It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, December 04, 2022
Tomography shows high potential of copper sulphide solid-state batteries
HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM BERLIN FÜR MATERIALIEN UND ENERGIE
IMAGE: 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FORMATION OF A COPPER CRYSTALLITE IN A COPPER SULFIDE PARTICLE (CUS) DURING THE DISCHARGE OF A LITHIUM CUS SOLID-STATE BATTERY. THE VOLUME EXPANSION CAN LEAD TO THE FORMATION OF CRACKS (BLUE).view more
CREDIT: K. DONG / HZB
Solid-state batteries (SSBs) are currently regarded as a promising battery technology of the future. Compared to the current lithium-ion batteries, which are used in mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles, SSBs could achieve even higher energy densities and better safety. In addition to research institutes, all major automotive companies are therefore also researching this technology. The main feature of the technology is that the highly flammable liquid electrolytes of lithium-ion batteries are replaced by a solid. The entire battery is therefore consists of only "solid materials", hence the name solid-state battery. In order to produce such a battery, different materials (anode, cathode and electrolyte) must be pressed together under high pressure.
Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and Hereon, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing have now succeeded in observing the processes within such a solid-state battery during charging and discharging. The team led by Prof. Philipp Adelhelm and Dr. Ingo Manke investigated the behavior of copper sulfide, a naturally occurring mineral, as a cathode in a solid-state battery. Lithium was used as anode. A special feature of the battery is that large copper crystallites form during discharge. The formation of large crystallites enables a detailed investigation of the reaction by means of X-ray tomography. Thus, the (dis)charge reaction could be traced in 3D and for the first time the movement of the cathode particles within the battery could be tracked. In addition, it was shown that cracking can be effectively reduced by higher pressure. "For the complex measurements, we had to make some compromises and carry out many reference experiments," explains Dr. Zhenggang Zhang and Dr. Kang Dong, the joint first authors of the publication. "However, the results provide detailed insights into the inner workings of a solid-state battery and show how its properties can be improved."
Note:
The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (NASEBER and KAROFEST projects) and the China Scholarship Council. At Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, research into solid-state batteries using tomography will soon be further expanded. For example, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the construction of a new tomography laboratory (TomoFestBattLab) with 1.86 million euros.
PULLMAN, Wash. – A common chemotherapy drug could carry a toxic inheritance for children and grandchildren of adolescent cancer survivors, Washington State University-led research indicates.
The study, published online in iScience, found that male rats who received the drug ifosfamide during adolescence had offspring and grand-offspring with increased incidence of disease. While other research has shown that cancer treatments can increase patients’ chance of developing disease later in life, this is one of the first-known studies showing that susceptibility can be passed down to a third generation of unexposed offspring.
“The findings suggest that if a patient receives chemotherapy, and then later has children, that their grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, may have an increased disease susceptibility due to their ancestors’ chemotherapy exposure,” said Michael Skinner, a WSU biologist and corresponding author on the study.
Skinner emphasized that the findings should not dissuade cancer patients from undertaking chemotherapy since it can be a very effective treatment. Chemotherapy drugs kill cancerous cells and prevent them from multiplying, but have many side-effects since they impact the whole body, including reproductive systems.
Given this study’s implications, the researchers recommend that cancer patients who plan to have children later take precautions, such as using cryopreservation to freeze sperm or ova before having chemotherapy.
In the study, researchers exposed a set of young male rats to ifosfamide over three days, mimicking a course of treatment an adolescent human cancer patient might receive. Those rats were later bred with female rats who had not been exposed to the drug. The resulting offspring were bred again with another set of unexposed rats.
The first-generation offspring had some exposure to the chemotherapy drug since their fathers’ sperm was exposed, but researchers found greater incidence of disease in not only the first- but also the second-generation, who had no direct exposure to the drug. While there were some differences by generation and sex, the associated problems included greater incidence of kidney and testis diseases as well as delayed onset of puberty and abnormally low anxiety, indicating a lowered ability to assess risk.
The researchers also analyzed the rats’ epigenomes, which are molecular processes that are independent of DNA sequence, but influence gene expression, including turning genes on or off. Previous research has shown that exposure to toxicants, particularly during development, can create epigenetic changes that can be passed down through sperm and ova.
The results of the researchers’ analysis showed epigenetic changes in two generations linked to the chemotherapy exposure of the originally exposed rats. The fact that these changes could be seen in the grand-offspring, who had no direct exposure to the chemotherapy drug, indicates that the negative effects were passed down through epigenetic inheritance.
Skinner and colleagues at Seattle Children’s Research Institute are currently working on a human study with former adolescent cancer patients to learn more about the effects chemotherapy exposure has on fertility and disease susceptibility later in life.
A better knowledge of chemotherapy’s epigenetic shifts could also help inform patients of their likelihood of developing certain diseases, creating the possibility of earlier prevention and treatment strategies, Skinner said.
“We could potentially determine if a person’s exposure had these epigenetic shifts that could direct what diseases they’re going to develop, and what they’re going to potentially pass on to their grandchildren,” he said. “We could use epigenetics to help diagnose whether they're going to have a susceptibility to disease.”
This research received support from The Templeton Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Skinner, co-authors include Ryan Thompson, Daniel Beck, Eric Nilsson and Millissia Ben Maamar from WSU as well as Margarett Shnorhavorian from Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
IMAGE: SEA ANEMONE AT ABOUT 9,000 METERS BELOW SEA LEVELview more
CREDIT: IMAGE BY IDSSE
A submersible pilot from China and a New Zealand scientist have become the first women to dive to Scholl Deep in the Kermadec Trench, 10 km below sea level.
The dive was undertaken by NIWA (National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand) marine biologist Dr. Kareen Schnabel and submersible pilots DENG Yuqing and YUAN Xin from the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
It was only the second crewed visit ever to explore the Scholl Deep and was done as part of a two-month scientific voyage on board the IDSSE’s research vessel Tansuoyihao.
Scholl Deep is the deepest known point of the Kermadec Trench, which lies to the north of New Zealand. The 1000 km plus long trench is almost perfectly straight, and its deepest point is at a depth greater than the height of Mt Everest.
Using the Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV) Fendouzhe, scientists collected deep-sea water samples, sediments, rocks, biological samples, and environmental data.
Dr. Schnabel and the submersible pilots spent six hours at the bottom of the sea exploring the Scholl Deep and the steep sides of the trench.
“This extraordinary submersible technology has given us the privilege of studying parts of the ocean in ways that we aren’t usually able to, giving New Zealand researchers a rare chance to explore this fascinating and fragile environment,” said Dr. Schnabel.
“Textbooks and images don’t compare to experiencing the light disappearing as you leave the surface of the ocean or seeing the deep sea floor with your own eyes. The fine sediments were covered in tracks, and we saw lots of small animals on the sea floor and in the water. It was jarring that there was still rubbish such as fishing floats and nets, even though we were more than 10,000 m below sea level,” she said.
The first leg of the voyage was successfully completed on 24 November 2022. The HOV Fendouzhe undertook 16 dives between the depth of 5,747 m and 10,000 m, in addition to the deployment of other independent samplers such as a lander, CTD (water sampler), and a gravity corer.
“It is really exciting for both Chinese and New Zealand scientists to have the opportunity to comprehensively appreciate the complexity and diversity of both the geo- and ecosystem of the Kermadec Trench,” says Dr. PENG Xiaotong, the leader of this voyage from IDSSE.
“Taking rock samples, for example, offers us a unique chance to understand the nature of the subducting and overriding plate, as well as the mechanism of the subduction initiation in Kermadec Trench,” said Dr. PENG.
“A number of the animals have been tentatively identified and are either presumed new to science or have not been seen or collected since the first sampling voyage by the Danish research vessel Galathea in the 1950s.” said Dr. Schnabel.
“It was fascinating to actually observe the tiny sea cucumbers at the bottom of the Kermadec Trench, which are three times smaller in size than those we have observed previously in the Mariana Trench. These sorts of differences between trenches show that mysteries remain as to how animals are adapted to live in extremely deep environments,” said Dr. ZHANG Haibin, a marine biologist from IDSSE.
The vessel has returned to Auckland for re-supply and staff change-over. The second leg will be completed before the end of December with another 16 dives planned. The voyage includes scientists from NIWA, IDSSE, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, Zhejiang University, Hainan Tropical Ocean University and BGI-Qingdao.
NIWA scientist Dr Daniel Leduc, who dove in the submersible in the north of the trench at 9110 m, said the samples obtained represent a step-change in our understanding of the biodiversity of New Zealand’s deepest marine environment.
“We saw highly diverse seafloor communities even at great depths and discovered strange and rarely seen organisms such as the upside-down angler fish. As we go deeper into the trench, seafloor ecosystems become dominated by small organisms, which will need to be examined using light and electron microscopy back on land. I expect we will find many new species,” he said.
IDSSE and NIWA will continue their collaboration following the voyage to analyse the large number of samples obtained to give a better understanding of New Zealand’s deepest environment, and the impacts that humans may have on it.
Human Occupied Vehicle Fendouzhe retrieved by Tansuoyihao
Rocks covered with a variety of organisms at water depth of about 6000 meters
CREDIT
Image by IDSSE
About the Kermadec Trench
The Kermadec Trench is approximately 1000 km long and 120 km at its widest. It runs from the East Cape of Aotearoa New Zealand towards Tonga, where it continues as the Tonga Trench. The Kermadec Trench is formed by the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate. It is one of the deepest trenches worldwide, with its deepest point approximately 10,000 m deep below the ocean surface.
About HOV Fendouzhe
Manned submersible that is capable of diving to 11,000m depth carrying three personnel. It is used for observing the bottom of the sea, taking HD video, and collecting rock, sediment, and biological samples. The duration of routine HOV diving is around 12 hours, and for a routine dive the HOV is deployed in the early morning and recovered late in the same day.
About IDSSE
IDSSE is an oceanographic research institute devoted to deep-sea scientific research and the development of new deep-sea technologies. Two Human Occupied Vehicles, Shenhaiyongshi and Fendouzhe with maximum operating depths of 4,500 m and 11,000 m, respectively, are managed and operated by IDSSE. Together with two research vessels and series of deep-sea landers, they form the integrated deep-sea research platform open to the public. Global Trench Exploration and Diving programme (Global-TREnD) was recently initiated by IDSSE to advance humanity’s understanding of the geology and biology in the deepest parts of the world’s ocean.
About NIWA
Crown Research Institute NIWA is New Zealand's leading environmental science and applied research service provider, specialising in atmospheric, freshwater, and marine research. NIWA work at the forefront of some of the most critical environmental issues facing the planet, and our staff are recognised as international experts in their fields.
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
A new test quickly and easily detects scopolamine (devil's breath) and MDPV (monkey dust) in saliva and drinks
IMAGE: A NEW TEST QUICKLY AND EASILY DETECTS DEVIL'S BREATH AND MONKEY DUST IN SALIVA AND DRINKSview more
CREDIT: UPV
According to recent studies, sexual assault with chemical submission of victims already amount to 20.9% of cases. The main drug used in these rapes is alcohol, although assailants also use other psychotropic substances, such as scopolamine (SCP), popularly known as devil’s breath, which is very difficult to detect because its trace disappears very quickly in the body.
The new test devised by researchers of the Instituto IDM of the UPV, CIBER-BBN and the BAM Institute can quickly detect the drugs “in just fifteen minutes,” according to the researchers who developed the test. For this purpose, the authors have designed a test strip containing a nanosensor loaded with a fluorescent indicator (rhodamine B) and activated by a molecular gate that responds specifically in the presence of the drug. The response of the test can be read using a mobile phone.
“With a mobile and in less than a quarter of an hour, we can find out if there has been an attempted sexual assault by chemical submission with this drug. All that is needed is a small sample of saliva or drink and to dip the strip in – if there is any drug present the level of fluorescence increases quickly, because of the release of the dye from the nanosensor. After 15 minutes a photo is taken with the mobile and compared with a sample that doesn’t contain the drug, determining in this way the presence of scopolamine,” explains Eva María Garrido from the Instituto IDM at the Universitat Politècnica de València.
Monkey dust and other substances
In addition to the detection of scopolamine, the test developed by the team of the UPV, CIBER-BBN and BAM can detect MDPV (methylenedioxypyrovalerone). “It can simultaneously detect both drugs with the same sample of saliva or drink, and it can be extended to other substances.”
“The psychoactive substance most frequently associated with sexual assault with chemical submission is alcohol, but there are drugs that can incapacitate the victim. These include monkey dust, but also ketamine, GHB or flunitrazepam. Our system, thanks to its versatility, can be adapted also to detect these and other substances in liquid samples. And most importantly, whatever the case, anyone can use it, without needing expert knowledge,” highlights Ramón Martínez Máñez.
The team of the IDM and CIBER-BBN have validated these new tests in different kinetic release assays developed in their laboratories at the Universitat Politècnica de València and in collaboration with the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in Berlin.
Plastic waste is one of the most significant ecological and economic problems of our time. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a research team has now introduced a chemical–biological method for upcycling polyethylene waste: catalytic cleavage is used to make carboxylic diacids that are subsequently converted into pharmacologically useful natural products by genetically engineered fungi.
Plastics are an unavoidable part of our daily lives. Estimates predict that worldwide production will rise to 1.1 billion tons annually by 2040. Accordingly, the amount of waste is rising and ending up in landfills or in the oceans. This waste is increasingly threatening to our food supply and ecosystems. Polyethylenes (PE) are particularly problematic. Although they are the most common plastics, there are limited recycling processes available. The same properties that make PEs tough and useful hinder their degradation and recycling. One problem is their hydrocarbon backbone, which has no good “break point” at which to split the polymer into pieces of defined length. This leads to broad mixtures of low-value products.
A team led by Travis J. Williams and Clay C. C. Wang at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) and Berl Oakley at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS) has now introduced a combined chemical–biological method to upcycle PE waste into valuable and complex compounds of pharmacological interest. In the first step, the team catalytically converts the PE under O2 to make a wide variety of different carboxylic diacids (hydrocarbon chains with two acid groups). In a second step, these are “fed” to fungi that make useful natural products from them. The team was able to demonstrate this using actual PE waste from the North Pacific gyre.
After the PE is split apart, any short-chain carboxylic diacids must be separated from the mixture, as they are toxic to the fungi. These can be used as feedstocks for the synthesis of biodegradable plastics for agriculture, for example. Longer chain diacids with more than ten carbon atoms can be used to feed Aspergillus nidulans fungal cultures. Fungi grow fast, are inexpensive to cultivate, and are already in broad use for producing drugs, including antibiotics like penicillin. The team developed a robust strategy to genetically modify the metabolic pathways of A. nidulans so that the fungus synthesizes the desired products in high yield. As example substances, they produced asperbenzaldehyde, citreoviridin, and mutilin natural products that are starting materials in the search for drugs to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer, or agents against antibiotic resistant bacteria. With this strategy, a broad palette of additional bioactive substances could be generated from PE waste.
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About the Author
Dr. Clay C. C. Wang is the Department Chair and Professor of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is also a Professor of Chemistry at USC. His research program focuses on the interface of chemistry and biological sciences. His lab has been studying Aspergillus nidulans as a general host for the production of fungal natural products.
IMAGE: WILDFLOWER STRIPS DEPLOYED IN WASHINGTON, COMPRISING A MIX OF HALL'S ASTER, CANADA GOLDENROD, LUPINE, SUNFLOWER AND YARROW.view more
CREDIT: ELIAS BLOOM
Small patches of land given over to wildlife-friendly planting can make a big difference to pollinator conservation, a new study suggests.
Bee and other pollinator populations in Europe and North America are in decline due to a range of factors including habitat loss and insufficient flowers for food.
Scientists from Lancaster University in the UK, as well as Michigan and Washington State Universities in the US, conducted a study looking at the effectiveness of smaller wildflower planting and pollinator habitat creation.
Previous studies, as well as restoration projects, have largely focused on bigger-scale rural projects and agricultural land. Smaller spaces, such as urban gardens, land around business premises and wasteland are often overlooked by researchers looking at pollinator richness and abundance.
Although this study did not directly focus on urban sites such as city gardens, the research team wanted to find out if a landscape made up of small patches of conservation habitat can have a significant impact on pollinator diversity.
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 31 previous studies performed over the last 30 years into pollinator-friendly planting across different scales. They found an interesting trend: typically overlooked smaller plots of wildflowers, less than 500m², produced a 1.4-fold increase in pollinator abundance over control plots. Based on these findings, they designed a field study using small patches for community farms in Washington State to test this idea. Planting these 11 small patches, only 30m² big, with floral strips and nests for pollinators they saw an overall increase in the number of recorded bees - rising from 1,360 in 2014 to 3,550 in 2018.
“This work shows that you don’t need to own a huge amount of farmland to benefit bees, and although we didn’t directly look at urban plots the results suggest that even people with small gardens who want to plant a wildflower strip can make a difference,” said Dr Philip Donkersley of Lancaster University and lead author of the study. "We're seeing these huge benefits to pollinators from small-scale interventions that we used to ignore, this is hugely encouraging for both conservationists and the general public.”
The results from the field study plots show that the beneficial effects of small patches are only found where there are multiple pollinator-friendly plots relatively closer together. The benefits were significantly reduced when there are fewer small plots spread out within large landscapes, such as big areas of farmland larger than 15 hectares.
This research is supported by similar studies of little patches of pollinator-friendly plots within city environments, which have also shown to add up across a cityscape to be a huge natural resource for wild bees.
The results, published by the journal Agriculture Ecosystem and Environment, are outlined in the paper ‘A little does a lot: can small-scale planting for pollinators make a difference?’
The authors of the study are Dr Philip Donkersley and Dr Sammy Witchalls of Lancaster University, Dr Elias Bloom of Michigan State University, and Dr David Crowder of Washington State University.
IMAGE: SELIM ERDEM AYTAÇ, KOÇ UNIVERSITY, 2022view more
CREDIT: SELIM ERDEM AYTAÇ, KOÇ UNIVERSITY, 2022
Today in many countries we witness democratic backsliding that manifests itself with a lapse in political rights, civil liberties, and fair elections. At the same time, politics is increasingly characterized by hostility and distrust. Koç University Assoc. Prof. Selim Erdem Aytaç from the Department of International Relations raises the question of how the phenomenon of affective polarization might be linked to democratic backsliding.
His project “DEPOLARIZE: Affective Polarization and Democratic Attitudes” recently received a Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC). This marks the 27th grant received by Koç University professors out of a total of 47 in Turkey. With his research, Dr. Aytaç aims to establish whether there is a causal relationship between affective polarization and changes in democratic attitudes using novel empirical approaches. The project will also identify reliable and generalizable interventions to reduce affective polarization in multiple contexts.
The project will achieve these goals by producing and analyzing high-quality observational and experimental data from multiple waves of surveys in Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and the US. Dr. Aytaç highlights that these countries were selected for analyses because they present not only examples of high levels of affective polarization in society but also have recently experienced democratic backsliding to different degrees.
Community pharmacy-led vaccination scheme helped thousands of patients overcome hesitancy around Covid-19 jabs, Kingston University London research finds
Award-winning scheme saw community pharmacists support patients to understand the benefits of being jabbed against Covid-19
An award-winning scheme that saw community pharmacists support patients to understand the benefits of being jabbed against Covid-19 and overcome initial hesitancy proved hugely successful, new research by an expert from Kingston University has shown.
The Covid Champion scheme was launched by the NHS South East London Integrated Care System in July last year, at a time when there was high prevalence of the virus in areas of South London as well as low vaccination uptake. During a six-month period, more than 8,500 conversations took place between community pharmacy professionals and patients as part of the scheme. After discussing their concerns and asking questions they may have had about the vaccine and why it was important, more than 6,000 took up the offer of a jab, including more than 2,000 previously hesitant patients.
The programme, run in the boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, and its effectiveness have been evaluated by Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Kingston University, Dr Ricarda Micallef – with her findings published in MDPI’s Pharmacy Journal.
Dr Micallef said the project, which picked up an innovation and best practice award at the NHS’s annual PrescQIPP awards, found a lack of understanding of the vaccination was the biggest reason for patients’ initial hesitance – while cultural issues and risk of blood clots were also factors. “Many of the people the pharmacy teams spoke to felt they didn’t have enough information about the vaccine, couldn’t understand how it could be developed in that time-frame and be safe to administer so quickly – there was a lot of scepticism,” she said.
The scheme gave community pharmacists the opportunity to chat to patients about the Covid-19 vaccine while buying over the counter medicine or collecting a prescription from their local pharmacy. This enabled them to identify those who hadn’t been vaccinated, to debunk myths and misconceptions, answer any questions they may have and, with consent, book patients in for their first dose or signpost them to their local walk-in centre.
Dr Micallef said the trust people have in their local pharmacists was key to the success of the scheme. “Around 95 per cent of people in the UK can get to a community pharmacy within a 20-minute walk, so they are easily accessible. Because of this a lot of community pharmacists have really good relationships with residents in their area so I think that element of trust between patient and pharmacist really helped in terms of health messaging,” she said.
In addition to the work around increasing Covid-19 vaccine uptake rates, the scheme also saw NHS South East London work with Local Pharmaceutical Committees on a virtual community wellness outreach programme to support those most vulnerable in their communities. Pharmacists discussed self-care and how to improve physical and mental wellness with patients in a bid to reduce health inequalities across South East London.
The recognition for the project – also shortlisted for Health Initiative of the Year at the Chemist and Druggist Awards – highlighted the often unrecognised and undervalued work of pharmacists, Dr Micallef said. “This innovative and timely scheme really demonstrates the value of trusted relationships between communities and health professionals. It’s a fantastic example of the role community pharmacists have to play in healthcare, with their many wide-ranging skills and knowledge of their patients’ needs and concerns that can support ongoing public health initiatives.”
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 – States that legalized recreational cannabis saw a slight population-level uptick in alcohol consumption that was largely driven by young adults and men, according to new research by University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health policy scientists.
The increase in alcohol use, recently reported in JAMA Health Forum, suggests that states that legalize recreational cannabis should also consider targeted public health messaging around alcohol and other policy interventions aimed at mitigating problem drinking.
“Recreational cannabis laws have made cannabis legally accessible to nearly half of U.S. adults, but it has been unclear how this affects the use of other substances, such as alcohol,” said senior author Coleman Drake, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Pitt Public Health. “It appears that cannabis use increases the probability that people drink, at least in the three years after legalization.”
The survey inquired about any alcohol use, binge drinking and heavy drinking within the last month, and the researchers looked at differences in responses before and after recreational cannabis legalization.
Any drinking – measured as having “at least one drink of any alcoholic beverage” in the past month – increased by 1.2 percentage points in the first year after recreational cannabis was legalized, but diminished in the following two years. There was no change in binge or heavy drinking in the overall population.
When the team dove into the data, they found that the increase was driven by adults ages 18 to 24 who had a 3.7 percentage point increase in any drinking. None of the other age groups had a statistically significant increase in any drinking after cannabis legalization.
Demographically, the increase was also associated with men, non-Hispanic whites and people without some college education.
While recreational cannabis legalization was linked to a small increase in alcohol consumption, the team did not find any evidence of sustained effects on binge or heavy drinking. However, Drake noted that cannabis use has nearly doubled over the past decade, and a prior study estimated that, between 2011 and 2015, excessive alcohol use resulted in the death of over 93,000 Americans per year.
“So, it will be important to monitor whether recreational cannabis laws cause increases in drinking over longer periods of time, particularly among younger adults and men,” he said.
By zeroing in on the groups of people who may be most likely to increase risky behaviors, such as drinking more while using cannabis, states can proactively engage those communities and look for ways to mitigate risk – such as through public health campaigns or alcohol tax strategies – before recreational cannabis laws go into effect, Drake explained.
“In prior work, I found that recreational cannabis laws temporarily reduced opioid-related emergency department visits,” Drake said. “So, I would resist characterizations of cannabis legalization as categorically good or bad. We need to learn more about how cannabis legalization affects all substance use, health, and non-health outcomes, such as drug-related arrest rates, work-related injuries and labor market outcomes. Policymakers should try to think through all these costs and benefits as they consider passing recreational cannabis laws.”
Additional authors on this study are Vandana Macha, of Pitt; and Rahi Abouk, Ph.D., of William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.
About the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
Founded in 1948, the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health is a top-ranked institution of seven academic departments partnering with stakeholders locally and globally to create, implement and disseminate innovative public health research and practice. With hands-on and high-tech instruction, Pitt Public Health trains a diverse community of students to become public health leaders who counter persistent population health problems and inequities.
