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TUESDAY, April 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Jouncing along to school in a fume-spewing, rattletrap yellow bus is practically a rite of passage for most American students.But outdated buses actually wind up costing kids many days of education, thanks to the clouds of diesel exhaust left in their wake, a new study argues.School districts that upgrade to a “greener” bus fleet have higher attendance rates than those with older, dirtier-running buses, researchers report.Replacing all school buses built prior to 2000 could add more than 1.3 million additional student days of attendance each year in the United States, the study estimated.About 25 million children ride the bus to school every day, the researchers said.Older buses cough out higher levels of diesel exhaust, which can trigger...

TUESDAY, April 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 20% of the American population has had a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide, and 1 in 6 has witnessed a shooting, a new survey found.The survey -- by nonprofit KFF -- also found about 4% have shot a gun in self-defense and 4% have been injured by a gun.For Black adults, the numbers were even higher, attesting to greater gun violence in minority communities.About one-third of Black adults had a family member killed by a gun, compared to 17% of white adults and 18% of Hispanic adults.Black adults were also about twice as likely as white adults to say they witnessed someone being shot, with about 31% of Black adults reporting this compared to 14% of white adults and 22% of Hispanic adults.KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family...

TUESDAY, April 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Wireless pacemakers could be a safe and effective short-term option for children with slow heartbeats, a new study suggests.Children with a heartbeat that’s too slow — a condition called bradycardia — need a pacemaker to keep their hearts beating normally.Researchers successfully implanted wireless pacemakers into 62 kids to see if the cutting-edge devices could be safely used in children, according to a new report in the journal Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.“Leadless pacemaker technology is the wave of the future,” said lead researcher Dr. Maully Shah, director of cardiac electrophysiology in the Cardiac Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.“This is an excellent technology that may be offered to a...

TUESDAY, April 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Forcibly moving homeless people away from their encampments is a widespread practice in the United States. And it may be killing them.A new study found significant spikes in deaths, overdoses and hospitalizations with involuntary displacement of the homeless.These forced movements contribute to 15% to 25% of deaths in this population over 10 years, according to researchers.“Our research shows that these widespread practices that forcibly displace people are clearly impacting the health of this population, particularly when it comes to increasing their overdose risk, so much so that it actually decreases the life expectancy of the entire population,” said co-author Dr. Josh Barocas, associate professor at the University of Colorado...