Category: Health

(NEW YORK) — A new study is highlighting a dramatic rise in caffeine-related emergency room visits among kids.

The study, released Monday by Epic Research, found the number of caffeine-related ER visits for middle school-aged children nearly doubled from 2017 to 2023, rising from 3.1 per 100,000 visits in 2017 to 6.5 per 100,000 visits in 2023.

For high school-aged children, the rate nearly doubled, rising from 7.5 per 100,000 visits in 2017 to 13.7 per 100,000 visits in 2023, according to the study.

Notably, the study, which looked at more than 223 million ER visits, found that boys had triple the rate of caffeine-related ER visits as girls.

The new study comes less than two months after the release of a report showing a rise in calls to poison centers involving children who consumed energy drinks, which often have high levels of caffeine.

The number of calls to U.S. poison centers about children consuming energy drinks increased about 20% in 2023 after years of remaining relatively flat, according to data from America’s Poison Centers, which accredits and represents 55 poison centers across the country.

Amid the alarming data, here are three things for parents and guardians to know about caffeine and kids.

1. Milk and water are recommended for kids.

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics say water and milk are the best drink options for kids.

The current U.S. dietary guidelines say children under the age of 2 should not have any caffeine. For kids under age 12, caffeine is also not recommended.

It is not known exactly how much caffeine is safe or unsafe for teens or young children, since studies of its effects are not permitted on children.

For adults, the FDA has cited around 400 milligrams of caffeine a day as a generally safe amount, though it notes there is “wide variation” in people’s sensitivity to caffeine.

For reference, a 12-ounce caffeinated soft drink contains anywhere from 23 to 84 milligrams of caffeine, according to the FDA, while a 12-ounce cup of coffee contains 113 to 247 milligrams of caffeine.

2. Caffeine is also in foods, not just drinks.

While caffeine is most often thought of as an ingredient in drinks like coffee, sodas and energy drinks, it is also found in different foods and products, according to the FDA.

Ice cream, chewing gum, protein bars, chocolate chips, energy bars and some over-the-counter medications may also contain caffeine, which has the same effects as when it occurs naturally in drinks like coffee or tea, according to the agency.

Decaffeinated teas and coffees also contain some caffeine.

The FDA recommends reading product ingredient labels carefully to check for caffeine. When it is added to a product, it must be listed on the label as “caffeine.”

When caffeine is naturally in a product, like chocolate, just the caffeine-containing ingredient is listed, according to the FDA.

3. Caffeine poisoning symptoms require quick attention.

Multiple signs may indicate a caffeine overdose or poisoning including but not limited to an increased heart rate, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, nausea or anxiousness. Children with caffeine poisoning may also experience rapid breathing or tremors.

In severe cases, too much caffeine can lead to seizures or cardiac arrest.

In milder cases, too much caffeine can cause dehydration, upset stomach, sleep changes, headaches and jumpiness.

If a child or adult exhibits any such symptoms after consuming a caffeinated drink, they should seek medical attention immediately.

For poisoning-related questions, or if you need emergency assistance, you can contact Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, or visit PoisonHelp.org.

ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating its recommendations for testing, treatment and protection for workers who may be exposed to animals infected with bird flu.

The update comes after the agency found evidence of dairy workers with positive antibodies, suggesting more bird flu infections that previously reported, according to a new report released Thursday afternoon.

Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, found that eight out of 115 workers, or 7%, who were exposed to bird flu during outbreaks among cows at dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado had evidence of recent infection.

All eight workers said their jobs included either milking cows or cleaning a milking parlor. Four workers recalled experiencing symptoms, mainly conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. The remaining four patients said they did not experience symptoms when the cows were ill.

As a result, the CDC said it is updating its guidance addressing who should be tested for bird flu to include workers who were exposed to bird flu and do not have symptoms.

“There may be individuals infected but who do not recall having symptoms,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told reporters during a media call Thursday morning. “That means we need to cast a wider net in terms of who is offered a test.”

Secondly, the CDC is now recommending offering oseltamivir – a prescription medication to treat influenza that’s often marketed under the name Tamiflu – to asymptomatic workers who have experienced high-risk exposure to animals infected with bird flu and who did not wear adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

Shah said a high-risk exposure event could include a splash in the face with raw cow milk, or a culling event without PPE being worn.

He added that the Tamiflu treatment recommendation both reduces asymptomatic cases from becoming symptomatic because they are being treated, and reduces the risk of infected individuals spreading the virus to close contacts.

Lastly, the Shah said the CDC was changing its PPE guidance for workers.

Although the risk of bird flu transmission from dairy cows to humans Is low, the CDC said there have been few reports addressing how PPE is used during work activities on dairy farms.

The new CDC report said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) offered PPE to all Colorado farms before or during the bird flu outbreak in cows in 2024.

When asked if they had access to PPE before a bird flu outbreak, 88% of workers reported access to gloves, 76% reported access to eye protection such as safety glasses or goggles, 71% reported access to rubber boots or boot covers, and 69% reported access to head covers, according to the report.

“Reported use of many individual PPE items was higher among dairy workers who reported exposure to ill cows in the week before or week after the detection of [bird flu] on the farm compared with those who did not report exposure to ill cows,” according to the CDC report.

Shah said that CDC recommendations will now prioritize what PPE a farm worker should wear based on which farm tasks present the highest risk for bird flu.

“Simply put, the higher-risk activities will call for more PPE use,” Shah said. “The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 [bird flu] to humans and reduce the possibility of the virus changing,” Shah said.

As of Thursday, there have been 46 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S. this year, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the media call.

Of those cases, 26 were due to the outbreak in dairy cows and 20 were due to people coming into contact with infected poultry. There is one case in Missouri that had no known animal exposure.

All of the patients experienced mild conjunctivitis or mild respiratory symptoms and all have recovered, according to the CDC.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris said former President Donald Trump will roll back health care protections if he wins the presidential election.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Madison, Wisconsin, Harris said Trump unsuccessfully tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the landmark law signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, while he was president.

“Insurance companies could go back to a time where they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on pre-existing conditions, such being a survivor of breast cancer, asthma, diabetes,” Harris said. “The American people, regardless of who they are voting for, know the importance of Obamacare in terms of expanding coverage to health care, based on the fundamental principle I hold deeply: access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege for those who can afford it.”

“Health care for all Americans is on the line in this election,” Harris continued.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump falsely claimed not wanting to end the ACA, even though he repeatedly tried to do so while president.

Here is what we know about Trump’s health care agenda if he is elected to a second term:

‘Concepts’ of a heath care plan

During the ABC News presidential debate in September, Trump said he was interested in replacing the ACA — also known as “Obamacare” — but implied that he didn’t have any specific plans in place.

“Obamacare was lousy health care. Always was,” Trump said. “It’s not very good today and, what I said, that if we come up with something, we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.”

When asked to clarify if he had a health care plan, the former president said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA but provided no details.

“If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it,” Trump said.

After Harris’ press conference on Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social to deny wanting to end the ACA.

“Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing,” he wrote Thursday morning.

Trump made several attempts to repeal the ACA during his presidency but failed to do so.

He attempted to partially repeal the ACA by passing the American Health Care Act (ACHA). The plan would have repealed the individual mandate and the employer mandate, amended Medicaid eligibility and weakened protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.

The ACHA passed the House in May 2017 but failed to pass in the Senate. Perhaps mostly infamously, the Senate attempted to pass a so-called “skinny repeal” in late July 2017 but it was rejected, with Republican Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski siding with Senate Democrats to kill the bill.

During a closed-door campaign event for a fellow Republican House candidate earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that there will be “no Obamacare.”

“We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state,” Johnson said in footage first reported by NBC News. “Health care is one of the sectors, but we need this across the board.”

“No Obamacare?” an attendee of the event asked Johnson.

“No Obamacare,” Johnson replied. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”

Trump’s campaign has worked to separate itself from the speaker’s comments with Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, telling ABC News in a statement that repealing the ACA is “not President Trump’s policy position.”

“As President Trump has said, he will make our health care system better by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new affordable health care and insurance options. Kamala Harris broke our health care system, President Trump will fix it,” the statement continued.

The 2024 GOP platform currently calls for expanding access to “new” affordable health care and prescription drug access as well as protecting Medicare and increasing transparency in the health care sector.

Trump enlists Kennedy to oversee health care policy

Trump has also suggested that he intends to tap Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — who dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed Trump — to help shape health care policies if he wins a second term.

During the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner — an annual white-tie dinner to raise money for Catholic charities — earlier this month, Trump said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”

“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe reign him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a — he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”

Kennedy said Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies,” but Trump’s team said no decisions have been made yet on who will be leading these agencies if he wins the election.

However, Trump implied during a rally in Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday that Kennedy would play a role in shaping women’s health care policies.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we have,” Trump said. “And he’s gonna work on health, and women’s health, and all of the different reasons ’cause we’re not really a wealthy or a healthy country. We’re not.”

There are currently no women’s health care issues listed in the 2024 GOP platform aside from keeping “men out of women’s sports.”

“The only thing President Trump and his campaign team are focused on is winning on November 5th. Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role,” Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign told ABC News in a statement.

In response to Trump saying Kennedy will oversee women’s health, Harris reposted a clip of Trump’s comments on X with the caption “No” followed by a heart emoji.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim, Will McDuffie, Lauren Peller and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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The number of cases in the E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has risen to 90, federal health officials said in an update on Wednesday.

Cases have been reported in 13 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Most of the cases have been in Colorado, which has 29 reported cases, and Montana, which has 17 reported cases, according to the CDC.

Cases have also been reported in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to the CDC, which further notes that illnesses have occurred between Sept. 27 and Oct. 16 of this year.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(VANCOUVER ISLAND, CANADA) — Police in Canada said they have arrested six people and taken down an organized crime group believed to have produced tens of thousands of counterfeit cannabis-laced candy bars and edibles resembling popular name-brand products.

The takedown began early this month when the Pacific Region Royal Canadian Mounted Police federal policing investigators executed search warrants at two dispensaries and five separate residences on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, on Oct. 3, according to a statement from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Tuesday.

“These warrants were associated to an organized crime group allegedly involved in the production and distribution of illicit drugs, and contraband tobacco in Port Alberni and Nanaimo,” authorities said. “The dispensaries in question were Green Coast Dispensary in Port Alberni and Coastal Storm Dispensary located in Lantzville.”

Search warrants were also executed at a suspected stash site in Port Alberni, as well as a storage and production facility adjacent to Coastal Storm Dispensary, including two modular trailers where cannabis edibles were being produced, stored, and distributed, authorities said.

The list of items seized includes over 120,000 cannabis edibles with packaging resembling popular name-brand chocolate bars, potato chips, nacho chips, honey and other candies, including over 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of psilocybin mushrooms, 1,740 psilocybin capsules, over 400 psilocybin chocolate, candies and a multitude of other psilocybin products, 2.2 pounds of pressed cannabis resin, over 500 pounds of cannabis bud, more than 19 pounds of shatter, over 5000 cannabis vape cartridges, counterfeit cannabis-laced honey, five vehicles, two ATM machines containing cash, an estimated 164 master cases of contraband tobacco equating to 82,000 packs of cigarettes, over $400,000 in cash and a shotgun, police said.

“Although the contraband cannabis-laced candy bars and chips resembled professionally manufactured, packaged, and quality-controlled products, they were discovered to have been produced in the highly unsanitary, and heavily contaminated modular trailers,” authorities from RCMP said. “A preliminary assessment of the edibles also indicates that they had been treated with unknown amounts of THC, and likely cross-contaminated with other drugs and substances present in the trailers where they were being produced and packaged.”

Of equal concern, according to police, was the fact that the counterfeit snacks had packaging claims of possessing medicinal properties and dangerously high drug potency values, with many of the candy wrap labels claiming to be “100 times more potent than regulated cannabis products.”

“Given the highly contaminated and unsanitary conditions of the illicit drug production facility where these cannabis edibles were being produced, it is possible that the consumption of these products can lead to serious health risks,” RCMP said. “We urge members of the public to practice extreme caution if they already possess, or come across such products in the future, especially with Halloween being just around the corner.”

This investigation is ongoing and numerous drug-offence-related charges are being pursued.

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(WASHINGTON) — The number of confirmed bird flu cases has risen in the U.S. to 31, federal health officials said on Thursday.

Washington health officials reported four presumptive positive bird flu cases over the weekend. Since then, two of the four cases have been confirmed, according to Dr. Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The confirmed and presumptive cases all worked with infected poultry at a commercial egg farm. All had mild symptoms and were given antiviral medication.

“These numbers of confirmed and presumptive cases will certainly shift as more cases are potentially identified in Washington state and then confirmed at the CDC,” Shah said during a press conference on Thursday.

Additionally, the number of cases in California rose to 15, which is the highest number in a single state so far.

The CDC also said there is no evidence that human-to-human transmission is occurring, sharing the results of an investigation that occurred after a Missouri case of bird flu was confirmed through routine influenza surveillance. Investigators found a household contact who had similar symptoms.

They also investigated the hospital where the bird flu patient was hospitalized, and they found that 112 health care workers had interacted with this patient, six of whom reported experiencing respiratory symptoms. Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, confirmed the workers were not positive for bird flu.

Health officials’ investigation suggest the Missouri index patient and the household contact were both exposed to the same source, but further testing revealed the household contact did not meet criteria for a confirmed case.

The CDC said the risk to the general public is still low, and there is no evidence that the virus has mutated to better infect individuals.

Additionally, the CDC confirmed that laboratory company Quest Diagnostics will have a bird flu test soon available with a prescription from a provider for clinical purposes. Being prescribed the test would require being at risk for bird flu and experiencing symptoms of the virus.

Timeline of the bird flu outbreak

The outbreak began in early March when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a bird flu strain that had sickened millions of birds across the U.S was identified in several mammals this year. Later, health officials said they were investigating the illness among dairy cows, but assured there was no risk to the commercial milk supply.

The following month, the CDC said a human case of bird flu was identified in Texas and linked to cattle.

Since then, cases have been confirmed in California, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and Washington. All the cases were among people who came into contact with sick dairy cows or infected poultry and all patients recovered with antivirals.

In late April, reports emerged that bird flu fragments had been found in samples of pasteurized milk. However, the fragments are inactive remnants of the virus and cannot cause infection.

Federal agencies maintain the U.S. commercial milk supply remains safe because milk is pasteurized and dairy farmers are required to dispose of any milk from sick cows, so it does not enter the supply.

In May, the CDC said in a summary that it is preparing for the “possibility of increased risk to human health” from bird flu as part of the federal government’s preparedness efforts, including filling doses of bird flu vaccine into vials to shore up the national stockpile.

Earlier this month, federal health officials announced they are providing $72 million to vaccine manufacturers to help ensure currently available bird flu vaccines are ready-to-use, if needed.

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(NEW YORK) — The active ingredient found in popular medications for Type 2 diabetes and weight loss, including Ozempic and Wegovy, may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study published Thursday finds.

Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, looked at three years of electronic records of almost 1 million patients with Type 2 diabetes, including those prescribed semaglutide.

Semaglutide falls under a class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, which mimic the GLP-1 hormone that is produced in the gut after eating.

It can help produce more insulin, which reduces blood sugar and therefore helps control Type 2 diabetes. It can also interact with the brain and signal a person to feel full, which — when coupled with diet and exercise — can help reduce weight in those who are overweight or obese.

The team found that compared to seven other anti-diabetic drugs, semaglutide helped significantly lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, including other types of GLP-1s.

Semaglutide was associated with a 70% reduced risk when compared with insulin and 40% reduced risk when compared with other GLP-1 drugs, according to the study.

Women experienced an even lower risk for Alzheimer’s with semaglutide when compared to men, at about 80% compared to 50%, respectively.

However, women in the study were younger and more likely to have obesity or depression. They were also less likely to have heart disease, which may have led to their lower risk.

About 120,000 Americans die from Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. each year, and it is currently the seventh-leading cause of death nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While getting Type 2 diabetes under control may already lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, there may be additional dementia risk reduction for semaglutide, according to Rong Xu, lead researcher and professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western.

Semaglutide is considered to be “the most potent of the GLP-1s being that it has the greatest effect at hitting the receptor,” and, of the GLP-1s, it also produces the greatest weight loss, said Dr. Louis Aronne, the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill-Cornell Medical Center.

The greater potency of semaglutide may be why it has a stronger protective effect against Alzheimer’s.

Xu told ABC News that although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there are several risk factors including Type 2 diabetes and obesity that may be controlled.

“If we can address those risk factors, then we can prevent Alzheimer’s disease,” she said. “So, for semaglutide, there’s some preclinical evidence showing that this medication has neuro-protective effects and is also anti-inflammation, which can address a lot of risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”

This means GLP-1 medications may not only lower blood sugar to reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but they may also play a role in reducing neuro-inflammation.

“GLP-1 receptor agonists mitigate neuroinflammation, they mitigate oxidative stress, [and] they mitigate a number of things which occur systemically but also in the brain,” Nigel Greig, principal investigator at the National Institute on Aging, told ABC News.

However, the exact mechanism behind how GLP-1 medications reduce Alzheimer’s risk is unknown so more research is needed, according to Xu.

This is only [an] association, we cannot prove causality,” Xu said. “So, it’s not recommended to say people prescribed this medication can treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

“But this study can help people who already have Type 2 diabetes or obesity and are high risk for Alzheimer’s disease, it maybe can provide some evidence for medication selection,” she added.

For future research, Xu said she wants to examine if semaglutide can also lower the risk of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

“GLP-1s provide benefit over and above weight loss alone. We are just beginning to understand the benefits of these drugs beyond weight loss alone,” said Aronne.

Itohan Omorodion, MD, MPH, is an internal medicine resident at George Washington University Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(NEW YORK) — A new study suggests that GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic, which are used for diabetes management and weight loss, may help reduce the risk of overdose and alcohol intoxication in people with substance use disorders.

“It helps to underline another significant benefit of this class of medication,” Dr. Angela Fitch, the co-founder, and chief medical officer of knownwell, a company that provides weight-inclusive health care, told ABC News.

The large study, published in the journal, Addiction, analyzed the health records of 1.3 million people from 136 U.S. hospitals for nearly nine years. That included the records of 500,000 people with opioid use and more than 800,000 with alcohol use disorder.

Those who took Ozempic or a similar drug had a 40% lower chance of overdosing on opioids and a 50% lower chance of getting drunk compared to those who didn’t take the medication, the study found.

“The existing medications for treating substance use disorder are underutilized and stigmatized,” said Fares Qeadan, associate professor of biostatistics at Loyola University in Chicago. “These medications intended for diabetes and weight loss can help addiction without the associated stigma, which will be a new window for how to deal with addiction.”

The protective effects were consistent and even applied to people with Type 2 diabetes, obesity, or both conditions.

Fitch expressed optimism about the study’s results.

“As clinicians, recognizing that people can get double benefits from something is always helpful and as more obesity medications enter the market, this can help personalize treatments,” she said.

GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and the combination drug tirzepatide also included in the study, mimic a natural hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1 to help regulate blood sugar and insulin levels. For managing obesity and diabetes, these medications work by slowing digestion, reducing appetite, and enhancing insulin release in response to meals.

Scientists don’t fully understand how these drugs work yet. Some studies indicate that they activate specific “reward” receptors in the brain that make high-calorie foods less gratifying, so users eat less.

This could also be the reason these drugs may reduce cravings for alcohol and opioids. For example, a previous study found that adding the GLP-1, exenatide, was effective at helping some people with obesity and alcohol use disorder drink less.

The Addiction study does not prove that GLP-1 medications directly lower the risks of opioid overdose and alcohol intoxication, only that people taking them seemed to be helped. And it only included hospitalizations so it’s not clear if they will work as well in less serious cases.

Prescribing the drugs to treat substance use, at least for now, isn’t possible because they aren’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that purpose, Fitch pointed out.

“One of the challenges that we have as clinicians is we know that some of these benefits help patients. And not being able to get them access is very challenging,” she said.

People with substance use disorder keep using drugs or alcohol even though it causes problems in their life. According to the CDC, there are 178,000 annual deaths linked to excessive drinking. Over 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2022 involved opioids.

If you or someone you know is living with substance use disorder, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling or texting the national lifeline at 988.

Dr. Faizah Shareef is an Internal Medicine Resident Physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) Hundreds of people gathered outside the WK Kellogg headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday calling for the company to hold up its promise to remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals sold in the U.S.

Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg’s, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.

While Kellogg’s has done so in other countries including Canada, which now makes Froot Loops with natural fruit juice concentrates, the cereals sold in the U.S. still contain both food dyes and a chemical preservative.

In the U.S., Froot Loops ingredients include Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6 and Blue Dye No. 1.

Food activist Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe on social media, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators at the cereal giant’s offices in Battle Creek on Tuesday.

“I’m here for the moms, all the moms, who struggle to feed their children healthy food without added chemicals,” she said.

In response to the protests, Kellogg’s insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying its ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency has said that most children experience no adverse effects from color additives, but critics argue the FDA standards were developed without any assessment for possible neurological effects.

The protests come in the wake of a new California law known as the California School Food Safety Act that bans six potentially harmful dyes in foods served in California public schools. The ban includes all of the dyes in Froot Loops, plus Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3.

The bill was passed by state legislators in August and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.

Studies suggest that consumption of said dyes and colorants banned under the new California School Food Safety Act may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.

While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.

Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.

California previously made history in October 2023, when Newsom signed AB 418 into law, a first-of-its-kind bill that bans four harmful chemicals from candy, cereals, salad dressings and other processed foods in the state starting in 2027.

That law will end the use of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3 in food products sold throughout the state.

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(NEW YORK) — Nicole Hallingstad credits her cat, Rudy, with finding her breast cancer.

Despite an unremarkable mammogram screening just seven months earlier, the 42-year-old knew something was wrong when Rudy kept pawing at something on the right side of her chest.

Hallingstad had another mammogram, which this time found a golf-ball-sized tumor in her breast that she said was from a fast-growing form of breast cancer.

After surgery, she needed both radiation and chemotherapy – but neither were available where she lived.

Hallingstad faced a difficult decision. Her options were to travel more than 1,000 miles once a month for chemotherapy and then relocate for six weeks of radiation treatment, or move to another state where she could get chemotherapy and radiation in one place. Hallingstad chose the latter.

“I was very fortunate that I was able to take the option to move and continue working and receive the care I needed,” Hallingstad told ABC News. “But that is a choice that is unsustainable for far too many Native women, and frankly, uncertain.”

Why was cancer care so inaccessible for Hallingstad? Because she lived in Alaska.

Hallingstad, a member of the Tlingit and Haida Native Indian Tribes of Alaska, faced profound barriers to breast cancer care that are shared by many American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women. These barriers have contributed to growing disparities over the last three decades.

“It’s often really difficult to get to a qualified health care center that is close to the rural areas where so many of our people live,” Hallingstad said. “And transportation is not readily available for many people to get the trip to the center, to get their screening to even have access to the kind of machinery that is needed for this important treatment work.”

A recent report by the American Cancer Society (ACS) showed that the rate of breast cancer deaths among U.S. women has decreased by 44% from 1989 to 2022. But that progress has not held true for all women, including AI/AN women, whose death rates have remained unchanged during that same time.

While AI/AN women have a 10% lower incidence of breast cancer than white women, they have a 6% higher mortality rate, according to the ACS.

The ACS also found that only about half of AI/AN women over 40 years old surveyed for the report said they’d had a mammogram in the last two years, compared to 68% of white women. That lack of timely screenings increased the risk of discovering cancer in more advanced stages, which in turn could result in higher death rates.

“This is a population for which we are very concerned,” Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society, told ABC News. “Given the mammography rates [of AI/AN women] that we’re actually seeing, which are well behind other women across the country.

Knudsen emphasized the need to “create that additional awareness about the importance of getting screened for breast cancer early because of the link to improved outcomes,” especially in Indigenous communities.

There are also cultural barriers to cancer care and awareness. “Culturally, we don’t often speak about very deep illness, because we don’t want to give it life,” Hallingstad said.

That fear, not necessarily shared by all Indigenous communities, is a common reason people from any background may choose not to discuss cancer risk, or to seek help if they think they have a serious health problem.

Melissa Buffalo, an enrolled member of the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa, is the CEO of the American Indian Cancer Foundation, where she works alongside Hallingstad. Her organization recently received a grant to study the knowledge and beliefs surrounding cancer and clinical trials among Indigenous people in Minnesota. Buffalo said she hopes to “create resources and tools that are culturally relevant, culturally tailored, so that we can help to build trust within these healthcare systems.”

Advocates like Buffalo and organizations like the ACS are also creating toolkits to help existing systems increase their outreach to AI/AN women. However, “there is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach to everything,” Dr. Melissa Simon, an OB/GYN at Northwestern University and founder of the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative, told ABC News.

“We have to also acknowledge that the patient has some variation too, just like the cancer itself. To treat it has some variation,” Simon said.

“We have to talk about it,” Hallingstad said about breast cancer in the Indigenous community. “We need to understand treatment options. We need to bring care facilities closer and we need to make sure our populations are being screened and are following treatment.”

 

Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH is a physician board-certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine and a medical fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.

Sejal Parekh, M.D., is a board-certified, practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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