slower on average for every increased unit of air pollution, and women finished 25 seconds slower, researchers found.These effects also appeared to be more pronounced in faster-than-average runners, researchers said.“This means that air pollution can be a health risk not just for those who are elderly or susceptible — it can negatively affect even the most healthy and well-trained among us,” senior researcher Joseph Braun, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, said in a news release from the college.For the study, researchers analyzed data from U.S. public marathons conducted between 2003 and 2019, involving more than 1.5 million male runners and more than 1 million female runners.The research team compared the runners’ finishing times with air quality data captured on event days, including the amount of particle pollution in the air along different points of the marathon route.“This really sophisticated spatial-temporal model of particulate matter allowed us to plot pollution at every mile of every course,” Fleury said. “Without a model like this, it wouldn't have been possible to look at so many different marathons in different states across different years.”Researchers specifically looked at levels of fine particle pollution, which are airborne particles smaller than the width of a human hair or grain of fine beach sand, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.These airborne particles are typically generated by fossil fuels burned by cars and power plants, although in recent years, wildfires have contributed to such pollution.Previous studies have shown that particle air pollution is associated with overall risk of death, as well as risk of heart disease, breathing problems and lung cancer, researchers said.Air pollution could be harming marathon runners’ performance by causing increases in blood pressure, constricted blood vessels, impaired lung function, and perhaps even short-term changes in brain function, researchers speculated.“People who can complete a marathon are generally quite healthy, and we can assume they have honed their cardiorespiratory fitness,” Braun said.“This study revealed a negative impact from air pollution, even at levels below current health-based standards, on these very healthy people,” Braun continued.These findings support efforts to reduce pollution emissions by shifting motor vehicles and power plants away from fossil fuels, researchers concluded.SOURCE: Sports Medicine, journal study, Dec. 18; Brown University, news release, Dec. 18, 2024Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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