closer look
Building better homes for older people in a warming world
Think back to this past summer, when heat waves affected people around the world. Older adults are particularly vulnerable because their bodies can't perceive heat or deal with it as well as younger people — a growing problem as climate change worsens. Helping older people better cope with heat in their own homes is the mission of engineer Amir Baniassadi, who was recently named a STAT Wunderkind.
A postdoc at Harvard, Baniassadi works with doctors, architects, and engineers to assess heat vulnerability and how buildings could be constructed to mitigate risk as global temperatures rise. His work explores a network of variables that affect a person's exposure to heat or cold, including their socioeconomic status, cognitive function, and personal history. "This is a new reality," Baniassadi said. "There are people who are going to be hurt. How do we make them hurt less?" STAT contributor Allesandra DiCorato has more.
politics
Biden's nominee to lead NIH takes the middle road
In her long-delayed confirmation hearing, NCI Director Monica Bertagnolli, President Biden's nominee to lead the NIH, walked a middle road between Republicans and Democrats on hot-button issues like drug pricing and gender-affirming care. "I myself believe that the American people deserve a fair return on the investment that Congress has placed within the National Institutes of Health and the research that we do, and I will commit to working to make sure that the benefits of our research are affordable and available to all the American people," she said.
Speaking in general on the health of LGBTQ+ people: "We have the greatest responsibility to ensure two things. First, that we serve all people, people of all walks of life, and that we really are here to achieve the health of all; but that number two, any research that we do that involves human beings, people, is conducted according to the highest ethical principles," she said. STAT's Sarah Owermohle has more, including an update on Bertagnolli's cancer treatment.
health
How the FDA struggles to regulate food
Have you ever heard of brominated vegetable oil? Here's some perspective: Richard Nixon was president when the FDA first warned that the food additive could harm the liver, the heart, and other organs. The FDA finally sent a proposed ban to the White House this past August. Meanwhile, brominated vegetable oil has been illegal in the U.K. since 1970.
STAT's Nicholas Florko tells us the story of brominated vegetable oil to highlight what for food safety advocates has been a decades-long struggle to get regulators to take quicker, more decisive action on food additives that raise safety concerns. Red Dye Number 3 is another example of the long road to action. The acting director of the FDA office charged with reviewing food additives did acknowledge to Nick that the office could be more efficient with greater funding, but in the case of brominated vegetable oil, it took new studies to prompt the agency recent action. Read more.
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