A Mayo Clinic study finds no evidence that children given anesthesia before their third birthdays have lower IQs than those who did not have it. A more complex picture emerges among people who had anesthesia several times as small children: Although their intelligence is comparable, they score modestly lower on tests measuring fine motor skills, and their parents are more likely to report behavioral and learning problems. The findings are published in Anesthesiology.

The hazes can be choking and can reduce visibility at noon to a few tens of yards. Fumes belch from factory chimneys, coal-fired power plants, heating systems in apartment blocks, and millions of road vehicles. When the weather traps smog in the streets, city hospital admissions soar and the morgues fill.

Seeking the feel good factor? Go natural.

That is the simple message from University of Otago researchers who have discovered raw fruit and vegetables may be better for your mental health than cooked, canned and processed fruit and vegetables.

Heat and cold waves affect people with certain health conditions differently, highlighting the need for tailored public service risk communication.

Even the briefest increase in airborne fine particulate matter PM2.5, pollution-causing particles that are about 3% of the diameter of human hair, is associated with the development of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) in young children, according to newly published research.

For two decades, environmentalist Jürgen Resch has locked horns with Germany’s mighty automobile industry, the backbone of Europe’s most powerful economy. And Resch has shown that he will do what Berlin’s top politicians won’t: hold carmakers — and German municipalities — to the letter of the law when it comes to the high levels of pollution spewed from diesel automobiles. His indispensable ally in this against-the-odds mission has been Germany’s court system.

Smoke from wildfires may send people – particularly seniors – to hospital emergency rooms (ERs) with heart, stroke-related complaints, according to new research in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

A vaccine may successfully turn off peanut allergy in mice, a new study shows.

The new technology has the potential to replace the traditional “best before” date on food and drinks alike with a definitive indication that it’s time to chuck that roast or pour out that milk.

Participating in yoga and mindfulness activities at school helps third-graders exhibiting anxiety improve their well-being and emotional health, according to a new Tulane University study published in the journal Psychology Research and Behavior Management.