deadly

30Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

Heat Waves Plus Air Pollution Can Be A Deadly Combination: The Health Risk Together Is Worse Than Either Alone

On the morning news, you see the weather forecast is for high heat, and there is an “excessive heat watch” for later in the week. You were hoping the weather would cool down, but yet another heat wave is threatening human health and increasing the chance of wildfires. On top of these warm days and nights, air quality data has been showing unhealthy levels of pollution. Sound familiar? This scenario is increasingly the new normal in many parts of the world. High heat and air pollution are each problematic for human health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as older adults. But what happens when they hit at the same time? We examined over 1.5 million deaths from 2014 to 2020 registered in California – a state prone to summer heat waves and air pollution from wildfires – to find...

During Heat Waves Conditions In Prisons Pose Deadly Threats To Incarcerated People And Prison Staff

24Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT

During Heat Waves Conditions In Prisons Pose Deadly Threats To Incarcerated People And Prison Staff

Extreme heat is taking an increasing toll across the U.S. in summertime. People who are incarcerated are among society’s most vulnerable groups and have been especially affected. More than a dozen states do not have air conditioning in all of their prison units, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. In Texas, where I work, only about 30% of prisons are fully air-conditioned. Many of these states also face some of the highest heat risks in the U.S., according to recent studies. Prisons concentrate hundreds or thousands of people in buildings that were designed without planning for extreme heat and heat waves. Prison building materials and designs can increase exposure to heat...

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, IN OTHER NEWS

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in nonmedical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl. Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded. In 2016, my colleagues and I found that patients who came to the emergency department reporting a heroin overdose often only had fentanyl present in their drug test results. As the Chief of Medical Toxicology at UMass Chan Medical School, I have studied fentanyl and its analogs for years. As fentanyl has becom...

Policies That Encourage Workers To Show Up Sick Are Legal – Meatpacking Plants Have Been Deadly COVID-19 Hot Spots

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Policies That Encourage Workers To Show Up Sick Are Legal – Meatpacking Plants Have Been Deadly COVID-19 Hot Spots

Working in meatpacking plants has always been dangerous. A recent study shows that it became deadlier in the era of COVID-19, even as company profits soared. This analysis, published in December 2020, estimates that 6%-8% of all COVID-19 cases and 3%-4% of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were tied to meat and poultry plants. Workers in these facilities stand close together on processing lines, which makes social distancing difficult. At the same time, companies like Tyson, which produces chicken, beef and pork, and JBS, which produces beef and pork, are reporting high earnings despite COVID-related challenges such as plant closures. I am a law professor and have written about links between lax state and federal enforcement of health and safety laws and increased rates of COVID-19 infect...

Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Coronavirus is hundreds of times more deadly for people over 60 than people under 40

How deadly is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? And what are the risks of death for people of different ages and demographics? These have been hard numbers to calculate during this pandemic. To calculate the true death rate – more accurately called the infection–fatality ratio (IFR) – you would simply divide the total number of coronavirus deaths by the total number of infections. The problem is that with so many asymptomatic cases and limited testing for much of the pandemic, finding the true number of infections has been very difficult. The easiest way to calculate more accurate infection and death rates is to perform random testing. I am a professor of health policy and management. In April, in partnership with the Indiana State Department of Health, I led a team of researc...

In Kashmir, military lockdown and pandemic combined are one giant deadly threat

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

In Kashmir, military lockdown and pandemic combined are one giant deadly threat

COVID-19 is taking a terrible toll worldwide. But in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, it’s only the latest indignity in a 73-year cycle of oppression, militarization and scarcity. At least, that’s what the minimal news from Kashmir indicates. The Indian part of Kashmir – which shares volatile borders with Pakistan and China – has been an information black hole since August 2019, when the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the region of its autonomous status and split it in two territories to be directly governed by India. To enforce this radical change, a military lockdown was imposed, which saw Indian soldiers using brutal and indiscriminate violence. As a result, Kashmiris had already been confined to their homes, fearful and isolated, for months before the coronavi...