Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In A First Since Covid, California's Deaths From All Causes Are Close To Normal
The Mercury News: California Deaths From All Causes On Track To Be Lowest Since COVID Pandemic Started
For the first year since COVID-19 upended our lives, the number of deaths from all causes is expected to fall under 300,000 in the Golden State, closer to pre-pandemic normals. The decline is primarily due to fewer COVID deaths — there have been close to 6,000 deaths from the virus so far this year, compared to over 18,000 at this time last year. To date, the virus has killed more than 104,000 Californians. (Blair Rowan, 12/14)
On the opioid crisis in California —
San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Starts Wastewater Surveillance To Tackle Drug Overdose Crisis
San Francisco has begun testing wastewater for traces of fentanyl, xylazine and other illicit drugs in an attempt to better track and address the local drug overdose crisis that has led to a record 752 deaths this year. The new wastewater surveillance program, announced by public health officials Thursday, will also track the presence of cocaine, methamphetamine and amphetamine, as well as naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug often referred to by the brand name Narcan. (Ho, 12/14)
Los Angeles Times: Fentanyl Has Become Los Angeles County's Most Deadly Drug
Fentanyl has continued to tighten its deadly grip on Los Angeles, with the synthetic opioid causing the majority of fatal overdoses countywide in 2022. For the first time in recent years, fentanyl surpassed methamphetamine as the most common drug listed as a cause of overdose deaths, according to a recent report from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. Fentanyl was blamed in almost 60% of all accidental drug or alcohol overdoses in 2022, the report said, and has continued to disproportionately kill Black Angelenos. (Toohey, 12/14)
In environmental health news —
Los Angeles Times: California Moves To Tighten Rules To Protect Countertop Workers
State regulators estimated that as many as 800 of the industry’s more than 4,000 workers could end up with silicosis if California failed to take protective action, and up to 160 were likely to die of the suffocating disease, according to a presentation at Thursday’s meeting of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board. That would amount to “an industrial disaster” on a scale not seen in nearly a century, Cal/OSHA said in a report laying out the need for the measure. The new, temporary rules adopted by the board are expected to go into effect by the end of this month. (Alpert Reyes, 12/14)
Bloomberg: Another Wildfire Risk: Toxic Soil Metals Going Airborne
Extreme heat from California’s climate-driven wildfires is transforming a metal common in soil into an airborne carcinogen that can be inhaled by firefighters and people living downwind of conflagrations, according to first-of-its-kind research. In a study published Dec. 12 in the journal Nature Communications, Stanford University scientists discovered what they described as widespread and dangerous levels of toxic chromium in areas of Northern California severely burned by wildfires in 2019 and 2020. (Woody, 12/14)
