Practicing good hygiene is supposed to make you healthier, not sicker. However, a growing body of research shows that certain bacteria can thrive in household and hospital plumbing systems and may cause life-threatening infections among susceptible individuals after inhalation or ingestion. In this issue of EHP, Joseph Falkinham of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksbu...

Since their discovery, the possibility of connecting carbon nanotubes together like water pipes has been an intriguing prospect for these hollow nanostructures. The serial joining of carbon nanotubes in a controlled manner offers a promising approach for the bottom-up engineering of nanotube structures--from simply increasing their aspect ratio to making integrated carbon nanotube devices. To d...

Opportunity is the driving force of migration. Unsatisfied demands for higher education and skills, which have been created by the knowledge-based global economy, have generated unprecedented opportunities in knowledge-intensive service industries. These multi-trillion dollar industries include information, communication, finance, business, education and health. The leading industrialized natio...

Drinking water distribution systems, including premise plumbing, contain a diverse microbiological community that may include opportunistic pathogens. On-site supplemental disinfection systems have been proposed as a control method for opportunistic pathogens in premise plumbing. The majority of on-site disinfection systems to date have been installed in hospitals due to the high concentration ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and its associated factors in children. METHODS A cross-sectional population-based study, involving 1,211 children of both sexes, aged between six and 59 months old, was carried out in the urban zone of 9 cities in the state of Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil. Vitamin A status was assessed by serum retinol levels (high performance liqu...

69 Introduction Drinking water is an important health behavior to support overall child health. Research indicates that children are consuming too little water and too many sugary drinks.1 Overconsumption of sugary drinks increases child risk for the epidemics of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases like type-II diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.2 Increasing access to appealing, low-cost...