Asbestos in mulch? Here’s the risk if you’ve been exposed
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Mulch containing asbestos has now been found at 41 locations in New South Wales, including Sydney parks, schools, hospitals, a supermarket and at least one regional site. Tests are under way at other sites.
As a precautionary measure, some parks have been cordoned off and some schools have closed temporarily. Fair Day – a large public event that traditionally marks the start of Mardi Gras – was cancelled after contaminated mulch was found at the site.
The New South Wales government has announced a new taskforce to help investigate how the asbestos ended up in the mulch.
Here’s what we know about the risk to public health of mulch contaminated with asbestos, including “friable” asbestos, which has been found in one site (Harmony Park in Surry Hills).
What are the health risks of asbestos?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring, heat-resistant fibre that was widely used in building materials from the 1940s to the 1980s. It can be found in either a bonded or friable form.
Bonded asbestos means the fibres are bound in a cement matrix. Asbestos sheeting that was used for walls, fences, roofs and eaves are examples of bonded asbestos. The fibres don’t escape this matrix unless the product is severely damaged or worn.
A lot of asbestos fragments from broken asbestos products are still considered bonded as the fibres are not released as they lay on the ground.
Tomas Regina/Shutterstock
Friable asbestos, in contrast, can be easily crumbled by touch. It will include raw asbestos fibres and previously bonded products that have worn to the point that they crumble easily.
The risk of disease from asbestos exposure is due to the inhalation of fibres. It doesn’t matter if those fibres are from friable or bonded sources.
However, fibres can more easily become airborne, and therefore inhalable, if the asbestos is friable. This means there is more of a risk of exposure if you are disturbing friable asbestos than if you disturb fragments of bonded asbestos.
Who is most at risk from asbestos exposure?
The most important factor for disease risk is exposure – you actually have to inhale fibres to be at risk of disease.
Just being in the vicinity of asbestos, or material containing asbestos, does not put you at risk of asbestos-related disease.
For those who accessed the contaminated areas, the level of exposure will depend on disturbing the asbestos and how many fibres become airborne due to that disturbance.
However, if you have been exposed to, and inhaled, asbestos fibres it does not mean you will get an asbestos-related disease. Exposure levels from the sites across Sydney will be low and the chance of disease is highly unlikely.
The evidence for disease risk from ingestion remains highly uncertain, although you are not likely to ingest sufficient fibres from the air, or even the hand to mouth activities that may occur with playing in contaminated mulch, for this to be a concern.
The risk of disease from exposure depends on the intensity, frequency and duration of that exposure. That is, the more you are exposed to asbestos, the greater the risk of disease.
Most asbestos-related disease has occurred in people who work with raw asbestos (for example, asbestos miners) or asbestos-containing products (such as building tradespeople). This has been a tragedy and fortunately asbestos is now banned.
There have been cases of asbestos-related disease, most notably mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining of the lung (mostly) or peritoneum – from non-occupational exposures. This has included people who have undertaken DIY home renovations and may have only had short-term exposures. The level of exposure in these cases is not known and it is also impossible to determine if those activities have been the only exposure.
There is no known safe level of exposure – but this does not mean that one fibre will kill. Asbestos needs to be treated with caution.
As far as we are aware, there have been no cases of mesothelioma, or other asbestos-related disease, that have been caused by exposure from contaminated soils or mulch.
Has asbestos been found in mulch before?
Asbestos contamination of mulch is, unfortunately, not new. Environmental and health agencies have dealt with these situations in the past. All jurisdictions have strict regulations about removing asbestos products from the green waste stream but, as is happening in Sydney now, this does not always happen.
gibleho/Shutterstock
What if I’ve been near contaminated mulch?
Exposure from mulch contamination is generally much lower than from current renovation or construction activities and will be many orders of magnitude lower than past occupational exposures.
Unlike activities such as demolition, construction and mining, the generation of airborne fibres from asbestos fragments in mulch will be very low. The asbestos contamination will be sparsely spread throughout the mulch and it is unlikely there will be sufficient disturbance to generate large quantities of airborne fibres.
Despite the low chance of exposure, if you’re near contaminated mulch, do not disturb it.
If, by chance, you have had an exposure, or think you have had an exposure, it’s highly unlikely you will develop an asbestos-related disease in the future. If you’re worried, the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency is a good source of information.
Peter Franklin, Associate Professor and Director, Occupational Respiratory Epidemiology, The University of Western Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Resistance Is Useful! (Especially As We Get Older)
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Resistance Is Useful!
At 10almonds we talk a lot about the importance of regular moderate exercise (e.g. walking, gardening, housework, etc), and with good reason: getting in those minutes (at least 150 minutes per week, so, a little over 20 minutes per day, or 25 minutes per day with one day off) is the exericise most consistently linked to better general health outcomes and reduced mortality risk.
We also often come back to mobility, because at the end of the day, being able to reach for something from a kitchen cabinet without doing oneself an injury is generally more important in life than being able to leg-press a car.
Today though, we’re going to talk about resistance training.
What is resistance training?
It can be weight-lifting, or it can be bodyweight exercises. In those cases, what you’re resisting is gravity. It can also be exercises with resistance bands or machines. In all cases, it’s about building and/or maintaining strength.
Why does it matter?
Let’s say you’re not an athlete, soldier, or laborer, and the heaviest thing you have to pick up is a bag of groceries. Strength still matters, for two main reasons:
- Muscle strength correlates to bone strength. You can’t build (or maintain) strong muscles on weak bones, so if you take care of your muscles, then your body will keep your bones strong too.
- That’s assuming you have a good diet as well—but today’s not about that. If you’d like to know more about eating for bone health though, do check out this previous article about that!
- Muscle strength correlates to balance and stability. You can’t keep yourself from falling over if you are physically frail.
Both of those things matter, because falls and fractures often have terrible health outcomes (e.g., slower recovery and more complications) the older we get. So, we want to:
- Ideally, not fall in the first place
- If we do fall, have robust bones
See also: Effects of Resistance Exercise on Bone Health
How much should we do?
Let’s go to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research on this one:
❝There is strong evidence to support the benefits of resistance exercise for countering many age-related processes of sarcopenia, muscle weakness, mobility loss, chronic disease, disability, and even premature mortality.
In addition, this Position Statement provides specific evidence-based practice recommendations to aid in the implementation of resistance exercise programs for healthy older adults and those with special considerations.
While there are instances where low-intensity, low-volume programs are appropriate (i.e., beginning programs for individuals with frailty or CVDs), the greatest benefits are possible with progression to moderate to higher intensity programs.❞
~ Fragala et al
Read the statement in full:
There’s a lot of science there and it’s well worth reading if you have the time. It’s particularly good at delineating how much is not enough vs how much is too much, and the extent to which we should (or shouldn’t) train to exhaustion.
If you don’t fancy that, though, and/or just want to start with something accessible and work your way up, the below is a very good (and also evidence-based) start-up plan:
Healthline’s Exercise Plan For Seniors—For Strength, Balance, & Flexibility
(it has a weekly planner, step-by-step guides to the exercises, and very clear illustrative animations of each)
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- Muscle strength correlates to bone strength. You can’t build (or maintain) strong muscles on weak bones, so if you take care of your muscles, then your body will keep your bones strong too.
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Carbonated Water: For Weight Loss, Satiety, Or Just Gas?
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There are two main mechanisms of action by which sparkling water is considered to help satiety and/or weight loss; they are:
- It “fills us up” such that we feel fuller sooner, and thus eat less, and thus (all other things being equal) perhaps lose weight
- The carbon dioxide is absorbed into the bloodstream, where (as a matter of chemistry) it improves glucose metabolism, thus lowering blood sugars and indirectly leading (potentially) to weight loss, but even if not, lowered blood sugars are good for most people most of the time, right?
However, there are just a few problems:
Full of gas?
Many people self-report enjoying sparkling water as a way to feel fuller while fasting (or even while eating). However, the plural of “anecdote” is not “data”, so, here be data… Ish:
❝In order to determine whether such satiating effects occur through oral carbonic stimulation alone, we conducted modified sham-feeding (SF) tests (carbonated water ingestion (CW), water ingestion (W), carbonated water sham-feeding (CW-SF), and water sham-feeding (W-SF)), employing an equivalent volume and standardized temperature of carbonated and plain water, in a randomized crossover design.
Thirteen young women began fasting at 10 p.m. on the previous night and were loaded with each sample (15ºC, 250 mL) at 9 a.m. on separate days. Electrogastrography (EGG) recordings were obtained from 20 min before to 45 min after the loading to determine the power and frequency of the gastric myoelectrical activity. Appetite was assessed using visual analog scales. After ingestion, significantly increased fullness and decreased hunger ratings were observed in the CW group. After the load, transiently but significantly increased fullness as well as decreased hunger ratings were observed in the CW-SF group. The powers of normogastria (2-4 cpm) and tachygastria (4-9 cpm) showed significant increases in the CW and W groups, but not in the CW-SF and W-SF groups. The peak frequency of normogastria tended to shift toward a higher band in the CW group, whereas it shifted toward a lower band in the CW-SF group, indicating a different EGG rhythm.
Our results suggest that CO2-induced oral stimulation is solely responsible for the feeling of satiety.❞
~ Dr. Maki Suzuki et al.
Now, that’s self-reported, and a sample size of 13, so it’s not the most airtight science ever, but it is at least science. Here’s the paper, by the way:
Oral Carbonation Attenuates Feeling of Hunger and Gastric Myoelectrical Activity in Young Women
Here’s another small study with 8 people, which found that still and sparkling water had the exact same effect:
Effect of carbonated water on gastric emptying and intragastric meal distribution
However, drinking water (still or sparkling) with a meal will not have anywhere near the same effect for satiety as consuming food that has a high water-content.
See also: Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety ← our main feature in which we examine the science of volumetrics, including a study that shows how water incorporated into a food (but not served with a food) decreases caloric intake.
As an aside, one difference that carbonation can make is to increase ghrelin levels—that’s the hunger hormone (the satiety hormone is leptin, by the way). This one’s a rat study, but it seems reasonable that the same will be true of humans:
…which is worth bearing in mind even if you yourself are not, in fact, a male rat.
The glucose guzzler?
This one has simply been the case of a study being misrepresented, for example here:
Fizzy water might aid weight loss by providing a small boost to glucose uptake and metabolism
The idea is that higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood mean faster glucose metabolism, which is technically true. Now, often “technically true” is the best kind of true, but not here, because it’s simply not useful.
In short, we produce so much carbon dioxide as part of our normal respiratory processes, that any carbon dioxide we might consume in a carbonated water is barely a blip in the graph.
Oh, and that article we just linked? Even within the article, despite running with that headline, the actual scientists quoted are saying such things as:
❝While there is a hypothetical link between carbonated water and glucose metabolism, this has yet to be tested in well-designed human intervention studies❞
~ Professor Sumantra Ray
Note: the word “hypothetical” means “one level lower than theoretical”. This is very far from being a conclusion.
And the study itself? Wasn’t even about carbonated water, it was about kidney dialysis and how the carbon dioxide content can result in hypoglycemia:
The mechanism of hypoglycemia caused by hemodialysis
…which got referenced in this paper (not a study):
Can carbonated water support weight loss?
…and even that concluded:
❝CO2 in carbonated water may promote weight loss by enhancing glucose uptake and metabolism in red blood cells.
However, the amount is so small that it is difficult to expect weight loss effects solely from the CO2 in carbonated water.
Drinking carbonated water may also affect blood glucose measurements.❞
Note: the word “may”, when used by a scientist and in the absence of any stronger claims, means “we haven’t ruled out the possibility”.
What breaking news that is.
Stop the press! No, really, stop it!
So… What does work?
There are various ways of going about actually hacking hunger (and they stack; i.e. you can use multiple methods and get cumulative results), and we wrote about them here:
Enjoy!
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Red Potatoes vs Russet Potatoes – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing red potatoes to russet potatoes, we picked the russet.
Why?
In terms of macros, russet potatoes have more fiber, carbs, and protein; the ratio of fiber and carbs also gives them the lower glycemic index*, so really, a complete win for russets in the macros category.
*Glycemic index of potatoes change a lot depending on what you do to them, but this statement (about russets having the lower GI) continues to hold true on a like-for-like basis, i.e. assuming we continue to compare the potatoes having been cooked the same way as each other. They’re poisonous raw, so please don’t eat them that way. We right now are looking at stats for potatoes “flesh and skin, baked“, which is generally considered the healthiest way to eat potatoes. Obviously, if you make them into mash then the glycemic index will be sky-high, and if you make them into fries they’ll now have lots of fat added, etc. So let’s just stick to the baked potatoes for now.
In the category of vitamins, red potatoes have more vitamin C, while russet potatoes have more vitamin B6. All the other minerals are close enough between both potatoes to be within reasonable margins of variation/error (in particular, they are both fair sources of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, and B9), so it’s really just between those two vitamins, so we’ll call this round a tie.
When it comes to minerals, red potatoes have more copper, phosphorus, and zinc, while russet potatoes have more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and potassium. Thus, a win for russets here.
Adding up the sections gives an overall win for russets, but by all means, enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
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Ex-Cyclone Alfred has left flooding in its wake. Here’s how floods affect our health
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Ex-Cyclone Alfred is bringing significant rainfall to southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Flooding has hit Lismore, Ballina, Grafton, Brisbane and Hervey Bay, which received 150 mm of rainfall in two hours this morning.
Tragically, a 61-year-old man died after being swept away in floodwaters near Dorrigo in northern New South Wales.
More heavy rain and flash flooding is expected in the coming days as the weather system moves inland and weakens.
Climate change is making these weather events more intense and frequent. Earlier this year, far north Queensland experienced major flooding. As residents of the Northern Rivers, this latest disaster is especially tough because only three years ago we faced the catastrophic 2022 floods.
We’ve studied the impact of floods on human health and wellbeing, and found floods are linked to a range of physical and mental health effects in both the short- and long-term.
So what might you experience if you live in an area affected by these floods?
We reviewed the evidence
We recently reviewed research on the physical and mental health impacts of floods across mainland Australia. We included 69 studies in our review, published over 70 years. The majority were from the past ten years, examining the effects of floods in Queensland and NSW.
These studies suggest people can expect a range of health impacts. Immediate physical health effects of floods include drowning, falls and injuries.
Chronic diseases such as diabetes or renal disease can also worsen due to factors such as reduced access to transport, health-care services, medications and hospitals.
Exposure to contaminated floodwaters can lead to skin infections, while respiratory problems can occur due to mould and damp housing in the aftermath of floods.
Floods also create ideal conditions for mosquito borne infections such as Ross River virus and Murray Valley encephalitis, while also spreading infectious diseases including leptospirosis, a bacterial infection from contaminated soil.
There are mental health consequences too
Our review showed floods also affect mental health. The more you’re exposed to floodwaters in your home or business, the worse the mental health impacts are likely to be.
The After the Flood study examined mental health and wellbeing outcomes six months after the 2017 flood in the Northern Rivers. It found people who had floodwater in their home, yard or business, or who were displaced from their home for a more than six months, were much more likely to have probable post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression, compared to those who didn’t experience flooding or weren’t displaced.
Repeated natural disasters could compound these mental health consequences. Southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers in NSW have experienced multiple disasters over recent years. The Northern Rivers faced major flooding in 2017, bushfires in 2020, further major floods in 2022, and now Cyclone Alfred in 2025. These repeated disasters have taken a toll on our community, creating a seemingly never-ending cycle of recovery, rebuilding and preparation for the next disaster.
Our understanding of the unique challenges faced by communities which experience multiple disasters is still growing. However, a recent Australian study showed exposure to repeated disasters has a compounding effect on people’s mental health, leading to worse mental health outcomes compared to people who experience a single disaster.
Mums and babies
The health effects of floods extend far beyond the initial emergency and beyond the infections and mental health consequences you might expect.
The Queensland Flood Study tracked pregnant women exposed to the 2011 Brisbane floods. Researchers assessed mothers’ stress related to the flood and tracked them and their children at six weeks old, six months, 16 months, 2.5 years, four and six years. It found some links between prenatal stress and developmental outcomes in children.
Some evidence suggests maternal stress from floods can affect children’s development. Nastyaofly/Shutterstock While the health effects after flooding are diverse, the research to date is not comprehensive. We need to learn more about how floods contribute to or exacerbate existing chronic illnesses, disability and long-term mental health issues.
The impacts are inequitable
Flooding exposes and worsens existing inequalities. Socially vulnerable groups are more likely to be exposed to flooding in their homes and have less access to resources to respond and recover from these events, putting some groups at higher risk of negative health impacts afterwards.
Some research has looked at the disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities and their carers, First Nations communities and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
After the 2017 Northern Rivers floods, for example, people with disability and their carers were more likely than others to:
- experience disrupted access to food, support networks and essentials such as health care and social services
- continue to be distressed about the flood six months after it happened
- be at relatively high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder six months after the flood.
However, targeted flood research exploring the experiences of these vulnerable groups in Australia is limited.
Moving forward, it’s vital we examine the varied impacts of flood events for more vulnerable groups, so we can better support them in the wake of devastating events such as Cyclone Alfred.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Jodie Bailie, Senior Research Fellow, The University Centre for Rural Health and The Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of Sydney; Jo Longman, Senior Research Fellow, The University Centre for Rural Health, University of Sydney; Rebecca McNaught, Research Fellow, Rural and Remote Health, University of Sydney, and Ross Bailie, School of Public Health, Honorary Professor, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The Diabetes Code – by Dr. Jason Fung
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Cure this serious disease with diet!” is often a bold-claim that overreaches scientific rigor, but in this case, it’s well-established as scientifically valid.
Caveat up-front: the only known circumstance in which this won’t work is if you have comorbidities that prevent you from following the advice.
You may be wondering: is this just the Mediterranean diet again? The answer is that the Mediterreanean diet (or similar) is part of it. But there’s a lot more to this book than that.
Dr. Fung explains to us a lot of the physiology of type 2 diabetes; how insulin resistance occurs, how it becomes a vicious cycle that we get locked into, and how to escape it.
- We learn about the role of fructose, and why fruit is very healthful whereas high-fructose corn syrup and similars are very much not.
- We learn about the role of the liver in glycogen metabolism, and how to un-fatty a fatty liver. Good news: the liver has famously strong self-regenerative abilities, if we give it a break to allow it to do so!
- We learn why portion control doesn’t work, and why intermittent fasting does (here be science).
Dr. Fung’s very readable explanations are free from needless jargon while not dumbing down. The writing style is clear and direct: “this happens this way”, “do this, not that”, etc.
Bottom line: if you have type 2 diabetes and would like to not have that (or if you are pre-diabetic and would like to avoid diabetes) this is a book for you. If you are in great metabolic health and would like to stay that way as you get older, then this is a book for you too.
Click here to check out The Diabetes Code, and get/keep your metabolic health in order!
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The Miracle of Flexibility – by Miranda Esmonde-White
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We’ve reviewed books about stretching before, so what makes this one different?
Mostly, it’s that this one takes a holistic approach, making the argument for looking after all parts of flexibility (even parts that might seem useless) because if one bit of us isn’t flexible, the others will start to suffer in compensation because of how that affects our posture, or movement, or in many cases our lack of movement.
Esmonde-White’s “flexibility, from your toes to your shoulders” approach is very consistent with her background as a professional ballet dancer, and now she brings it into her profession as a coach.
The book’s not just about stretching, though. It looks at problems and what can go wrong with posture and the body’s “musculoskeletal trifecta”, and also shares daily training routines that are tailored for specific sporting interests, and/or for those with specific chronic conditions and/or chronic pain. Working around what needs to be worked around, but also looking at strengthening what can be strengthened and fixing what can be fixed along the way.
Bottom line: if your flexibility needs an overhaul, this book is a very good “one-stop shop” for that.
Click here to check out The Miracle Of Flexibility, and discover what you can do!
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