Using a virtual-reality surgery simulator, London researchers found that surgeons who stayed up all night made 20 percent more mistakes and took 14 percent longer to complete surgical tasks. They also showed more signs of stress and poorer dexterity. Going without sleep impairs performance as much as a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent, which itself is enough to have a driver arrested in many states. Taffinder NJ, McManus IC, Gul Y, Russell RCG, Darzi A. Effect of sleep deprivation on surgeons' dexterity on laparoscopy simulator. A 271-page report from the National Research Council shows that arrival in America marks the beginning of gradually worsening health for immigrant families.
Recent immigrants eat more fruits, grains, and vegetables, a pattern soon lost with assimilation.
The longer they are in America, however, the more they lose these advantages. Mental health problems, including suicide, also increase as new immigrants lose touch with family traditions. The good health of new arrivals is found despite their often being impoverished, or perhaps, in part, because of it. That's the good news. In 1992, German researchers looking for herbicides in water found traces of an unidentified chemical.