HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

March 20, 2019 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Massive study finds eating organic slashes cancer risk (EWG)
• Daily Marijuana Use And Highly Potent Weed Linked To Psychosis (NPR)
• Drinking very hot tea almost doubles risk of cancer, new study says (CNN )
• One Doctor Is Responsible for a Third of All Medical Vaccine Exemptions in San Diego (Voice of San Diego)

 SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• Boeing had too much sway in vetting own jets, FAA was told  (Bloomberg )
• A meteor exploded with 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (BBC News US)
• Solar storms can be even worse if you live near certain rocks (National Geographic)
• The spring equinox is Wednesday: 7 things to know about the first day of spring (VOX)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Massive study finds eating organic slashes cancer risk (EWG)

Eating organic foods free from pesticides is strongly correlated with a dramatic reduction in the risk of cancer, according to a groundbreaking study published today in an American Medical Association journal.

Daily Marijuana Use And Highly Potent Weed Linked To Psychosis (NPR)

A new study published Tuesday in the Lancet Psychiatry ...found that those who used pot daily were three times more likely to have a psychotic episode compared with someone who never used the drug. Those who started using cannabis at 15 or younger had a slightly more elevated risk than those who started using in later years.  Use of high-potency weed almost doubled the odds of having psychosis compared with someone who had never smoked weed, explains Di Forti.

Drinking very hot tea almost doubles risk of cancer, new study says (CNN )

Researchers found that tea drinkers who liked their beverage to be warmer than 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) and consumed more than 700 ml of tea per day -- about two large cups -- had a 90% higher risk of esophageal cancer, when compared to those who drank less tea and at cooler temperatures./ The study looked at more than 50,000 people in Golestan, a province in northeastern Iran. 

One Doctor Is Responsible for a Third of All Medical Vaccine Exemptions in San Diego (Voice of San Diego)

 Dr. Tara Zandvliet has written nearly one-third of all 486 medical exemptions from vaccinations for the entire San Diego Unified School District, according to vaccination records obtained by Voice of San Diego. Medical exemptions have been climbing since a 2015 state law limited parents’ ability to obtain personal belief exemptions. 

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Boeing had too much sway in vetting own jets, FAA was told  (Bloomberg )

FAA employees warned as early as seven years ago that Boeing Co. had too much sway over safety approvals of new aircraft, prompting an investigation by Department of Transportation auditors who confirmed the agency hadn’t done enough to “hold Boeing accountable.” 

A meteor exploded with 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb (BBC News US)

A huge fireball exploded in the Earth's atmosphere in December, according to NASA… But it went largely unnoticed until now because it blew up over the Bering Sea, off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.  The space rock exploded with 10 times the energy released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Solar storms can be even worse if you live near certain rocks (National Geographic)

New USGS data show how cities have higher or lower risks of blackouts during a powerful sun storm depending on their regional geology.

The spring equinox is Wednesday: 7 things to know about the first day of spring (VOX)

Vox - A brief, scientific guide to the first day of spring.