Mount Sinai, Uniformed Services University join forces to predict and prevent diseases before they start

Multidisciplinary study uses blood samples to identify disease years early, including cancers, heart disease, and autoimmune disorders

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

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NEW YORK, NY (March 2, 2026)—What if doctors could tell you a disease was coming years before you felt a single symptom—and stop it in its tracks? That is the goal of a sweeping new research initiative launched by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in collaboration with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF).

The project, called “ORIGIN: Omics to Characterize Preclinical Stages of Non-Infectious Diseases,” brings together 10 specialties across Mount Sinai Health System in an ambitious multidisciplinary disease-prevention study.

The study will analyze stored blood samples from up to 13,000 active-duty U.S. service members, drawn years before any diagnosis, using advanced molecular “omics” tools such as proteomics, exposomics, metabolomics, genomics, and more. By identifying risk factors and early warning signals, ORIGIN aims to lay the groundwork for predicting and ultimately preventing some of today’s most common and devastating diseases.

A Decade of Partnership, Now Expanded to a Global Scale

“For years, we have dreamed of being able to tell a patient: ‘We see this coming, and here is what we can do about it,’” said Jean-Frédéric Colombel, MD, Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology) and Co-Director, The Helmsley Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Co-Principal Investigator, ORIGIN. “ORIGIN is the realization of that dream. By studying the blood of service members years before they get sick, we can map the molecular road to disease and ultimately develop tools to change course. This is medicine at its most proactive, and it could benefit not just military families, but every American.”

For more than a decade, Dr. Colombel has partnered with USU researchers to study inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in military personnel using the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR), which contains millions of longitudinal blood samples. Their research identified molecular signals in the blood years before IBD was diagnosed.

ORIGIN dramatically expands that model. Where the earlier effort focused on one disease, ORIGIN will study more than 25 conditions simultaneously, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, neurodegenerative disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), colon cancer, lung cancer, and heart failure. The effort is powered by the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai (PrIISM), whose cross-disciplinary model is specifically designed to break down the walls that traditionally separate medical specialties—enabling cardiologists, immunologists, neurologists, oncologists, and environmental and data scientists to work as one team.

Why the Military? A Unique Window Into Human Health

U.S. military service members receive comprehensive, routine health monitoring from the moment they enlist, creating an extraordinary long-term medical record that is unlike anything available in the civilian world. The DoDSR holds serial blood samples from millions of service members, many collected a decade or more before any illness emerged. For researchers, this is a scientific treasure.

ORIGIN will use this resource to answer questions that have never been answerable before, including:

• What is happening in the body five years before someone is diagnosed with lupus?
• What molecular changes precede early-onset colon cancer—a disease on the rise in younger adults—by three years?
• How do military-specific environmental exposures like burn pits and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, aka “forever chemicals,” which are found at more than 700 U.S. military sites) alter the body’s biology and raise disease risk?

USU’s data analysts will select and match cases and controls from the Military Health System Data Repository, coordinate with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division to deidentify all records, and ensure the proper governance and security of the data and serum before it is shared with the Mount Sinai research team for analysis.

“The men and women warfighters of this country deserve cutting-edge medical care,” said Daniel J. Adams, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at USU and USU’s Principal Investigator for ORIGIN. “Our collaboration with Mount Sinai directly advances our USU mission to support the readiness, health, and well-being of our military community, using the unparalleled resource of the DoD Serum Repository to decode the early biology of chronic diseases. The insights from ORIGIN will help us protect service members today and advance medicine for decades to come.”

Breaking Medical Silos: The PrIISM Approach

One of the most exciting aspects of ORIGIN is the way it is structured. ORIGIN is designed to break from the traditional model of studying one disease at a time. Instead, 10 departments across Mount Sinai Health System are collaborating under PrIISM to look for shared biological pathways across different conditions.

Using advanced “omics” technologies, researchers will analyze proteins, metabolites, environmental exposures, and immune responses from blood samples, integrating these data through sophisticated computational modeling. By uncovering common molecular roots of disease, the team hopes to develop treatments and prevention strategies that work across multiple conditions—and ultimately reclassify illness based on molecular biology rather than the organ it affects.

“ORIGIN is exactly the kind of bold, boundary-breaking science that PrIISM was built to support,” said Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Director, PrIISM, and Mount Sinai’s Co-Principal Investigator for ORIGIN. “By uniting 10 departments and bridging the worlds of military medicine and academic research, we are creating something entirely new—a molecular atlas of how disease begins. The potential to prevent illness before it starts, and to rewrite how we classify and treat dozens of conditions, is truly transformative for patients everywhere.”

A Study With Real-World Impact

The study timeline covers samples collected between October 2003 and September 2025, and the project is expected to run for at least 10 years—with findings that could reshape clinical guidelines, drug development, and public health policy for generations.

Diseases targeted by ORIGIN include conditions that are increasingly common among younger Americans, such as early-onset colon cancer, PTSD, and Crohn’s disease, making its findings urgently relevant far beyond the military community.

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About the Mount Sinai Health System 

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it. 

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 10 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2025-2026.  

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube. 

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Subject of Research

People

ECO CRIMINALS

Here's why Trump is dangerously wrong about how climate change threatens our health

The Conversation
February 14, 2026 

The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Thursday, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding — a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.

But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.

As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Extreme heat

Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.

Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.

Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.

Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.

Extreme weather

Warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change brings increasing rainfall and storm intensity and worsening flooding, as many U.S. communities have experienced in recent years. Warmer ocean water also fuels more powerful hurricanes.

Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.

Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a set-up for wildfires.
Air pollution

Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.

Wildfire smoke is a toxic soup of microscopic particles (known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5) that can penetrate deep in the lungs and hazardous compounds such as lead, formaldehyde and dioxins generated when homes, cars and other materials burn at high temperatures. Smoke plumes can travel thousands of miles downwind and trigger heart attacks and elevate lung cancer risks, among other harms.

Meanwhile, warmer conditions favor the formation of ground-level ozone, a heart and lung irritant. Burning of fossil fuels also generates dangerous air pollutants that cause a long list of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma flare-ups and lung cancer.
Infectious diseases

Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.

Mosquito-borne dengue fever has turned up in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California. New York state just saw its first locally acquired case of chikungunya virus, also transmitted by mosquitoes.

And it’s not just insect-borne infections. Warmer temperatures increase diarrhea and foodborne illness from Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria and heavy rainfall increases sewage-contaminated stormwater overflows into lakes and streams. At the other water extreme, drought in the desert Southwest increases the risk of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection known as valley fever.

Other impacts

Climate change threatens health in numerous other ways. Longer pollen seasons increase allergen exposures. Lower crop yields reduce access to nutritious foods.

Mental health also suffers, with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress following disasters, and increased rates of violent crime and suicide tied to high-temperature days.

Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.

Policy-based evidence-making

The evidence linking climate change with health has grown considerably since 2009. Today, it is incontrovertible.

Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year. This evidence also aligns with Americans’ lived experiences. Anybody who has fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health.


Yet the Trump administration is willfully ignoring this evidence in proclaiming that climate change does not endanger health.

Its move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins many climate regulations, fits with a broader set of policy measures, including cutting support for renewable energy and subsidizing fossil fuel industries that endanger public health. In addition to rescinding the endangerment finding, the Trump administration also moved to roll back emissions limits on vehicles – the leading source of U.S. carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
It’s not just about endangerment

The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.

When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air — and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.

To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.

By Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University; Howard Frumkin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington;

Jonathan PatzProfessor of Environmental Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Vijay LimayeAdjunct Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This article includes material from a story originally published Nov. 12, 2025.

US lawmaker moves to shield oil companies from climate cases


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Dozens of cases against oil copmanies modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts -- including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering

 - Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon

Issam AHMED

A US lawmaker is drafting legislation to block a wave of state and local climate-damage lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, advancing a top priority of the oil and gas industry.

Republican Representative Harriet Hageman announced the effort during a hearing on Wednesday, following a letter last year from a group of attorneys general from conservative-led states urging the creation of a federal “liability shield” similar to the one Congress granted gunmakers in 2005.

Hageman also targeted so-called climate “superfund” laws, enacted in New York and Vermont and under consideration in other states, which require fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate-related damages tied to the destabilization of the global climate system.

“Clearly, this is an area in which Congress has a role to play,” Hageman, of the oil-rich western state of Wyoming, told Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“To that end, I’m working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits that could destroy energy affordability for consumers.”

Dozens of cases modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts — including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering, meaning acting like a criminal enterprise.

Michigan last month sued oil majors in federal court, alleging they had acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy by preventing meaningful competition from renewable energy.

Environmental advocates see such lawsuits as crucial means for climate accountability as President Donald Trump’s second term has seen the United States go all-in to boost fossil fuels and block renewables.

Some cases have been dismissed, and none have yet gone to trial — though crucially, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to intervene and block them.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade group, spoke out against the cases in a keynote address last month.

Material on API’s website confirms the group wishes to “Protect US energy producers and consumers from abusive state climate lawsuits and the expansion of climate ‘superfund’ policies that bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”

Richard Wiles, president of the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement the announcement was proof “the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Any legislation however could face an uphill battle since Republicans only enjoy a slim majority in the House of Representatives and bills normally require 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold 53 seats of the 100 seats.

Greece’s Cycladic islands swept up in concrete fever


By  AFP
February 12, 2026


Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis has called the construction project on the island an 'environmental crime' - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

Yannick PASQUET

On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island’s trademark volcanic rock.

The foundations are for a hotel extension that attracted so much controversy last year that the country’s top administrative court ended up temporarily blocking its building permit.

Construction machinery still dots the site for a planned 59-room extension to the luxury resort, some of whose suites have their own swimming pools.

Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis calls the project an “environmental crime”.

“The geological uniqueness of Milos is known worldwide. We don’t want its identity to change,” he told AFP in his office, adorned with a copy of the island’s most famous export, the Hellenistic-era statue of the love goddess Venus.

Fuelled by a tourism boom, real estate fever has broken out across the Cyclades archipelago, threatening to destroy iconic landscapes of whitewashed houses and blue church domes.

In December, several mayors from the Cyclades as well as the Dodecanese — which includes the highly touristic islands of Rhodes and Kos — sounded the alarm.

“The very existence of our islands is threatened,” they warned in a resolution initiated by the mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos.

Tourism has become “a field for planting luxury residences to sell or rent,” said Zorzos, whose island — a top global destination — welcomes roughly 3.5 million visitors for a population of 15,500.



– Rejecting ‘plunder’ –



The “Cycladic islands are not grounds for pharaonic projects”, the mayors continued.

V Tourism, the company operating the hotel, argues that the expansion was approved in 2024 with “favourable opinions from all competent authorities”.

But Mikelis, the mayor, noted that there are legislation “loopholes” when it comes to construction.

Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece’s most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.

With its spectacular white formations rounded by erosion, the so-called ‘moon beach’ has bathers packed tighter than an astronaut’s suit during summertime.

Yet Sarakiniko is not protected under Greek law.

Another hotel project there was blocked last year, and the environment ministry has given the owners a month’s time to fill in its construction dig.



– ‘Voracious’ –



Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, says what is happening in the Cyclades “is voracious, predatory real estate”.

Once marginal land intended for grazing “have become lucrative assets. (Locals) are offered very attractive prices that are still low for investors.”

“Then you build or resell for ten times more,” he said.

In Ios, a small island with a vibrant nightlife, a single investor — a Greek who made a fortune on Wall Street — now owns 30 percent of the island, the mayors said in their December statement.

Tourism contributes between 28 and 33.7 percent of GDP, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), making it a key sector that has propped up the country’s economy for decades.

Arrivals have been breaking record after record with more than 40 million visitors in 2024, a performance that was likely surpassed in 2025.

In Milos, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants, 48 new hotel projects are currently underway, according to the mayor, and 157 new building permits were awarded from January to the end of October 2025, according to the state statistical body.

On Paros, which has also experienced a real estate frenzy for several years, 459 building permits were granted over the same period, and on Santorini, 461.

The most ambitious projects in Greece are classified as “strategic investments”, a fast-track procedure created in 2019 to facilitate investments deemed priorities.

But “there’s often no oversight,” said Spilanis, the academic.



– Golden goose –



And many of the new constructions are far removed from traditional Cycladic architecture.

But the tourism industry is a vital source of income on islands which are usually deserted in winter, and offering few other job prospects.

“This island is a diamond, but unfortunately in recent years it’s become nothing but money, money, money,” fumes a resident who spends half the year in Germany.

“But if I say that in public, everyone will jump down my throat!” she said.

In a 2024 report, the state ombudsman of the Hellenic Republic stressed the deterioration in quality of life on islands where residents can no longer find housing, as many owners prioritise lucrative short-term rentals, while waste management and water resources are also under major strain.

But there are signs of a slowdown in the Cyclades.

Santorini last year saw a 12.8-percent drop in air arrivals between June and September, while Mykonos had to settle for a meagre 2.4-percent increase.

INDIA


No Debate on Air Pollution in Parliament This Session, Minister Makes Untrue Claim on AQI and Disease Link

Aathira Perinchery
20/Dec/2025

THE WIRE

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju blamed members of the opposition for ‘stalling’ the debate on air pollution.

Union Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh, centre, interacts with Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, back right, and others during the Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. Photo: PTI.

Bengaluru: Delhi has been witnessing very high levels of air pollution for consecutive days now but the parliament did not discuss the issue for the entirety of the Winter Session, from December 1 to 19.

Meanwhile, the union government has claimed in parliament that there is no proof for any direct link between air pollution and ill health – this time, lung diseases.

In a written reply on Thursday, December 18, the minister of state of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh said that there is “no conclusive data” to establish a “direct correlation between higher AQI levels and lung diseases”.

No debate in parliament

The Air Quality Index (AQI, a measure of air pollution that takes into account major pollutants in the atmosphere such as fine particulate matter) in Delhi at 4 pm on December 19 was 374, according to the daily bulletin by the Central Pollution Control Board.

This marks the ninth consecutive day that air quality in the national capital has been in the “Very Poor” or “Severe” category this month. The AQI in the city on December 18 according to the CPCB was 373. This is the worst air quality that Delhi has witnessed in December since 2018, Hindustan Times had reported.

The parliament was supposed to discuss the issue of air pollution in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. However, this did not happen and was pushed to the next day. It was not discussed on this day — the final day of the Parliament’s Winter Session, December 19 — either.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju blamed members of the opposition for ‘stalling’ the debate on air pollution, claiming that the Union government had been ready to discuss it.

“…[T]he opposition’s behaviour during the debate in Lok Sabha on Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill was unacceptable. Some of the opposition members even stood atop the desks of the table office and (Lok Sabha) Secretary General. Some Congress members also conveyed that there was no need for a debate on pollution. That is why the issue could not be taken up for discussion,” PTI quoted him as saying on Friday, December 19.

No ‘conclusive data’

A day before, on December 18, junior environment minister Kirti Vardhan Singh had said that said that there is “no conclusive data” to establish a “direct correlation between higher AQI levels and lung diseases”.
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Singh was responding to questions posed by Laxmikant Bajpayee, a Member of Parliament from the same party that Singh belongs to — the Bharatiya Janata Party. Bajpayee, an Ayurveda physician by training, had asked if the government “is aware that studies and medical tests have confirmed that due to prolonged hazardous AQI levels in Delhi/NCR, masses are developing lung fibrosis, an irreversible reduction in lung capacity”.

He also asked whether the lung elasticity (the ability of lungs to expand while breathing) of citizens in the Delhi-NCR has drastically reduced to almost 50% as compared to lung elasticity of citizens living in cities having good AQI levels, and if the government proposes any solution to save the millions of the city’s residents from deadly diseases like pulmonary fibrosis, COPD, reduced lung function and continuously declining lung elasticity due to air pollution.

Singh replied that while air pollution is one of the “triggering factors” for respiratory ailments and associated diseases, there is “no conclusive data which establishes a direct correlation between higher AQI levels and lung diseases”.

Singh is wrong.

Numerous scientific studies show a clear link between air pollution and lung diseases. And higher AQI levels reflect higher levels of pollution — a concept that the union environment ministry too relies on to issue advisories when pollution levels worsen. On December 13, for instance, an order of the Commission for Air Quality Management had advised children, the elderly and people with respiratory, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular or other chronic diseases to avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors “as much as possible”, and to wear masks if required to move outdoors — because Delhi’s AQI had reached 448 that evening, and was in the “Severe” category.

Why Singh is wrong

A 2025 study published in the journal Environmental Pollution analysed air quality data from two monitoring stations in Tamil Nadu across four years and screened 3,549 patients for respiratory illnesses. The researchers (from institutes including the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis under the Indian Council of Medical Research — the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research) found a “strong correlation between pollution levels and respiratory diseases”.

Another study published in Scientific Reports in 2023 found a “significant positive correlation” between high AQI levels in India and a higher rate of lung cancer (though it also found that factors such as smoking habits and occupational exposures may “obscure” this relationship).

A study published this year analysed the relationship between respiratory diseases and air pollution across 27 countries including India over a four-year period (2018–2021). It found that overall, higher pollutant levels correlated with an increased number of COPD cases.

“This aligns with known biological mechanisms where these pollutants exacerbate airway inflammation and chronic respiratory damage,” the study noted.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a lung disease that causes restricted airflow and breathing problems. According to the World Health Organisation, smoking and air pollution are the most common causes of COPD, which is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. It is incurable.

Indian researchers are even trying to develop methods to predict lung disease severity based on the AQI. A study by Indian scientists that was presented at last year’s Asian Conference on Intelligent Technologies developed a way to predict air quality using image data and then assess lung disease severity based on AQI. Their models had very high testing accuracies (around 87% for AQI and 97% for lung disease severity), the preprint of their study shows.

‘CAQM is working on this’

Singh in his response in Parliament on Thursday also said that the government has established the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) under the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 “for better coordination, research, identification and resolution of problems of air pollution” in the Delhi- NCR and adjoining areas.

He added that the CAQM has been provided powers under the Act to take measures and issue directions to various agencies in the NCR and has been addressing the issue of air pollution in a “collective, collaborative and participative” way, involving all major stakeholders, Singh said.

Currently, the CAQM has imposed Stage 4 of the Graded Action Response Plan, which are a series of progressively restrictive measures that the Delhi-NCR region has to implement with worsening AQI levels to curb dust, fumes and other sources of air pollution.

Under Stage 4, measures include barring the entry of non-BS VI vehicles into Delhi, halting construction activity, and no fuel for vehicles without a PUC certificate.

However, allegations of rampant, ongoing construction have surfaced during this time. On December 16, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj had posted a video on social media to show that construction is still progressing unrestrained even within Delhi limits.

GRAP 4 is bullshit !!

Under the patronage of BJP’s high profile Minister, right under GRAP 4, construction going on throughout the night at Delhi

Totally illegal construction in 2.5 acre farmhouse !!

H-14 Pushpanjali farms, Delhi

Guess the name of the Minister ?@MCD_Delhi pic.twitter.com/s6IIqq3ws1

— Saurabh Bharadwaj (@Saurabh_MLAgk) December 16, 2025

Government Says it Has No Data to Link Deaths, Diseases With Air Pollution


The Wire Staff
10/Dec/2025

In its answer to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien, junior health minister Prataprao Jadhav admitted that “air pollution is one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases”.

A woman crosses a road while covering her face to shield herself from pollution as air quality continues to worsen across northern India, in Gurugram, Haryana, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. Photo: PTI.

New Delhi: The Union government has said in parliament that there is “no conclusive national data to establish a direct correlation between deaths or diseases occurring exclusively due to air pollution” at a time when the pollution in several Indian cities and most visibly, the national capital, has been a major source of concern and ill health.

The level of pollutants in Delhi’s air has sparked protests from residents, and their heavy-handed quelling by law enforcement.

In its answer to a question by Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien, junior health minister Prataprao Jadhav said that “air pollution is one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases”.

O’Brien had asked:

Will the Minister of Health and Family Welfare be pleased to state:-

(a) whether it is a fact that over 1.7 million deaths in 2022 were attributable to PM2.5 in the country;
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(b) whether it is also a fact that outdoor air pollution caused losses of about 9.5 per cent of GDP;

(c) Government’s official estimate of deaths from air pollution in the last five years State/UT-wise;

(d) whether Government has assessed the economic loss due to air pollution, if so, the details thereof; and

(e) whether any plan has been formulated to reduce PM2.5 exposure with time-bound targets, if so, the details thereof?

In reply, Jadhav said, “There is no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/ disease exclusively due to air pollution. Air pollution is one of the triggering factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases.”

He then appeared to attribute the impact of air pollution on the human body to a multitude of factors, saying, “Health effects of air pollution are synergistic manifestation of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socioeconomic status, medical history, immunity, heredity, etc. of the individuals.”

In an annexure, Jadhav listed the “several steps” taken by the Union government to “address air pollution issues.”

It cited the implementation of National Programme for Climate Change and Human Health (NPCCHH) under which it has developed a “Health Adaptation Plan” on health issues due to Air Pollution and a “State Action Plan” on climate change and human health for all 36 State/UTs.

“This State specific Action Plan contains dedicated chapter on air pollution which suggests interventions to reduce the impact,” the government said.

The Union government also cited health ministry public health advisories to states and Union territories “suggesting ways to reduce the impact of air pollution” and nationwide public awareness campaigns on World Environment Day (5th June), International Day of
Clean Air for blue skies (7th September) and National Pollution Control Day (2nd December) as ways in which it has tried to beat the effects of air pollution on health.

The government claimed it has developed “dedicated training modules” for programme managers, medical officers and nurses, nodal officers, women and children, traffic police, frontline workers like ASHA, and so on.

It also cited communication material on air pollution-related illnesses, capacity building workshops for state-level trainers, early warning systems, the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana “which aims to safeguard the health of women and children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel”.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched National Clean Air programme in 2019 as a national-level strategy to reduce air pollution levels across the country, the government said in its reply.

 

SLU research shows surge in alcohol-related liver disease driving ‘deaths of despair’

Saint Louis University

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St. Louis, MO — Researchers at Saint Louis University School of Medicine say deaths from alcohol-related liver disease have surged in recent years, and the increase is hitting people without a college degree the hardest. While nearly every demographic group is seeing higher death rates—including those with college degrees—the gap between economically disadvantaged groups and more affluent ones is growing, according to new research published in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Alcohol-related liver disease is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Experts say its growing impact can’t be explained by changes in drinking habits alone. Instead, the data reveal a troubling trend: even when drinking patterns are similar, people with fewer economic resources suffer more severe health consequences.

In the study, researchers looked at alcohol-related liver disease death rates among Americans aged 25 and older to explore whether these patterns fit the “deaths of despair” theory—rising mortality among working-age adults without a college degree linked to worsening social and economic conditions and health-related challenges.

“Alcohol-related liver disease is claiming lives at an accelerating pace, and the burden falls hardest on those with fewer resources,” said Richard Grucza, Ph.D., professor of family and community medicine at SLU and lead author of the study. “This isn’t just about drinking—it’s about the complex interplay of social, economic, and potentially modifiable health risk factors that put certain populations at greater risk.”

Key Findings

The study shows deaths from alcohol-related liver disease jumped 63% between 2001 and 2020, rising from nine to 17 deaths per 100,000 people. While rates climbed across nearly all groups, the increases were uneven:

• White Americans experienced the steepest increases, while rates among Black Americans remained relatively stable.
• Women experienced a bigger proportional increase than men, likely due to changing drinking patterns and their higher biological vulnerability to liver damage.
• Among women without a college degree—especially women over 45—the rise was sharpest, echoing the “deaths of despair” trend tied to economic hardship.
• Alcohol-related liver disease death rates among college-educated women nearly doubled.
• Young adults aged 25–34 faced almost triple the risk, and rates also surged among those aged 55–64.

The gap between education levels widened dramatically. For example, middle-aged men aged 55–74 without a college degree now face death rates as high as 50 per 100,000. Researchers say these disparities likely reflect a mix of factors—such as obesity, diabetes, smoking, and binge drinking—combined with social and economic stress.

The findings underscore the need for targeted alcohol guidelines and interventions that address medical, behavioral, and social risks, especially for vulnerable groups.

Other study authors include Joel Jihwan Hwang, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D., AHEAD Research Institute, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Jennifer K. Bello-Kottenstette, M.D., Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Sarah C. Gebauer, M.D., AHEAD Research Institute, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Ruizhi Huang; Joanne Salas, AHEAD Research Institute, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Jinmyoung Cho, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; Jeffrey Scherrer, Ph.D., AHEAD Research Institute, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine; and Kevin Young Xu, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

About Saint Louis University 

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic research institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 13,300 students a rigorous, transformative education that challenges and prepares them to make the world a better place. As a nationally recognized leader in research and innovation, SLU is an R1 research university, advancing groundbreaking, life-changing discoveries that promote the greater good.

About Saint Louis School of Medicine

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: cancer, liver disease, heart/lung disease, aging and brain disease, and infectious diseases.

About AHEAD Institute

The Advanced HEAlth Data (AHEAD) Research Institute at Saint Louis University is a comprehensive center for data-driven innovation and research to improve the health of individuals and populations. The institute brings together researchers from various fields and disciplines to help improve patient and population health, advance the quality of health care and decrease health care costs. The new institute will utilize and develop data resources, novel analytic methods, predictive modeling, machine learning, and integrated wearable health devices and collaborate with national research networks.

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Journal

Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research

DOI

10.1111/acer.70194 

Article Title

Educational disparities in alcohol-related liver disease mortality in the 21st century: Beyond deaths of despair?