Current Events in December 2024

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against 3M and DuPont for misleading consumers about the health risks of products made with "forever chemicals."

These chemicals, known as PFAS, were used in products like Teflon and Scotchgard.

PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because they don’t break down easily in the human body or the environment. They can contaminate water, harm natural resources, and accumulate in people’s blood. These chemicals are linked to cancer and other health issues.

“These companies knew for decades that PFAS chemicals could cause serious harm to human health yet continued to advertise them as safe for household use around families and children,” Paxton said in a press release. “Texas is taking action to penalize these companies and hold them accountable for deceiving Texans into buying consumer products without vital information.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, along with interest on damages.

Other states have filed similar suits. Ohio recently settled with DuPont for $110 million, and 3M is paying billions in settlements for its role in producing using PFAS in firefighting foams.

The computing power needed for artificial intelligence is contributing to air pollution that will kill thousands over the coming years, a new study says.

Air pollution created from powering AI with electricity will cause as many as 1,300 premature deaths a year in the U.S. by 2030, according to researchers at UC Riverside and the California Institute of Technology.

The AI industry requires a growing number of data centers powered by local power plants and backup generators: Commercial energy demand from data centers fueling AI's so-called large language models is expected to reach 12% in 2027, doubling from 6% in 2023, according to the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia.

“The growth of AI is driving an enormous increase in demand for data centers and energy, making it the fastest-growing sector for energy consumption across all industries,” said Shaolei Ren, a UC Riverside associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and an author of the study.

The researchers said they expect the public health burden from AI to be double that of the U.S. steelmaking industry and rival cars, buses and trucks in California.

For example, the researchers said they found the emissions from training a large language model at the scale of a recent model from Facebook-owner Meta would produce air pollution equal to more than 10,000 round trips by car between Los Angeles and New York City.

“If you look at those sustainability reports by tech companies, they only focus on carbon emissions, and some of them include water as well, but there's absolutely no mention of unhealthful air pollutants and these pollutants are already creating a public health burden," Ren said.

What is the solution to AI's air pollution problem?

The researchers said tech companies should compensate the communities hit hardest by air pollution from data centers.

Those communities are more likely to be low-income communites, in part because of how they tend to be closer to power plants and backup generators, the researchers said.

"The data centers pay local property taxes to the county where they operate,” Ren said. "But this health impact is not just limited to a small community. Actually, it travels across the whole country, so those other places are not compensated at all."

The researchers said air pollution from backup generators in Northern Virginia can drift into other states, creating public health costs of $190 million to $260 million a year, which can exceed what tech companies pay for electricity.

“If you have family members with asthma or other health conditions, the air pollution from these data centers could be affecting them right now. It’s a public health issue we need to address urgently,” Ren said.

The number of pedestrians killed in collisions with vehicles has been steadily increasing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports over 8,000 pedestrians were killed on U.S. roads in 2022. That's about one death every 64 minutes.

There were also an estimated 140,000 emergency department visits of pedestrians treated for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2022.

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) points to a possible reason for the increase. There are more large SUVs and pickup trucks on American roadways. The IIHS study shows that the likelihood of serious injuries increases significantly with both the speed of the vehicle and its height, posing a greater threat to pedestrian safety in the United States compared to Europe.

IIHS researchers analyzed 202 pedestrian crashes involving individuals aged 16 and older, using data from accidents in Michigan, California, New Jersey, and Texas. They developed injury risk curves to illustrate how speed and vehicle height affect crash outcomes. 

The findings indicate that even a small increase in speed can substantially elevate the danger to pedestrians, with taller vehicles exacerbating this risk.

Intensifies the impact

David Harkey, IIHS President, pointed out that the American preference for tall SUVs and pickups intensifies the impact of speed on pedestrian injuries. The study suggests that the standard 25 mph speed limit in U.S. residential areas may be too high for densely populated urban centers, where pedestrian traffic is heavy.

The research focused on the height of the vehicle's front end, as it determines the point of impact on a pedestrian's body, a crucial factor in injury severity. The study found that at 20 mph, pedestrians had a 46% chance of sustaining moderate injuries and an 18% chance of serious injuries. 

These risks increased dramatically at higher speeds, with a 35 mph impact resulting in an 86% chance of moderate injuries and a 67% chance of serious injuries. Fatalities also rose sharply with speed, from a 1% risk at 20 mph to over 80% at 50 mph.

The height factor

Taller vehicles were found to significantly increase the likelihood of both moderate and serious injuries. At the average crash speed of 27 mph, a median-height car had a 60% chance of causing moderate injuries, while a median-height pickup had an 83% chance. 

The study also compared U.S. data with European crash data, finding that American pedestrians are more likely to be injured at all speeds, likely due to the larger size of vehicles in the U.S.

IIHS Senior Statistician Sam Monfort emphasized the real-world consequences of vehicle choices on pedestrian safety, noting that the U.S. vehicle fleet is predominantly composed of SUVs and pickups, unlike Europe's car-dominated fleet. The study calls for a reevaluation of speed limits and vehicle design to enhance pedestrian safety.

Wildfires have become a common occurrence in the West, posing dangers to lives and property. But a new study published in JAMA Neurology has revealed an overlooked health risk from wildfires.

Research, led by Dr. Joan Casey from the University of Washington School of Public Health and funded by the National Institutes of Health, concludes that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from wildfires poses a significantly higher risk of dementia compared to PM2.5 from other sources. 

The research highlights the growing concern over the health impacts of wildfire smoke, particularly in the Western United States where wildfires are increasingly common.

The study analyzed electronic health records of over 1.2 million members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, aged 60 and older, who were initially free from dementia. The data, spanning from 2008 to 2019, allowed researchers to estimate PM2.5 concentrations by census tract and differentiate between wildfire-related PM2.5 and that from other sources.

Key findings

Key findings from the study indicated that for every microgram per cubic meter increase in average wildfire PM2.5, the likelihood of a dementia diagnosis rose by 18%. In contrast, the same increase in PM2.5 from other sources was linked to only a 1% increase in dementia risk. This stark difference underscores the unique threat posed by wildfire smoke, the researchers wrote

The research also examined how these risks varied across different demographics. It found that individuals under 75 years old, those living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and certain minority groups, such as Asian and non-Hispanic Black people, experienced a stronger association between wildfire PM2.5 exposure and dementia incidence. 

The study suggests that socially and economically disadvantaged groups are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of wildfire smoke.

Casey said the need for interventions to reduce exposure to wildfire PM2.5 as a means to potentially lower dementia rates and address socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes.

She also highlighted the broader implications of climate change, noting that as global temperatures rise, the frequency and intensity of wildfires are expected to increase, exacerbating the problem.

“It’s a global problem,” Casey said. “While individuals can protect themselves with air filters and masks, we need a global solution to climate change. It’s going to have to be many-pronged—many people have to be involved to solve this highly complex problem.”