Safety

It slices, it dices, it's super strong and conductive, and now an ultra-pure form of ‘wonder material’ graphene has been inhaled during a human trial without affecting lung or cardiovascular function, opening the door to a novel drug delivery mode.

As any car-chase action movie will tell you, the gasoline used in our vehicles is flammable, explosive stuff. Scientists have created a new combustible fuel, however, which stays safely non-flammable for transport and storage.

New research presented at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society, analyzing nearly 100 currently used tattoo inks, found many inks contained chemicals not declared on their ingredient list, and at nanoparticle sizes suspected to be harmful.

A striking new article argues the global spread of certain hazardous chemicals is so pervasive that unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals can be found in rainwater all over the world, including remote areas such as Antarctica and the Tibetan Plateau.

When you pull your car up on a quiet street at night, do you park under a street light thinking it will dissuade a thief from breaking into your car? New research challenges that assumption, finding rates of vehicle theft drop when street lights are off.

After developing a system that could detect 17 different contaminants in a drop of water, researchers have now added "molecular brains" to that setup so the hand-held device not only confirms contamination but also indicates concentration levels.

A new study has identified a pattern of brain activity that seems to correlate with impairment from cannabis intoxication. The researchers suggest this novel brain-based biomarker could be a way to accurately measure THC impairment.

A first-of-its-kind study has measured levels of plasticizer chemicals in a number of fast food products. The findings reveal high concentrations of a number of potentially harmful chemicals, such as phthalates, in almost all samples studied.

Researchers are calling for urgent action limiting the use of chemicals called phthalates in the production of plastics. A new study estimates up to 100,000 premature deaths in the United States every year could be attributed to phthalate exposure.

A new study is reporting half of US children under the age of six have detectable levels of lead in their blood. The study tracked data from over a million children and is the first of this scale to analyze small traces of lead in blood samples.

A new consensus statement is calling for the common painkiller acetaminophen (aka paracetamol) to be used cautiously during pregnancy, saying there are potential neurological and reproductive issues in children associated with excessive use of the drug.

After years of court battles the EPA has announced it will ban agricultural uses of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide suspected of causing health problems in children. The ban comes into effect in six months, with a further review of non-food uses to follow.