Health

New York state legislators were in Rochester on Thursday to hear testimony for and against a bill that would create a universal single-payer health care system in the state.

Researchers at the University of Rochester said that they have found links between environmental toxins and weakened immune systems that get passed down from generation to generation.

Paige Lawrence, who runs a lab in the environmental medicine department at the University of Rochester, said the results of the study, published this month in the journal iScience, could help explain why some people are more vulnerable to the flu than others.

The project started with mice. 

Rochester Regional Health has received a federal contract to study ear infections.

Michael Pichichero, the Rochester General Hospital doctor who will oversee the research, said the results could have national implications.

The germs that are causing ear infections today are not the same as they were just a few years ago, Pichichero said. “The bacteria are changing, and they’re changing very rapidly.”

If Monroe County school districts suspended everyone who vaped, 45% of seniors would have to be kept out of class at some point, according to data on e-cigarette use from the county’s annual survey of public high school students.

In the Greece Central School District, where suspension has been the go-to punishment for the vast majority of students caught vaping, Assistant Superintendent Mike Zaffuts saw the impending problem.

A New York state appellate court on Thursday granted a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of a planned ban on flavored e-cigarette products.

The order, first reported by the New York Law Journal, came less than 24 hours before enforcement was scheduled to begin.

This year’s approaching flu season follows the longest season in more than a decade.

That makes efforts to prepare for this season particularly important.

One of the most important elements of that preparation is the flu vaccine, which has to change almost every year to account for mutations in the flu virus, said David Topham, who directs the Influenza Center of Excellence at the University of Rochester Medical Center.