DURHAM, N.C. September 20, 2022 – Data from the largest mental health survey of the Flint, Michigan community indicate that one in five adults, or roughly 13,600 people, were estimated to have clinical depression, and one in four, or 15,000 people, were estimated to have PTSD five years after the water crisis began. “The mental […]
Duke University
Posted inSci/Tech
Statistics say large pandemics are more likely than we thought
The COVID-19 pandemic may be the deadliest viral outbreak the world has seen in more than a century. But statistically, such extreme events aren’t as rare as we may think, asserts a new analysis of novel disease outbreaks over the past 400 years. The study, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Heightened Immigration Enforcement Has Troubling Impact on Babies
DURHAM, N.C. February 3, 2021 — Harsher immigration law enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leads to decreased use of prenatal care for immigrant mothers and declines in birth weight, according to new Duke University research. In the study, published in PLoS ONE, researchers examine the effects of the federal 287(g) immigration program after […]
Posted inUS
A third of US families face a different kind of poverty
DURHAM, N.C. January 6, 2021 — Before the pandemic, one-third of U.S. households with children were already “net worth poor,” lacking enough financial resources to sustain their families for three months at a poverty level, finds new research from Duke University. In 2019, 57 percent of Black families and 50 percent of Latino families with […]
Posted inSci/Tech
One Press Release on OSHA Violations Yields Compliance Equal to 210 Inspections
DURHAM, N.C.June 18, 2020 – A single press release naming a company that has violated workplace health and safety regulations can result in a 73 percent improvement in compliance by other facilities, a Duke researcher finds. The study appears in the June issue of American Economic Review. Beginning in 2009, the federal Occupational Health and Safety […]
Posted inEnviro
Stream pollution from mountaintop mining doesn’t stay put in the water
DURHAM, N.C. April 7, 2020 – Since the 1980s, a sprawling mountaintop removal mining complex in southern West Virginia has been leaching pollutants — such as selenium — into nearby streams at levels deemed unsafe for aquatic life. Now, even though the mine is closed, researchers have also found high concentrations of selenium in stream insects when […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Children of incarcerated U.S. parents have more 6 times more substance abuse, anxiety
August 26, 2019 – Children of incarcerated parents are six times more likely than other children to develop a substance use disorder as adults and nearly twice as likely to have diagnosable anxiety, according to new research from the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University. In addition, children whose parents were incarcerated […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Federal subsidies for US commercial fisheries should be rejected
DURHAM, N.C. April 4, 2019 – In late 2018, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a rule change that would reverse current policy and allow the agency to use public funds to underwrite low-interest, fixed-term loans for the construction of new commercial fishing vessels. The proposed change, which is still pending final approval, lacks […]
Posted inCalifornia
Fifty years after the Kerner Commission, inequality worsening in Los Angeles
DURHAM, N.C. Sept. 11, 2018 – More than 50 years ago, riots tore through many U.S. cities, prompting national scrutiny of the root causes. Yet a half-century later, says new research, a key contributor to the social upheaval of the 1960s remains under-explored: racial wealth inequality. Meanwhile, the racial wealth gap that helped fuel the […]
Posted inSci/Tech
In the race of life, the tortoise beats the hare every time
DURHAM, N.C. Aug. 27, 2018 – Over the long-run, the race will indeed go to the slower, steadier animal. “The fable of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ is a metaphor about life, not a story about a race,” said Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. “We see in animal […]
Posted inCalifornia
Satellites reveal bird habitat loss in California
DURHAM, N.C. March 28, 2017 – Drought and reduced seasonal flooding of wetlands and farm fields threaten a globally important stopover site for tens of thousands of migratory shorebirds in California’s Sacramento Valley, a new Duke University-led study shows. The researchers’ analysis of historical biweekly NASA Landsat satellite images of the valley reveals that flooded […]
Posted inEnviro
Study finds 6,600 spills from fracking in just four states
DURHAM, N.C. Feb. 22, 2017- Each year, 2 to 16 percent of hydraulically fractured oil and gas wells spill hydrocarbons, chemical-laden water, hydraulic fracturing fluids and other substances, according to a new study. The analysis, which appears Feb. 21 in Environmental Science & Technology, identified 6,648 spills reported across Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota and […]
Posted inEnviro
Indian roadside refuse fires produce toxic rainbow
DURHAM, NC, Oct. 25, 2016 – Samples of smoke particles emanating from burning roadside trash piles in India have shown that their chemical composition and toxicityare very bad for human health. The wide variation found between sites by a Duke University study, however, does offer insights about how to mitigate the worst effects of the […]
Posted inEnviro
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Caused Widespread Marsh Erosion, Study Shows
DURHAM, NC, Sept. 27, 2016 – The Deepwater Horizon oil spill six years ago caused widespread marsh erosion that may be permanent in some places, according to a new Duke University-led analysis of 270 miles of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coasts. At the hardest-hit of 103 Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) sites, where oil […]