Deaths

A study conducted by researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that opioids were responsible for more than half of all fatal poisonings in children under the age of 5, a number that has more than doubled since 2005. The study also highlights that over-the-counter drugs still contribute to fatal poisonings in this age group despite increased regulation. The researchers emphasize the need for improved intervention to prevent further fatal poisonings.Researchers find rate of fatal opioid poisonings…

A study that will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology shows that the U.S. has experienced a significant reduction in the overall rate of heart attack-related deaths in the past 20 years, as well as a decrease in racial disparities for heart attack deaths. The gap between the rates of heart attack deaths for White people and African American/Black people decreased by nearly half over a 22-year period.Encouraging reductions in racial…

Our addiction to online shopping is contributing to the recent spike in whale deaths, The New York Times reports.Since early December, 23 whales have washed up dead along the East Coast, according to data the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided to The Times. Their deaths are due to a confluence of factors, both environmental and the result of human interference.NOAA has been tracking an "unusual mortality event" among the Atlantic Coast humpback whale population since 2016, but the recent spike in…

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A delivery worker rides his electric bicycle past the New York Stock Exchange, March 16, 2020, in New York.Lithium ion batteries used to power electric bicycles and scooters have already sparked 22 fires that caused 36 injuries and two deaths in New York City this year, four times the number of fires linked to the batteries by this time last year, city officials said Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/John Minchillo, File…

Childbirth is a vulnerable experience, both emotionally and physically. Giving birth, whether vaginally or through a cesarean section, creates opportunities for bacteria to infect both the parent and newborn, and sometimes these infections can cause the parent’s immune response to spiral out of control. That extreme response to infection, called sepsis, is the third most common global cause of death during or after childbirth. Millions of cases of maternal sepsis occur each year, mostly in low- and middle-income…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The killing of Tyre Nichols has raised questions about the use and risks of a routine part of U.S. policing: the traffic stop. Nichols died in the hospital on Jan. 10, 2022, from injuries sustained in a beating by five officers three days earlier. The violence occurred after the 29-year-old Black…

Roughly 110,000 Americans died from a drug overdose between February 2021 and February 2022. That figure is part of a larger troubling trend. Overall life expectancy in the U.S. fell in 2020 and again in 2021, after decades of progress—and deaths linked to alcohol, drugs, and suicide are a major part of that change. (So are deaths from COVID, of course.) Overdoses, suicides and other “deaths of despair”—a label proposed by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton—have been climbing since the 1990s and may have accelerated in…

By the time "Infinite Crisis" began, the entire DC Universe was in flux. Much like the first "Crisis" event, this limited series rocked the world of DC Comics and served to rewrite the timeline once more, restoring old origins and worlds. But along the way, the villainous Superboy-Prime hoped to wipe out the universe. Thankfully, Superboy, the clone of both Superman and Lex Luthor who goes by the name Kon-El aka Connor Kent, arrives just in time to save the day. Although Superboy-Prime was an evil version…

The number of deaths from cardiovascular disease in the US increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, from 874,613 in 2019 to 928,741 in 2020. This represents the largest single-year increase since 2015 and is higher than the previous record of 910,000 in 2003, according to the Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics — 2023 Update of the American Heart Association.American Heart Association 2023 Statistical Update reports the largest increase in the number of CVD deaths in the U.S. in years, highest among…