Latest news with #UC_Davis
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Potentially Toxic Chemicals Are Reaching Toddlers Before Kindergarten, Study Finds
Young children nationwide are exposed to a large swath of possibly toxic chemicals before kindergarten, new research suggests 'Our study shows that childhood exposure to potentially harmful chemicals is widespread. This is alarming because we know early childhood is a critical window for brain and body development,' said the study's lead author, Deborah Bennett Researchers found that of the 111 chemicals they focused on, 48 were found in more than 50% of the childrenBefore ever stepping foot inside a kindergarten classroom, young children nationwide are already exposed to a large swath of possibly toxic chemicals, new research suggests. The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology on Monday, June 30, analyzed chemical exposure in 201 kids from the ages of 2-4 years old between 2010 and 2021, using urine samples from the children and most of their mothers during pregnancy. Researchers focused on 111 chemicals. 'Our study shows that childhood exposure to potentially harmful chemicals is widespread. This is alarming because we know early childhood is a critical window for brain and body development,' said the study's lead author, Deborah Bennett in a statement from UC Davis, where she is a professor. 'Many of these chemicals are known or suspected to interfere with hormones, brain development and immune function,' Bennett added. Researchers found that of the 111 chemicals, 96 were detected in at least five kids and 48 were found in more than 50% of the children. In addition, 34 were found in more than 90% of the kids — including nine substances "which have not been included in U.S. national biomonitoring." "This study reveals frequent exposure to multiple chemicals in young U.S. children, often exceeding prenatal levels," the authors wrote in a summary. "Expanded biomonitoring of emerging chemicals of concern and studies of their health effects in this vulnerable population are warranted." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. According to UC Davis, the study found children were exposed to phthalates, parabens, bactericides, and various other chemicals through "everyday activities, such as eating, drinking, breathing indoor and outdoor air and touching contaminated surfaces." 'Exposure to certain chemicals in early childhood, such as pesticides, plasticizers and flame retardants, has been linked to developmental delays, hormone disruption and other long-term health issues,' the study's first author, Jiwon Oh, told UC Davis. Read the original article on People
Forbes
02-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Lessening California's Energy Regulations Will Help Consumers
Expensive gasoline and fuel. Gas costs too much in the Golden State. Addressing this unaffordable energy problem should be a top priority for state legislators and the governor. California has taken a step backward toward this goal, however; but may be primed to take a step forward too. Stepping backward, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) increased the stringency of the state's low carbon fuel standards (LCFS). As of July 1, 2025, the new target reductions in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels are 30 percent below 2010 levels by 2030 and 90 percent below by 2045. The previous benchmarks were a 20 percent cut relative to 2010 by 2030, and an 85 percent cut by 2045. According to Cal-Matters, 'the previous fuel standard, which was set in 2011, added 9 cents to the cost of a gallon; a UC Davis researcher estimates that the new one could add 5 to 8 cents per gallon.' According to Politico, prices at the pump could increase by as much as 15 cents per gallon due to the more stringent standards. Piling more environmental program costs on Californians will surely worsen the state's affordability crisis. A bill currently under consideration in the legislature – SB 237 – presents an opportunity for the state to take one step forward. While the details are complex, this bill would cap the credit prices for the LCFS at around $75 to $76 per ton, which will help mitigate future price increases. The bill also encourages the state to replace its unique blending standard in favor of a unified western state standard and attempts to reduce the regulatory burden refiners must navigate when seeking environmental permits. If passed and faithfully implemented – a far from certain prospect – these reforms will help lessen the periodic supply constraints, and resulting price spikes, that too often afflict California. Unfortunately for cash-strapped Californians, SB 237 will not reduce gasoline prices from their currently inflated levels. As measured by the EIA, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in March 2025 was $4.49. For the U.S. overall, the average cost was a significantly lower $3.10 – Californians are spending around $1.39 more per gallon than the average American. The question perplexing Sacramento is, why? The answer is not difficult, simply inconvenient – it's the state's significantly more burdensome tax and regulatory policies. In an evaluation titled 'Why California usually pays more at the pump for gasoline' the EIA claims the higher costs are due to the state's taxes, fees, environmental programs, and its isolated petroleum market. In total, the study estimates that California's environmental programs add $0.54 to the price of a gallon of gas. Adding in the $0.90 in gasoline taxes and fees, state policies are adding $1.44 to the price of every gallon of gasoline. If all these costs were eliminated and replaced with the average state tax on gasoline – around $0.28 per gallon – then the price of a gallon of gasoline in California would have cost about $3.43 per gallon in March 2025. In other words, the costs in California would be around the U.S. average. As the figure below demonstrates, these excessive costs are not a short-term phenomenon. California's gasoline prices have been significantly more expensive than the national average for the entire 21st century. However, while they were around 12% more expensive between 2000 and 2015 on average, the price premium exploded beginning in 2015 as the state's cap and trade policy and LCFS became more stringent. For the first five months of 2025, California's costs have become 44% more expensive than the national average. California price premium These excessive costs harm families and businesses across the state. Looking just at the direct impact on families, the costs are not insignificant. Based on the average annual miles driven in California (11,409) and the average automobile MPG (24.9), the average Californian purchases around 458 gallons of gas annually. Due to California's $1.39 price premium, the average California driver must spend an additional $637 on gasoline. Across all 27 million drivers, the excess burden costs Californian families nearly $17.2 billion. Restoring a more affordable energy landscape in California requires a more realistic approach to the problem of global climate change. SB 237 is far from a panacea as it still maintains the complicated array of regulatory policies that have been driving up California's relative price of gasoline. Further, how the bill is implemented (if it is ultimately implemented) is also crucially important. However, SB 237 is a signal that more politicians in Sacramento may be beginning to recognize the causal link between high gas prices and policies such as the state's low carbon fuel mandates, cap and trade regulations, and high excise taxes. If this is the case, then SB 237 may mark the first step toward restoring the Golden State's broader energy affordability. For the sake of the many families struggling with California's unaffordable policies, let's hope so.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Vapes Clouds Contain Absolutely Horrifying Chemicals, Scientists Find
If you vape — and especially if it's because you think it's a less harmful alternative to smoking — then we have some really bad news. New research from the University of California, Davis, shows that some popular disposable vapes contain levels of toxic metals so appalling that they exceed traditional cigarettes. And we don't just mean a single cig — we're talking packs of them. The work, published as a study in the journal ACS Central Science, sounds the alarm on the vast amounts of unregulated if not illegal disposable vapes in the US that remain a favorite of teens. "When I first saw the lead concentrations, they were so high I thought our instrument was broken," study coauthor Mark Salazar, a researcher at UC Davis, said in a statement about the work. For their study, the researchers focused on vapes from three popular brands: ELF Bar, Esco Bar, and Flum Pebble. The tests involved activating the vapes and creating between 500 to 1,500 puffs for each one and analyzing the vape clouds. Afterwards, they disassembled the vapes to see where the contaminants were coming from. The findings were immediately alarming. Salazar and his colleagues discovered concentrations of toxic forms of metals like nickel, chromium, and antimony in most of the tested vapes. To quickly sum up what makes these metals bad: the type of nickel the researchers detected can cause lung and nasal cancer; chromium is also considered a carcinogen; and antimony can lead to heart and lung problems when inhaled as a dust and cause vomiting when swallowed. That brings us to lead. Two vapes from Esco Bar were absolutely reeking with it; on average, the devices from this brand emitted more lead in the first 200 puffs than smoking twenty packs of cigarettes. The contamination appears to be caused both by the components of actual vape and the nicotine juice they contain. "We found that these disposable devices have toxins already present in the e-liquid, or they're leaching quite extensively from their components into e-liquids and ultimately transferred to the smoke," Salazar said. Overall, two of the vapes emitted enough nickel and antimony levels to exceed cancer risk limits, the researchers said, while four vapes had nickel and lead emissions severe enough to be considered a risk for causing neurological damage and respiratory diseases. Bear in mind that this is what the researchers found by testing just three of some of the most well-known disposable vape brands. There are hundreds of other brands out there of even murkier origins, most imported from China. And while we're still only beginning to grapple with their health hazards, the findings line up with other research, including a study last year that found elevated uranium and lead levels in the urine of teens who regularly vaped. "Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement," said senior author Brett Poulin, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, in the statement. More on vaping: We Talked to the Inventors of the "Tamagotchi" Vape That Dies If You Stop Puffing
CBS News
28-06-2025
- CBS News
Mistrial declared in Davis stabbings trial; jury found Carlos Dominguez not guilty of first-degree murder
What comes next in the Davis serial stabbing case after mistrial What comes next in the Davis serial stabbing case after mistrial What comes next in the Davis serial stabbing case after mistrial A mistrial has been declared in the trial of Carlos Dominguez, the former UC Davis student accused of going on a deadly stabbing spree. On Friday, the Yolo County jury revealed that they unanimously found Dominguez not guilty on first-degree murder. On second-degree murder,10 jurors found Dominguez not guilty while two voted guilty. With the case declared a mistrial by the judge, a new trial will take place on the second-degree count. A new trial setting conference is set for July 24. Carlos Dominguez in Yolo County Court on June 27. Dominguez is suspected in the 2023 stabbing spree that saw two people, David Breaux and Karim Abou Najm, killed and a third, Kimberlee Guillory, wounded. Proceedings were initially put on hold after the former UC Davis student's arrest after he was found not competent to stand trial. However, the trial resumed towards the end of 2024 when a reevaluation determined Dominguez was now competent. Jurors were deciding on the charges of first-degree murder for the killings of Breaux and Najm, and attempted murder in Guillory's stabbing. Closing arguments concluded on June 6, with Dominguez's defense claiming he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the attacks. Prosecutors focused their case on proving the actions were premeditated, regardless of Dominguez's mental state. A number of people – including Dominguez's family, his ex-girlfriend, a former professor, along with health care professionals and law enforcement officers – were brought in to testify in the trial. Dominguez himself took the stand in his own defense, a move legal experts said was unusual. Prosecutors have said they would not seek the death penalty against Dominguez if he is found guilty.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Disposable vapes more toxic and carcinogenic than cigarettes, study shows
Illegal disposable e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, may present a greater danger than traditional cigarettes, according to a study from the University of California (UC) Davis. The research, published in the journal ACS Central Science, found that hazardous levels of several toxic heavy metals in illegal vapes could present a high cancer risk. Researchers used a special instrument to test the puffs from three popular vape brands — ELF Bar, Flum Pebble and Esco — that are not FDA-authorized for use in the U.S., but are widely sold by retailers. Rare Cancer Diagnoses Surge Dramatically Among Millennials And Gen X Three heavy metals — lead, nickel and antimony — were detected in all heavily flavored and lightly flavored devices that were tested. These metals are classified as carcinogens, potentially leading to various types of cancers, such as skin, lung and kidney, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Read On The Fox News App All vapors exceeded the cancer risk limits for nickel, which has been linked to cardiovascular disease, asthma, lung fibrosis and respiratory tract cancer, per NIH. Brett Poulin, senior study author and assistant professor at the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, told Fox News Digital that he was shocked at the levels of toxic metals. "When I analyzed the first samples, the lead concentrations were so high that I genuinely thought the instrument was broken," he said. "The levels far exceeded anything in our past data, or even the published literature." Your Favorite Alcoholic Beverage Could Be Linked To Deadly Form Of Cancer, Study Finds One of the brands tested exposes users to as much lead as smoking 19 packs of cigarettes, the researchers discovered. Additionally, most of the disposable e-cigarettes tested in the study were found to contain greater levels of metals and metalloids than older refillable vapes. At one point, Poulin said, he physically opened a device and discovered that it was using leaded copper alloys, which are metals made primarily of copper with small amounts of lead. "These materials leached dangerous levels of lead into the e-liquid, even without the device being used," Poulin told Fox News Digital. "It remains unclear whether this was an intentional design choice, a cost-cutting measure or a manufacturing oversight." There is no known safe level of lead exposure, according to Poulin. "This neurotoxin poses serious health risks, particularly to children and adolescents, who are especially vulnerable." Daniel Sterman, M.D., director of the Pulmonary Oncology Program at the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, told Fox News Digital that the study "clearly" demonstrates high concentrations of metal. "There are several health risks of vaping that we enumerate for our patients and their family members, [such as] risks of various lung diseases, including asthma, COPD and lung cancer," said Sterman, who was not involved in the study. The doctor noted that while it is challenging to establish a direct link of causation between disposable vapes and cancer, he does see cancer patients who use the devices. "Disposable vapes should be highly regulated by local, state and federal agencies, and restricted to those individuals 21 years or older," Sterman recommends. The doctor also called for the packaging on disposable vapes to clearly outline the many health risks, "particularly to teenagers and young adults." One of the primary limitations of the study was that only three disposable e-cigarette brands were tested out of the hundreds currently on the market. There are distinct differences in the metal leaching and profiles across all three brands, Poulin shared. "We still know very little about the metal content in the vast majority of untested disposable e-cigarette products," he said. "This gap in knowledge poses a significant public health concern, especially given the popularity of these devices." A spokesperson for the China-based brand, ELFBAR, told Fox News Digital that they refute the results of the study, claiming that they stopped shipments in May 2023. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter Due to ongoing trademark litigation, they are unable to market or sell products in the U.S., the company stated. "This market void has led to a surge in counterfeits, imitations and illicit variations misusing our brand name," the spokesperson said. "As such, we have every reason to believe the devices tested in this study are not genuine and were not manufactured by ELFBAR." The spokesperson acknowledged that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease worldwide, noting that the recent study "continues to undermine public understanding of smoking cessation." The other two brands tested in the study did not respond to requests for comment. Electronic cigarette use among adults increased from 4.5% in 2019 to 6.5% in 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Men are more likely to vape than women, while 15.5% of young adults between the ages of 21 and 24 reported using e-cigarettes, the above source states. For more Health articles, visit The UC Davis study received support from the University of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program Grant and the California Agricultural Experiment article source: Disposable vapes more toxic and carcinogenic than cigarettes, study shows
