Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Climate Issues Found To Worsen A Majority Of Infectious Diseases
AP: Study Connects Climate Hazards To 58% Of Infectious Diseases
Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study says. Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases, or 58%, seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change. (Borenstein, 8/9)
NBC News: Climate Hazards Are Turning 218 Diseases Into Bigger Threats
Professor Camilo Mora feels the impacts of climate change in his knees. During a 2014 visit to his native Colombia, heavy rains caused the worst flooding his hometown had seen in decades and boosted the mosquito population. A mosquito bit Mora, transferring the chikungunya virus and making him a patient during an unprecedented outbreak in the region. (Bendix and Bush, 8/8)
In other public health news —
NBC News: Teens Are Turning To 'Tobacco-Free' Nicotine Gummies And Lozenges
A survey of more than 3,500 high school students in Southern California found that flavored chewing gum, lozenges, gummies and other oral products that contain nicotine but not tobacco were the second most popular nicotine items among adolescents, after e-cigarettes. More than 3% of the students surveyed said they had tried these oral products before, and nearly 2% said they had done so in the last six months. Meanwhile, nearly 10% said they had tried e-cigarettes, and more than 5% reported doing so in the last six months. (Bendix, 8/9)
The Washington Post: Study: Kids Who Vape Tobacco Are More Likely To Go On To Use Cannabis
Vaping is growing more prevalent among young people — in 2021, 1 in 9 high school students said they had vaped in the past month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Increasingly, those kids are vaping cannabis. But is vaping a gateway to marijuana use? A new study suggests that is the case, finding that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are over three times more likely to use cannabis than those who don’t — and that more than 1 in 10 youths who say they have never used cannabis go on to do so within a year. (Blakemore, 8/8)
KHN: After ‘A Lot Of Doors Shut In Our Face,’ Crusading Couple Celebrate Passage Of Burn Pit Bill
The battle was just beginning for Le Roy Torres and his wife, Rosie, when the Army captain returned to Texas in 2008, already starting to suffer from the toxic substances he’d inhaled from the 10-acre burn pit at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. Along the way, Le Roy would lose the job he loved as a Texas state trooper and take his fight all the way to a Supreme Court victory. He would be rushed to the emergency room hundreds of times, be denied health benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs for years, attempt suicide, and seek experimental cures for the damage done to his lungs and brain. (McAuliff, 8/9)
