Bigger Cars May Be To Blame For Rise In Pedestrian Deaths, Study Finds

AP: Study: SUVs, Pickups More Likely To Hit Walkers Than Cars 
Drivers of bigger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs are more likely to hit pedestrians while making turns than drivers of cars, according to a new study. The research released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety points to the increasing popularity of larger vehicles as a possible factor in rising pedestrian deaths on U.S. roads. The authors also questioned whether wider pillars holding up roofs of the larger vehicles make it harder for drivers to spot people walking near the corners of vehicles. (Krisher, 3/17)

The CT Mirror: As Pedestrian Deaths Rise In CT, State Looks For Ways To Curb The Drivers
Jesse Robert Pincince “looked down for a second” to check his phone while driving along North Road in East Windsor on the afternoon of March 6 when he heard a loud “thump” against his truck, he told police. Jaylene Gonzalez, a 14-year-old freshman at Enfield High School, had been walking with a friend along the east side of North Road or Route 140, which doesn’t have sidewalks, when “this truck” came out of nowhere and hit her, according to the East Windsor police report. The teenage soccer player became yet another pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year, and the circumstances — a larger vehicle, potentially a distracted driver — are becoming more common, experts say. (Altimari and Golvala, 3/17)

In other public health news —

Fox News: Alzheimer's Disease Impacting 6.5M Older Americans
An estimated 6.5 million Americans ages 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new report. In an annual update released by the Alzheimer's Association, the group wrote that 73% of those individuals are age 75 or older and about one in nine of those age 65 and older has Alzheimer's. Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's are women, and older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's or other types of dementia than older White Americans. (Musto, 3/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee To Give Newly Legal Fentanyl Testing Strips To Community
In 2021, nearly 80% of all drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County were related to fentanyl. To help prevent future opioid-related deaths, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services is planning to distribute 1,600 newly legal fentanyl testing strips in the community, according to a Wednesday news release from Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley's office. How do the testing strips work? They detect the presence of fentanyl in powders or injectables and can help prevent accidental overdoses. (Kirby, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Baby Bonds Eyed As Way To Close U.S. Racial Wealth Gap
Darrick Hamilton grew up shuttling between two worlds. Each morning during the 1970s and ’80s he and his sister would travel three miles to Brooklyn Friends, the elite private Quaker school that their parents had scrimped, saved, and sacrificed to afford. Then the kids would return from downtown Brooklyn to Bedford-Stuyvesant, which was overwhelmingly Black, largely poor, and one of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods. At the time, pundits and politicians frequently talked of a “culture of poverty” or a “pathology” in Black “ghettos.” That didn’t compute for Hamilton. “I could see the vivid inequality,” he says, but “I could see fundamentally people were not different.” The neighbor he played football with who was later incarcerated for robbing an armored car didn’t seem essentially different from the classmate who might be an investment banker today. (Steverman, 3/17)

On environmental health —

Georgia Health News: Research Shows New Reasons To Watch For Ticks In Georgia 
A virus unknown until a little more than a decade ago is circulating among lone star ticks in Georgia, Emory University scientists say. Heartland virus was first identified in Missouri in 2009 in two severely ill individuals. “We don’t know how many people are infected’’ with Heartland, said Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, associate professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences. (Miller, 3/16)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Uranium Mill Has Accepted 700,000 Pounds Of Radioactive Waste, According To A New Report
Energy Fuels Resources’ plant outside Blanding is often touted as the nation’s only operating uranium mill. But for decades, the larger purpose of the mill has been to dispose of the waste from contaminated military and industrial sites for a fee, which has generated millions in profits for Energy Fuels at the expense of the environment and the Ute Mountain Ute tribal members who live nearby, according to the report titled “The Business of Radioactive Waste” released Tuesday by the Grand Canyon Trust. According to the new report, the Utah facility is a poorly regulated radioactive-waste disposal site where 700 million pounds of material has been interred over the years just a few miles from the Native American community in San Juan County known as White Mesa. (Maffly, 3/16)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Wants To Know How Widespread PFAS Are In Food Packaging
State environmental officials should know more by the summer about how widespread food packaging laced with forever chemicals is in Maine and what alternatives are out there to replace them. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is seeking a firm to analyze the market for food packaging that does not include forever chemicals, or PFAS, that historically have been added to a wide range of products that also include waterproof clothing and non-stick cookware. The goal is to determine how widely available PFAS-free alternatives are and if they’re available at a comparable cost to traditional products as Maine implements a ban on most products with PFAS that takes effect in 2030. (Loftus, 3/17)