Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Toxins In Tennessee Fish Prompt Safety Alerts For At-Risk Groups
The Tennessean: Officials Warn Certain Populations Not To Eat Fish From Three Middle Tennessee Reservoirs
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation announced several precautionary fish consumption advisories Monday because of various health concerns, including elevated mercury levels. After conducting several tests in local reservoirs, officials issued advisories for three different lakes across the state, including in Davidson County. The advisories warn of elevated levels of mercury and/or polychlorinated biphenyls in fish tissues. (Mangrum, 6/20)
AP: California Trout To Be Euthanized After Bacteria Outbreak
Nearly 350,000 rainbow trout must be euthanized as California wildlife officials battle bacteria outbreaks at two fish hatcheries in the eastern Sierra. The naturally occurring bacteria, Lactococcus petuari, was first detected in April at Black Rock and Fish Springs hatcheries in Inyo County, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement Monday. (6/21)
More about pollution —
Billings Gazette: Riverstone Health Offering Vaccinations To Carbon County Cleanup Workers
RiverStone Health will be offering tetanus and hepatitis A vaccines to people affected by recent floods in Carbon County this Thursday. In Fromberg, vaccines will be available from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the City Park. In Red Lodge, vaccines will be available from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Carbon County Fairgrounds. RiverStone Health will bill insurance providers for the vaccines. Those without health insurance will receive the vaccines at no charge. Hepatitis A vaccines are recommended for everyone working on flood cleanup, debris removal or handling flood waters. People doing flood cleanup who haven’t had a tetanus vaccine within the past 10 years are advised to get a booster shot. (6/20)
Colorado Sun: Colorado Spreads Biosolids Tainted With Forever Chemicals On Farms
Metro Denver’s wastewater treatment system is spreading sewage biosolids laced with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” at its farm in eastern Arapahoe County and on private farms that buy the material as fertilizer, according to test records obtained by the Colorado Sun. The likely presence of the ubiquitous and dangerous chemicals on Colorado farmland, placed there through biosolids spread by Metro Water Recovery and more than 100 other municipal waste agencies, adds to a growing list of potential health threats and underscores the need for widespread testing, researchers and watchdog groups said. (Booth, 6/20)
AP: Court Rejects Trump-Era EPA Finding That Weed Killer Safe
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup does not pose a serious health risk and is “not likely” to cause cancer in humans. The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine its 2020 finding that glyphosate did not pose a health risk for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, yards or roadsides or as residue left on food crops. (Daly, 6/17)
A dangerous heat wave continues —
The Washington Post: Relentless Heat Wave To Intensify In South This Week
A stubborn and unrelenting dome of excessive heat and humidity is languishing over the Lower 48 for the third calendar week in a row, bringing record temperatures and heat index values pushing 110 degrees in spots. Heat advisories and excessive-heat warnings blanket the northern Plains, a prelude to even more intense heat pushing into the South and Southeast. (Cappucci, 6/20)
Axios: The Health Impacts Of Rising Temperatures
Extreme heat is increasingly taking a toll on children, pregnant people and other vulnerable populations, forcing authorities to roll out new strategies against an environmental threat that dwarfs floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Summers are becoming deadlier as climate change blankets millions in heat waves whose public health consequences were until recently not fully understood. “The problem with heat and drought is that until they get extreme, we don't really see the impact on the landscape that would typically trigger our risk response,” said Ashley Ward, senior policy associate at Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. (Dreher, 6/21)
AP: Sweltering Streets: Hundreds Of Homeless Die In Extreme Heat
Hundreds of blue, green and grey tents are pitched under the sun’s searing rays in downtown Phoenix, a jumble of flimsy canvas and plastic along dusty sidewalks. Here, in the hottest big city in America, thousands of homeless people swelter as the summer’s triple digit temperatures arrive. The stifling tent city has ballooned amid pandemic-era evictions and surging rents that have dumped hundreds more people onto the sizzling streets that grow eerily quiet when temperatures peak in the midafternoon. A heat wave earlier this month brought temperatures of up to 114 degrees (45.5 Celsius) - and it’s only June. Highs reached 118 degrees (47.7 Celsius) last year. (6/20)
In related news about homelessness —
KHN: Sobering Lessons In Untying The Knot Of A Homeless Crisis
Michelle Farris never expected to become homeless, but here she was, sifting through garbage and towering piles of debris accumulated along a roadway on the outskirts of Northeast Portland. Farris, 51, has spent much of her adult life in Oregon, and has vivid memories of this area alongside the lumbering Columbia River when it was pristine, a place for quiet walks. Now for miles in both directions, the roadside was lined with worn RVs and rusted boats doubling as shelter. And spilling out from those RVs, the trash and castoffs from this makeshift neighborhood also stretched for miles, making for a chaos that unnerved her. (Hart, 6/21)
