"Emissions from pyrotechnic displays are composed of numerous organic compounds as well as metals," a new study reports. Nodar Chernishev / EyeEm / Getty Images
Fireworks have taken a lot of heat recently. In South Dakota, fire experts have said President Trump's plan to hold a fireworks show is dangerous and public health experts have criticized the lack of plans to enforce mask wearing or social distancing. Now, a new study shows that shooting off fireworks at home may expose you and your family to dangerous levels of lead, copper and other toxins.
<p>The study, published Wednesday in the journal <em><a href="https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12989-020-00360-4" target="_blank">Particle and Fibre Technology</a></em>, analyzed 12 different retail fireworks and found that once set off, five of them released particle emissions that could damage human cells and animal lungs, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/health/fireworks-toxic-air-safety-wellness/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>The metals are used to give the fireworks their vibrant colors when they explode. However, those same metals are hazardous to humans and animals. The study said that blue fireworks can be made of copper and red fireworks can contain strontium, which gives a brilliant red light.</p>
<p>"While many are careful to protect themselves from injury from explosions, our results suggest that inhaling firework smoke may cause longer-term damage, a risk that has been largely ignored," said Terry Gordon, environmental medicine professor at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, as the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-fireworks-produce-high-level-lead-toxins-study-20200702-rs26g27afzag3nhlrjbp2yj5fu-story.html" target="_blank">New York Daily News</a> reported</p><p>The study acknowledged that people are typically exposed to these emissions a few times a year, usually around July 4th and New Year's Eve. And yet, even that exposure means people are inhaling much more harmful toxins than what people breathe in normally.</p>
<p>The researchers looked at 14 years of air quality samples taken at dozens of locations across the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency throughout the years. The researchers noticed that levels of toxic metals tended to peak in samples taken near Independence Day and New Year's Eve celebrations. The concentration of airborne toxic metals was much higher during those years than at any other time.</p><p>"Although people are only exposed to these substances for a short time each year, they are much more toxic than the pollutants we breathe every day," said Dr. Gordon in an <a href="https://nyulangone.org/news/common-fireworks-release-lead-copper-other-toxic-metals-air" target="_blank">NYU press release</a>.</p><p>"I could hypothesize that people could have, especially susceptible people like asthmatics, increased episodes," Gordon said to CNN.</p>
<p>To conduct the study, the scientists detonated fireworks in a laboratory chamber. They tested roughly a dozen types of fireworks commonly sold in the U.S., including the Black Cuckoo, the Color-Changing Wheel and the Blue Storm firecracker. They then tested mice and human lung cells with the captured particles.</p><p>The Black Cuckoo, a fountain-style firework, registered the most toxic of the group, at 10 times more damaging to human cells than a nontoxic saline solution, according to the findings, as NYU said in a <a href="https://nyulangone.org/news/common-fireworks-release-lead-copper-other-toxic-metals-air" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>Gordon said that the firework emitted lead particles at 40,000 parts per million, which is exceedingly high. Normally, lead should not be emitted at all, he said, as CNN reported.</p>
<p>Families looking to set off fireworks this weekend should be particularly mindful of children's developing lungs and brains. Parents should make sure their kids are far away from the fireworks smoke and any potential lead exposure.</p><p>"Allow the adults to be the ones to set off the fireworks and stay upwind from it so that the smoke is blowing in the breeze," said Kristin Van Hook, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics section on pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine.</p><p>She told CNN she has seen cases where children who have asthma breathed in fumes from fireworks and ended up in the emergency room.</p><p>Gordon also said that families should be aware what their children are exposed to and that everyone should try to stay downwind from fireworks. He added that the fireworks industry must increase its safety regulations.</p><p>"Given what we've found, I propose that ... they make sure they are importing safer fireworks and that that's what the consumers use," Gordon said to CNN.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- No Social Distancing or Mask Requirement at Trump's Mt ... ›
- Trump's Fireworks Show at Mt. Rushmore Is a Dangerous Idea, Fire ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
A customer walks into a Whole Foods in Longmont, Colorado on Dec. 15, 2016. RJ Sangosti / The Denver Post via Getty Images
A brand of bottled water manufactured and sold by grocery-store giant and Amazon subsidiary Whole Foods contains potentially harmful levels of arsenic, according to research conducted by Consumer Reports.
<p>Consumer Reports, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, said that tests of Starkey Spring Water label showed arsenic levels ranging from 9.49 to 9.56 parts per billion, which was three times higher than any other brand in their testing. Out of the 45 brands that Consumer Reports tested, only Starkey water registered an arsenic level above three parts per billion.</p><p>While the legal limit for arsenic in bottled water is 10 parts per billion, Consumer Reports wrote that its experts believe that the level present in Starkey Spring Water does not adequately protect public health.</p>
<p>Drinking a single bottle of Starkey probably will not harm you, said Dr. James Dickerson, CR's chief scientific officer. "But regular consumption of even small amounts of the heavy metal over extended periods increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and lower IQ scores in children, and poses other health issues as well," he said, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/24/whole-foods-bottled-water-arsenic-found" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>In an emailed statement, Whole Foods said the company's "highest priority is to provide customers with safe, high-quality and refreshing spring water," according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/24/whole-foods-bottled-water-arsenic/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>"Beyond the required annual testing by [a U.S. Food and Drug Administration] certified lab, we have an accredited third-party lab test every production run of water before it is sold," the statement said. "These products meet all FDA requirements and are fully compliant with FDA standards for heavy metals."</p><p>The new findings come as part of a joint investigation between Consumer Reports and The Guardian that covers how clean, fresh water is both inaccessible and unaffordable for many Americans as bills pile up during the coronavirus pandemic. The report also covers how the bottled water that Americans are consuming is often not safer or healthier than tap water, according to <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/whole-foods-starkey-spring-water-sold-on-amazon-contains-high-levels-of-arsenic/" target="_blank">Consumer Reports</a>.</p>
<p>"I think the average consumer would be stunned to learn that they're paying a lot of extra money for bottled water, thinking that it's significantly safer than tap, and unknowingly getting potentially dangerous levels of arsenic," said Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy organization that has <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/bottled-water-pure-drink-or-pure-hype" target="_blank">researched bottled water quality</a>, according to <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/whole-foods-starkey-spring-water-sold-on-amazon-contains-high-levels-of-arsenic/" target="_blank">Consumer Reports</a>.</p><p>Since Whole Foods introduced Starkey Spring Water in 2015, the brand has faced several problems. Whole Foods had to recall more than 2,000 cases of water after tests showed arsenic levels that approached or exceeded the federal limit of 10 parts per billion in late 2016 and early 2017, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/24/whole-foods-bottled-water-arsenic/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The Food and Drug Administration, which enforces federal bottled water regulations, issued a statement after the report that said arsenic is a "naturally occurring element" that cannot be removed entirely from the environment or food supply, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/24/whole-foods-bottled-water-arsenic/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>"Based on the CR test results for arsenic, the three Starkey Spring Water products are in compliance with FDA's allowable level for arsenic under the quality standard regulations for bottled water," the statement said. "The FDA is committed to limiting consumer exposure to arsenic to the greatest extent feasible and we will announce updates to our guidances when available."</p>
<p>It's important to note that the FDA's guidance is only for bottled water adherence to federal guidelines. Some states, like New Jersey and New Hampshire, have seen the threat arsenic poses to child development and have lowered their legal limit to 5 parts per billion. However, that regulation only applies to tap water.</p><p>In other words, Starkey Spring Water is legal in a store, but illegal if it came out of the tap in certain states, according to <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/bottled-water/whole-foods-starkey-spring-water-sold-on-amazon-contains-high-levels-of-arsenic/" target="_blank">Consumer Reports</a>.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Washington State to Ban Bottled Water Operations - EcoWatch ›
- 12 Simple Ways to Drink More Water - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
'Black Moms Matter': Increased Heat and Pollution Raise Pregnancy Risks, Especially for Racial Minorities
19 June
Health + Wellness
New research adds to the growing evidence that African American communities are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. electravk / Moment / Getty Images
The evidence is in and it's bleak. More than a decade of research and a robust review of studies found that as air pollution and heat increases so do adverse outcomes in pregnancy, according to a new investigation, as The Guardian reported.
<p>The <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.8243?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=061820" target="_blank">research</a> published on Thursday in the<em> Journal of the American Medical Association</em> looked at 32 million births across 68 studies in the U.S. It found that women who were exposed to air pollution or higher temperatures were more likely to have children who are premature, underweight or stillborn. Like with many health-related outcomes, African Americans were hit disproportionately hard by the increases in air pollution and heat.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/climate/climate-change-pregnancy-study.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> noted, the research adds to the growing evidence that racial minority communities are bearing the brunt of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a> since they are much more likely to be hotter and closer to polluting industries.</p><p>Nathaniel DeNicola, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at George Washington University's School of Medicine and Health Science and an author on the paper, told <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/503441-research-links-climate-change-to-premature-underweight-or-stillborn" target="_blank">The Hill</a> that while much of the current media coverage is focusing on Black men and police brutality, this paper highlights the systemic disparities for Black women, too.</p><p>"Black moms matter," he said.</p>
<p>"When you talk about climate, people think about severe weather, big storms or huge fires … but we wanted to talk about the impacts that are common and widespread and ongoing and also are rarely attributed to the climate crisis," said Bruce Bekkar, a co-author of the study and a retired obstetrician, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/climate-change-air-pollution-investigation-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"We are already having generations weakened from birth. There's just no way we can allow that to happen, and I would like to see not just mothers and their husbands and kids show up at council meetings, but I'd like to see many more health professionals involved in calling for legislation that reduces the ongoing and really pretty scary health burdens of the climate crisis."</p>
<p>The exposures to the climate crisis are exacerbating the problems that African American women already face. According to a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6835a3.htm?s_cid=mm6835a3_w" target="_blank">2019 report</a> from CDC researchers, Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related issues, while Black infants are more than twice as likely to die as white infants, as I<a href="https://www.instyle.com/beauty/health-fitness/climate-change-pregnancy-risks" target="_blank">nStyle</a> reported.</p><p>Catherine Garcia Flowers, a field organizer in Houston for Moms Clean Air Force, an advocacy group, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/climate/climate-change-pregnancy-study.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> the paper was evidence that the federal government needed to increase air pollution regulations. "This is a moment of reckoning for racial injustice and health disparities," she said. "Doing nothing about air pollution, which so clearly has a greater impact on Black Americans, is racism in action."</p>
<p>These new findings are particularly worrying as the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration has rolled back regulations on car and power plant emissions, tried to prop up the coal industry, and relaxed oversight on industries. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has made traditional summer cooling spots like public pools, movie theaters and shopping malls off-limits due to social distancing guidelines, as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/08/climate-change-emerging-threat-pregnancy-health" target="_blank">Human Rights Watch</a> noted.</p><p>The review found that as heat increased, so did instances of premature birth and low birth weight, both of which can lead to cognitive deficits and physical problems through childhood and later in life.</p>
<p>In addition to looking at pregnancy outcomes as the planet heats up, the researchers zeroed in on two pollutants, smog and fine particulate matter — both are increasing as the climate crisis intensifies. The bulk of the studies reviewed showed that ozone and PM 2.5 are associated with preterm births, low birth weights and stillbirths. One study found that high exposure to air pollution during the final trimester of pregnancy was linked to a 42 percent increase in the risk of stillbirth, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/climate/climate-change-pregnancy-study.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"Reducing air pollution and fighting climate change is a matter of their children's survival and health," said Bekkar, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/climate-change-air-pollution-investigation-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Air Pollution Reaches the Placenta During Pregnancy, New Study ... ›
- Heat Waves May Lead to Birth Defects, Low Birth Weight Babies ... ›
- Climate Crisis Causes Deaths, Stunting and Malnutrition and It's ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
A man wearing a protective mask searches for leftovers among rotten fruits and vegetables in a dumpster in Corabastos, the main food distribution center of the country on April 17, 2020 in Bogota, Colombia. The mandatory lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in many informal workers losing their income. John W. Vizcaino / VIEWpress / Corbis via Getty Images
The United Nations issued a dire warning on Tuesday that the world stands on the brink of the worst food crisis in the last 50 years, according to The Guardian.
<p>The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is facing an "impending global food emergency" that could impact hundreds of millions of people as the coronavirus pandemic threatens already strained supply chains, according to Hong Kong-based <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/un-warns-pandemic-could-spark-global-food-crisis/" target="_blank">Asia Times</a>. He warned that the recessions that follow the pandemic will put basic nutrition out of reach for millions.</p>
<p>"Our food systems are failing, and the Covid-19 pandemic is making things worse," the UN chief said in a <a href="https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/we-need-act-now-avoid-worst-impacts-our-efforts-control-pandemic" target="_blank">statement</a> accompanying a <a href="http://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the UN. "More than 820 million people are hungry. "Some 144 million children under the age of five are stunted – more than one in five children worldwide."</p><p>That's particularly troubling as malnutrition has lifelong consequences. If the number of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/childrens-health">children</a> who suffer from malnutrition grows, it is likely to cause increased stunting and provide a future strain on health care systems.</p>
<p>Guterres warned that "this year, some 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty due to the Covid-19 crisis," according to <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/un-warns-pandemic-could-spark-global-food-crisis/" target="_blank">Asia Times</a>.</p><p>"Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults," as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic."</p><p>The UN Secretary-General provided a three-point plan for attacking the hunger crisis: focus aid on the worst-stricken areas to avoid immediate disaster, to improve social safety nets so children, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers along with other at-risk group receive adequate nutrition, and to invest in healthy and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainable</a> food systems and supply chains for the future, according to Guterres' <a href="https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/we-need-act-now-avoid-worst-impacts-our-efforts-control-pandemic" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p>
<p>The latest data in the report, <a href="http://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_policy_brief_on_covid_impact_on_food_security.pdf" target="_blank"><em>The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition</em></a>, found that the food security of 135 million people is at crisis level or worse. That number could nearly double before the end of the year due to the impacts of COVID-19.</p><p>Increasing unemployment and the loss of income associated with lockdowns are also putting food out of reach for many struggling people, the report found, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. While global markets have remained steady, the cost for basic foods has begun to rise in some countries.</p><p>The report also expects harvests to slow down, since many seasonal laborers are unable to work or travel for work. Meanwhile, despite the impending crisis, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food-waste">food waste</a> is surging as farmers are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/food-waste-coronavirus-government-assistance-2645913920.html" target="_self">finding themselves in the unenviable position of dumping perishable food</a> because of supply chain problems, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p><br>"The Covid-19 crisis is attacking us at every angle," said Agnes Kalibata, the UN secretary general's special envoy for the 2021 food systems summit, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "It has exposed dangerous deficiencies in our food systems and actively threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, especially the more than 1 billion people who have employment in the various industries in food systems."</p><p>However, she added that there is an opportunity to improve food systems so they are equipped to handle future shocks.</p><p>"Food has always brought people together and it can again if we build back better as it relates to our food systems," she said, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/09/world-faces-worst-food-crisis-50-years-un-coronavirus" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- The UN Wants to Protect 30% of the Planet by 2030 - EcoWatch ›
- Climate Crisis Contributes to a Rise in World Hunger, UN Report Says ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
An oil well pumps in Long Beach, California. Proximity to a well and the level of production were found to be significantly associated with poor birth outcomes. David McNew / Getty Images
By Nina Lakhani
Living near active oil and gas wells during pregnancy increases the risk of low-birthweight babies, especially in rural areas, according to the largest study of its kind.
<p>Researchers analyzed the records of nearly 3 million births in California to women living within 6.2 miles (10km) of at least one oil or gas well between 2006 and 2015. It is the first such study to look at birth outcomes in rural and urban areas, and to women living near active and inactive oil and gas sites.</p><p>Proximity to a well and the level of production were found to be significantly associated with poor birth outcomes. </p><p>Specifically, the study found that in rural areas, pregnant women residing within a mile (1km) of the highest producing wells were 40% more likely to have babies with low birthweights and 20% more likely to have babies who were small for their gestational age compared with people living farther away from wells or near inactive wells only. </p><p>Even among full-term births, babies born to mothers living close to wells were on average 1.3 ounces (36 grams) smaller than those of their counterparts.</p>
<p>Newborns are deemed to have low birthweight when they weigh less than 5lb and 8oz. It can lead <a href="https://www.marchofdimes.org/complications/low-birthweight.aspx" target="_blank">to multiple short-term development issues</a> as small babies often struggle to eat, gain weight and fight infections. Studies also suggest small- and low-birthweight babies are more likely to have medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and intellectual and developmental disabilities in later life. </p><p>About one in 12 babies in the US have a low birthweight.</p><p>The study found a link between oil and gas wells and small babies born in urban areas, but it was significantly less marked than in rural communities. Differences in air quality, maternal occupation and housing conditions may have contributed to the urban-rural divide.</p><p><span></span>The findings, <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank">published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives,</a> add to a growing body of evidence linking proximity to oil and gas wells to a variety of adverse birth outcomes, including <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6mZrSzbfGkKzHANYO0uE0YiBqlF3rwXf2Mr8SRCLvDAzIKXnVtU-2B2QmvGPXvbocsH1WxvC9WZ-2FnbDzIGlBM7gt4-3DG8Y-_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6OodlNV8UCvzfgmVl-2Brsbbj-2BwC-2BRGbE8Bif-2BqAgdNq-2FJm8SgBeVoh8YrckkUO-2FbOnxfOcPlQfZcjH8CINtgZ4GNkItQz3jhh7yT2x8mcp6YZXw-2BhpSMoOal1eFo7HgLLqa7v2GrLkRbP8JYWNcYXsJNAvNXS-2F1Af06Du-2BS4Qd5FkUvKg-3D-3D" target="_blank">premature birth</a>, <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6hgoqaL-2BohOC0J7kADrfydvdbxgrKXlEfuGHkUP-2FrI06ux1zHyOisOVxWs-2F76-2FIfd1I9Nr0Mmh9x7SUvFmgjYGz6QzRmQWTfcRHOBJflsKK-2FXjLaX6LMOnzwdfdzw3bcOWAvlUx2y7yXJeEK18hBvOE-3DvtkG_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6OodknnCXsa-2B7RGiQWNQcdTUYvk7k53gLgIDDHD47z5c8Wkeibnk2FkaKrcF6BQ9qf-2BjU2-2FQ9V5OTw5JsyIYnU60j3Mp26xfI8BxabQ3hC6KjJtNsN6SJ6RmeZR2I-2Bw629WtDiFYSj4t7VM7BPsgNEUuLtmtjsn-2FZNOS9FxlTWlEVzrA-3D-3D" target="_blank">heart defects</a> and <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6qFwob4WVAc9Z5otCrKTzf8dcuXWlU8h1BN0RqeD-2BmdhPGUZd2jvTG96rXyRG8j2PXBuFuIqs46iqub1FamNwCx0wxh8c0d72pJH10EoQPTe1CRiRA-2F6pSpP7EngHj-2F4HcLPIZXIHQjFYtGlN-2B0nG2w-3DyRVS_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6OodkDGAGpHSbPOvt95OWgeaNnW-2F6fDeCCMtvDwgr0UHPFcHcCyyClto5w7I4OVggNHfULOiae8zidgEsj06uafiCW-2F6-2B1WQBUCbRyuBxU2zfcy-2BFHClFv6b3VgwtElx58itL2EpyWckY2z-2BSHOlQjkhH853GJl47-2FAY10M8RvXztyNg-3D-3D" target="_blank">low birthweight</a>.</p>
<p>Nationwide, oil and gas production has risen significantly in recent years thanks to the expansion of non-conventional, hyper-polluting extraction techniques such as fracking. In 2011, during Barack Obama's first term in office, the US <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=40973" target="_blank">surpassed Russia</a> as the world's largest natural gas producer, and in early 2018 it <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37053" target="_blank">overtook Saudi Arabia</a> as the leading producer of crude oil, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).</p><p>Active and inactive oil and gas sites create myriad environmental hazards including air and water pollutants, noise and excessive lighting, which have all been linked with poor health outcomes.</p><p>"Results from health studies such as ours support recent efforts to increase buffers between active [oil and gas] well activities and where people live, go to school and play," said Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor of public health and of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley, and senior author of the paper. </p><p>"This scientific evidence of adverse health effects facing vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, should be taken into account as Californians debate the extent to which we want to expand oil and gas drilling in our state." </p>
<p>Four of America's 10 largest oil fields are in California. However, oil production in California has <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6mBjshWo3tDIQyDrpNNae6kaj-2BDN4popCFk-2BVLS29Vp8ew0uPhvj71iyHIiiHrNPM3feyzdgmtapiKpiZGHmQ3sxcsyLkxcYj-2F9LfTNObgZWmAce_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6Oodm1AAdEl0hgVdr2tdlaR69Hio7cna5Y8YTPiDtt5pq48YpLS1uzybSagj63rxaEi2jyNJKiyzxz2h6L1EcGaTAsj4MG2MCzorbZvwAthN4gkiZpTS0noA9DcMQTiEm5MOKugWePzdEwN6SBUYUmNg1hkcX3YlsJ-2BYhl5xSHFTmg3Q-3D-3D" target="_blank">declined</a> over the past three decades, and generally the state has older, more conventional oil and gas sites than other parts of the US, and a larger number of inactive sites.</p><p>But many of the sites in California also use newer techniques such as fracking and steam and water injection to access hard-to-reach oil reserves, said the study's co-author Kathy Tran, a graduate student in environmental health sciences at UC Berkeley.</p><p><a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6jKu41dHLpaTFayl-2B9Sdk2rBtD4MqLoRNXsODwX5oBxVzONbgt644qXDbWO5-2BgBWPhVba8fSLRVEHoYxrAMXIvNn3fhXnvDIm0vfSt6BLF-2Fx1FyLFjBLdiiDkSws-2B5Qqlodt-2BppG4taCWWbXNLexu6pd5IlXJOLl84c6n6vY-2BK5ekbzI_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6OodnHnYB-2FFt1MzRlnf1z6UYZj7Bl29y7Q29BACXoEgE3HCCTTTwafmIfCCtv-2Fgn-2BqfpDvNwlqz6anYznAicIvwRzwmfyPxDiw0Qsc0HfV3p0zxeiXNvmaZC23My6-2FEqufGWMEHiOiJHmN0rX5HZjABqHNFYM4z0Lj3Eq7Sq5PRjsrhg-3D-3D" target="_blank">Stricter regulations</a> on new fracking permits were issued last year, but the state issued <a href="http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=uDPfAnrJXoDw8-2BCe3b2e6vqtybg0rN7VvTT-2BoqOKR1Jhg1bHpZH1I0SWcOTglnSNFUGTKHVwAMcAEYUVgsVAi0B7DNMWIDNOXquMpVO-2BfqFAw7iRf9yGyC4SJNPo1w-2BpUiWFNc5JVV-2FLlxH7KjI-2BAA-3D-3DPUwP_jtSSy6k4LvvOnG6bC4MxkkskRoGFcJutWr-2FczNTSmZEKc2UkvAYUnM1UvdBOSUfSWlkZChzLFF0OSmfgf2dNDCYyAlXeLhnh8lXkCG-2Bh4gfJiugP86eMdPQJGLGSe8q-2Fzi89ajL8M1G0yJUDLeQTurraaPJvSVTvcNFBvKQ65yg9L0st8Zw2e3-2F2KcuApBUzZu6vTXwlqzMBXaeeHa9Qde1HtqxvJArrH7br7t6OodkniPaWG63uDdnwiNYIcqObz-2F4tlPa5ff40khJ87quNB7DgMLaG6c5e3LIQAHmAIiXS5y2dLalYwhNBxqS1am2fDQWrl4sIn9EgU86lwSaHiUYUreJ1ZEW5lTcGASTr7IvmPEjBTQiPJXL49FU2if2Pb5wtAuO0pPZo9lfSjgiHKA-3D-3D" target="_blank">24 new fracking permits</a> in early April, and another 282 are awaiting review. </p><p>"Because researchers don't have direct access to the actual oil and gas sites, it's hard to get a good estimate of what people actually experience," said Tran. "The more in-depth exposure assessment we can get, the more we can really understand why we are seeing the [birth outcome] effects that we see."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em><em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/living-near-oil-and-gas-wells-linked-to-low-birthweight-in-babies" target="_blank"> The Guardian</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- 2.9 Million Children Are Threatened by Toxic Air Pollution From Oil ... ›
- Study Links Childhood Leukemia With Living Near Oil and Gas ... ›
- Babies Born Near Oil and Gas Wells Are 40 to 70% More Likely to ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Medical Groups Call Racism a Public Health Issue, Condemn Police Brutality
03 June
Health + Wellness
Protesters gather to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota by police, on May 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The glaring numbers that show how disproportionately racial minorities have been affected by the coronavirus and by police brutality go hand-in-hand. The two are byproducts of systemic racism that has kept people of color marginalized and contributed to a public health crisis, according to three prominent medical organizations — the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American College of Physicians, as CNN reported.
<p>"Racism is a public health issue," the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote on Twitter. "The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls for a deep examination of how to improve the role of policing. Systemic violence requires systemic response."</p><p>The tweet linked to the <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/144/2/e20191765" target="_blank">organization's 2019 statement</a> on the impact of racism on child and adolescent health.</p>
<div id="1ef58" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5db7333b99299dd05d8c78160c06d020"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1267220576457932802" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Racism is a public health issue. The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls f… https://t.co/mPmYN4f74f</div> — Amer Acad Pediatrics (@Amer Acad Pediatrics)<a href="https://twitter.com/AmerAcadPeds/statuses/1267220576457932802">1590963903.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"The same broad-sweeping structural racism that enables police brutality against black Americans is also responsible for higher mortality among black Americans with COVID-19," said Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist working on the COVID-19 response, to <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter" target="_blank">Vox</a>.</p><p>"One in every 1,000 black men and boys can expect to be killed by police in this country," she said "To me, this clearly illustrates why police brutality is a public health problem; anything that causes mortality at such a scale is a public health problem."</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.apha.org/news-and-media/news-releases/apha-news-releases/2020/racism-is-a-public-health-crisis" target="_blank">statement</a>, the American Public Health Association (APHA) also drew attention to the health challenges that systemic and institutional racism cause. "Racism attacks people's physical and mental health. And racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now," said the APHA. The group went on to say discrimination can be seen in all aspects of life, including housing, education, the criminal justice system, and employment and it has been amplified during this pandemic as communities of color face inequities "in everything, from a greater burden of COVID-19 cases to less access to testing, treatment, and care."</p>
<p>Last week, the American Medical Association's (AMA) president and board chair teamed up to issue a joint <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> that "police brutality must stop," as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"AMA policy recognizes that physical or verbal violence between law enforcement officers and the public, particularly among Black and Brown communities where these incidents are more prevalent and pervasive, is a critical determinant of health and supports research into the public health consequences of these violent interactions," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"Recognizing that many who serve in law enforcement are committed to justice, the violence inflicted by police in news headlines today must be understood in relation to larger social and economic arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm's way leading to premature illness and death," they wrote, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "Police violence is a striking reflection of our American legacy of racism — a system that assigns value and structures opportunity while unfairly advantaging some and disadvantaging others based on their skin color."</p>
<p>The statement also cited studies that people of color can suffer mental health consequences and feelings of trauma just by knowing that unarmed black men were victims of police brutality. "Racism as a driver of health inequity is also particularly evident in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31130-9/fulltext" target="_blank">findings from a 2018 study showing that law enforcement-involved deaths</a> of unarmed black individuals were associated with adverse mental health among Black American adults — a spillover effect on the population, regardless of whether the individual affected had a personal relationship with the victim or the incident was experienced vicariously," the AMA <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> said.</p><p>"The trauma of violence in a person's life course is associated with chronic stress, higher rates of comorbidities and lower life expectancy, all of which bear extensive care and economic burden on our healthcare system while sapping the strength of affected families and communities," the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/police-brutality-must-stop" target="_blank">statement</a> continued, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a similar vein, the American College of Physicians (ACP) released a <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a> on Friday that its members are terribly concerned about "discriminatory enforcement and violence."<br></p><p>"ACP has long held that hate crimes, prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence against any person based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, or country of origin is a public health issue," wrote Dr. Heather Gantzer, chair of the board of regents for the American College of Physicians, in the <a href="https://www.acponline.org/acp-newsroom/internists-gravely-concerned-about-discrimination-and-violence-by-public-authorities-and-others" target="_blank">statement</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/health/racism-public-health-issue-police-brutality-wellness-bn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. "The issue of how to ensure that policing does not result in discriminatory enforcement and violence is a multifaceted and complex one."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- TV Coverage Ignored Impacts of Extreme Weather on Marginalized ... ›
- 15 EcoWatch Stories on Environmental and Racial Injustice ... ›
- House Democrats Roll out Environmental Justice Bill - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Garden interns learn plant and weed identification at the Cheyenne River Youth Project in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Cheyenne River Youth Project / Facebook
By Stephanie Woodard
Many Americans are now experiencing an erratic food supply for the first time. Among COVID-19's disruptions are bare supermarket shelves and items available yesterday but nowhere to be found today. As you seek ways to replace them, you can look to Native gardens for ideas and inspiration.
<p>"Working in a garden develops your relationship to the land," says Aubrey Skye, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lpPMKFw77k&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2BPC1A7hvv2M_-MzkJsMBsDXMu7LDrlVqPy9ydDiqWJW1T6nQZ3__gcWs" target="_blank">a Hunkpapa Lakota gardener</a>. "Our ancestors understood that. Look at the old pictures. It's etched on their faces. When you understand it as well, a sense of scarcity and insecurity transforms into a feeling of abundance and control—something we all need these days." For several years, Skye ran a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/ndwp/traditional-foods/index.html" target="_blank">CDC-sponsored gardening program</a> on Standing Rock, a reservation that straddles North and South Dakota. He created hundreds of productive plots, large and small, for fellow tribal members.</p>
<p>Tribes' food-scarcity problems developed after signing treaties with the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. Under these agreements, tribes typically transferred land to the federal government in return for education, health care, and other services. The diminished tribal homelands that resulted, along with continual federal efforts to decrease Native land holdings, severely restricted the hunting, fishing, and other activities with which tribes had fed their people since time immemorial. To force tribes onto reservations, Skye adds, the United States purposely destroyed critical food sources, such as the huge buffalo herds that once roamed the Plains.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMwOTMxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMTc4OTAyNH0.pl3o_XN6vhnO41CvxoiGNX2jSuSmrV1f6SP3HfpqX9w/img.jpg?width=980" id="a99f6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="12609ff38757532adcf89cb37649a3bf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Aubrey Skye, Standing Rock Sioux tribal member, tills gardens for himself and other tribal members. He does some by hand, and others with this tractor. Photo by Stephanie Woodard.
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Bird-Womans-Garden-Agriculture/dp/0873512197/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1588337839&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Abundant lifeways</a> were decimated. Starvation and death ensued. Massacres, such as Wounded Knee and Sand Creek, killed additional American Indians, as did forced removals from homelands, with the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the Navajo Long Walk among the best-known. The injustices continue today. Oil and gas pipelines, mines, industrial animal farms, and other projects may be sited to <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2017/01/24/the-spirit-of-standing-rock-on-the-move/" target="_blank">imperil tribal lands</a> rather than those of other peoples. Poverty, limited health care, and, in some areas, lack of running water for frequent anti-virus hand-washing, means the COVID-19 pandemic has hit certain tribes, notably the Navajo Nation, hard.</p>
<h3>Growing Strength</h3><p>Incessant disasters have created economic and social burdens, including hunger, that fall heavily on children. "These tragedies are so hard on kids," says the Cheyenne River Youth Project's director Julie Garreau. The project is on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota, just south of Standing Rock. "Don't ever let people tell you children don't know what's going on," she says. "The pandemic is creating enormous additional stress, beyond what they were already struggling with."</p><p>Her program works to make up the difference. With its 2.5-acre garden, café, gym, and library, the organization has long provided children with good food and a safe place to learn and have fun. Now that tribal children are sheltering at home, the youth project's garden and the sack meals her organization delivers ensure that, at the very least, they have healthy food each day, says Garreau, who is a tribal member.</p><p>"I'm so grateful," she says. "We're a nonprofit, and our funders contacted us—we didn't go to them—and gave us support for meals with a hot entrée, juice, and a healthy snack like fruit or nuts. We started driving around in our pickup with food for 35 kids, then 50, then 75." The youth project is working to get the word out. "We hope to reach 250 kids," Garreau says.</p><p>Dream of Wild Health also focuses on youth as it restores the multitribal urban-Indian community of Minneapolis and St. Paul to physical well-being and a spiritual relationship to the Earth. "We grow leaders and seeds," says Community Outreach and Culture Teacher Hope Flanagan, who is Seneca. "An urban upbringing can mean our youth lose track of our old way of walking on this Earth." Dream of Wild Health helps the children relearn this knowledge, she says.</p><p>In the process, the group's activities help the community reclaim <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food-sovereignty">food sovereignty</a>—ready access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food—according to Executive Director Neely Snyder, a St. Croix Chippewa tribal member. Dream of Wild Health meets this need by distributing crops that it grows on its nearby 30-acre farm: It participates in a farmers market, delivers household shares of farm produce to locations in Native neighborhoods of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, and partners with other community organizations, such as the Minneapolis American Indian Center.</p>
<p>Since the COVID-19 challenges began, innovation has been key. To continue to offer chef-led cooking lessons for youth, yet maintain social distance, Dream of Wild Health delivers ingredients to the children's homes and runs the program via a video link. Virtual activities have proven popular. When a seed-saving and sacred medicines <a href="https://dreamofwildhealth.org/event/online-sacred-medicines-garden-beginnings-workshop" target="_blank">workshop</a> moved online, the typical 40- to 50-person audience for a live event burgeoned to some 220, Snyder says.</p><p>To grow real crops in a real garden requires getting out on the land—with a difference nowadays. This summer, Skye anticipates, reservation gardeners will either work alone or in groups practicing social distancing. Dream of Wild Health farmers are figuring out how student interns, whom they call Garden Warriors, can work on the group's farm and maintain distance.</p><p>While gardening, Skye says, tribal gardeners will put into action traditional practices that arise from close observations of nature and the belief that humans, plants, animals, and other aspects of the natural world form a <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/01/07/food-system-seeds/" target="_blank">mutually reliant community</a>. We are all related, Skye says. "Gardening and eating food you've raised give you a direct connection to Mother Earth."</p><p>Gardeners are necessarily optimists. At a time when our world is so dangerous, <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/04/28/coronavirus-grow-food/" target="_blank">the garden is a place of refuge</a>. "We will come out of this crisis," Garreau said in an email. "To do so, we must not stop planning and planting." Taking cues from Native gardening practices can help even novice gardeners get growing in these difficult circumstances.</p><p>Follow Indigenous gardeners' advice to grow your own plot, however small or experimental. At a time when stay-at-home orders continue to try and keep populations healthy, Garreau sums up the importance of sinking your hands into the soil: "Gardens represent so much more," Garreau continued. "Food, yes, but a belief in our future. Gardens represent resiliency, strength, wellness, culture."</p>
<h3>1. Plot Your Success</h3><p>Experienced gardeners may be comfortable planting big fields of their favorite crops. Skye has a nearly 1-acre plot just downhill of his Standing Rock home. But if this is your gardening debut—as it was for some tribal members he provided with gardens through the CDC project—ensure success by starting small. Try a few pots or raised beds, or perhaps a small in-ground plot, with easy-to-grow plants, he says. Good options might be tomatoes, peppers, green beans, radishes, summer and winter squash, onions, or leafy greens. "Don't bite off more than you can chew!" Skye quips.</p>
<h3>2. Cultivate Plant Friendships</h3><p>Many American gardeners know about the Three Sisters—in the celebrated trio, cornstalks serve as trellises for beans, which in turn fix nitrogen (fertilizer), while big, flat squash leaves conserve soil moisture and keep down weeds. Such plant groupings, also called <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/323589.Carrots_Love_Tomatoes" target="_blank">companion plants</a>, are expressions of cooperation and sharing, says the Mohawk director of the Traditional Native American Farmers Association, Clayton Brascoupé. "Your garden should be like a healthy forest, which has trees of various sizes," he says. "Look at nature, and figure out combinations that mimic it."</p><p>In his gardens at Tesuque Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, you can see peas twining up corn plants and basil rising above the broad, flat leaves of watermelon. "Experiment!" he says. "Plants can surprise you. One year, we discovered that garbanzos and corn really enjoy each other."</p>
<h3>3. Make Room for Hard-Working Beauties</h3><p><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/02/07/yard-sustainability-native-plants/" target="_blank">Embellish your garden with colorful flowers</a>, particularly <a href="https://choosenatives.org/" target="_blank">those native to your area</a>. "They attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators," says Skye, adding that pollinators are an integral part of a plant's life cycle. "Without them, the harvest wouldn't happen, and we would be looking at extreme food shortages, not just occasional gaps. By giving pollinators flowers they like, we support them, just as they support us."</p>
<h3>4. Keep Crops Cozy</h3><p>Got a plant that's struggling? Give it a rock! Brascoupé explains that in Southwest Native gardens, rocks are commonly set next to seedlings or plants that need help. They act as heat sinks, smoothing out day-night temperature variations as they soak up the sun's heat and release it in evening's chill. The practice may have been more widespread, he says, appearing as far north as Iroquois gardens in the U.S. Northeast. It makes sense, he says; in a cold region, rocks protect seedlings from unexpected early-season frost.</p>
<h3>5. Source Materials Locally and for Free</h3><p>For no-cost drip irrigation, Brascoupé uses a fine needle to poke a hole in the neck of clean soda-pop bottles or milk jugs. He then fills the containers with water, replaces their caps, and pushes their pierced necks into the soil.</p><p>Conserve soil moisture and keep weeds down by surrounding the plants with mulching materials that would otherwise have been discarded. People spend time and money getting rid of cardboard, shredded office paper, lawn clippings, and leaves, Brascoupé says. "Tell neighbors, 'I can take that off your hands.' Build human relationships."</p>
<h3>6. Embrace Dandelions</h3><p>Don't banish dandelions. Welcome these supposed weeds! Their leaves are delicious and nutritious, and their taproots break up hardened soil, I learned from Native gardeners. My New York City backyard used to be so compacted, little grew there. I tried scattering dandelion seeds around the yard. They grew and blossomed, and soon earthworms moved in. The soil became soft, friable, and plant-friendly. Earthworms are at it 24-7, working on your behalf, according to Skye. "What more could you ask for?" he says.</p>
<h3>7. Include Healing Herbs</h3><p>Skye has a small medicine-wheel garden by his home, where he delights in growing echinacea, chamomile, comfrey, and other medicinals from seed he saves from one year to the next. Such circular plots are traditionally places to grow herbs and thereby experience their delectable flavors and the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221976.The_Medicine_Wheel_Garden" target="_blank">natural healing they promote</a>.</p>
<h3>8. Save Your Seeds</h3><p>At the end of the season, <a href="https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/seed-saving-instructions" target="_blank">save the seeds</a> of plants that thrived—and that you enjoyed—in your garden. You can help ensure your future food supply and, if you include unusual or heritage varieties, do your part to sustain biodiversity.</p><p>Seed-saving preserves history as well, Skye says. He called seeds time capsules. "We Native people have always saved them. As we plant, and save, and replant, the seeds go through all we are going through, the good times and the bad." The Dream of Wild Health seed collection, for example, includes a Cherokee family's gift of corn that survived the tribe's deadly Trail of Tears, a forced march that displaced their ancestors from their original homelands.</p><p>Today, danger confronts all of us on this Earth. "We were already facing climate change, and now there is the pandemic," Skye says. The seeds will always be there, to provide both food and a spiritual connection to the Earth, he says. "They are how we will survive."</p><p>Garreau echoes this sentiment: "When we come out of this terrible pandemic, we will have learned to be stronger. We will be invincible."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/05/20/garden-advice-indigenous-food-growers/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- 'This Is History in the Making': Cherokee Nation Is First U.S.-Based ... ›
- Three Sisters Garden — How to Plant Corn, Squash & Beans Together ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
A drop in vaccination rates raises concerns that quarantines might lead to an outbreak of preventable diseases, like the measles. yangna / iStock / Getty Images Plus
A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control found that vaccination rates in Michigan for children younger than two have fallen to alarmingly low rates. One of the more eye-popping statistics was that fewer than half of infants five months or younger have received the immunizations that usually start when they're two months old, according to The New York Times.
<p>The rates in Michigan are likely mirrored across the country, as parents nationwide have been reluctant to schedule well visits out of fear of exposure to COVID-19. That means children nationwide have fallen behind on vaccinations for diseases like measles and pertussis, better known as whooping cough, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/vaccinations-rates-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>In addition to parental fears of coronavirus exposure, the CDC study suggests that stay-at-home orders have also reduced access to doctor offices, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-children/pandemic-related-vaccination-drop-raises-concern-about-u-s-measles-outbreak-idUSKBN22U2ZY" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>The drop in vaccination rates raises concerns that quarantines might lead to an outbreak of preventable diseases, like the measles. As <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-children/pandemic-related-vaccination-drop-raises-concern-about-u-s-measles-outbreak-idUSKBN22U2ZY" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported, the CDC researchers analyzed the data from vaccine doses given to children at ages one, three, five, seven, 16, 19 and 24 months this year and the prior four years. In the 16-month age group, coverage with all recommended vaccines declined. The rate of measles vaccinations in particular fell to 71 percent this year from 76 percent last year.</p><p>The total number of vaccines given to children under two dropped more than 15 percent compared to the previous two years.</p>
<p>"The observed declines in vaccination coverage might leave young children and communities vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles," the CDC scientists wrote in the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e2.htm?s_cid=mm6919e2_w" target="_blank">report</a>, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-children/pandemic-related-vaccination-drop-raises-concern-about-u-s-measles-outbreak-idUSKBN22U2ZY" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. "If measles vaccination coverage of 90%-95% ... is not achieved, measles outbreaks can occur."</p><p>Just as the coronavirus is disproportionally affecting poor and minority communities, the poor are receiving the fewest vaccines, according to the study. The report found that up-to-date vaccination coverage was lower for children enrolled in Medicaid, the federal government's health insurance program for the poor, than for those who were not enrolled, according to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/coronavirus-cdc-warns-of-possible-measles-outbreak-as-vaccinations-for-children-fall-during-pandemic.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a>.</p>
<p>Angela Shen, a research scientist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the co-author of the study, said the falling rates in Michigan were troubling and quite likely representative of nationwide trends, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/vaccinations-rates-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"Now, you're not just dealing with Covid," she said, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/vaccinations-rates-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "Now you're contending with common vaccine-preventable diseases."</p><p>It's not just the U.S. that is seeing a dip. At the end of April, the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-04-2020-hard-fought-gains-in-immunization-coverage-at-risk-without-critical-health-services-warns-who" target="_blank">World Health Organization warned</a> that mass vaccination programs that had been suspended in developing countries put kids at risk of contracting measles or polio, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/coronavirus-cdc-warns-of-possible-measles-outbreak-as-vaccinations-for-children-fall-during-pandemic.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a> reported.</p>
<p>"Disease outbreaks must not remain a threat when we have safe and effective vaccines to protect us," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/23-04-2020-hard-fought-gains-in-immunization-coverage-at-risk-without-critical-health-services-warns-who" target="_blank">WHO statement</a>. "While the world strives to develop a new vaccine for COVID-19 at record speed, we must not risk losing the fight to protect everyone, everywhere against vaccine-preventable diseases. These diseases will come roaring back if we do not vaccinate."</p><p>"It's a really scary thought," said Matthew L. Boulton, a professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the University of Michigan, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/vaccinations-rates-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "We've made tremendous progress around the world, especially in many low-income countries. This literally could set us back years in our control of vaccine-preventable diseases, in both high- and low-income countries."</p>
<p>Since immunization requires in-person visits, the CDC study recommended several to keep the services going, including offering specific clinics or rooms for child vaccination, reducing the number of patients on site at a given time, having patients receive vaccinations from their vehicles in the parking lot and having providers work with families to identify children missing recommended vaccinations, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-children/pandemic-related-vaccination-drop-raises-concern-about-u-s-measles-outbreak-idUSKBN22U2ZY" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>Shen would like to see parents taking their kids for immunizations as the country starts to reopen.</p><p>"You are prone to potentially seeing measles outbreaks as communities and jurisdictions in Michigan — and arguably in other parts of the country — open up," she said to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/health/vaccinations-rates-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "This is a big week for opening up, and public health wants you to come in and get your shots."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- U.S. Measles Cases Hit 25-Year High - EcoWatch ›
- A New York County Banned Unvaccinated Children From Public ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
A container of Johnson's baby powder made by Johnson & Johnson. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Johnson & Johnson will stop selling its iconic but increasingly controversial talc baby powder in the U.S. and Canada, the company announced Tuesday.
<p>The announcement comes as the company faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers who say the product was contaminated with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/asbestos" target="_self">asbestos</a> and caused them or their loved ones to develop cancer, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-babypowder-idUSKBN22V32U?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1HfUTODSZrfmj0qHPRt2WqNj5q58hMe7ApEaQ2YfF3cYJBGicpAIRfsiI" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. Johnson & Johnson continues to insist the product is safe, but a 2018 Reuters investigation <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/johnsons-baby-powder-asbestos-2623643052.html" target="_self">found</a> that the company had known its talc products sometimes tested positive for asbestos since at least 1971 and had failed to inform the public.</p><p>"It means no more little girls are going to go through what we went through," Krystal Kim, who was part of a victorious lawsuit against the company in 2018 after developing ovarian cancer following a lifetime use of the baby powder, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/business/johnson-baby-powder-sales-stopped.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR0uzUgZqUqB-xFaeKz1d9eUGW74R3RfmbKLdraU4w5YVXr0z__fLK2-tTI" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "This stops now. That monster is off the shelves."</p>
<p>Because talc and asbestos sometimes occur side by side, it is possible for talc to be contaminated with asbestos during the mining process. Thousands of women who used the product sued after developing ovarian cancer, which was linked to asbestos in 1958. A smaller number developed mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer often connected to asbestos. In October 2019, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/johnson--johnson-baby-powder-recall-asbestos-2641053013.html" target="_self">company recalled</a> 33,000 bottles after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found trace amounts of asbestos in one of them. Also in 2019, the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/oversight-subcommittee-s-year-long-investigation-leads-to-johnson-johnson" target="_blank">began</a> a 14-month investigation that showed Johnson & Johnson knew about the asbestos risks for decades.</p><p>"Today, in a major victory for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a>, Johnson & Johnson's asbestos-containing baby powder finally will be taken off store shelves," Subcommittee chair Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said in a statement.</p>
<div id="8e492" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fbc74efe5795912af5cb6b3e9cd7c8de"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262890458503688194" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today, in a major victory for public health, Johnson & Johnson’s asbestos-containing baby powder will be taken off… https://t.co/QtXjbmyzge</div> — Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi)<a href="https://twitter.com/CongressmanRaja/statuses/1262890458503688194">1589931523.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Johnson & Johnson continues to maintain that its product is safe, but blamed negative publicity for a drop in sales.</p><p>"Demand for talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising," the company wrote.</p><p>The company said it made the decision after it had paused shipping certain items in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It said its current inventory of the powder would be sold, but no more would be produced for U.S. and Canadian markets. In the U.S., the product contributed only around 0.5 percent of the company's Consumer Health business.</p><p>Johnson & Johnson will continue to sell the product in other countries and to defend its safety in court.</p>
<p>Cornstarch baby powder, which the company developed in 1980 as an alternative once concerns of asbestos contamination were raised by health advocates, will continue to be sold in the U.S. and Canada, according to The New York Times.</p><p>Consumer advocates welcomed the news, but pointed out that Johnson & Johnson isn't the only company whose talc products pose a health risk.</p><p>"It's good news that Johnson & Johnson will soon end the sale of talc-based baby powders in the U.S. and Canada," <a href="https://www.ewg.org/" target="_blank">Environmental Working Group</a> (EWG) senior vice president for government affairs Scott Faber <a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/major-win-consumers-johnson-johnson-ends-sale-talc-based-baby-powders?utm_campaign=EWG+Content&utm_content=1589935453&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR25bsStfQ_-Ciwc8pZnAlsUNIkqY3EB_G3fhFXPlvpJFXp1eWonwb8FHyw" target="_blank">said</a> in response to the news. "Now other companies need to follow their lead."</p>
<div id="26067" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5547f6a2aa178525f254f75987e64466"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1262884496854208513" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">MAJOR WIN -- Johnson & Johnson will end the sale of talc-based baby powders in the US and Canada.
We call on other… https://t.co/UeYJiDXgPB</div> — EWG (@EWG)<a href="https://twitter.com/ewg/statuses/1262884496854208513">1589930101.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Just last week, the EWG found asbestos in two talc Jmkcoz eyeshadow palettes. Asbestos was also found in Claire's cosmetics in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/claires-cosmetics-test-positive-for-asbestos-fda-warns-2630826087.html" target="_self">March</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/asbestos-claires-cosmetics-2638757734.html" target="_self">June</a> of 2019.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Asbestos, Ubiquitous and Unavoidable, Is a Deadly Threat to Our Kids ›
- Johnson & Johnson Knew About Asbestos in Baby Powder for ... ›
- Johnson & Johnson Recalls 33,000 Baby Powder Bottles After FDA ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trump EPA Won’t Regulate Toxic Drinking Water Chemical That Harms Children’s Development
15 May
Politics
In defiance of a court order, the Trump administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not regulate perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel that contaminates drinking water and harms the development of fetuses and small children.
<p>The move is in keeping with other Trump administration decisions not to impose recommended limits on toxic chemicals, such as its decision <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-pesticide-brain-damage-2639273468.html" target="_self">not to ban</a> child-harming pesticide <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chlorpyrifos" target="_self">chlorpyrifos</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-asbestos-ban-2636681458.html?rebelltitem=1" target="_self">known-carcinogen asbestos</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/trump-drinking-water-perchlorate.html" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>.</p><p>"This is all of a piece," University of Maryland law professor Rena Steinzor told The New York Times. "You can draw a line between denial of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/science/" target="_self">science</a> on climate change, denial of science on coronavirus, and denial of science in the drinking water context. It's all the same issue. They're saying 'We don't care what the research says.'"</p>
<p>High concentrations of perchlorate have been found in at least 26 states, usually near military sites because of its use in rocket fuel. It has been shown to hamper the development of fetuses and young children by blocking the thyroid gland's uptake of iodine and therefore interfering with hormone production. The EPA had been ordered by the courts to finalize regulations on the chemical by the end of June. Instead, administrator <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" target="_self">Andrew Wheeler</a> will reverse a 2011 EPA finding that the chemical posed a health risk to between five and 16 million Americans and argue that it is "not in the public interest" to regulate it, two staff members familiar with the issue told The New York Times Thursday.</p><p>"The agency has determined that perchlorate does not occur with a frequency and at levels of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> concern, and that regulation of perchlorate does not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems," the draft policy reads, staff members told The New York Times.</p>
<p>Environmental and public health advocates condemned the decision.</p><p>"EPA's cynical decision to defy a court order and the law, and to ignore the science that, as the American Academy of Pediatrics has said, dictates a strong perchlorate standard to protect vulnerable kids, is a deeply disturbing violation of the agency's mission," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) senior strategic director for health and food Erik Olson <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/erik-d-olson/epa-refuses-protect-children-perchlorate-contaminated-tap-water?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=DrinkWaterPolicy&fbclid=IwAR3NYh52apJk63OrN_zNrvSrrhBs7LSRnzI5eRqAkeCFK4VX-U8dBUzaQio" target="_blank">wrote</a>. "It must be reversed."</p><p>NRDC was behind the lawsuit that led to the court order the EPA is now violating.</p>
<div id="2c7ae" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f8af07123fc507733e36db1ce03cbc03"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1260977337878937602" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING: @EPAAWheeler & Trump’s @EPA are choosing NOT to regulate #perchlorate, a dangerous chemical linked to fet… https://t.co/giSKPNIgpJ</div> — NRDC 🌎🏡 (@NRDC 🌎🏡)<a href="https://twitter.com/NRDC/statuses/1260977337878937602">1589475399.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In response, EPA spokeswoman Andrea Woods told The New York Times that a final decision had not been made and that the EPA would "shortly" send the final rule to the Office of Management and Budget.</p><p>"Any information that is shared or reported now would be premature, inappropriate and would be prejudging the formal rulemaking process," she said.</p><p>In a separate statement released after The New York Times story broke, Wheeler said that perchlorate levels had already been successfully reduced because of joint state and EPA efforts.</p><p>"Because of steps that EPA, states and public water systems have taken to identify, monitor and mitigate perchlorate, the levels have decreased in drinking water," Wheeler said, as <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/497794-epa-wont-regulate-rocket-fuel-chemical-tied-to-developmental-damage" target="_blank">The Hill reported</a>. "This success demonstrates that EPA and states are working together to lead the world in providing safe drinking water to all Americans."</p>
<p>Attempts to regulate perchlorate have been long delayed by opposition from the Department of Defense and the companies that supply it, and the NRDC suit was initially brought against Obama's EPA for dragging its heels on a regulation after determining in 2011 that perchlorate posed a health risk, according to The New York Times.</p><p>But the Trump EPA is going even further by reversing that 2011 decision. NRDC's Olson explained how it is justifying the reversal and why it is such a threat to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/childrens-health" target="_self">children's health</a>:</p><blockquote>To explain why it's revoking its previous finding, EPA now contends its 2008 <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/P1004X7Q.TXT?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=2006+Thru+2010&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5Czyfiles%5CIndex%20Data%5C06thru10%5CTxt%5C00000010%5CP1004X7Q.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x&ZyPURL" target="_blank">health advisory</a> for perchlorate in drinking water—set at 15 parts per billion or ppb—is far more protective of health than needed. That 15 ppb health advisory was based on a 2005 <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11202/health-implications-of-perchlorate-ingestion" target="_blank">National Academy of Sciences study</a>. Instead, Wheeler now finds a level of 56 ppb would be safe, and perhaps even 90 ppb would be fine. EPA admits that a standard of 56 ppb would allow those kids exposed to perchlorate in drinking water at above this level to have an <em>average</em> IQ loss of two points. People at the lower end of the IQ spectrum could lose far more IQ points. In concluding 56 ppb is safe, the agency would allow an unprecedented level of adverse impact on children's brain development.</blockquote>
<p>Other environmental groups have also spoken out against a 56 ppb standard.</p><p>"The science on perchlorate is very clear: It harms infants and the developing fetus," Olga Naidenko, senior science adviser for children's environmental health at the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/" target="_blank">Environmental Working Group</a>, said when such a standard was first floated in May of 2019, as The Hill reported. "Perchlorate can cause irreparable damage to both cognitive and physical development. Instead of taking action to lower the levels of this rocket fuel chemical in drinking water, the administration's plan will endanger the health of future generations of kids."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Rocket Fuel Chemical Doesn't Belong in Food Packaging - EcoWatch ›
- Trump's EPA Won't Ban Brain-Damaging Pesticide - EcoWatch ›
- EPA's Proposal for Limiting Rocket Fuel in Drinking Water Is ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
A paramedic carries a 10-month-old boy with a fever to Stamford Hospital on April 04, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Photo by John Moore / Getty Images
A new health condition seemingly related to COVID-19 related symptoms has appeared in more than 100 children living in New York and New Jersey, prompting health officials to ramp up awareness campaigns and spur new health protocols in response to the mysterious disease.
<p><br/></p>
<p>At least 102 children in New York and 18 cases in New Jersey have been reportedly connected to the newly named "pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome (PMIS)," reports <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/a-pretty-scary-thing-rare-child-syndrome-tied-to-virus-worries-new-york-100-sick/2413952/" target="_blank">NBC</a>. At least three children have died in connection with the disease as another two deaths are currently under investigation. More than a dozen states have confirmed similar cases.</p><p>PMIS is a new health condition believed to be related to COVID-19, the severe respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, but experts <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-19-pmis.pdf" target="_blank">say</a> that the connection is "still not clear." Like other inflammatory conditions, such as toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease, childhood cases of PMIS are linked to issues with the heart and other organs and can sometimes require hospital support in an intensive care unit.</p>
<p>"So far, from what we understand, this is a rare complication in the pediatric population that [doctors] believe is related to COVID-19," New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/nyregion/children-Kawasaki-syndrome-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>Although uncommon, PMIS can be life-threatening. Guardians are urged to call a doctor immediately if their child becomes ill and has a continued fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) lasting several days, along with other symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, swollen hands and feet, or a red tongue that "looks like a strawberry." PMIS is not believed to be contagious, but its connection to COVID-19 suggests that a child may be infected with the virus or another underlying infection that may be contagious.</p><p>"Until we know more, hospitals in NYC that are treating children with PMIS are taking the same precautions they take for patients with COVID-19," writes the New York City Department of Health.</p>
<p>European pediatricians first reported a rising number of COVID-19 cases connected with a similar inflammatory disease in April, reported <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/child-cases-of-covid-19-associated-with-toxic-shock-syndrome-and-rare-inflammatory-disease/" target="_blank">IFLScience.</a> At the time, doctors reported that it was unclear whether it was related to the novel coronavirus, and that there "may be another as yet unidentified infectious pathogen associated with these cases." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that it is studying the disease but at the time does not know how prevalent it is or what its relationship to SARS-CoV-2 may be.</p><p>"As more data are emerging, CDC is working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and other domestic and international partners to better understand and characterize this new syndrome, its prevalence and risk factors for it; and to develop a case definition that will allow us to keep track of it,'' the agency told <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/13/coronavirus-what-parents-should-know-new-covid-related-disease/3121271001/" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a> through a spokesman.</p>
<p>Kawasaki disease is an acute febrile illness that typically infects children under the age of five, according to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/kawasaki/about.html" target="_blank">CDC</a>. Clinical signs often overlap with <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxic-shock-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20355384" target="_blank">toxic shock syndrome</a> to include fever, rash, as well as redness of the mouth and throat.</p><p>A new study published Wednesday in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31103-X/fulltext" target="_blank">The Lancet</a> "provides the strongest evidence yet that the syndrome [Kawasaki disease] is linked to the coronavirus," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/health/coronavirus-children-kawasaki-pmis.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. Doctors in Bergamo, Italy "aimed to evaluate incidence and features of patients with Kawasaki-like disease diagnosed during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic," according to the report. After studying 15 girls and 14 boys age 7 and younger, the doctors concluded: "The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was associated with high incidence of a severe form of Kawasaki disease. A similar outbreak of Kawasaki-like disease is expected in countries involved in the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic."</p><p>NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/07/851725443/mystery-inflammatory-syndrome-in-kids-and-teens-likely-linked-to-covid-19" target="_blank">reports</a> that most children with PMIS have either tested positive for coronavirus infection or for its antibodies, which suggests a prior infection. There is currently no cure for PMIS but doctors say that cases are being treated with different therapies and drugs that help reduce the body's immune response, prompting the inflammatory syndrome in the first place. Although it remains unclear whether the condition is related directly to COVID-19, experts recommend taking similar precautions as well as practicing proper hand hygiene and social distancing measures.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- No Country Is Protecting Children's Health, Major Study Finds ... ›
- How to Talk to Your Kids About the COVID-19 Outbreak - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less