Leaded or Unleaded Clothing?

…and other items from this week’s health news:

Fast fashion, heavy fashion?

In few words: researchers presenting at the American Chemical Society found that all children’s shirts tested exceeded the US lead safety limit of 100 ppm.

Now, it may seem alarming that clothing even has a 100ppm lead safety limit, because surely the correct amount of lead to have in clothing is zero. Of course, lead exposure at any level is harmful and is linked to brain damage, behavioral issues, and nervous system effects, with children under 6 being especially vulnerable.

And worse, the lead wasn’t just in metal parts like buttons or zippers but also embedded directly in the fabric, likely from dye-fixing chemicals such as lead(II) acetate.

The next step from this now is that the researchers are investigating whether washing contaminated clothes could spread lead directly to other garments and/or leave residue in washing machines to spread it to other garments washed next.

Read in full: Study finds dangerous lead levels in children’s clothing

Related: Are You Inhaling Microplastics In Your House? ← clothing is a big contributor to this, and tumble-driers especially will exacerbate the problem

BMI found to be even less useful than previously accepted

Shocking no regular 10almonds readers (because the fact that BMI still gets used the way it does is a pet hate of the writing staff), researchers presenting at the European Congress on Obesity 2026 found that over one-third of adults were misclassified by BMI, meaning their assigned weight category didn’t match their actual body fat levels.

A lot of this is because doesn’t measure body fat directly, let alone show where fat is stored, which matters because visceral fat (around organs) carries more risk than fat stored elsewhere (in fact, the fat stored elsewhere can be healthy and even sometimes protective, depending on various factors, see our “related” article below).

The research team compared BMI with DXA (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry), which is a gold-standard method that directly measures body fat percentage and distribution. What they found is that many people labeled overweight or obese by BMI didn’t actually have high body fat, while others with higher fat levels were missed entirely.

Specific findings:

• “Obese” category: 34% were actually here because of body fat, the rest should not have been here
• “Overweight” category: 53% were misclassified, with most actually in the normal range
• “Normal” category: 22% were reclassified up or down when body fat was measured
• “Underweight” category: 68.4% were reclassified up into “normal”

In other words, BMI and body fat methods often flag different people entirely, not just slightly different numbers.

If any other medical standard testing system flagged “different people entirely”, it would be thrown out decades ago!

Read in full: Scientists say BMI gets it wrong for over one third of adults

Related: When BMI Doesn’t Quite Measure Up ← for even more things that are wrong with this system that is wildly unhelpful at best, and often even dangerous

The anti-Alzheimer’s vaccine?

Researchers (Dr. Gabriela Cruz et al.) found that adults aged 65+ who received a high-dose flu vaccine had a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with those receiving a standard-dose version.

Notably, women enjoyed earlier and stronger reductions in risk, while men got smaller or delayed benefits.

As for the duration of the effect:

• On the one hand, the association lasted up to 25 months in one analysis and 28 months in another, suggesting a medium-term effect rather than a permanent risk reduction
• On the other hand, people who received high-dose vaccines annually over three years showed further reductions in risk, hinting at a cumulative effect.

In other words, get it annually and you’ll be well-covered!

You may be wondering why it works; it’s likely because stronger immune stimulation from high-dose vaccines can reduce brain inflammation or improve immune responses, which are increasingly linked to dementia risk.

This builds on from earlier studies that already linked regular flu vaccination to lower dementia risk—sometimes reporting up to 40% lower incidence.

Read in full: High-dose flu shots inked to lower Alzheimer’s dementia risk in older adults

Related: Could the shingles vaccine lower your risk of dementia?

Take care!