Domestic shorthair kitten

This 5-month-old female domestic shorthair cat has a gray tabby coat. 

She is in kennel No. A#96b, ID No. LCAC-A-5464.

Female shorthair kitten

While she was interviewing Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in March 2023, Drew Barrymore suddenly exclaimed: “I’m so hot … I think I’m having my first hot flash!”

She took off her blazer and fanned herself dramatically.

While most hot flashes aren’t televised, the entertainer’s experience was far from unique. Barrymore, age 48, is one of approximately 15 million U.S. women from 45 to 60 who work full time and may experience menopausal symptoms.

Unlike Barrymore, most women are silent about their menopausal symptoms. Yet their symptoms, even when concealed from employers and co-workers, are a burden on them, their workplaces and on the overall U.S. economy. Lost work productivity due to menopausal symptoms – measured by missed work hours, job losses and early retirement – add up to about $1.8 billion annually, the Mayo Clinic estimates.

The three of us write and teach about employment discrimination and feminism, and two of us have written a book about menstruation. Because of our shared interests, we are currently writing a book about menopause and the law. We’ve observed that although Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and other celebrities are speaking out about their own menopausal transitions, work accommodations are rare and employers typically don’t even acknowledge this stage of life.

Stigma and silence

In the lead-up to menopause, which typically begins between the ages of 45 and 55, levels of reproductive hormones change, and menstrual cycles become irregular and then eventually cease. This transition, called perimenopause, typically lasts for seven years.

Common symptoms of perimenopause include hot flashes, sleep disturbances, heart palpitations, excessive bleeding and irregular periods. Technically, menopause occurs after women don’t have a period for an entire year, and postmenopause is the stage after that. Transgender men and nonbinary people assigned female at birth can experience menopause too.

Employees who experience menopausal symptoms are often reluctant to talk about them at all, let alone tell their bosses. They may feel stigma and shame, and they may worry that it could hurt their chances for a promotion, their co-workers will see them as less capable or that their status at work will be otherwise jeopardized. These concerns are not unfounded.

In a series of studies, researchers asked workers and college students to describe their initial impressions of potential co-workers, including “a menopausal woman.” The participants described her as “less confident and less emotionally stable” than the non-menopausal women.

No legal protections

Employees who do speak up and seek accommodations for their menopausal symptoms, which might include dress code adjustments to deal with hot flashes, are often out of luck.

No federal law requires employers to accommodate menopausal symptoms.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” for workers with disabilities, U.S. courts have consistently held that menopause, by itself, is not a disability, even when its symptoms are seriously affecting someone’s ability to do their job.

That’s what happened to Georgia Sipple, a food product demonstrator who had a doctor’s note requesting permission to break a dress code by wearing short sleeves on the job. When Crossmark, her employer, refused, Sipple felt that she had no choice but to quit. She sued the company, but the Eastern District of California federal court dismissed her case.

Sometimes, employees even get punished for their menopausal symptoms or status.

When 911 operator Alisha Coleman experienced heavy perimenopausal bleeding that seeped through onto the office carpet, she was fired for failing to “maintain high standards of personal hygiene”. She sued, but the Middle District of Georgia dismissed her case, refusing to recognize her termination as a form of sex discrimination.

Instead, the judge drew a specious distinction, saying that Coleman had been fired for “being unable to control the heavy menstruation.” With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, she appealed, later obtaining a confidential settlement.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding accommodations

Employees have far fewer legal protections for menopause today than for pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Congress first directly addressed pregnancy discrimination in the workplace in 1978 with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. That law made it clear that pregnancy discrimination is a form of sex discrimination. This means that an employee who was fired because her water broke and she went into labor at work would, unlike Coleman, have a winning sex discrimination claim.

Congress also passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in December 2022, which goes into effect on June 27, 2023. That law requires reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on employers.

Since 2010, Congress has required most employers to provide breastfeeding employees with reasonable break times to pump milk for one year after their children’s births, and also to provide them with a private place that isn’t a bathroom to do so. Most recently, in December 2022, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act expanded those protections.

Why not menopause?

In our view, pregnancy and breastfeeding offer a potential model for protecting workers from menopause-related discrimination and providing reasonable accommodations. Until Congress is ready to pass such legislation, there are other possibilities.

First, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws, could issue “best practices” guidelines.

These guidelines can be modeled on practices in the United Kingdom, where many business have adopted menopause policies. Climate-controlled break spaces, dress codes that incorporate short-sleeve options and breathable fabrics, dedicated menopause support and the like can all make a positive difference. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could also issue guidance highlighting menopause-based discrimination as a form of sex or age discrimination.

Additionally, even if the commission does not act, companies can adopt these kinds of policies on their own. That is already starting to happen, as U.S. businesses like the tech company Nvidia and the drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb begin to establish some accommodations for menopause, including help with finding treatments.

New York Mayor Eric Adams has promised “more menopause-friendly workplaces,” at least for city workers.

To be sure, it can be risky to discuss symptoms at work, as this can undercut perceptions about women’s competence at work.

Given these symptoms’ prevalence, though, and the millions of workers experiencing them, we believe that breaking the silence can challenge and dispel these stereotypes – increasing the chances that they’ll remain on the job for many more years.

Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia; Bridget J. Crawford, Professor of Law, Pace University , and Emily Gold Waldman, Professor of Law; Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Pace University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Invasive species – including plants, animals and fish – cause heavy damage to crops, wildlife and human health worldwide. Some prey on native species; other out-compete them for space and food or spread disease. A new United Nations report estimates the losses generated by invasives at more than US$423 billion yearly and shows that these damages have at least quadrupled in every decade since 1970.

Humans regularly move animals, plants and other living species from their home areas to new locations, either accidentally or on purpose. For example, they may import plants from faraway locations to raise as crops or bring in a nonnative animal to prey on a local pest. Other invasives hitch rides in cargo or ships’ ballast water.

When a species that is not native to a particular area becomes established there, reproducing quickly and causing harm, it has become invasive. These recent articles from The Conversation describe how several invasive species are causing economic and ecological harm across the U.S. They also explain steps that people can take to avoid contributing to this urgent global problem.

1. The best intentions: Callery pear trees

Many invasive species were introduced to new locations because people thought they would be useful. One example that’s widely visible across the U.S. Northeast, Midwest and South is the Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), a flowering tree that botanists brought to the U.S. from Asia more than 100 years ago.

Horticulturists loved the Callery pear for landscaping and wanted to produce trees that all grew and bloomed in the same way. As University of Dayton plant ecologist Ryan W. McEwan explained, they created identical clones from cuttings of trees with the desired characteristics – a process called grafting. Unlike some trees, a Callery pear can’t fertilize its flowers with its own pollen, so plant experts thought it wouldn’t spread.

However, “as horticulturalists tinkered with Callery pears to produce new versions, they made the individuals different enough to escape the fertilization barrier,” McEwan wrote. As wind and birds spread the trees’ seeds, wild populations of the trees became established and started crowding out native species.

Today, Callery pear trees are such scourges that several states have banned them. Others are paying residents to cut them down and replace them with native plants.

2. Tiny organisms, big impacts: Zebra and quagga mussels

Invasive species don’t have to be large to cause outsized damage. Zebra and quagga mussels – shellfish the size of a fingernail – invaded the Great Lakes in the 1980s, clogging water intake pipes and out-competing native mollusks for food. Now they’re spreading west via rivers, lakes and bays, threatening waters all the way to the Pacific coast and Alaska.

As Rochester Institute of Technology environmental historian Christine Keiner wrote, it took several decades for the U.S. and Canada to regulate ships’ management of their ballast water tanks, which was the route by which the mussels were introduced to North America.

“Now, however, other human activities are increasingly contributing to harmful freshwater introductions – and with shipping regulated, the main culprits are thousands of private boaters and anglers,” Keller wrote. Limiting the destructive impacts of invasive species “requires scientific, technological and historical knowledge, political will and skill to persuade the public that everyone is part of the solution.”

3. Threatening entire ecosystems: Lionfish

When an invasive species is especially successful at spreading and reproducing, it can threaten the health of entire ecosystems. Consider the Pacific red lionfish (Pterois volitans), which has spread throughout the Caribbean and now is moving south along Brazil’s coast.

Lionfish thrive in many ocean habitats, from coastal mangrove forests to deepwater reefs, and they prey on numerous smaller fish species. In the Caribbean, they have reduced the number of small juvenile fish on reefs by up to 80% within as little as five weeks.

“Scientists and environmental managers widely agree that the lionfish invasion in Brazil is a potential ecological disaster,” warned Brazilian marine ecologist Osmar J. Luiz of Charles Darwin University. “Brazil’s northeast coast, with its rich artisanal fishing activity, stands on the front line of this invasive threat.”

Although the Brazilian government was slow to address the lionfish threat, Luiz asserted that “with strategic, swift action and international collaboration, it can mitigate the impacts of this invasive species and safeguard its marine ecosystems.” That will require many techniques, from recruiting coastal residents to monitor for the invaders to tracking lionfish subpopulations using DNA analysis.

4. The value of acting locally

Public awareness is critical for stemming the spread of many invasive plants and animals. That can involve actions as simple as cleaning your shoes and socks after a hike.

“Certain species of nonnative invasive plants produce seeds designed to attach to unsuspecting animals or people. Once affixed, these sticky seeds can be carried long distances before they fall off in new environments,” explains Boise State University ecology Ph.D. candidate Megan Dolman.

Research shows that recreational trails promote the introduction of invasive plant species into natural and protected areas, including national parks and scenic trails.

In her research, Dolman found that few Appalachian Trail hikers were aware of the risk of carrying invasive plant seeds on their shoes or socks, so they typically did not take steps such as cleaning their gear before and after hiking. By knowing about invasive species in their areas and ways to manage them, people can help protect special places and keep invasive species from spreading.

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Secondhand smoke may be an important but overlooked source of chronic lead exposure in kids and adolescents. That is the key finding of our recent study, published in the journal BMC Public Health.

We analyzed national data on blood lead levels and secondhand smoke exposure in 2,815 U.S. children and teenagers ages 6 to 19 from 2015 to 2018. We looked at levels of lead and a nicotine metabolite – a substance known as cotinine produced in the body’s chemical process that forms when tobacco smoke is inhaled. Levels of cotinine indicate exposure to tobacco smoke.

We found that the average blood lead levels in the intermediate and high tobacco smoke exposure groups were 18% and 29% higher, respectively, than those in the group with the lowest tobacco smoke exposure. The lowest lead exposure group was comparable to the U.S. average. A greater number of boys had detectable lead levels in their blood, as did a greater number of Black children and adolescents, compared with the other ethnic groups we studied.

Elevated blood levels were more common in children ages 6 to 10 than in older participants. Notably, children from low-income households showed 27% higher blood lead levels compared with those from high-income households.

Why it matters

Lead, unlike many other toxins, does not get diluted when exposure decreases. Nor does the body excrete it naturally. Instead, it accumulates in the bones and leaches into blood. The only way to remove it is through an oral medical treatment.

Exposure to lead can cause numerous and severe neurological problems, including nerve damage, cognitive problems, loss of IQ points and possibly even conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

Lead exposure is more harmful to younger children than older children and adults because their bodies are still developing and they are growing so rapidly.

Children at high-exposure risk often come from low-income households in older homes built before 1978, when lead paint was still used. Young children’s frequent hand-to-mouth activity provides a pathway for lead exposure at home. Lead-containing water pipes in these older, low-income housing areas also contribute to the issue.

Children and others can also be exposed to lead through a variety of everyday household items, including some ceramic cookware and dishes, some vinyl lunchboxes – especially those manufactured outside the United States – many common spices and some toys, hair-coloring products and cosmetics. Lead exposure has even been traced to some candies from Mexico.

Over the past four decades, U.S. regulators have banned lead-based paint for residential use and leaded gasoline. This has led to a significant decrease in lead exposure from major traditional sources.

Despite continued efforts, lead exposure continues to pose a risk. Our findings help create awareness of the link between secondhand tobacco smoke and lead exposure, especially for young people. Approximately 35% of U.S. children, or over 23 million, were exposed to secondhand smoke between 2013 and 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What’s next

We are working within our local areas to educate parents and school administrators about the dangers of lead poisoning, including exposure from secondhand smoke. Our efforts include encouraging individuals and communities to test their drinking water for lead and to take actions to reduce children’s lead exposure from drinking water.

We plan to conduct further studies to quantify the contribution of various sources to lead exposure. We believe that this research will enhance our understanding of children’s exposure and contribute to the improvement of environmental health disparities.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Genny Carrillo, Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M University and Taehyun Roh, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Texas A&M University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.