Feces

• The China water purifiers market is anticipated to project robust growth in the forecast period on account of increasing industrial waste, increasing health awareness, rising initiatives by the government, and increasing affordability.
• Due to the government's failure to consider the effects of agricultural waste, water contamination in China has doubled from the originally expected.
• The demand for water purifiers is predicted to rise in the next years because of rising industrialization and increased water pollution.
• Thus, to remain competitive in the market, companies are launching various products, and this will fuel the market growth of water purifiers in China.

• The Biden administration has agreed to provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells to equip M1A1 Abrams tanks that the U.S. is sending there.
• Health physicist Kathryn Higley explains what depleted uranium is and what’s known about potential health and environmental risks.

What is depleted uranium?

• Depleted uranium is mainly U-238, with small amounts of other isotopes, including U-235.
• The isotope U-235 is fissile, which means that it can be split in a reaction that releases a lot of energy.
• Engineers use a process called enrichment to extract U-235 from natural uranium ore. What’s left over after this process removes some of the U-235 is called depleted uranium.
• Depleted uranium is about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium.

Why is depleted uranium used in munitions?

• Depleted uranium can be manufactured into a very dense material – about 1.7 times more dense than lead.
• Because DU is a byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle, plenty of it is readily available.
• Formed into a projectile, such as a bullet or shell, its high density helps the munition penetrate into a target.

Where have depleted uranium munitions been used?

• Depleted uranium munitions have been used in the Gulf War in 1990-1991, the Kosovo conflict in the Balkans in 1998-1999 and in U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• In addition to the U.S. and the U.K., Russia, France and China are known to have DU munitions in their arsenals, and other countries may be importing them.
• The alpha radiation that DU emits is not strong enough to penetrate human skin, so just being near depleted uranium is not a health risk.
• But it may become a health hazard if it is ingested or inhaled, or shrapnel fragments are retained in the body.

Will these munitions create health or environmental risks on Ukrainian soil?

• They include health studies of soldiers hit by DU shrapnel, and biomonitoring – collecting samples of urine, feces, fingernail clippings and hair from exposed individuals.
• Fragments and much smaller particles from exploded DU munitions can remain in soil long after conflicts end.
• Scientists continue to examine how DU particles behave in the environment, in order to improve our ability to predict long-term environmental effects.
• The U.S. and U.K. governments clearly believe that providing DU munitions will improve Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian tanks and bring this conflict to an end.

• Although clinically the least serious problem, increased sodium and chloride concentration in sweat is the undisputed hallmark of cystic fibrosis.
• The outlook for cystic fibrosis has improved considerably in recent five years due to advancements in R&D of treatment, although most people with cystic fibrosis will have shorter-than-average life assurance.
• On the Test Type segment, the Global Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Market has been differentiated into Pulmonary Function, Sweat, IRT, Fecal, and Genetic.
• In addition, advanced experimental approaches have been established to accelerate the development of novel modulators, effectively boosting the Cystic Fibrosis Therapeutics Market.

• The sector's employment is down nearly 1 million workers as of November 2022, and 97% of hotels now report staffing shortages in 2022.
• Hotels and other residential facilities, like assisted living and nursing homes now lack the staff to effectively manage cleaning issues like persistent odors.
• ProBio® OdorOut® is an odor eliminator that targets and eliminates all nitrogen-based odors, like urine, feces and vomit, for example.
• While other products mask the scent, ProBio® OdorOut® destroys it through a patented process called spontaneous oxidation-reduction (SOR), which eliminates odor molecules on contact.