Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Smoke From Wildfires Intensifies, More Air Quality Alerts Are Issued In The West Even For Healthy People
Smoke from wildfires clogged the sky across the U.S. West, blotting out mountains and city skylines from Oregon to Colorado, delaying flights and forcing authorities to tell even healthy adults in the Seattle area to stay indoors. As large cities dealt with unhealthy air for a second summer in a row, experts warned that it could become more common as the American West faces larger and more destructive wildfires because of heat and drought blamed on climate change. Officials also must prioritize resources during the longer firefighting season, so some blazes may be allowed to burn in unpopulated areas. (Ho and Flaccus, 8/20)
Public health experts treat wildfire smoke as a pollutant, similar in many ways to ozone or automobile emissions. Breathing it can be hazardous to your health, particularly for sensitive groups like children, the elderly and those with lung or heart disease. Research has shown that even low levels of outdoor air pollution can cause notable deficits in cognitive performance and worker productivity. (Ingraham, 8/20)
After more than three weeks, firefighters Monday continued to struggle against the largest fire in modern California history as the Mendocino Complex blaze prompted more evacuations and posed new dangers to those on the front lines. While battling the fire, five members of Los Angeles Fire Department Strike Team 1880C were injured Sunday. All five suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from area hospitals. (Fry, 8/20)
Officials have extended the air quality advisory for the Bay Area through Tuesday, saying they expect winds to blow smoke into the area. To help you stay informed about air quality during the fire season, KQED Science is providing this map showing air quality in your area and what it means for your health, updated hourly. (Ahmed and Hailye, 8/20)
Meanwhile in other environmental health-related news聽鈥
The Trump administration is set to roll back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama鈥檚 efforts to slow global warming, the Clean Power Plan that restricts greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. A plan to be announced Tuesday would give states broad authority to determine how to restrict carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. ... The plan is also expected to let states relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades, according to a summary of the plan and several people familiar with the full proposal who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren鈥檛 authorized to discuss the plan publicly. (Daly, 8/21)
Power plants are the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, making up roughly a third of the domestic greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The plants also create large amounts of fine particulate matter. The particles can get trapped deep in the lungs, causing breathing problems, heart disease and inflammation. Exposure to air pollution is known to lead to a host of health problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer, bone loss, blood vessel damage, inflammation, cognitive issues and even death. (Christensen, 8/20)
Andrew Wheeler, President Trump鈥檚 acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Monday signed a聽proposal to scrap environmental restrictions on power plants and leave much of the regulation of the industry to states. The move is the agency鈥檚 first under Mr. Trump to detail how it will regulate the power-sector carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, and it sets up months of public and legal reviews, and potentially a yearslong court battle. (Puko, 8/20)
Northwestern Indiana residents and environmental advocates say they鈥檙e concerned that a federal agency took two years to release its first report about blood-lead levels in children who live at a lead-tainted Superfund site. Many young children who lived at the USS Lead Superfund site from 2005 to 2015 were nearly three times more likely to be lead-poisoned compared with children living elsewhere in East Chicago, according to the report last week by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (8/20)
In a new special report, Reuters News has detailed lead problems at Fort Benning, the large U.S. Army base in west Georgia. In its devastating account, Reuters reveals what it calls 鈥渁 toxic scourge鈥 inside homes on military bases, especially from lead paint. (Miller, 8/20)
The damage at [Andis] Applewhite's vineyard and elsewhere is likely coming from one of her cotton-growing neighbors. New weedkillers used on the cotton crop are drifting beyond the fields and causing damage elsewhere. The same herbicides are being used on soy and other crops in the U.S. Some estimates, such as this report published last month from the University of Missouri, suggest that drift this year from one of the herbicides, dicamba, has caused over a million acres of damage to vulnerable crops across the country. (Kennedy, 8/21)
