Public water arsenic and birth outcomes in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort

JAMA Network Open

2025-06-16

(Press-News.org) About The Study: In this cohort study of birthing parent–infant dyads across the U.S., arsenic measured in public water systems was associated with birth outcomes at levels below the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level. The findings suggest that further reducing the maximum contaminant level for arsenic may decrease the number of infants with low birth weight in the U.S.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Anne E. Nigra, ScM, PhD, email aen2136@cumc.columbia.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.14084)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

# # #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.14084?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=061625

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Paternal perinatal depression, anxiety, and stress and child development

2025-06-16

About The Study: Evidence from this systematic review and meta-analysis indicates that paternal mental distress is a potentially modifiable predictor of child development. Reducing mental distress in fathers perinatally is thus an important target for preventative interventions aiming to support fathers during the transition to parenthood and promote the health and well-being of next-generation offspring. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Delyse Hutchinson, PhD, email delyse.hutchinson@deakin.edu.au. To access the embargoed study: ...

Exposure to low levels of arsenic in public drinking water linked to lower birthweight, preterm birth

2025-06-16

Babies born to mothers potentially exposed to low levels of arsenic in public drinking water—even at levels below the federal safety standard—were more likely to be born preterm, with lower birthweight, or be smaller than expected, according to a study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum contaminant level of 10 micrograms per liter for arsenic in public water systems, this study examines ...

Andrea Ballabio, M.D., awarded Beth Levine, M.D. Prize in Autophagy Research from UT Southwestern

2025-06-16

Italian medical geneticist Andrea Ballabio, M.D., an internationally recognized scientist who has devoted his career to elucidating the mechanisms underlying genetic diseases, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Beth Levine, M.D. Prize in Autophagy Research from UT Southwestern Medical Center. The $20,000 prize and lecture, established in honor of the late Dr. Levine, who was Director of UT Southwestern’s Center for Autophagy Research, is awarded biennially to exceptional scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of autophagy, ...

Immune tolerance to gut microbes is initiated by a key bacterial sensor

2025-06-16

Thousands of bacterial and other microbial species live in the human gut, supporting healthy digestion, immunity, metabolism and other functions. Precisely how these microbes are protected from immune attack has been unclear, but now a study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators has found that this immune “tolerance” to gut microbes depends on an ancient bacterial-sensing protein called STING—normally considered a trigger for inflammation. The surprising result could lead to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions involving gut inflammation. In their ...

The genomic organization of ant superorganisms

2025-06-16

Aristotle praised the political organization of ant colonies while ancient Chinese Daoists appreciated ants as illustrative symbols showing how ephemeral human ambitions and power are. Throughout historical and pre-historic times, ant-workers are likely to be the first insects that toddlers relate to when they crawl around on all four. Similar to so much else in biology, the first scientific understanding of ants goes back to Darwin, who spent many pages of the Origin of Species (1859) on these conspicuous social insects. Their very existence seemed to fly ...

High levels of troponin in athletes are not caused by narrowed coronary arteries

2025-06-16

Exercising is healthy, but it also puts strain on the heart. During physical exertion, the protein troponin is released—a biomarker indicative of cardiac damage. New research from Radboudumc involving a thousand athletes shows that elevated troponin levels after exercise are not due to coronary atherosclerosis. This suggests that the cause of elevated troponin levels after exertion lies elsewhere. It’s a paradox: regular exercise is healthy and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, yet it also ...

First patient in the world treated for muscle-weakness disease in clinical trial at HonorHealth Research Institute

2025-06-16

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — June 16, 2025 — The first patient enrolled in a planned international clinical trial has been treated at HonorHealth Research Institute with a new type of immune therapy for those with a rare muscle-weakness disease known as Myasthenia Gravis. In an odd medical twist, this auto-immune disease — in which antibodies interfere with the connection between nerves and muscles — most often strikes young women in their 20s and 30s, and older men in their 60s and 70s, though it can affect others. The disease affects fewer than 200 in every 1 million people. Symptoms range from droopy eyelids, problems ...

‘Trace’ memorial art installation honors essential workers lost to COVID-19

2025-06-16

New York, NY | June 16, 2025 – On May 28, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) unveiled “Trace,” an interactive art installation memorializing essential workers who lost their lives to COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic. The launch event took place at the CUNY Center in Harlem, on the ground floor of the CUNY SPH campus at 55 West 125th street where the installation is housed, and invited community members to experience “Trace” in its new home. Community partners, elected officials, local businesses owners, and CUNY ...

In stereo: neurons shift gears between thoughts using brain rhythms

2025-06-16

The brain is constantly mapping the external world like a GPS, even when we don't know about it. This activity comes in the form of tiny electrical signals sents between neurons -- specialized cells that communicate with one another to help us think, move, remember and feel. These signals often follow rhythmic patterns known as brain waves, such as slower theta waves and faster gamma waves, which help organize how the brain processes information. Understanding how individual neurons respond to these rhythms is key to unlocking how the brain functions related to navigation in real time – and how it may be affected in disease. A ...

PFAS-eating bacteria discovered in Veneto soil

2025-06-16

Certain bacteria isolated from soil could knock out “eternal pollutants”, substances that, once dispersed in the environment, do not degrade and threaten human and planetary health: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), present in a wide range of products, from cosmetics to food packaging, from kitchen utensils to detergents. in fact, a research group from the Catholic University, Piacenza, has isolated about 20 species of bacteria from PFAS-contaminated soil in Veneto that are capable of degrading them, i.e. using them as a source of energy ...

AMS Science Preview: Gun violence & weather; NOAA flights improve hurricane forecasts; atmospheric rivers and radio waves

Effect of respiratory phase on three-dimensional quantitative parameters of pulmonary subsolid nodules in low-dose computed tomography screening for lung cancer

Public water arsenic and birth outcomes in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: