Day: 08/27/2014

Chinese scientists are working on a supersonic submarine that will ‘fly’ in an air bubble (ScienceAlert)

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Researchers in China are reportedly developing a submarine that moves in its own air bubble, reducing drag and allowing it to travel faster than commercial airplanes.

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Researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have told the South China Morning Post that they’re working on technology that could allow a submarine to travel the 9,816 km from “Shanghai to San Francisco in 100 minutes”. Currently, the fastest submarines are stuck at speeds of 74 km/h.

That impressive feat would require the submarine to travel at a rate faster than the speed of sound, or supersonic speeds, and, in theory, it is possible, by creating an air bubble that the vessel ‘flies’ through, technology known as supercavitation.

But, and this is a big but, it’s unlikely the Chinese will be able to move a submarine that fast anytime soon. As Jordan Golson explains for Wired, supercavitation is a proven technology that can definitely speed up submarines. But while, in theory, it’s possible, there are some big obstacles.

A supercavitating submarine works by ejecting gas through its nose with enough force to form water vapour, which then creates a bubble of air that encompasses the vessel. Russian scientists have already used supercavitation to get their Shkval torpedo in the 1960s and ‘70s to move at 370 km/h, but they could only sustain the speed for a few kilometres.

One of the biggest issues with sustaining these speeds is that it is extremely hard to steer supercavitating submarines.

As Golson explains in Wired:

“A traditional submarine is controlled by a rudder, much like a conventional boat. Steering a supercavitating vessel requires having control planes pierce the bubble, producing great drag. These planes also would be under tremendous force and pressure at speed, and would need to be extraordinarily strong.”

Another big challenge is the fact that, to produce the bubble in the first place, submarines would need to launch at speeds of 75 km/h – something current submarines aren’t capable of. Golson believes that design-wise this will be difficult to overcome, especially if the Chinese want to build proper submarines, and not just torpedoes.

But, the researchers in China told the South China Morning Post that they’ve developed a liquid membrane that can help to solve both issues. This membrane would be constantly showered onto the surface of the submarine, and although it would gradually be washed off by water, it could help reduce drag and get the submarines to the initial speed of 75 km/h, when the bubble would take over.

The liquid membrane could also help with steering because, depending on spray pattern, the controllers could create different levels of friction on different parts of the vessel, the South China Morning Post explains.

“Our method is different from any other approach, such as vector propulsion … By combining liquid-membrane technology with supercavitation, we can significantly reduce the launch challenges and make cruising control easier,” Li Fengchen, a professor of fluid machinery and engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology’s Complex Flow and Heat Transfer Lab told the South China Morning Post.

Of course, there are still other obstacles to overcome, such as a rocket engine that has enough range to take the submarine across the Atlantic at such high speeds. And due to the lack of specific details provided by the Chinese scientists, many researchers are doubtful.

“It’s a quantum leap to making a supersonic submarine,” Roger Anrdt, a professor with the University of Minnesota’s Cavitation and Bubbly Flows Research Group in the US, told Golson atWired. “What they’re showing doesn’t give an inkling of what technology they’ve got.”

But in theory, Golson explains, it is possible. And if successful, the submarine wouldn’t only have military use, it could also be used as a form of transport. The same technology could also be used to help swimmers reach unprecedented speeds.

Who said travel by sea was outdated?

For MS Patients, Wii Game Strengthens Brain

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People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may benefit from working on their balance with an interactive video game system, a small study suggests.
Researchers in Italy found that men and women with mild-to-moderate MS symptoms who exercised at home for 12 weeks with a Nintendo Wii balance board system showed more positive-changes in areas of the brain responsible for balance and movement than people with MS who received no balance training.
This means that using the gaming system could help prevent falls, the researchers said. To use the Wii balance board, people place it on the floor, stand on it and do exercises. Sensors in the board give participants feedback on the accuracy of their movements.

A lack of balance is a common problem in people with MS, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers. Damaged nerve fibers can interrupt nerve signals traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord, resulting in symptoms including muscle weakness, difficulty walking and a loss of balance.
The study showed “improvements in myelin sheaths of nerves connecting areas of the brain involved in balance and movement,” said study author Dr. Luca Prosperini, a neurologist at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. These improvements resulted in better nerve-signal transmission in these parts of the brain, he said.
Rehabilitative techniques, such as physical therapy, have restored balance and mobility in people with MS more effectively than have medications. But little was known about the structural changes in the brain resulting from better balance.

In the study, the researchers looked at 27 people with MS, ages 18 to 50. For 12 weeks, participants did 30-minute sessions of Wii Fit Plus balance training exercises five times a week, at home.
Brain scans taken before and after balance training was completed revealed “that repetitive training aimed at managing a specific symptom, such as balance, is highly effective and induces brain plasticity, or the brain’s ability to change its function or structure following training,” Prosperini told Live Science.
The improvements granted by the Wii balance board could reduce the risk of accidental falls in people with MS, resulting in fewer fractures and other injuries, Prosperini said.
“I think this is a very important study for MS patients, because it showed scientifically that the brain can change in response to balance training,” said Dr. Karen Blitz, director of the North Shore-LIJ Multiple Sclerosis Care Center in East Meadow, New York, who was not involved in the research.
In the study, balance training had specific effects on brain centers and white matter tracts, but the findings also showed that these beneficial changes disappeared when the training stopped, Blitz said.
Exercising with MS
“Ongoing physical activity is very important for this disease, to improve a person’s quality of life,” Blitz said. Unfamiliar with the Wii Balance Board, she had not previously recommended the training to her MS patients, she said, but added that the new findings could be a big step to encourage ongoing exercise. She did caution that people with significant balance issues would need supervision when using the board.
Robert Manzolillo is one of Dr. Blitz’s patients who has used the Wii Balance Board for about five years. He was diagnosed with MS eight years ago, and said he uses the Wii Fit soccer, skiing or yoga programs about once a week.
A 47-year-old physical therapist from Brightwaters, New York, Manzolillo leads an active lifestyle that includes daily stretching, walking, occasional short runs, biking and skiing. When his MS flares up, Manzolillo said he might get mild balance and vision symptoms for a few days, but this has never stopped him from remaining active.
“I use the Wii training as an adjunct to being active,” Manzolillo said. “It helps to maintain and improve my balance by giving me real data and indicating my progress. This keeps me motivated and interested,” he said.

How Eating a Poor Diet Makes Us Feel Depressed .

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Scientists are finding that when it comes to nutrition, the mind and body are linked far more intimately than previously believed. Recent studies have found that eating unhealthy foods, especially those high in sugar and fat, contribute directly to the biological and emotional states associated with depression. When we eat poorly, our body understands a lack of nutrients to be the consequence of a disease. In response, it releases proteins that attempt to combat the perceived intruder and cause subtle inflammation (similar to the swelling of a healing wound).

Fast_food

One study focused on a southern European population that slowly transitioned from the Mediterranean diet–rich in oils, vegetables, and nuts–to a western diet containing more sugar and fat.

It found that “those who lived almost exclusively on the traditional Mediterranean diet were about half as likely to develop depression over the period as those eating more unhealthy food – even when you control for things like education and economic status.”

Many initiatives are currently underway to treat depression with healthier diets, including a trial program by the Defense Department that delivers nutrient rich foods to soldiers diagnosed with PTSD. In other cases, eating a healthy diet has proved to be an effective preventative measure against developing depression–as effective as preventative mental health counseling!

In his Big Think interview, fiction writer and animals rights advocate Jonathan Safran Foer explains that the environmental cost of one fast-food hamburger is $500, even though we may only pay $5 cash for it.

Strange Neutrinos from the Sun Detected for the First Time .

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An underground neutrino detector has found particles produced by the fusion of two protons in the sun’s core
The Borexino neutrino detector

The Borexino neutrino detector uses a sphere filled with liquid scintillator that emits light when excited. This inner vessel is surrounded by layers of shielding and by about 2,000 photomultiplier tubes to detect the light flashes.

Deep inside the sun pairs of protons fuse to form heavier atoms, releasing mysterious particles called neutrinos in the process. These reactions are thought to be the first step in the chain responsible for 99 percent of the energy the sun radiates, but scientists have never found proof until now. For the first time, physicists have captured the elusive neutrinos produced by the sun’s basic proton fusion reactions.

Earth should be teeming with such neutrinos—calculations suggest about 420 billion of them stream from the sun onto every square inch of our planet’s surface each second—yet they are incredibly hard to find. Neutrinos almost never interact with regular particles and usually fly straight through the empty spaces between the atoms in our bodies and all other normal matter. But occasionally they will collide with an atom and knock an electron loose, creating a quick flash of light visible to extremely sensitive detectors. That is how the Borexino experiment at Italy’s Gran Sasso National Laboratory found them. Its detection of so-called pp neutrinos—neutrinos created by the fusion of two protons in the sun—was a feat far from guaranteed. “Their existence was not in question, but whether some group was capable of building such an exquisitely pristine detector to see these low-energy neutrinos in real time, event by event, was,” says Wick Haxton, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the experiment. “Borexino accomplished this through a long campaign to reduce and understand background events.”

[Slide Show: Giant Experiments Seek Out Tiny Neutrinos]

Borexino uses a vat of liquid scintillator—a material designed to emit light when excited—contained in a large sphere surrounded by 1,000 tons of water, cocooned in layers upon layers of shielding and buried 1.4 kilometers underground. These defenses are meant to keep out everything but neutrinos, thereby excluding all other background radiation that could mimic the signal. “Unfortunately for the pp neutrinos all this is not enough,” says Andrea Pocar of the University of Massachusetts Amherst who is also a member of the Borexino collaboration and lead author of a paper reporting the results in the August 28 Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

Some background contamination cannot be shielded because it originates inside the experiment. “The main background is the presence of carbon 14 in the scintillator itself,” Pocar says. Carbon 14 is a radioactive isotope common on Earth. Its predictable decay schedule allows archaeologists to date ancient specimens. When it decays, however, carbon 14 releases an electron that creates a flash of light very similar to that of a pp neutrino. The physicists had to look in a narrow sliver of energies where pp neutrinos can be distinguished from errant carbon 14 decays. Even then, once in a while two carbon 14 atoms in the scintillator will decay simultaneously, and the energies of the electrons they release can “pile up” on top of one another to exactly mimic the pp neutrino flash. “We had to understand these pileup events very precisely and subtract them out,” Pocar explains. The team invented a new way to count the events, and gathered data over multiple years before the researchers were convinced they had isolated a true signal. “This was a very difficult measurement to make,” says Mark Chen of Queen’s University in Ontario, who was not involved in the project. “The campaign by Borexino to purify the liquid scintillator in their detector paid off.”

Borexino’s discovery of pp solar neutrinos is a reassuring confirmation of physicists’ main theoretical models describing the sun. Previous experiments have found higher-energy solar neutrinos created by later stages of the fusion process involving the decay of boron atoms. But the lower-energy pp neutrinos were harder to find; their detection completes the picture of the sun’s fusion chain as well as bolsters plans for next-generation Earthbound neutrino experiments.

A strange quirk of these elementary particles is that they come in three flavors—called electron, muon and tau—and they have the bizarre ability to swap flavors, or “oscillate.” Because of the complex particularities of proton fusion reactions, all of the sun’s neutrinos happen to be born as electron neutrinos. By the time they reach Earth, however, some portion of them have morphed into muon and tau neutrinos.

Each neutrino flavor has a slightly different mass, although physicists do not yet know exactly what those masses are. Determining the masses and how they are ordered among the three flavors is one of the most important goals of current neutrino experiments. The mass differences between flavors are the main factor affecting how neutrinos oscillate.

If neutrinos are traveling through matter, their interactions with it will also alter their oscillation rates. The oscillations of higher-energy neutrinos, it turns out, are more altered by matter, leading to a larger chance they will oscillate—and therefore to fewer of them surviving as electron neutrinos by the time they reach Earth.

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Ontario and Japan’s Super-Kamiokandeexperiment measured this phenomenon decades ago when they detected the higher-energy solar neutrinos from boron decays. Now, Borexino’s findings confirm the effect: more of the lower-energy neutrinos seen by Borexino persisted as electron flavor than the higher-energy neutrinos measured by those previous experiments. “This is important because matter effects have so far only been seen in the sun, yet we want to use this effect on Earth in future ‘long-baseline neutrino experiments’ to fully determine the pattern of neutrino masses,” Haxton says.

These experiments, such as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) planned to open in 2022, will probe how neutrinos traveling though matter oscillate. Rather than using solar neutrinos, these projects will create powerful beams of neutrinos in particle accelerators and fine-tune their pathways to make precision measurements. Fermilab’s experiment will generate a stream of neutrinos from its base laboratory near Chicago to the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. As the neutrinos fly through about 1,285 kilometers of Earth’s mantle on their journey (the so-called “long baseline”), many will oscillate. By studying how the mantle matter interacts with the different flavors to affect their oscillation rates, the researchers hope to reveal which neutrino flavors are lighter and which are heavier.

Solving the neutrino mass puzzle, in turn, could point to a deeper theory of particle physics than the current Standard Model, which does not account for neutrino masses. Borexino’s latest feat of precision neutrino measurement suggests that experiments are finally becoming powerful enough to pry such secrets from the evasive particles.

Technology Will Create a Utopian Future.

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Utopian_future

In a new book, two technologists paint a rosy portrait of our future, describing how cutting-edge technology could benefit large industry–as long as humans don’t muck it up in the mean time, that is. Called “Resource Revolution: How to Capture the Biggest Business Opportunity in a Century”, authors Matt Rogers and Stefan Heck have written a veritable guide for technology optimists. Manufacturing companies could use information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology to their great advantage, they argue, creating a technological revolution akin to the invention of the airplane.

Rogers and Heck assuage the creeping feeling many have that Silicon Valley has run out of big ideas. While Apple and Amazon seem content to sell us new iterations of established products, Google hires code writers by the droves to better serve us advertisements. By combining big business with Big Data and cutting-edge science, we might improve on goods that have remained static for decades. The automobile is definitely one such good.

“After housing, cars are the second-most-expensive goods most Americans buy. Yet most of us buy vehicles just to park them; on average, cars are moving during just 5 percent of their lives. When we do drive our cars, we often do so alone. Worse, most of the energy in our gas tanks is being wasted by the inefficient internal combustion engine.”

Blind quantum camera snaps photos of Schrödinger’s cat .

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Exploiting the same quantum quirk that spawns Schrödinger’s undead cat in the famous thought experiment, a research team snapped a portrait of a cardboard cat without collecting any light bouncing off the two-dimensional kitty. This blind camera, comprising lasers and crystals, could help scientists illuminate microscopic worlds difficult to picture using existing techniques, the team reports in the Aug. 28 Nature.

“We didn’t detect any photons coming from the object, but we got a surprisingly clear image,” says physicist and lead author Gabriela Lemos of the University of Vienna.

Can the Female Condom Go Mainstream?

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Despite its success in developing countries, the female condom has long suffered from a PR problem in the U.S. What would it take to salvage its image?

To understand the plight of the female condom, says sociologist Amy Kaler, it’s helpful to look at the old story of the blind men and the elephant.

There are several versions of this particular piece of folklore, but they all more or less go as follows: A group of blind men encounters an elephant. Putting their hands on the animal, each one attempts to explain to his companions what’s in front of them: An elephant is a snake, declares the man touching the trunk. No, it’s a fan, says the one touching the ear. No, a rope, counters the one at the tail.

An elephant, of course, is none of these things. An elephant is an elephant—but try telling that to the men whose hands have just told them otherwise. For better or worse, direct experience defines reality.

So what does this have to do with the device that, in its short history in the U.S., has been promoted as a contraceptive breakthrough, mocked with a host of unflattering comparisons and, most recently, allowed to fade into relative obscurity?

Plenty.

When it was first introduced to the American market by the Female Health Company (then called the Wisconsin Pharmacal Company) in 1993, the female condom seemed, on paper at least, like it ought to have been a hit. Like male condoms, it prevented both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Unlike male condoms, it could be put in place hours before sex to avoid ruining the mood in the moment. And most significantly, it was woman-controlled, meaning that safe sex was still possible even if a male partner refused to wear a condom—a major boon in a time when public awareness of AIDS had only just become widespread.

But as with the elephant in the fable, some of the female condom’s less appealing attributes quickly outweighed and obscured the whole, explains Kaler, a professor at the University of Edmonton who’s authored several studies on the subject. “The concept of the female condom has enormous appeal,” she says, but it came to be defined in the U.S. by a collection of its flaws: an awkward appearance, a tendency to rustle, the public distrust that often affixes itself to the unfamiliar.

“Everyone,” Kaler adds, “will tell you [about] a different part of the whole beast.”

Lately, though, that beast is having something of a moment, thanks to a few female condom optimists who think its reputation may be salvageable after all.

The Gates Foundation, which last month announced its second round of grants for the “next generation condom,” includes two female condom projects among the 11 winners, each of which will receive $100,000 in funding (a third bills itself as a “non-gender specific internal condom” intended for both anal and vaginal sex). Both projects focus on the foundation’s call for a design meant to make condoms fun rather than burdensome: The “Air-Infused Female Condom,” from Massachusetts physician Mache Seibel, “is inflated and positioned using air pressure and provides additional stimulation,” while the “Female Pleasure Condom,” from Indiana University professor Debby Herbenick, “will be ribbed on one side to provide directed internal stimulation for the female, making it potentially more enjoyable than no condom.”

Current designs “haven’t been sized or shaped in ways that fit really comfortably or pleasurably inside women’s bodies,” Herbenick says (earlier this month, she told Bloomberg News that their bulkiness drew comparisons to “a sandwich bag”).

“It’s still a problem for both male and female condom companies to say, ‘You can use our product and have safer sex but also feel great,’” she continues. With her project, which will be tested in both the U.S. and India, “I hope that adding more features that are directed at pleasure will help people see it as something they can use for good sex.”

To make it happen, though, Herbenick, Seibel and other advocates for the female condom will have to overcome a bias as old as the device itself.

In the developing world, women have considered female condoms an essential tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS since they were invented (notably, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health received a petition in 1996 from 30,000 women who wanted it to be brought into the country). In 2012, the United Nations Population Fund distributed some 32 million female condoms worldwide. Designs have proliferated to keep up with demand: PATH created the Woman’s Condom, while an Indian company has developed the Cupid.

But in the U.S., where innovation for female condoms has languished by comparison, the reputation struggle began right at the beginning. When the Food and Drug Administration approved the first version, marketed under the brand name Reality, in 1993, the agency’s press release announcing the approval was less than confidence-inspiring:

“The female condom is not all we would wish for, but it is better than no protection at all,” FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D., said. “I have to stress that the male latex condom remains the best shield against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Couples should go on using the male latex condom.”

The media treated the female condom with much the same disdain as the FDA, though with much more creative metaphors. In a 2004 survey of news reports on the female condom leading up to and immediately after approval, Kaler wrote, it was compared to:

“a jellyfish, a windsock, a fire hose, a colostomy bag, a Baggie, gumboots, a concertina, a plastic freezer bag, something to line Boston’s Inner Harbor with, a cross between a test tube and a rubber glove, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, something designed for a female elephant, something out of the science-fiction cartoon The Jetsons, a raincoat for a slinky toy or ‘a contraption used to punish fallen virgins in the Dark Ages.’”

A similar study, published in 2012 by University of Texas at Arlington researchers Karishma Chatterjee and Charla Markham Shaw, found that that even when the American media treated the female condom in a positive light, it tended to focus on non-American users. “The positive portrayals centered on the developing world and on contexts where the female condom was positioned as offering protection for women who had no control and few options,” they wrote, and were often “followed or preceded by a discussion of its inferiority as a second-class medical device.”

And for those women who did give it a shot, the female condom presented another issue: They knew what it was supposed to do, but actually figuring out how to properly use the thing was another story.  A 2005 study from theGuttmacher Institute found that 11 percent of women had the condom slip off the first time they used it. “It fell steadily to less than 1 percent if the method had been used 15 times or more,” the study notes—but experiencing that kind of snafu the first time presumably turns some off from a second time, let alone a 15th. And while the female condom’s failure rate was 5 percent when used perfectly, its actual failure rate was closer to 21 percent.

In an effort to salvage the image of its product, the Female Health Company launched another version of the female condom in 2009 under the brand name FC2 (Reality, the first iteration, is no longer produced in the U.S.). Currently the only FDA-approved female condom available in the U.S., the FC2 is made of the synthetic rubber nitrile rather than polyurethane, a change meant to cut down on the noisiness so many had complained about, and comes pre-lubricated.

Even with the launch of the FC2, though, the female condom was still plagued by the image of its predecessor. Jezebel’s Tracey Eagan Morrissey, in a 2013 piece titled “Stop Trying to Make Female Condoms Happen,” declared them to be “just ew.” Bedsider, a birth control website geared towards young women, offers this disclaimer: “It’s not the prettiest thing in the world (it looks a bit like a floppy, clear elephant trunk) but it is a method that gives you lots of control.”

But for those looking to bring the female condom into the American mainstream, there may be an upside to the backlash of the earlier years. A bad reputation and low uptake have left the female condom largely excluded from public discourse about safe sex (“Many of my college students—most of them—have never seen a female condom,” Herbenick says), meaning that as a new generation experiences its sexual coming-of-age, it does so without the prejudice of the female condom’s earlier years.

A new paper published earlier this month lends support to the notion that ignorance, rather than negative attitudes, is what’s now keeping young people from using female condoms. Chatterjee and Shaw, the same team that had conducted the 2012 media study, surveyed a group of college students before and after an educational session on female condoms. They found that while many had heard of it, most knew little to nothing about it before the sessions; after, the majority said they would use it.

“What we know about sexual behavior suggests that what people start out with is what they stick with for the long term,” Kaler explains. The key to the female condom’s success, in other words, may be getting devotees to adopt it early in their adult lives.

And the key to that may be not only remaking the parts of the female condom—the shape, the material—but redefining the whole elephant, so to speak, as something it’s never been: sexy.

Why Your Couch Is Killing You

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Story at-a-glance

  • Flame-retardant chemicals are ubiquitous in most couch cushions (and mattresses), and can easily migrate from the foam and into household dust
  • Children often pick up dust on their hands and transfer it into their mouths
  • Researchers detected a flame-retardant chemical called TDCIPP in 100 percent of study participants
  • The study found the average concentration of flame retardants in children was close to five times that of their moms
  • Children who wash their hands at least five times a day have 30 percent to 50 percent lower levels of flame retardants on their hands than children who wash their hands less frequently
  • Sitting on your couch for extended periods of time is also linked to health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and premature death, especially if you don’t interrupt your sitting with intermittent movement

A flame-retardant chemical known as chlorinated tris (TDCIPP) was removed from children’s pajamas in the 1970s amid concerns that it may cause cancer, but now it’s a ubiquitous addition to couch cushions across the US.

It can easily migrate from the foam and into household dust, which children often pick up on their hands and transfer into their mouths. A new study by scientists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Duke University revealed just how ubiquitous this chemical actually is, as they found traces (and more) of TDCIPP in every study participant tested.

Children May Have Fives Times More Flame-Retardant Chemicals Than Their Moms

Aside from finding TDCIPP in 100 percent of study participants, the researchers found the average concentration in children was close to five times that of their moms.1 High levels of flame-retardant chemicals used to make FireMaster flame-retardant products were also detected.

Children are thought to have higher exposures to many types of chemicals because they spend more time on the floor, where contaminated dust settles, and also put their hands in their mouths more often than adults.

Since these toxins are not chemically bound to the plastics, foam, fabrics, and other materials to which they’re added, they easily leach out into your home where they accumulate in household dust.2 As reported by EWG:3

“A study of house dust collected in California homes in 2006 and in 2011 found 41 different fire retardant chemicals in at least half of the samples. The same study reported significantly higher levels of Firemaster ® 550 compounds in 2011 compared to 2006, indicating increasing use.

The levels of TDCIPP in some house dust exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health risk guidelines.”

The Duke researchers revealed in a separate study that children who wash their hands at least five times a day have 30 percent to 50 percent lower levels of flame retardants on their hands than children who wash their hands less frequently.4

Unfortunately, even though children are among those most at risk from flame-retardant chemicals’ ability to disrupt and harm development, products intended for kids and babies are among those most likely to be doused in flame-retardant chemicals.

For instance, such chemicals were detected in 60 percent of 2011 car seatstested by The Ecology Center,5 most likely in the polyurethane foam. A separate study in Environmental Science & Technology6 also detected flame-retardant chemicals in 80 percent of the following children’s products tested:

Nursing pillows Baby carriers Car seats
Changing table pads High chairs Strollers
Bassinets Portable cribs Walkers
Baby tub inserts and bath slings Glider rockers Sleeping wedges

Couch Cushions and Mattresses Are Among the Worst Offenders

In 1975, California Technical Bulletin 117 (TB117) was passed. It requires furniture sold in California to withstand a 12-second exposure to a small flame without igniting.

Because of California’s economic importance, the requirement became more or less a national standard, with large amounts of flame-retardant chemicals added to household goods.

Research published in Environmental Science & Technology revealed that 85 percent of couch foam samples tested contained chemical flame retardants.7 The samples came from more than 100 couches purchased from 1985 to 2010.

As of July 1, 2007, all US mattresses are required to be highly flame retardant as well, to the extent that they won’t catch on fire if exposed to a blowtorch. This means that the manufacturers are also dousing them with highly toxic flame-retardant chemicals, which do NOT have to be disclosed in any way.

If you want to avoid flame retardants in your mattress, you can have a licensed health care provider write you a prescription for a chemical-free mattress, which can then be ordered without flame retardants from certain retailers.

You can also find certain natural mattresses on the market that don’t contain them. For instance, most wool mattresses do not have flame-retardant chemicals added because wool is a natural flame retardant.

Given the blatant dangers posed by flame retardants, in late November 2013 California’s governor ordered that TB117 be rewritten to ensure fire safety without the use of these chemicals. Starting in January 2014, furniture manufacturers began producing furniture that’s not required to use flame-retardant chemicals, and full compliance is expected by January 2015.

Unfortunately, the updated law only states that the chemicals are no longer required; it doesn’t ban them outright. This means that some companies may continue to use them, and if you’re in the market for new furniture, you’ll need to ask for that made without flame-retardant chemicals.

What Are the Health Risks of Flame-Retardant Chemicals?

Flame-retardant chemicals have been linked to serious health risks, including infertility, birth defects, neurodevelopmental delays, reduced IQ scores and behavioral problems in children, hormone disruptions, and various forms ofcancer.

The risks may be especially dangerous to children, as research revealed that children born to women who were exposed to high levels of flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) during pregnancy had, on average, a 4.5 point decrease in IQ.8 Such children are also more prone to hyperactivity disorders.

PBDEs were voluntarily withdrawn from the American market in 2004, but there are still many products on the market that were manufactured before that time – and these products can continue to release PBDEs into your environment.

Previous research has suggested PBDEs may also lead to decreases in TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone).9 When present with normal T4 levels, low TSH is typically a sign that you’re developing hyperthyroidism, which can have significant ramifications both for you and your unborn child if you’re pregnant.

And these chemicals aren’t only dangerous when they transfer into your household dust and indoor air. Ironically, when and if they do catch fire, these chemicals outgas toxins into your air that may kill you faster than “regular” smoke alone. When on fire, objects doused in flame retardants (yes, they can still catch fire) give off higher levels of carbon monoxide, soot, and smoke than untreated objects. These three things are more likely to kill a person in a fire than burns, which means flame-retardant chemicals may actually make fires more deadly.

Flame-retardant chemicals belong to the same class of chemicals as DDT and PCBs (organohalogens), and like the former, they too build up in the environment. These chemicals also react with other toxins as they burn to produce cancer-causing dioxins and furans. This helps explain why female firefighters aged 40 to 50 are six times more likely to develop breast cancer than the national average, likely due to California’s early use of flame-retardant chemicals. Firefighters of both genders also have higher rates of cancer, in part because of the high levels of dioxins and furans they’re exposed to when flame-retardant chemicals burn.

Flame-Retardant Furniture Probably Won’t Save Your Life in a Fire…

Flame-retardant chemicals were developed in the 1970s, when 40 percent of Americans smoked and cigarettes were a major cause of fires. The tobacco industry, under increasing pressure to make fire-safe cigarettes, resisted the push for self-extinguishing cigarettes and instead created a fake front group called the National Association of State Fire Marshals. The group pushed for federal standards for fire-retardant furniture… and their efforts paid off.

The chemical industry claims that fire-retardant furniture increases escape time in a fire by 15-fold. In reality, this claim came from a study using powerful, NASA-style flame retardants, which did give an extra 15 seconds of escape time. This is not the same type of chemical used in most furniture, and government and independent studies show that the most widely used flame-retardant chemicals provide no benefit for people while increasing the amounts of toxic chemicals in smoke. Drops in fire-related deaths in recent decades are not related to the use of flame-retardant chemicals, but instead are due to newer construction codes, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, and self-extinguishing cigarettes. For a demonstration of just how useless flame-retardant furniture is, see the featured video above.

Reduce Your Family’s Exposure to Flame Retardants

There’s a good chance flame-retardant chemicals are lurking in your home right now. Until these chemicals are removed from use entirely, tips you can use to reduce your exposure around your home include:10

  • Be especially careful with polyurethane foam products manufactured prior to 2005, such as upholstered furniture, mattresses, and pillows, as these are most likely to contain PBDEs. If you have any of these in your home, inspect them carefully and replace ripped covers and/or any foam that appears to be breaking down. Also, avoid reupholstering furniture by yourself, as the reupholstering process increases your risk of exposure.
  • Older carpet padding is another major source of PBDEs, so take precautions when removing old carpet. You’ll want to isolate your work area from the rest of your house to avoid spreading it around, and use a HEPA filter vacuum to clean up.
  • You probably also have older sources of the PBDEs known as Deca in your home, and these are so toxic they are banned in several states. Deca PBDEs can be found in electronics like TVs, cell phones, kitchen appliances, fans, toner cartridges, and more. It’s a good idea to wash your hands after handling such items, especially before eating, and at the very least be sure you don’t let infants mouth any of these items (like your TV remote control or cell phone).
  • As you replace PBDE-containing items around your home, select those that contain naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool, and cotton.
  • Look for organic and “green” building materials, carpeting, baby items, mattresses, and upholstery, which will be free from these toxic chemicals and help reduce your overall exposure. Furniture products filled with cotton, wool, or polyester tend to be safer than chemical-treated foam; some products also state that they are “flame-retardant free.”
  • PBDEs are often found in household dust, so clean up with a HEPA-filter vacuum and/or a wet mop often.

Another Way Your Couch Can Kill You That Has Nothing to Do with Chemicals…

Flame-retardant chemicals are only one major health risk linked to sitting on your couch. The other? Sitting in and of itself, assuming it’s done excessively (and most people sit excessively). One 2012 analysis that looked at the findings from 18 studies found that those who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease compared to those who sat the least.11 Sitting for extended periods of time also increases your risk for premature death, and separate research found that women who sat for more than seven hours a day had a 47 percent higher risk of depression than women who sat for four hours or less per day.12

Even temporary vigorous exercise can’t completely compensate for the damage incurred by prolonged daily sitting. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly clear that staying active—and by that I mean engaging in virtually any physical movement—as much as possible, throughout the day, is critical for health and longevity. So keep in mind that your couch can kill in one of two ways… via chemical exposures and by seducing you into too much sitting.

Of course, you may also be doing a lot of sitting elsewhere, like at your office desk or in your car. The following videos, featuring Jill Rodriguez, offer a series of helpful intermittent movement beginner and advanced exercises you can do right at your desk (or virtually anywhere). For a demonstration of each technique, please see the corresponding video in the two tables below. I suggest taking a break to do one set of three exercises anywhere from once every 15 minutes to once per hour throughout your day. For even more suggestions, please refer to my previous article on intermittent movement.

Technique #1: Standing Neck-Stretch: Hold for 20 seconds on each side.

Technique #2: Shoulder Blade Squeeze: Round your shoulders, then pull them back and pull down. Repeat for 20-30 seconds.

Technique #3: Standing Hip Stretch: Holding on to your desk, cross your left leg over your right thigh and “sit down” by bending your right leg. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #4: The Windmill: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then pivot your feet to the right. Push your hip out to the left. Raising your left arm skyward, and your right arm toward the floor, lower your body toward the floor while looking up, and then raise your torso back to standing position. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #5: Side Lunge: Starting with your feet together, take a medium step sideways, and bend down as if you’re about to sit. Use your arms for balance by reaching out in front of you. Return to starting position, and repeat 10-20 times. Repeat on the other side.

Technique #6: Desk Push-Up: Place hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart on your desk. Come up on your toes to make it easier to tip forward. Do 10 repetitions.

Technique #7: Squat to Chair: With your feet shoulder-width apart, sit down, reaching forward with your hands, and stand back up in quick succession. Do 15-20 repetitions.

Technique #8: Single Leg Dead Lift: Place your right hand on your desk, and place your weight on your right leg. Fold your torso forward, while simultaneously lifting your left leg backward. Do 10 repetitions on each side.

Technique #9: Mountain Climber: Get into a push-up position on the floor. Pull your right knee forward to touch your right wrist or arm, then return to push-up position. Repeat on the other side. Try to pick up the pace, and do 20 quick repetitions.

Standing Neck Stretch

 Shoulder Blade Squeezes

 Standing/Seated Hip Stretch
Windmill

 Side Lunge

 Push up
Squat to Chair

 Single Leg Dead Lift

 Mountain Climber

Childhood brain tumours: associations with parental occupational exposure to solvents

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Parental occupational exposures have been associated with childhood brain tumours (CBT), but results are inconsistent. Few studies have studied CBT risk and parental solvent exposure, suggesting a possible association. We examined the association between CBT and parental occupational exposure to solvents in a case–control study.

methods:

Parents of 306 cases and 950 controls completed detailed occupational histories. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for both maternal and paternal exposure to benzene, other aromatics, aliphatics and chlorinated solvents in key time periods relative to the birth of their child. Adjustments were made for matching variables (child’s age, sex and state of residence), best parental education and occupational exposure to diesel exhaust.

results:

An increased risk of CBT was observed with maternal occupational exposures to chlorinated solvents (OR=8.59, 95% CI 0.94–78.9) any time before birth. Paternal exposure to solvents in the year before conception was associated with an increased CBT risk: OR=1.55 (95% CI 0.99–2.43). This increased risk appeared to be mainly attributable to exposure to aromatic solvents: OR=2.72 (95%CI 0.94–7.86) for benzene and OR=1.76 (95% CI 1.10–2.82) for other aromatics.

conclusions:

Our results indicate that parental occupational exposures to solvents may be related to an increased risk of CBT.

The role of a Mediterranean diet on the risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer

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background:

The Mediterranean diet has a beneficial role on various neoplasms, but data are scanty on oral cavity and pharyngeal (OCP) cancer.

methods:

We analysed data from a case-control study carried out between 1997 and 2009 in Italy and Switzerland, including 768 incident, histologically confirmed OCP cancer cases and 2078 hospital controls. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was measured using the Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) based on the major characteristics of the Mediterranean diet, and two other scores, the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern Adherence Index (MDP) and the Mediterranean Adequacy Index (MAI).

results:

We estimated the odds ratios (ORs), and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI), for increasing levels of the scores (i.e., increasing adherence) using multiple logistic regression models. We found a reduced risk of OCP cancer for increasing levels of the MDS, the ORs for subjects with six or more MDS components compared with two or less being 0.20 (95% CI 0.14–0.28, P-value for trend <0.0001). The ORs for the highest vs the lowest quintile were 0.20 (95% CI 0.14–0.28) for the MDP score (score 66.2 or more vs less than 57.9), and 0.48 (95% CI 0.33–0.69) for the MAI score (score value 2.1 or more vs value less 0.92), with significant trends of decreasing risk for both scores. The favourable effect of the Mediterranean diet was apparently stronger in younger subjects, in those with a higher level of education, and in ex-smokers, although it was observed in other strata as well.

conclusions:

Our study provides strong evidence of a beneficial role of the Mediterranean diet on OCP cancer.