Tag: safety

AI could harm children more than social media – ex-Google exec

Artificial intelligence could pose greater risks to children than social media, with tech companies failing to put adequate safeguards in place, a former Google safety executive has warned.

Tom Siegel, who founded Google’s trust and safety team and spent 15 years at the company, told Reuters this week that the industry was repeating mistakes made during the rise of social media.

“We find ourselves in a really terrible situation in terms of what AI is doing to kids,” Siegel said. “The idea that the industry will figure it out by itself without outside help is unrealistic.”

He warned of “very severe scenarios of harm,” citing risks ranging from suicide and psychosis to ‘cognitive offloading’ – reduced critical thinking caused by relying on AI for answers. Companies can and should take immediate steps, including stronger age checks to prevent children from accessing chatbots, he said.

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Whatever Happened to the 150,000 Tons of Radioactive Waste Stored Under the Atlantic Ocean? 

More than 200,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste were stored on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean between 1949 and 1982, reports ScienceAlert.

Whatever happened to those barrels?Scientists have descended to the wreckage in a crewed submersible to investigate — and found many of the barrels corroded and degraded, their contents spilling across the seafloor. Surprisingly, this isn’t necessarily a subversion of the original plan… The International Atomic Energy Agency recommends that low-level waste be disposed of in robust containment in isolation for at least a few hundred years — but back in the mid-20th century, the recommendations were a little different. The contemporaneous guidelines recommended that containers needed to reach the seafloor intact and remain sealed only long enough for the short-lived radionuclides to decay. After that, the remaining waste was expected to slowly escape and disperse through the surrounding ocean. Not everything in the barrels would conveniently decay away, however. They contained a radioactive hodgepodge, including cesium-137, plutonium isotopes, and tritium, some of which can persist for thousands of years…

[A] few years ago, nuclear engineer Patrick Chardon and marine geologist Javier Escartín of the French National Center for Scientific Research started to wonder what had become of the dumped waste. That question eventually became NODSSUM — Nuclear Ocean Dump Site Survey Monitoring — an interdisciplinary project bringing together nuclear physics, geology, oceanography, biology, and marine chemistry to find the barrels and investigate what, if anything, they were doing to the surrounding environment…. [T]he barrels also appeared to function as tiny oases on the otherwise sparsely populated sandy seafloor. Anemones had attached themselves to the barrels. Sponges, sea cucumbers, fish, and crustaceans lived around them, with crabs apparently particularly fond of the artificial shelters…

Instruments aboard the ship detected significant signals of cobalt-60 and niobium-94, which the researchers could specifically link to the dumped waste… [Samples are now being analyzed] There is precedent, however, to suggest that even striking levels of radioactivity around a source don’t necessarily spread very far. A recent study of the sunken Soviet submarine Komsomolets found radionuclide levels hundreds of thousands of times above background immediately around the leaking reactor — but those levels dropped sharply within just a few meters as the material dispersed through the seawater. The NODSSUM team similarly found that, despite the significant radioactive signals around the barrels, activity levels weren’t high enough to pose major radiation-protection problems for the scientists handling the samples. [Their three-person submersible] Nautile and the instruments it carried showed no signs of contamination.
The real achievement was mapping the exact location of the barrels. “None of this means the waste is harmless,” the article concludes — but it also doesn’t mean we’re about to be overrun by radioactive crabs.”

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FDA Should Demand Proof, Not Just Protein, for Duchenne

On microdystrophin, the FDA is doing what the accelerated-approval standard has always required: asking that a biomarker be shown to predict real benefit before it is trusted.

Much of the commentary around REGENXBIO’s RGX-202 has framed the FDA’s stance as regulatory inconsistency, arguing that the agency is holding one sponsor to a standard it waived for another. But the question before the FDA is simpler: whether microdystrophin expression is actually strong enough to predict clinical benefit.

The charge of inconsistency does not survive contact with the record. And it is worth noticing that its loudest version comes from a sponsor whose commercial position gives it every reason to want the bar set lower.

Nor is REGENXBIO alone in having a commercial interest in how low that bar is set. Solid Biosciences is pursuing the same accelerated-approval opening for SGT-003 while emphasizing high microdystrophin expression and other biomarker results from its early-stage trial. Solid is still gathering the controlled functional evidence that can show whether those laboratory findings actually translate into meaningful improvement for boys with Duchenne. That is precisely why the FDA cannot allow impressive protein numbers themselves to become the standard of proof.

The problem is larger than any one company. If microdystrophin expression can secure accelerated approval without convincing evidence that it predicts how patients actually function, every sponsor developing a similar therapy has an incentive to race toward the biomarker rather than wait for the harder clinical answer.

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Antidepressants (SSRI) Trigger Hyponatremia, Which Causes Severe Anxiety

Hyponatremia, or low sodium in the blood, is one of the most common electrolyte disorders seen in clinical settings, and its effects are anything but minor. Sodium keeps your nerves firing and your muscles working. When levels dip, even slightly, you feel drained, confused, or shaky. Push it further and symptoms like nausea, seizures, or fainting start to appear. In severe cases, sodium imbalance drives long hospital stays, lasting cognitive decline, and death.

Antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are routinely prescribed for mood disorders, but what often gets overlooked is how they disrupt sodium balance in your body. This translates into real-world risks like falls, broken bones, and worsening mental health. Older adults, especially women, are hit the hardest, with even short-term use setting off dramatic shifts in sodium control.

The severity of harm varies depending on the drug, the dose, and how long it’s used, yet the outcome is always unpredictable — and sometimes catastrophic. Research makes it clear that these medications disrupt sodium balance in dangerous ways, and a major study to track this problem shows exactly how quickly and severely those drops in sodium occur.

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GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drug Prescriptions for Young Kids Skyrocketing, Study Finds

The number of American children being prescribed GLP-1 weight-loss drugs has surged dramatically over the past few years, fueling debate over whether doctors are medicating childhood obesity instead of preventing it, according to new research.

A recent study led by researchers at NYU Langone Health found prescriptions of Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound for children ages 8 to 11 rose 310-fold from 0.03% in 2019 to 9.3% in 2026.

Researchers said 20,282 children in that age group were prescribed the drugs in 7.5 years — still a small fraction of the more than 3.5 million children studied, but a fast-accelerating one.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved GLP-1 drugs for children under 12, but doctors prescribe them off-label for extreme cases.

We ‘need more long-term data in children,’ physician says

Babak J. Orandi, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s lead investigator and an obesity medicine specialist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said the research offers the first national look at how GLP-1 drugs are being used in young children amid the broader obesity epidemic.

Roughly 20% of U.S. children are obese, he said, and that underlying trend is what worries him most.

“My biggest concern is upstream of any medication: Nearly 1 in 5 children this age has obesity, and that’s what’s really driving this,” Orandi told The Defender.

He added:

“Medication can help an individual child, but it doesn’t address why so many children are developing severe obesity in the first place. I’d like to see real investment in the food environment kids grow up in, with less reliance on ultra-processed food, better food access and affordability, less screen time and more opportunity for physical activity, and support for families trying to build healthier routines at home.

“Treating more children with medication while leaving that environment unchanged just means we’ll keep producing more children who need treatment.”

Orandi said the drugs can be effective for treating obesity and related health problems, and that forgoing treatment carries its own long-term risks, including a higher chance of developing chronic disease later in life.

Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, agreed.

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EPA fast-tracks fluoride review as evidence of harm to children mounts

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a major step toward determining whether the fluoride added to most Americans’ tap water poses a danger to children’s developing brains, announcing a new scientific protocol that will examine links between fluoride exposure and reduced IQ. The move comes as mounting research—including studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and a landmark federal court ruling—has forced regulators to accelerate a review originally not due until 2030.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the release of the Protocol for Developing the Fluoride Human Health Toxicity Assessment on August 3, calling it a milestone in the agency’s expedited review under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

“Every American should be able to count on safe and healthy drinking water, plain and simple,” Zeldin said. “In light of new science and real concerns from the public, the Trump EPA is working in lockstep with HHS to expedite our review of fluoride under the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

What the protocol covers

The new protocol lays out how the agency will conduct a dose-response analysis to pin down what levels of fluoride exposure cause harm. The review will look specifically at children’s brain development, including effects on IQ, along with dental fluorosis — the staining and pitting of tooth enamel linked to fluoride overexposure.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. framed the review as a matter of parental rights and scientific transparency.

“Parents deserve the truth about fluoride in drinking water—not assumptions, not politics, but rigorous science,” Kennedy said. “That is why HHS is working side by side with EPA to ensure this assessment focuses on the health risks that matter most for children, including neurodevelopmental effects and dental fluorosis. By conducting a rigorous dose-response analysis and making every step of the process transparent, we will give states, communities, and families the scientific foundation they need to make informed decisions about fluoride in drinking water.”

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Food Labeling Should Not Be This Hard

Knowing what’s in your food or whether what you’re about to eat comports with a medically prescribed diet can be difficult. There’s no reason why the government should make it harder. But that’s exactly what the United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration are doing when they prohibit companies from conveying information about FODMAP content on food labels.

Although not inherently harmful to most people, FODMAPs are a broad category of short-chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols believed to trigger gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals living with irritable bowel syndrome and possibly several other functional gastrointestinal disorders.

In technical terms, FODMAPs are fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. More practically, people with IBS might want to be careful around most standard dairy items, honey, several cereals and artificial sweeteners, and a cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and spices.

When consumed, these items can lead to luminal distension by causing increased amounts of water to enter the gastrointestinal tract and increased gas production by bacteria living in the colon. In some individuals with IBS and other functional gut disorders, this may trigger or exacerbate certain symptoms of their condition (e.g., intense pain and changes in intestinal motility), possibly through neurons in the gut responding abnormally to these physiological responses to FODMAP consumption. 

Hence, some patients with these conditions choose to limit their FODMAP intake or are encouraged to do so by their health care provider. Some go on strict low-FODMAP diets long term. Others temporarily do so for two to eight weeks then work to reintroduce specific FODMAP-containing foods into their diet to determine what they can tolerate. Broadly speaking, a lot of patients with relevant conditions find that the diet helps alleviate their symptoms.

Low-FODMAP diets though are generally considered sort of bland. They also tend to require a certain amount of time and education to be effective. Looking at a table of high- and low-FODMAP foods to make decisions about what to eat may not require an advanced degree in nutrition, but it is not difficult to imagine how having to break out such a table to evaluate every item you consider purchasing at the grocery store could become rather burdensome, especially if you’re new to the diet.

Fortunately, there are organizations and companies out there to help. Monash University, for example, has labs that both study the effectiveness of low-FODMAP diets and test food items for FODMAP content. Monash also offers several resources to help those on low-FODMAP diets make informed meal choices and works with companies that wish to offer low-FODMAP food options. If a company wants to submit a product to Monash for evaluation and Monash determines the item is low in FODMAP content, the company can then use a trademarked label to convey this information to consumers.

However, as one US company learned, even if one of the world’s leading FODMAP research facilities tells you your food is low in FODMAPs, this isn’t exactly the kind of thing you can just put on a label in the United States.

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AI Data Center Boom Fueling ‘Tidal Wave’ of New PFAS Production

The “AI revolution” is driving a “tidal wave” of new PFAS production to meet the demands of rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the data centers needed to power it, The Guardian reported.

Exploding demand for lithium-ion batteries is also driving up demand for the chemicals, according to a new report by chemical industry watchdog ChemSec.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals” because they never degrade, have been linked to illnesses including cancer, thyroid disease and inflammatory bowel disease. They’ve also been linked to developmental issues in children.

In the last two years, new regulations have placed restrictions on some PFAS chemicals in drinking water and food packaging in the U.S. and Europe. And winning lawsuits have compelled some PFAS producers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle health claims against DuPont and other companies.

Yet, ChemSec’s survey of the 10 largest PFAS manufacturers found that rather than being deterred by new regulations and the growing body of evidence of PFAS-related health problems, most producers are set to expand production in the coming years.

“PFAS manufacturers all over the world are explicitly framing their investments around ‘the AI revolution’ and microchip fabrication,” ChemSec reported.

PFAS are used at multiple points in the infrastructure underlying AI. They play a key role in semiconductor manufacturing, and they are a major component of cooling systems that remove the enormous amounts of heat generated by data centers.

That demand is fueling new investment in PFAS production even as governments struggle with widespread contamination from decades of previous use, and manufacturers face billions of dollars in liabilities.

ChemSec warns the increased demand driving production expansion signals that “the only effective method to end this toxic pollution crisis is to implement universal bans with strictly time-limited derogations to enable certain sectors to adjust.”

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‘I am ashamed’: ‘Lifelong’ Democrat has son and new bride killed by illegal alien on roads, now blames own party for disasters

A “lifelong Democrat,” as she described herself to Congress, has admitted being ashamed of how her party has handled the issue of illegal aliens being allowed into America.

Millions arrived under Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House, and despite a concerted effort by the White House of President Donald Trump, while millions have been removed, millions still remain.

A report at Fox News explains that Democrat Elizabeth Carter said her feeling developed when her son, William Micah Carter, and his newlywed wife, Jennifer Lower, were killed in a car crash triggered by an illegal immigrant, Rajinder Kumar.

He had jackknifed a big rig on the highway, and Carter and Lower, and their cat “Bert” hit the wreckage and died in the accident.

“Sixteen days after they were married, Billy, Jenny and her cat Bert were killed. They lost the Russian roulette game our government is forcing them to play,” Carter explained,

She said, “We allowed 10 million people in under Biden. How is there a different suggestion as to how to process them, other than the same way they came into the country, en masse, leaving?”

Under questioning from Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., she took aim at the Democrats.

“I have to say, as a lifelong Democrat, I am ashamed of what my party is doing.”

Knott said, “This is the question for the country to consider, is it worth enforcing our laws to protect just one American family?”

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Australia Wants to Remake the Internet in the Name of “Safety”

The Australian government has published its proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation, a plan that it says will give people more control over their social media feeds, but which opponents fear is a way to introduce more online censorship.

The exposure draft of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 was published on September 8 for consultation, and it is not yet law. The deadline for submissions is noon on September 22, and Communications Minister Anika Wells said the plan is to formally introduce the bill to Parliament in October.

We obtained a copy of the draft for you here.

In the words of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, “This is not about giving government control, it is about giving people control.”

And while the proposal is often referred to as My Feed, My Way, it is not about banning algorithms, but giving new and existing users a choice between feeds based on recommendations, and one that shows posts from accounts they follow.

But beneath this choice, there is a broader change to the Online Safety Act 2021 that would be introduced by the Digital Duty of Care bill, and that is to impose a duty on those behind online services to ensure a safe online environment as far as reasonably practicable.

This duty would apply to a wide range of services, including social media, messaging, games, hosting, search, app stores, internet providers, AI services enabling generated material to be shared through covered services, as well as certain equipment providers.

The minister in charge would be able to exempt services that are low-risk or minimally used. The proposal is designed to protect adults from what is described as seriously harmful material and conduct, while under-18s would have additional protection against harmful content and design features.

The list of harmful content and conduct that the draft seeks to protect adults from includes child sexual abuse, threats of violence, encouragement of self-harm, and support for listed terrorist organizations.

For children, the list includes pornography, encouragement of disordered eating, hostile attitudes towards women or gender equality, glorification of crime, dangerous stunts, abuse and bullying.

However, the minister would have the power to add more categories of harmful material or conduct by issuing a legislative instrument.

Wells must first seek and consider advice from eSafety, and the instrument can be disallowed by Parliament.

The draft bill also targets features that the government considers to have negative behavioral impacts, such as recommendation systems, endless feeds, and engagement-feedback tools, as well as time-limited content. Social media services would be required to stop these features for children under 16.

The proposal also includes a system of risk assessment that online services would have to conduct at least once a year, and keep for six years. These assessments would have to be provided to the eSafety commissioner on request.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who has a history of censorship demands, would be in charge of enforcing the scheme, which would bring maximum company penalties of A$109.2 million.

The draft bill does contain some safeguards, such as the definition of reasonably practicable, which takes into account the risk, available measures, cost, and the potential for a measure to have a disproportionate effect on privacy.

The duty of care does not extend to lawful communications occurring in private solely between consenting adults, the draft bill states.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor on September 6 said he feared the proposal was “an attempt by the government to censor social media,” while One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said that Australia should be moving away from government censorship, not “building the Orwellian machinery for it.”

The Greens, on the other hand, have supported the idea of making sure users have a choice when it comes to feeds, but they want to make sure that users have to opt in to have their feeds curated by algorithms.

White House spokesman Kush Desai reacted by saying that President Trump “has unequivocally warned trading partners against imposing digital services taxes, fines, and other forms of extortion on America’s leading technology sector.”

Desai added that “the administration remains committed to raising these issues with our trading partners.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells sought to downplay the significance of the White House statement, telling News24 that the US was responding to broader questions that also included Australia’s tax arrangements, and not only the Digital Duty of Care proposal.

“We’re a sovereign nation, we have the right to defend Australian parents and kids and we’ll do that,” Wells said.

The government’s proposal has been portrayed as giving users a choice between personalized recommendation feeds and those that show posts from accounts they follow.

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