Concern regarding pollution and how it affects our health is a worry that affects many of us worldwide. As years pass on by, the pollution levels are also increasing, and so is our mortality risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that exposure to air pollution is strongly linked with stroke, ischaemic heart disease, lung diseases etc. However, these are not the only things you must worry about when it comes to air pollution exposure. A new study shows that it could also affect the way our brain functions.

A study from Italy, published in a science journal called iScience, found a really important clue in our genes. It seems that when we breathe in polluted air, it can actually change how our genes work in the brain. Think of it like flipping a switch that creates the perfect conditions for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to start growing.

Early Warning Signs and High-Risk Groups

The researchers saw some worrying changes even in young adults. Their brain tissue showed signs of DNA damage that looked a lot like what you'd see in someone with Alzheimer's – but decades before they would normally be diagnosed. This is a huge red flag.

Certain jobs also put people at a higher risk. If you're a miner, factory worker, or driver, you're exposed to more polluted air. Even people who work with plastics face a hidden danger from tiny particles called nanoparticles that can get into their brains.

But here's some good news: this discovery could mean doctors can check for these changes without needing to do anything invasive, like surgery. They might be able to test for something called extracellular vesicles. These are like tiny packages that carry material from damaged brain cells. So, if we can test for these packages, it could give us an early warning sign from the brain itself.

Understanding the Complexities and Taking Precautions

It's clear that being generally unhealthy and breathing polluted air from a young age can increase your risk of these brain conditions. However, we still need a lot more research to fully understand how everything is connected. Experts from News Medical have pointed out that studying air pollution is tricky because the air we breathe in the real world is a mix of many different pollutants.

To help protect yourself on days when pollution levels are high, organizations like Asthma + Lung UK suggest some simple steps:

• Stay indoors as much as possible.
• Avoid exercising outside, especially vigorous activity.
• If you're walking, try to stay away from busy roads with heavy traffic.
• Keep your car windows closed when driving in traffic.
• If you do want to be active outdoors, try to do it earlier in the day, as the air tends to be cleaner then.

Looking Ahead: Prevention and Policy

There's a big call for more research to understand how air pollution affects younger people and other parts of our brain's thinking abilities. The results of this research could lead to exciting new ways to prevent these diseases. It could also push for better safety rules in workplaces, stricter environmental standards to clean up our air, and even new laws to protect public health from air pollution.

Nature is filled with amazing flora and fauna, all with different sets of abilities and unique features. While considered impossible for humans, there are many animals that can regenerate part of their bodies. Sea creatures like starfish and octopuses can regenerate their limbs in case they get hurt or have to decapitate themselves to escape from a difficult situation. Living in the wild, these creatures evolved to adapt to the harsh nature of their surroundings.

This is not the case for humans. Many people have to live without their limbs or organs, whether it is due to being born that way or being hurt/experiencing an accident. However, taking inspiration from one such animal, researchers are looking into human limb regeneration.

Axolotls, with their unique smiles and frilly gills, have become very popular. But these friendly salamanders are more than just cute faces. Scientists are studying them because they might help us solve a big medical mystery: Can people someday grow back lost body parts, like an arm or a leg?

Why Did Researchers Pick Axolotls?

In a groundbreaking study published on June 10 in Nature Communications, Monaghan's team utilized genetically engineered axolotls that glow in the dark to better understand this astonishing process. What makes axolotls so special? They have an incredible ability to regrow any part of their body, no matter how old they are. If they lose a leg, they can grow it right back.

Even if their heart, lungs, or brain gets hurt, they can fix themselves! This amazing ability makes them champions among animals for their extreme healing powers. One of the long-standing questions in limb regrowth has been how cells "know" precisely which part of the limb to rebuild. For instance, if an axolotl loses its upper arm, it regenerates the entire arm. However, if the injury occurs further down the limb, only the lower arm and hand regrow.

Body's Internal GPS

The key to this mystery appears to be a small molecule called retinoic acid, a compound related to vitamin A and commonly found in skincare products under the name retinol. This molecule acts like a GPS, providing cells with crucial positional information, guiding them on where they are on the body and what specific part needs to be rebuilt.

How Retinoic Acid Directs Regrowth

The study's findings were compelling. When axolotls were given a drug that prevented the breakdown of retinoic acid, their limbs regenerated incorrectly, with an upper arm forming where a lower arm should have been. In contrast, axolotls not given the drug regrew their limbs normally. This strongly suggests that retinoic acid precisely instructs cells about their location and what structure to grow.

Hope for Human Healing

While we are still a long way from growing human limbs, this study is a big step in that direction. The scientists believe this research could eventually help people. We all have the same basic genetic instructions for building limbs that we used when we were developing as babies. The challenge now is to figure out how to turn those same instructions back on later in life, which axolotls can do but humans can't yet. This is one of the oldest and most exciting questions in biology. Thanks to the growing interest in axolotls, especially among kids, these unique animals are helping to advance amazing scientific discoveries. It's quite surprising how popular axolotls have become, showing up everywhere from airports to toy stores.

A red alert was issued for Wednesday, June 11, as extreme heatwaves hover over Delhi-NCR and states nearby. On Wednesday, the capital city's temperature shot up to 45.5 degrees, and marked the fifth consecutive time this month that the temperature crossed the 40-degree mark. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for the national capital.

As per the IMD's daily weather bulletin issued at 2 pm on Wednesday, "Heatwave conditions are likely to prevail at many places across Delhi-NCR."

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Dr Naresh Kumar, a senior scientist at IMD also told PTI that severe heat wave is expected across northwest India, including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. This is expected to persist until June 12. However, from June 13 onwards, one can expect wester disturbance to bring partial relief from the light rain and thunderstorms. This situation will replace the red alert with an orange alert. Dr Kumar also noted that Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir will also remain under red alert for the next three days.

The IMD data has predicted a slight dip in temperature after June 14. However, as of now, the IMD officials indicated that the temperature "feels like" 51.9. On Monday, the IMD noted that the temperature 'felt like' 49 degrees.

The heatwave not just shoots up the temperature, but also brings health issues, one can feel nauseated, dizziness, or even experience severe dehydration. However, there are some steps one could take to prevent this from happening.

READ MORE: Heatwave In India: Know How It Affects Different Parts Of Your Body

Heatwaves Impact On Eyes

The combination of heat and low humidity causes tears to evaporate faster, leading to dry eye syndrome. Symptoms include redness, itching, burning sensations, and a gritty feeling, as though something is stuck in the eye. Blurred vision and eye fatigue may also occur.

More seriously, intense UV radiation from the sun can cause photokeratitis, or sunburn of the eye. This condition damages the cornea, resulting in pain, light sensitivity, and temporary vision loss. Over time, long-term UV exposure increases the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration, both of which can cause permanent vision problems.

Ironically, trying to escape the heat can also backfire. Spending too much time in air-conditioned environments dries out the air, which further reduces moisture in the eyes, intensifying the symptoms of dry eyes.

How It Impacts Rest Of Your Body

The body maintains a stable core temperature—around 37°C—through internal mechanisms controlled by the hypothalamus. Under normal conditions, sweating helps the body release heat, but in hot and humid weather, sweat doesn’t evaporate efficiently, reducing the cooling effect.

A 1985 NASA report noted that the body can only tolerate external temperatures above 35°C if humidity is low. When it fails to cool itself properly, the body begins to store excess heat—a condition known as hyperthermia.

This begins with heat exhaustion, marked by dizziness, weakness, thirst, and nausea. A 2023 study by the University of Roehampton in the UK found that at 40°C and 25% humidity, metabolic rates jumped by 35%—even though the core body temperature remained stable, the body was clearly under stress.

If untreated, heat exhaustion can progress to heatstroke, a potentially fatal condition where the body temperature exceeds 40°C. It puts enormous strain on the heart, kidneys, and brain, and requires immediate medical attention.

CHECK THIS OUT: Foods You Should Avoid During Heat Wave

What To Do To Prevent This From Happening?

• Wear UV-Protective Sunglasses
• Stay hydrated
• Use lubricating eye drops
• Avoid direct sunlight
• Limit air conditioner exposure immediately after you enter from outside
• Avoid highly spiced or processed foods
• Avoid caffeinated and alcoholic beverages

Long have we told that air pollution causes adverse affects to our health, the sources are multiple, including power-plant emission. However, in a controversial move, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Trump administration proposed a new ruling this week declaring that carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants "do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution". The ruling contradicts decades of climate science, and has also sparked strong criticism from the scientific community.

To assess the accuracy of the EPA's claim, the Associated Press (AP) reached out to 30 scientists from diverse fields including climate science, public health, and economics. Nineteen of them responded and not even one of them agreed with the EPA's position. Many even went so far as to call the ruling scientifically invalid and misleading.

"It Is Like Saying Smoking Doesn't Cause Cancer"

Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist affiliated with Stripe and Berkeley Earth, called the EPA’s assertion “the scientific equivalent to saying that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.”

“The relationship between CO2 emissions and global temperatures has been well established since the late 1800s,” he said, noting that coal burning remains the single largest source of global CO2 emissions, followed by oil and gas. “It is utterly nonsensical to say that carbon emissions from power plants do not contribute significantly to climate change.”

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, echoed this sentiment: “It’s about as valid as saying that arsenic is not a dangerous substance to consume.”

Howard Frumkin, former director of the National Center for Environmental Health, was equally direct. “The world is round, the sun rises in the east, coal- and gas-fired power plants contribute significantly to climate change, and climate change increases the risk of heatwaves, catastrophic storms, infectious diseases, and many other health threats. These are indisputable facts.”

What Could The Denial Cost?

Economist R. Daniel Bressler of Columbia University emphasized the quantifiable consequences. “In my past work, I found that adding just one year’s worth of emissions from an average-sized coal-fired plant in the U.S. causes 904 expected temperature-related deaths and over $1 billion in total climate damages.”

Kathy Jacobs, a climate scientist from the University of Arizona, said the EPA’s statement contradicts “evidence presented by thousands of scientists from almost 200 countries for decades.”

Others pointed out the simplicity of the science being denied. “It’s basic chemistry and physics,” said Oregon State University’s Phil Mote. “We’ve known these facts since the mid-19th century.”

Andrew Weaver, former Canadian MP and professor at the University of Victoria, called the EPA’s stance a “wanton betrayal of future generations.”

Stanford’s Chris Field, who led a major international climate report, added: “It’s hard to imagine a decision dumber than putting the short-term interests of oil and gas companies ahead of the long-term interests of our children and grandchildren.”

EPA's Own Contradictory Findings

While EPA has recently released this ruling, the previous reports in its website say otherwise and in fact have made claims which contradicts its recent finding. A report from February 2025, titled: 'Human Health & Environmental Impacts of the Electric Power Sector' notes:

“Elevated concentrations of ground-level ozone and fine particles...can lead to heart attacks, asthma attacks, stroke, increased susceptibility to respiratory infection, and other serious health effects. Every year, pollution from power plants causes fine particle- and ozone-related premature deaths, new asthma cases, heart attacks, and lost school and work days.”

The report also highlights mercury emissions from power plants as a significant threat to children's neurological development. It further labels electric power generation as the second-largest source of carbon dioxide pollution, contributing to climate change with serious consequences for ecosystems and public health.

The report notes that there are more than 3,400 fossil fuel-fired power plants in the US. All these "power plants are the largest stationary source category of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions and a significant source of mercury and fine particle emissions."

What Do Other Findings Say?

As per the American Lung Association, many of fuels used in power generation emit harmful pollutants when burned. The most significant health impacts, it notes, comes from the air emissions from burning fossil fuel, in particular, though not exclusively, from coal-burning power plants.

The emissions have direct impacts and can cause cancer, especially when sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and mercury is released in the air.

Particle pollutions are also contributing factors to it, since the particles are tiny, they can blow hundreds of miles from the source. As per the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), fine particle pollution from the US power plants cuts short the lives of nearly 24,000 people each year, including 2800 from lung cancer.

CATF also notes that power plant pollution is responsible for 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks per year. People who live in metropolitan areas near coal-fired plants fell the impacts more acutely.