Drug use remains low among US teens

For the fifth year in a row, use of most substances among teenagers in the United States continues to hover around the low-water mark reached in 2021.

The findings are from the latest report of the Monitoring the Future study at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, an annual survey of drug use behaviors and attitudes among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders that has been supported by the National Institutes of Health for 51 years.

Researchers found that the percentage of teens currently abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and nicotine held steady at historically high levels established five years ago when they detected a sharp decline in reported use of most drugs from 2020 to 2021.

This substantial falloff was largely attributed to disruptions in drug availability and in the social lives of teens during the pandemic, when many were isolated at home with parents or other caregivers and spending less time with friends.

“One of the main findings from the survey this year is that teen use of the most common drugs has not rebounded after the large decline during the pandemic,” says Richard Miech, research professor at ISR and team lead of the MTF study.

“Many expected teen drug use levels to return to pre-pandemic levels once the social distancing policies were lifted, but this has not happened.”

For the survey, eighth, 10th, and 12th graders self-report their substance-use behaviors over various time periods, including past 30 days, past 12 months, and in their lifetime. The survey also documents students’ perceptions of harm, disapproval of use, and perceived availability of drugs.

The data indicates that, compared to 2024, reported use of most drugs in most grades held steady in 2025. Key findings:

• Abstaining from, or not using, marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine remained stable for all grades, with 91% of eighth graders, 82% of 10th graders, and 66% of 12th graders reporting abstaining in the past 30 days.
• Alcohol use remained stable among all three grade levels, with 11% of eighth graders, 24% of 10th graders, and 41% of 12th graders reporting use in the past 12 months.
• Cannabis use remained stable among all grades, with 8% of eighth graders, 16% of 10th graders, and 26% of 12th graders reporting use in the past 12 months. Of note, 2% of 8th graders, 6% of 10th graders, and 9% of 12th graders reported use of cannabis products made from hemp, which include intoxicating products such as delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, in the past 12 months.
• Nicotine vaping remained stable among all grades, with 9% of eighth graders, 14% of 10th graders, and 20% of 12th graders reporting use in the past 12 months.
• Nicotine pouch use remained stable among all grades, with 1% of eighth graders, 3% of 10th graders, and 7% of 12th graders reporting use in the past 12 months.
• Daily use of energy drinks or energy shots is at or near record highs among all three grades, with 18% of eighth graders, 20% of 10th graders (a statistically significant increase from 17% in 2024), and 23% of 12th graders reporting use at least once per day in the last 30 days.
• Heroin use among all three grades remains low, though values increased significantly from 2024, with 0.5% of eighth graders (compared to 0.2% in 2024), 0.5% of 10th graders (compared to 0.1% in 2024), and 0.9% of 12th graders (compared to 0.2% in 2024) reporting use in the past 12 months.
• Cocaine use also remained low and stable for 10th graders, with 0.7% reporting use in the past 12 months, However, values increased significantly among the other grades surveyed, with 0.6% of eighth graders (compared to 0.2% in 2024) and 1.4% of 12th graders (compared to 0.9% in 2024) reporting use in the past 12 months.

“The slight but significant increase we see in heroin and cocaine use warrants close monitoring. However, to put these current levels of use in context, they are leagues below what they were decades ago,” Miech says.

Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, says it is encouraging that adolescent drug use overall remains relatively low and that “so many teens choose not to use drugs at all.”

“It is critical to continue to monitor these trends closely to understand how we can continue to support teens in making healthy choices and target interventions where and when they are needed,” she says.

The results were gathered from a nationally representative sample, and the data were statistically weighted to provide national numbers. The investigators collected 23,726 surveys from students enrolled across 270 public and private schools nationwide from February through June 2025. Students took the in-school survey via the web—either on tablets or on a computer.

The 2025 survey results are available online from the University of Michigan.

Source: University of Michigan

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Why is reading for fun plummeting in the US?

Experts have answers for you about why reading for pleasure is plummeting in the US and share ways to encourage youngsters to dive into pleasure reading.

As Dr. Seuss once put it: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Reading provides knowledge and understanding of the world, of ourselves, and of different cultures. It can promote empathy, help develop critical-thinking skills, and transport the reader to places they would never travel to.

Yet reading for pleasure is on the decline in the United States. This is particularly acute among middle and high school children. In 2023, only 14% of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun almost every day, a substantial drop from 27% in 2012, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

This decline is part of a wider trend.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) found that in 2022, only 48.5% of adults had read at least one book for pleasure the prior year. According to an earlier NEA-backed survey in 2017, it was around 53% of adults.

Mary Beth Calhoon, associate professor of special education at the University of Miami School of Education and Human Development, runs a reading intervention program for middle school children. She says there are many reasons for the decline in reading.

“There are so many different factors,” says Calhoon. “It depends on the students. Are we talking about kids who have reading difficulties or those who are reading at grade level?”

For those reading at grade levels, the effect of social media and gaming plays a major role. They are used to getting information in small blurbs or sound bites, says Calhoon. Attention spans are shorter, and thus they cannot maintain attention while completing an entire text, she says. Some schools are resorting to giving children only excerpts of novels or plays.

“One of the main problems is that they have not been asked to have sustained reading times,” she says. “Now, when you put a book in front of them, they do not have the level of concentration that we used to establish in kids.”

This deficiency translates into lower scores in the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST). Those tests require that students read and interpret texts for about 45 minutes or so.

Chakeia Andrews, clinical assistant professor and director of the undergraduate Teacher Preparation Programs, says studies show that students with early reading struggles may be prone to have lower confidence and this makes them less likely to choose reading independently.

“Additionally, limited access to high-interest, culturally relevant books also reduces motivation to read, especially for students who do not see themselves represented in available texts,” she says.

She adds that, to engage students, studies show “providing students with choice in what they read and how they demonstrate understanding increases intrinsic motivation and promotes autonomy.”

Providing multimedia elements such as movies or videos to support complex texts can increase the likelihood that students will engage in reading, says Andrews.

Parents can play a crucial role in establishing reading habits, both educators note.

“Parents play a critical role in fostering strong reading habits,” says Andrews. “Research indicates that children who observe family members reading are more likely to develop positive attitudes about literacy.”

Both educators offered some tips for parents to encourage their children to read:

• Establish a family reading night. On this day, everyone in the family unit reads a book and then discusses it with family members.
• Find graphic novels. Some young readers will be drawn in by the colorful pictures and venture to read the entire book.
• Allow children to choose their own books. This will help them engage in the reading experience.
• Establish a routine of taking the child to the library. Getting a library card and exploring the many topics available at the library can be attractive to a young reader and can establish a pattern for life.
• Follow their interests. Pay attention to their passions and find books or even audiobooks and podcasts that connect to those interests.
• Try different formats. Introduce them to a variety of reading material such as audiobooks, e-books, and magazines.
• Provide audiobooks to the children. Listening to stories instead of following the traditional written text may entice the reader to continue exploring books.

Source: University of Miami

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One-two punch could take out tough tuberculosis

A new one-two punch approach could knock out drug-resistant tuberculosis, researchers report.

Tuberculosis is both curable and preventable, yet each year, it still kills more people than any other infectious disease. One reason is that current treatments hinge on rifampicin, an antibiotic that blocks bacterial transcription and forms the cornerstone of a multidrug regimen—and rising drug resistance has revealed the limits of leaning so heavily on a single point of attack.

Now, a new study demonstrates one way to rethink that strategy—not by finding a new cornerstone, but by pairing rifampicin with a second inhibitor that strikes the same pathway from a different angle.

The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, show that rifampicin becomes more powerful when paired with a second compound, known as AAP-SO₂, and that these drugs can together not only suppress TB resistance but also target the dormant bacteria that standard drugs struggle to kill.

The two compounds work by exploiting a weakness in a common resistance mutation: evading rifampicin comes at a cost to the bacteria, forcing it to transcribe genetic material more slowly—where a second drug turns their attempted resistance into a disadvantage.

The results provide a pathway for the development of future dual-inhibitor drug strategies against tuberculosis, and reframe TB treatment as a precision strategy that could be built around better understanding molecular bottlenecks in resistant strains.

“Basic science is putting us one step ahead of bacteria,” says Elizabeth Campbell, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathogenesis at Rockefeller University. “Thanks to that kind of research into TB’s transcription and genetics, we can now strategize how to prevent resistance, or even exploit resistance for the development of new therapies.”

Tuberculosis treatment leans heavily on rifampicin, a frontline antibiotic that blocks the pathogen’s RNA polymerase (RNAP), the enzyme that transcribes DNA into RNA. Rifampicin can also kill some of the inert bacteria lingering inside the clusters of compromised immune cells in the lung that act as reservoirs for TB. But rifampicin resistance is on the rise.

“As a South African scientist with clinical experience, I have witnessed how tuberculosis remains one of the most devastating health challenges for families and communities back home,” says Vanisha Munsamy-Govender, a scientist in Jeremy Rock’s Laboratory of Host-Pathogen Biology.

Resistance to rifampicin is driven largely by a common mutation in RNAP known as βS450L. Previous work from the Campbell and Rock labs demonstrated that one tradeoff of this resistance mutation is that it also causes RNAP to run more slowly during the latter stage of transcription, a process known as elongation, which makes it more likely that transcription as a whole will stall out. The team wondered whether this defect could be exploited. Since rifampicin targets only the early promoter escape step of transcription, it made sense that hitting the sluggish and error-prone elongation step in tandem might keep TB down for the count.

“Earlier work from the Campbell and Rock labs really laid out the vulnerability of these resistant strains,” says Barbara Bosch, an instructor in clinical investigation who has worked in both laboratories. “So we started asking: how can we go from that knowledge to new combinations of drugs that better target bacteria, especially in those hard-to-reach clusters?”

The researchers began by testing whether using two drugs to block different steps of the same pathway—a strategy known as vertical inhibition—could outmaneuver resistant TB. To try it, they paired rifampicin with AAP-SO₂, a compound that was less a drug candidate than a proof-of-concept probe, to see whether dual inhibition could outperform rifampicin on its own.

After confirming that AAP-SO₂ binds directly to bacterial RNAP and specifically slows the elongation stage of transcription, the team found that it attaches at a different site than rifampicin. This provided molecular evidence that the two compounds should, in theory, act in concert and at the same time, each blocking a different step of the transcription pathway—a combination lethal to the bacteria.

“Cells have to transcribe genes to survive; they don’t really have a way around it,” Bosch says.

Their plan worked. AAP-SO₂ wiped out the rifampicin-resistant mutant βS450L, exploiting the slowed transcription that helped it dodge rifampicin but left it vulnerable to a second hit. The effect was so strong that this mutation was effectively driven out of the bacterial population as it was again rendered vulnerable to rifampicin. Even more striking results were seen when the researchers moved from liquid culture to a rabbit model designed to mimic dormant clusters. In culture, rifampicin and AAP-SO₂ behaved additively, each contributing its own effect without enhancing the other. But in cluster-like tissue, the drugs became synergistic, killing far more bacteria together than either drug alone. The findings suggest that the addition of this second compound increased the potency of rifampicin 30-fold.

“AAP-SO₂ slows the emergence of resistance and works synergistically with rifampicin to eliminate what makes TB so difficult to cure,” says Munsamy-Govender.

Together, these results make a compelling case for reinforcing rifampicin rather than replacing it as the go-to treatment. Because AAP-SO₂ is not a drug candidate, the next steps involve building a stable derivative of the compound; the team has already filed a provisional patent on the dual-inhibition strategy described in their paper.

But the implications reach beyond one compound. As the researchers demonstrated, TB drug development could begin to shift toward a precision medicine approach, in which companion drugs are matched to the vulnerabilities of a particular strain—much as AAP-SO₂ was paired with rifampicin here to exploit a specific resistance mutation. As a result, resistance mutations, long viewed only as a threat, can now reveal new therapeutic footholds when studied closely, and robust mechanistic insight can now be converted into strategy.

“We’ve shown how basic science can guide therapeutic strategy,” Rock says. “By deeply understanding, mechanistically, what happens when these bugs become resistant to antibiotics, we can start to rationally design ways of combatting that in the clinic.”

Source: Rockefeller University

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Quantum mechanics help crack hidden chemistry of ice

New research paves the way for scientists to better understand what happens at a sub-atomic scale when ice melts.

The work has implications including improving predictions of the release of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost.

When ultraviolet light hits ice—whether in Earth’s polar regions or on distant planets—it triggers a cascade of chemical reactions that have puzzled scientists for decades.

Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy have used quantum mechanical simulations to reveal how tiny imperfections in ice’s crystal structure dramatically alter how ice absorbs and emits light.

The findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“No one has been able to model what happens when UV light hits ice with this level of accuracy before,” says Giulia Galli, UChicago professor of molecular engineering and one of the senior authors of the new work. “Our paper provides an important starting point to understand the interaction of light with ice.”

“Together, we could start to unravel a problem that has been very challenging to tackle,” adds Ali Hassanali, an ITCP senior scientist who collaborated with Galli on the new research.

The mystery about ice and light goes back to experiments in the 1980s, when researchers discovered something puzzling: Ice samples exposed to UV light for just a few minutes absorbed certain wavelengths of light, but samples exposed to UV for hours absorbed different wavelengths. This suggested the ice chemistry had changed over time.

Since then, scientists proposed various chemical products that might form in the ice to explain these observations, but lacked the tools to test their theories.

“Ice is deceptively difficult to study. When light interacts with ice, chemical bonds break, forming new molecules and charged ions that, in turn, fundamentally alter its properties,” explained ITCP scientist Marta Monti, the first author of the study.

In the new work, the team turned to advanced modeling approaches that the Galli lab developed to study materials for quantum technologies. The methods let them study ice at a level which was not possible before.

“Ice is extremely hard to study experimentally, but computationally we can study a sample and isolate the effect of specific chemistry in ways that can’t be done in experiments, thanks to the sophisticated computational methods we have developed to study the properties of defects in complex materials,” says second author Yu Jin, formerly a UChicago graduate student, now at the Flatiron Institute.

The research team simulated four types of ice: defect-free ice arranged in a perfect crystal lattice, and ice with three different imperfections in its structure.

In one case, water molecules were missing from the water crystal, leaving a gap called a vacancy. In other instances, charged hydroxide ions were introduced into the structure. For the third set of computational experiments, ice’s strict hydrogen bonding rules were violated in what’s known as a “Bjerrum defect”—either two hydrogen atoms end up between the same pair of oxygen atoms, or none, disrupting the normally orderly structure.

The researchers could add these defects one at a time and observe how each type changed the way ice absorbed and emitted light. This type of precise control is impossible in physical ice samples but can be attained computationally.

The team showed that the onset of absorption of UV light occurs at different energies in defect-free ice and when hydroxide ions are inserted in the sample—explaining, at least qualitatively, decades-old experiments.

Bjerrum defects produced even more extreme changes in light absorption, potentially explaining the unexplained absorption features that appear in ice exposed to UV light for extended periods. Each type of defect created a unique optical signature, like a fingerprint that experimentalists can now look for in real ice samples.

The simulations also revealed what happens at the molecular level—when UV light hits ice, water molecules can break apart to form hydronium ions, hydroxyl radicals and free electrons. Depending on the defects present, these electrons can either spread through the ice or become trapped in tiny cavities.

“This is the foundation for understanding much more complex scenarios,” says Monti. “Now that we know how individual defects behave, we can start modeling ice with multiple defects, surfaces and eventually the messiness of real natural samples.”

For now, the work addresses the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fundamental questions about ice photochemistry.

But eventually, deeper studies of the interactions of UV light and ice could extend our understanding of environmental challenges and astrochemistry. Permafrost—permanently frozen ground in polar regions—traps greenhouse gases. As global temperatures rise and sunlight hits this ice, understanding how it releases those gases becomes critical for predicting climate change.

“There is ice in certain parts of the Earth that contains gases, and when it’s hit by light or when you raise the temperature just a little bit, these gases are released,” Galli says. “Better knowledge about how ice melts and what it releases under illumination could have incredible impacts on understanding these gases.”

The findings also may have implications for understanding the conditions on icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, where UV radiation constantly bombards ice-covered surfaces and may drive the formation of complex molecules.

The team is now working with experimentalists to design measurements that can validate their computational predictions. They’re also extending the work to study more complex collections of defects in ice and probe the impact of melted water as it accumulates on the surface of ice.

Funding came from the European Commission, CINECA supercomputing, MareNostrum5, MICCoM (through Argonne National Laboratory, via the Department of Energy).

Source: University of Chicago

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How Peru got its massive canyons

New research explains how massive canyons formed in Peru.

Imagining the creation of large geographical structures like mountains and canyons might evoke visions of cataclysmic events over short periods of time, geologically speaking—glaciers plowing through land, tectonic plates abruptly shifting, or even meteorite impacts.

New collaborative research from the lab of Nadine McQuarrie, professor and chair of the geology and environmental sciences department at the University of Pittsburgh, and researchers at the University of Glasgow has shown that it wasn’t violent collisions or sudden changes that led to the formation of immense canyons in the Andean Plateau.

Instead, they were formed by river capture, a phenomenon that made its biggest impact once the rate of tectonically driven mountain formation slowed down.

Their work appears in the journal Science Advances.

The canyons carved into the 3.7-kilometer Andean Plateau are 2-3 kilometers deep. For comparison, even at its deepest, the Grand Canyon spans less than 2 km from top to bottom. The structures are so vast, McQuarrie says, that she couldn’t capture its scope on camera. “We were there, I know it’s there, but the pictures don’t convey the scale of the full canyon.”

There have been two predominant theories for the processes that led to the formation of the canyons: Either they were the result of an abrupt event, such as the rapid rise of earth caused by an earthquake, or they were the result of a period of heavy rainfall, increasing the amount of water carving its way through the plateau. The researchers wanted to determine which of the two explanations was likely to be correct.

It turned out, there might be a third explanation.

The research team, which included first author Jennie Plasterr, a graduate student working in McQuarrie’s lab, tested both scenarios using computer modeling. They ran models incorporating current knowledge about historical tectonic activity in the region and recent estimates about climate and precipitation.

“What we found is that neither of the two prior explanations were likely the primary driver of the canyon incision,” McQuarrie says. “They were both important contributors, but the main thing that allowed for the incision of this deep canyon was the ability of a river to capture another river.”

River capture occurs when the erosional power of a river carves the surrounding land until it ultimately breaches the ridgeline that separates it from another river. The water from the second river is diverted to the first, increasing its erosional power and its ability to dramatically reshape the landscape.

In the Andean Plateau, although it was not the primary factor, tectonic activity was one of the mechanisms that allowed river capture to take place, but not by lifting the ground up. “Counter to what most people think, the uplift needs to slow down,” McQuarrie explains.

As the ground was rising in response to tectonic activity—a process known as uplifting—and the plateau was forming, rivers didn’t have enough power to erode through the rising ridgeline. However, once that tectonic uplift slowed, the erosional power of the river could carve through the ridgeline, ultimately breaching it and capturing a nearby river.

In fact, according to the research team’s models, tectonic uplift had to slow down by almost an order of magnitude before river capture could occur and reshape the area. “When growth slows from 4 mm per year to 0.4 mm per year, that’s when capture can occur, and you start getting a landscape that looks like the modern landscape.”

In a way, tectonic uplift and river incision were both drivers of the canyons’ creation, McQuarrie says, “But the effect of tectonics wasn’t the mountains going up and the rivers incising into them. It’s that the mountains were up and then everything slowed down.” Then rivers, strengthened by river capture, were able to carve the landscape that exists today.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation.

Source: University of Pittsburgh

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No fluoride in your water? Here’s how to protect your kids’ teeth

An expert has answers for you about how to protect your child’s teeth if your water lacks fluoride.

For generations, fluoridated drinking water has helped safeguard the teeth of most American children.

Yet recently, skepticism over this public-health measure has gained new traction, and some locales—including the states of Utah and Florida—have stopped adding fluoride to public water supplies.

Dentists point to a significant body of evidence supporting the safety of water containing appropriate levels of fluoride, and fluoride’s effectiveness as an oral health booster, particularly for children. Fluoride makes teeth stronger and prevents cavities by replenishing minerals in teeth that are depleted by acid from food and beverages and by microbes that live in the mouth. Without these necessary minerals, the enamel—the tooth’s outer layer—is vulnerable to decay.

“It’s concerning, especially now that we have two states that have banned fluoride in water,” says Cheen Loo, chair of the pediatric dentistry department at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dental Association, and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry are strongly recommending that we have fluoridated water supplies, because it’s a very effective, and cost-effective, way of reducing cavities,” she says. “I think there’s still a lot of work to do to dispel the concerns that people have.”

Here, Loo digs into how parents can continue to provide the advantages of fluoride for their kids if it’s lacking in their water supply, and how to make sense of news about fluoride:

Fluoride sources other than water

This includes fluoridated toothpaste, fluoride rinses, and topical varnishes applied every six months at a dentist office. These are sources that dentists have long recommended for those who rely on private well water or on public systems that lack fluoridation. (Even before Utah and Florida’s recent actions, about one-third of Americans did not have access to fluoridated water supplies.)

Some patients at the Tufts pediatric clinic live in towns that are not fluoridated, and “we tend to see more decay in patients who come from those areas,” Loo says. For those children, Loo recommends fluoride toothpaste, and sometimes a supplemental fluoride rinse or a stronger, prescription-strength toothpaste.

Fluoride toothpaste is safe and effective for all ages

Loo says many parents see fluoride-free toothpaste as a safer option, but it is not as good as fluoride toothpaste at protecting young teeth. “If you use the right amount, it’s not going to cause any problems,” she says.

If parents are worried that using too much fluoride on baby teeth could lead to fluorosis—white spots—on permanent teeth, or about toxicity, Loo says dentists can show parents during an office visit the specific amount to use for children of different ages.

Proper brushing technique

Unfortunately, “children are not always good at taking care of their teeth on their own, and may not be cooperative” Loo says. “Younger children, especially, don’t always have the dexterity to brush very well. It’s really up to the parents to help them.”

Most children, especially toddlers, tend to brush the front teeth but don’t get all the way in the back, Loo says. “So I always tell parents it has to be supervised brushing. You can have them hold the toothbrush, play and brush a little bit, but the parent has to finish the job and make sure they get all the surfaces and all the teeth.”

At the Tufts pediatric clinic, dentists use disclosing dyes, which temporarily stain areas where plaque—a sticky bacterial film—has built up. “We see with toddlers, and even grade-school children, that when they brush, there are always some areas that they are missing,” Loo says.

Flossing

Flossing properly can also be beyond the skills of young children, and Loo recommends parents also help with this.

How to tell if your child should start flossing on their own? “If they’re skilled at tying their own shoelaces, they’ll be able to handle flossing,” Loo says. Or children can use the flossers that come with a little handle, although they don’t hug the teeth as well as floss wrapped around the fingers.

But let’s be honest, even most adults don’t floss correctly. For kids, “we ask parents to do as much as they can,” Loo says.

Fluoride rinses are safe for older children

Pediatric dentists recommend that over-the-counter fluoride rinses not be used by children under 6, because younger children are more likely to swallow rather than swish and spit it all out. “We don’t want that to happen,” Loo says.

But older children can safely use fluoride rinses, even prescription-strength ones. Dentists sometimes prescribe rinses for children with braces, who may have a hard time brushing and flossing around the wires and brackets.

Ingestible fluoride supplements, such as drops or chewable tablets, should be used with care.
Ingested fluoride strengthens developing teeth systemically, whereas topical fluoride is applied directly to the tooth surface to provide localized protection against cavities.

In October, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that ingestible fluoride products not be given to children under 3 or those not at high risk for tooth decay. (The FDA had at one point considered banning these products).

Loo says dentists have historically recommended these ingestible supplements for children living in homes without fluoridated water. But, she says, pediatric dentists have moved away from a lot of these prescriptions, and are more likely to recommend a topical fluoride varnish, which is applied professionally and lasts for several months.

Source: Tufts

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High school principals say ICE is driving fear on campuses

A report based on surveys and interviews with high school principals across the United States finds that federal immigration enforcement efforts are creating a climate of fear on campuses—driving down attendance, increasing bullying, and forcing contingency plans.

The report was released by the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. It is coauthored by the institute’s director, UCLA professor John Rogers, and UC Riverside’s Joseph Kahne, a distinguished professor in the School of Education.

The findings are based on a nationally representative survey conducted in the summer of 2025 with 606 public high school principals. Forty-nine principals also participated in follow-up interviews. The research focused on the impacts of intensified immigration enforcement during the first months of the second Trump administration.

The responses reveal deep and widespread disruptions. Nearly two-thirds of principals (63.8%) says immigrant students are missing school due to fears stemming from immigration policies and hostile political rhetoric. More than a third (35.6%) reported bullying of students from immigrant families, including students being taunted with comments like, “Can I see your papers?” and “Go back home.”

“The findings raise urgent questions about whether our public schools can continue to be safe, inclusive spaces for all students,” Kahne says. “When families are forced into hiding, and students are bullied or stay home out of fear, we are failing the very purpose of public education.”

“Given the harsh, even hateful rhetoric and aggressive immigration actions of the Trump administration, the effect on students and schools should not be surprising to anyone,” adds Rogers. “But the widespread nature of the harmful impact and deep level of concern are alarming. As one principal told us, ‘The fear is everywhere.'”

Additional findings include:

• 70.4% of principals reported that their schools were affected by heightened concerns among immigrant students about their own safety and that of their families.
• 77.6% says their schools had developed plans to respond to potential visits from federal immigration agents.
• 47.2% reported creating protocols to support students if their parents or guardians were deported.
• 44.8% says they implemented professional development for staff on how to support students from immigrant families.

Several principals described the toll this environment is taking on students and families.

“Immigrant students are suffering the most,” says a principal in New York. “Chronic absenteeism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety are interfering with their opportunities for success. They and their families live in a culture of fear.”

Others says immigrant parents are avoiding basic activities like grocery shopping to reduce the risk of detention. A Tennessee principal noted that “students weren’t eating properly” because their parents were afraid to leave the house. In Nebraska, a principal says some students stopped attending school regularly because they had to stay home with younger siblings after a parent was detained.

Kahne emphasizes that despite the challenges, school leaders are taking action.

“Principals are creating safety plans, working with families, and building partnerships to ensure students from immigrant families receive support—but they are doing so amidst immense pressure and uncertainty,” he says.

The survey was conducted online between June and August 2025. The follow-up interviews took place in July, August, and early September. The full report was published on December 9, 2025, and is available on the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access website.

Source: UC Riverside

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