A study shows that toxic flame retardants used in mattresses can seep into air and be absorbed by children

Alarming levels of highly toxic phthalates, flame retardants and UV filters in the air in small children’s bedrooms likely stems from kids’ mattresses off-gassing the chemicals, new research suggests.

The peer-reviewed study measured air in the rooms of children under four years old, and the highest volumes were detected around the kids’ beds. An accompanying study checked for the same chemicals in 16 common kids mattress brands, and found them at concerning levels in each.

Chaotic cuts to CDC hit expert leadership and programs that surveil, test and research sexually transmitted diseases

The Trump administration’s cuts to a sexually transmitted infection lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) comes as some states, such as Wisconsin, announce enormous increases in syphilis.

Syphilis mitigation is just the latest example of work in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that will be affected by the lab’s closure, as the Trump administration discards expert leadership and programs that surveil, test and research STIs amid chaotic government cuts.

Campaigners say ‘extremely vulnerable women’ are having to travel hundreds of miles to visit English clinics

Campaigners have warned Scottish ministers that they are failing in their legal and moral duties as growing numbers of “extremely vulnerable women” have to travel hundreds of miles south because they cannot access later-term abortions in Scotland.

Not one of Scotland’s 14 regional health boards provide abortion care after 20 weeks except in the specific cases of foetal abnormality or threat to a woman’s life. This is despite the Scottish government promising to rectify this “explicit inequality” three years ago, and abortion being legal on broad grounds until 24 weeks across the UK.

Too often, a diagnosis is seen as the end of the story, rather than the beginning. But it has the potential to launch us on a curious and profound journey of discovery

There is a national conversation – or perhaps more a national talking at each other – taking place at the moment, about an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, is concerned too many people are being “written off” in this way. I spend quite a lot of time thinking about this subject, alone, with colleagues, with patients as a therapist, and as a patient in therapy myself. I think our response is crucial for building not just a better life but a better society.

I think that diagnosis can be a vital part of mental health treatment. It is not something I do as a psychotherapist; I respect my psychiatrist colleagues who do it for their skill, knowledge, experience and compassion. When the system works, a diagnosis can bring relief, it can open the door to the best therapy and medication, and finding a name for your experience can feel containing and valuable.

Spuds have a reputation for causing spikes in blood sugar, but it all depends on the variety and the way it is prepared

Potatoes are a staple of the British diet. However, they have gained a bad reputation, with concerns about them spiking our blood sugar levels – which, if repeated over time, can increase the risk of diabetes.

“It depends on the type of potato and how you prepare it,” says Dr Christine Bosch, from Leeds University’s School of Food and Nutrition. She explains that while regular potatoes cause a higher spike in blood sugar than sweet potatoes, they are a valuable source of carbohydrate – a key macronutrient. Potatoes also contain fibre and polyphenols, which slow digestion, leaving you feeling fuller for longer.

Patients in England aged 65 or over made up almost 70% of long ‘trolley waits’, with some left for up to 10 days, data reveals

About 49,000 A&E visits last year resulted in patients waiting 24 hours or more for a hospital bed, with people aged 65 or over making up almost 70% of cases.

According to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrats, some patients went 10 days before getting a space on a ward.

Exclusive: Britons found to have ‘lost out’ while rest of Europe benefits from golden age of research and treatments

• ‘Children with cancer cannot wait’: the human cost of clinical trial delays after Brexit

British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a leaked report warns.

Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential.

As the global enterprise grapples with reported debts of $1.4bn, its calorie-counting formula may have had its day

It began as a support group for overweight New Yorkers in 1963 and ballooned into a multimillion pound global enterprise that has spent decades selling people the dream of long-term weight loss.

The trademark WeightWatchers’ points-based programme has been followed by millions, with accompanying cookbooks, groceries, weekly weigh-ins and “judgment-free” meetings, and a food-tracking app.

Guttmacher report finds 155,000 people crossed state lines for procedure – double number who did so before Roe’s fall

For the second year in a row, abortion providers performed more than 1m abortions in the United States in 2024. About 155,000 people crossed state lines for abortions – roughly double the number of patients who did so in 2020, before the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more than a dozen state-level abortion bans to take effect.

These numbers, released earlier this week by the abortion rights-supporting Guttmacher Institute, have not changed much since 2023, when the US also performed more than 1m abortions and 169,000 people traveled for the procedure.

Agencies protecting coal miners from hazards such as ‘black lung’ among those gutted by government cuts

The Trump administration’s efforts to expand coal mining while simultaneously imposing deep cuts to agencies tasked with ensuring miner health and safety has left some advocates “dumbfounded”.

Agencies that protect coal miners from serious occupational hazards, including the condition best known as “black lung”, have been among those affected by major government cuts imposed by the White House and the unofficial “department of government efficiency” (Doge) run by the billionaire Elon Musk.

Tasneem Sharif Abbas, 16, flew with her sister to the US, where doctors awaited and volunteers cheered their arrival

Dozens of people across the world were in non-stop communication for several months to arrange the arrival of Tasneem Sharif Abbas to the US. Abbas’s entire life changed when a bomb dropped on her family’s home in Gaza on 31 October 2023. A piece of metal severed her arm and she blacked out as rubble fell on her. Soon after, her arm was amputated at a local Gaza hospital. “This is not a movie or a fictional story. This is the reality I have lived,” Abbas said in a statement. “This is just a glimpse of the dark days that have turned my life into a nightmare.”

Last year, the 16-year-old and an accompanying guardian, her adult sister Ashjan who is not injured, evacuated to Egypt, where they spent several months aboard a medical ship. The journey to fit Abbas with a prosthetic arm began with a 24-hour-flight from Cairo to New York, where volunteers met them in the airport during a several-hour layover. “The only time there was uncertainty was in the visa process,” said Raghed Ahmed, vice-president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a non-profit that has provided medical care to Middle Eastern kids since the 1990s. The group also facilitated the sisters’ travel. “We weren’t sure if it would take two weeks or six months, but her visa was approved in a couple of weeks,” Ahmed said.

Peer-reviewed study’s findings raises fresh question on the toxic substances’ impact on fertility

Microplastics have been found for the first time in human ovary follicular fluid, raising a new round of questions about the ubiquitous and toxic substances’ potential impact on women’s fertility.

The new peer-reviewed research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety checked for microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at a fertility clinic in Salerno, Italy, and detected them in 14.

Pop star posts on Instagram about his fright and ‘discomfort’ when asked for photos and autographs

Robbie Williams has spoken of the “discomfort” and “panic” he feels when he is approached for photos and autographs by fans.

In a post on Instagram, the pop star said he was able to “mask” the reality that social interactions frighten him.

The fear of electroconvulsive therapy and its after-effects loomed over Alison Tudor Hart’s stay in a psychiatric unit in the 1960s

Blake Morrison’s review of Jon Stock’s book The Sleep Room (Shocking tales from 1960s psychiatry, 9 April) mentioned that Celia Imrie was admitted to a psychiatric unit in 1966, when she was 14. I was too, in the same year and at the same age – in my case, a large acute adult ward at Stratheden hospital in Fife, their adolescent unit having no beds at the time. I was an inpatient for three weeks and am for ever indebted to the consultant psychiatrist who managed my admission, treatment and discharge to a safer environment.

Morrison’s review of Stock’s exposé of William Sargant and 1960s psychiatry reinforces my sense of good fortune, against all the odds at the time.

Prof Rory Collins, CEO of UK Biobank, responds to concerns about access to UK patient information, highlighting the safeguards and research benefits

Your report (Revealed: Chinese researchers can access half a million UK GP records, 15 April) fails to recognise the importance of data in advancing health research, when shared safely, securely and on a global scale. UK Biobank was set up 20 years ago by the Medical Research Council and Wellcome with the mission to create the most detailed source of health data for researchers worldwide. The dream became a reality thanks to half a million volunteers across the UK.

Researchers from academia, charity and industry, and from more than 60 countries, including China, are using UK Biobank data to study the entire spectrum of human health, producing thousands of groundbreaking studies. This is leading to new ways to predict, prevent and target diseases.

£1.5bn of funding has been granted to transform a hospital into a neighbourhood designed for people to thrive as they age

Futuristic planning for spaces where people can age well and live in an area designed for them to grow old in is accelerating in the UK with a radical project backed by £1.5bn of funding.

The plan to transform a hospital into the first neighbourhood in the country designed for people to thrive as they age will be a national testbed for holistic health and social care approaches. It will include hi-tech homes that adapt to occupants’ life stage and care needs, transport, a village green and a social calendar to combat isolation.

The authors of a new book explain why understanding the science of stress can help us manage it better

True (up to a point)
The way stress manifests is very much bodily, centred around hormones such as cortisol and their effect on us. But this process is triggered by the brain (notably the amygdala and the hypothalamus) and the way our brains react to stress is often set in early childhood, even in the womb. Pregnant women who experience extreme stress can give birth to infants who react more strongly to stress hormones – with increasing evidence suggesting that this causes modifications to the baby’s DNA. Self-actualising your way out of stress is difficult – not least because the causes might be serious and inescapable – but not always impossible. Some studies have shown that if you tell people they are the sort of person who doesn’t feel stress, they experience fewer symptoms. One US study found that teenagers growing up with worries about violent crime in a deprived part of Chicago tended to fare better if they simply tried to not think about it.

Newton-Wellesley hospital president says all six tumors benign as ‘rigorous ongoing investigation’ conducted

The number of staff members who have developed brain tumors while working on the same floor of a Boston-area hospital has increased to at least six, according to the facility’s leadership.

A recent statement attributed to the president of Mass General Brigham’s Newton-Wellesley hospital, Ellen Moloney, said the newly reported tumor was benign, as were five previously documented ones. The statement maintained that investigators had not turned up any evidence of environmental risks at the hospital, though their work remained ongoing.