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TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- An investigation into a high number of cancers at a Montana nuclear missile base has led to the discovery of unsafe levels of a likely carcinogen.The hundreds of cancer cases appear to be connected to underground launch control centers at Malmstrom Air Force Base.Levels of PCBs, an oily or waxy substance that is considered a likely carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), were higher than the agency's recommended threshold. The finding “is the first from an extensive sampling of active U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile bases to address specific cancer concerns raised by missile community members,” Air Force Global Strike Command said Monday in a news release.Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global...

TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (American Heart Association News) -- Donnese Tyler's schedule was chock-full. With a husband, two sons, a demanding job in contracts management and a reluctance to say no to anyone, she rarely made time for herself.On an errand-filled Wednesday last October, she was looking forward to the monthly meeting of the mothers' club at her son's high school. As the group's vice president, she helped run the meeting. She was also eager to socialize with her friends.She ate salad with spaghetti sauce as dressing and had a glass of red wine while chatting with fellow moms. When the meeting started, Tyler opened a bottle of water and took a sip.What brand of water is this, she wondered, with a disgusted look on her face. It tasted salty.She cracked jokes about the water and...

TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Dennis Deer woke from surgery in utter disbelief that he was breathing normally.He’d been on supplemental oxygen for two years, and “I didn’t know what it was like not to have something on my face,” said Deer, 51, a Chicago-area politician and psychologist.“I immediately said, 'Where is my oxygen?’ And my wife said to me, ‘Well, you don't need the oxygen anymore,'" Deer recalled.Deer wasn’t buying his wife’s reassurance. “I said, 'Give me my oximeter.’ So I put the oximeter on my finger. It was 99%. And I was like, ‘Wow.'”Deer, a Cook County commissioner, is one of two patients who recently received a rare double-lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.Deer and the other patient, Yahaira Vega, both have a...

TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) – A variant nicknamed Eris now accounts for the largest proportion of new COVID infections across America.About 17.3% of U.S. COVID cases are believed to have been caused by the variant, formally known as EG.5, in early August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number is 7.5% higher than it was in early July.Other dominant variants include XBB.1.16, with 15.6% of cases, and XBB.2.23, with 11.2% of cases, CDC data show. Another 10.3% of COVID cases are from XBB.1.5, while 8.6% of cases were caused by an XBB-related variant known as FL.1.5.1.Experts say EG.5 might be beating out other variants because it appears to have a "slightly beneficial mutation," CBS News reported.Eris is one of several closely-related...