The so-called inert ingredients in household pesticides may be the culprits that make people feel ill after spraying for bugs in their homes instead of the actual active ingredients that kill pests, a new study suggests.
Complaints of irritation to the eyes, nose and throat as well as headaches and drowsiness are often reported by people using pesticides, and a study by researchers at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have fingered "volatile organic compounds" in the pesticides as responsible.
Writing in the March issue of Environmental Science and Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Soceity, the researchers said concentrations of these inert agents can easily become great enough after pesticides have been sprayed into a house to cause health complaints.
These same ingredients also are found in perfumes, paints, hair sprays and carpets. The key to using pesticides without having health difficulties is to ventilate a room vigorously after application, said the researchers. Instructions that come with pesticides seldom stress the importance of ventilation, they noted.
NUTRITION MAY AID SLEEP-DEPRIVED PEOPLE
Researchers wonder if a good day's meal is any sort of substitute for a good night's sleep.
While nutrition certainly cannot replace sleep to make a person alert, it may be that the right nutrients can make sleep-deprived people more alert than they would be otherwise.
To test this notion, researchers at Louisiana State University are studying volunteers who stay awake 40 hours at a time and do routine, mundane tasks. Equipment will monitor their brain waves and researchers will note the effects of ingesting known stimulants like caffeine as well as the natural amino acid tyrosine.
As with many experiments pushing human capacity, this one has military overtones.
"You can't count on a good eight hours of sleep every night on the battlefront," said Dr. William Waters, an LSU sleep researcher who directs the experiment.
CHEMICAL UNLOCKS DORMANCY MYSTERY
One of nature's best survival mechanisms is the ability of many animals to become dormant in cold weather or when food and oxygen are lacking. Suspended animation is used by animals ranging from snails and fish to turtles and ground squirrels.
Biologist Steven Hand of the University of Colorado at Boulder has discovered a key chemical that allows animals to survive during dormancy. The chemical is a sugar called trehalose that preserves the cellular proteins from drying up during the dormant state.
Trehalose may be useful in freeze-drying protein-based drugs and human red blood cells, Hand said.
REMAINING ACTIVE KEY TO AGING WELL
Remaining productive is the key to successful aging, according to a study of 1,192 men and women aged 70 to 79.
Surprisingly, 90 percent of older adults do at least some productive activity, and those who do more are in better shape, social scientist Thomas A. Glass of Yale University reported in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
Successful agers do a third more housework, twice as much yard work, more than three times more paid work, and nearly four times as much volunteer work compared to "usual" agers, he said. Women reported doing more house, child care and volunteer work, while men did more yard and paid work.
CITRUS PECTIN STOPS CANCER SPREAD IN RATS
A modified derivative of citrus fruit fiber, a substance used in making jams and preserves, has helped to stop the spread of prostate cancer in rats.
A report in the March issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said that giving modified citrus pectin to rats through their drinking water significantly decreased the metastasis of prostate cancer in the animals.
Scientists think the material interferes with cell to cell processes essential to the spread of cancer. It may be that the citrus pectin interferes with a protein called galectin-3 that helps cancer cells stick to normal cells and travel to new tumor sites in the body.
The research, conducted by Dr. Kenneth Pienta of the University of Michigan, is believed to be the first demonstration that a non-toxic agent ingested orally could inhibit the spread of cancer.