Research Roundup: Air Pollution; Flu; Meningitis; Mastectomy; Nutrition

ScienceDaily: Study Links Air Pollution To Nearly 6 Million Preterm Births Around The World
Air pollution likely contributed to almost 6 million premature births and almost 3 million underweight babies in 2019, according to a UC San Francisco and University of Washington global burden of disease study and meta-analysis that quantifies the effects of indoor and outdoor pollution around the world. (UC San Francisco, 9/28)

ScienceDaily: Global Cancer Risk From Burning Organic Matter Comes From Unregulated Chemicals
There are more than 100 known types of PAH compounds emitted daily into the atmosphere. Regulators, however, have historically relied on measurements of a single compound, benzo(a)pyrene, to gauge a community's risk of developing cancer from PAH exposure. Now MIT scientists have found that benzo(a)pyrene may be a poor indicator of this type of cancer risk. In a modeling study appearing today in the journal GeoHealth, the team reports that benzo(a)pyrene plays a small part -- about 11 percent -- in the global risk of developing PAH-associated cancer. Instead, 89 percent of that cancer risk comes from other PAH compounds, many of which are not directly regulated. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9/22)

In research on the flu and meningitis —

CIDRAP: Global Flu Detections Stay Sporadic, Mainly Flu B And H3N2
Flu levels in both hemispheres remain below expected levels, despite increased testing, but several regions have reported sporadic cases and activity, the WHO said yesterday in an update that covers the first half of September. In the Americas, some Caribbean and Central American areas reported sporadic influenza B cases. In tropical parts of Africa, a few influenza A cases were reported in Western, Middle, and Eastern countries. (9/28)

CIDRAP: WHO Announces New Global Meningitis Strategy
The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners today called for urgent action to address meningitis, while launching the first ever global strategy to battle the disease, called the Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030.By 2030, the goals are to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis—the deadliest form of the disease—and to reduce deaths by 70% and halve the number of cases, the WHO said in a press release. (9/28)

In other research on antibiotics and nutrition —

CIDRAP: Antibiotics After Mastectomy Common, But With Small Benefit, Study Finds
An analysis of US health insurance data found that post-discharge prophylactic antibiotics are commonly prescribed after mastectomy, but provide only a small reduction in surgical-site infections (SSIs), researchers reported today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. Using a database that includes outpatient pharmacy claims for individuals covered by employer-sponsored and commercial health insurance plans, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied a cohort of women ages 18 to 64 who underwent mastectomy from January 2010 through June 2015. Their aim was to investigate the factors associated with post-discharge prophylactic antibiotic use and the impact on SSIs. (9/27)

ScienceDaily: Sticking To Low-Fat Dairy May Not Be The Only Heart Healthy Option, Study Shows 
New research amongst the world's biggest consumers of dairy foods has shown that those with higher intakes of dairy fat -- measured by levels of fatty acids in the blood -- had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those with low intakes. Higher intakes of dairy fat were not associated with an increased risk of death. (George Institute for Global Health, 9/21)

ScienceDaily: Intermittent Fasting Can Help Manage Metabolic Disease
Eating your daily calories within a consistent window of 8-10 hours is a powerful strategy to prevent and manage chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, according to a new manuscript published in the Endocrine Society's journal, Endocrine Reviews. (The Endocrine Society, 9/22)