And more. . .
We begin with the Thomson Reuters Foundation and a call worthy of heeding:
Diseases affecting the poorest can be eliminated, scientists say
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday urged developing countries to invest more in tackling so-called neglected tropical diseases such as yaws, saying more investment would alleviate human misery and free people trapped in poverty.
Yaws affects mainly children and causes unsightly skin ulcers and painful bone infections that can make walking difficult. In some rare cases it can eat away people’s noses.
At least 50 million people were affected by the bacterial infection in the 1950s. When the WHO launched mass treatment campaigns with penicillin vaccines, the number of cases plummeted by 95 percent by the end of the 1960s, according to David Mabey, an expert in yaws and professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“But then it fell off the agenda. And we’re trying to put it back on,” Mabey said in an interview.
A video report from Agence France-Presse:
WHO urges billions to fight neglected tropical diseases
Program notes:
The World Health Organization urges countries to invest billions of dollars to tackle 17 neglected tropical diseases – including dengue fever, leprosy and sleeping sickness – which kill 500,000 people globally each year.
From Medical Daily, a measles update:
California Confirms 119 Cases Of Measles In State
Public health officials said on Wednesday that six more cases of measles had been confirmed in California, bringing to 119 the total number of people infected by a strain of the virus that has also been linked to a large outbreak in the Philippines.
More than 150 people across the United States have been diagnosed with measles, many of them linked to the wave of illness that authorities believe began when an infected person from out of the country visited Disneyland in late December.
California Department of Public Health researchers, in a report to federal officials released on Friday, said that specimens from 30 of the state’s measles patients had been genotyped and that all were of the same strain that has caused an outbreak in the Philippines.
A serious outbreak at a renowned hospital via the Los Angeles Times:
Superbug outbreak at UCLA: FDA warns medical scopes may spread deadly bacteria
The Food and Drug Administration warned hospitals and medical providers Thursday morning that a commonly used medical scope may have facilitated the deadly outbreak of a superbug at UCLA.
The warning posted by the federal agency comes after a Los Angeles Times report that two people who died at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center were among seven patients there infected by a drug-resistant superbug. Hundreds of patients at medical centers around the country, including Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center, may have been exposed to the bacteria after physicians used the scopes in their treatment.
The FDA cautioned that the design of the scopes may make them more difficult to effectively clean. And the agency called on medical providers to meticulously wash the devices.
But even washing the scopes may not be adequate, the FDA warned. “Meticulously cleaning duodenoscopes prior to high-level disinfection should reduce the risk of transmitting infection, but may not entirely eliminate it,” the warning noted.
More from BBC News:
Nearly 180 people at a Los Angeles hospital may have been exposed to a deadly strain of bacteria from contaminated medical equipment. Two deaths at UCLA Medical Center have been linked to the case and seven others are being treated.
The patients were exposed to Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) during endoscopic procedures between October and January. A similar outbreak was reported last month in Seattle. Eleven patients died.
The infections are difficult to treat because many strains are resistant to antibiotics.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that CRE can lead to death in up to half of seriously infected patients.
An infectious disease abated, via StarAfrica:
Somalia being polio free for six months-UN
Somalia is marking six months since the last polio case was recorded in the country following an outbreak that affected 199 people, mostly children, reports said on Thursday.Polio was detected in Somalia in May 2013, for the first time in six years, after parents of a two-year-old girl in Mogadishu found she was unable to walk.
The virus, which can cause paralysis or even death, spread quickly affecting 194 people in 2013.
However, the number was contained to just five cases in 2014, one of them an adult who died, all in the remote Mudug region of Puntland, north-eastern Somalia. The last case was reported in Hobyo district, Mudug on 11 August 2014.
Since the outbreak began, the authorities, with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have targeted more than 2 million children under the age of five for vaccinations as well as children aged from five to 10 and adults in some areas.
A notable vaccine trial in Africa, via Outbreak News Today:
HIV vaccine trial, HVTN 100, launches in South Africa
A clinical trial called HVTN 100 has been launched in South Africa to study an investigational HIV vaccine regimen for safety and the immune responses it generates in study participants. This experimental vaccine regimen is based on the one tested in the U.S. Military HIV Research Program-led
RV144 clinical trial in Thailand—the first study to demonstrate that a vaccine can protect people from HIV infection. The HVTN 100 vaccine regimen was designed to provide greater protection than the RV144 regimen and has been adapted to the HIV subtype that predominates in southern Africa. The results of the HVTN 100 trial, expected in two years, will help determine whether or not this vaccine regimen will be tested for efficacy in a large future study in South Africa.
“A safe and effective HIV vaccine is essential to reach a timely, sustained end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. “The launch of HVTN 100 marks an important step forward in building upon the promising results of the RV144 trial to produce an HIV vaccine that could have a significant public health impact in southern Africa, where the HIV/AIDS pandemic is most pervasive.”
A Florida GMO fight takes wing, via New York Times:
Battle Rises in Florida Keys Over Fighting Mosquitoes With Mosquitoes
In this bite-size community near Key West, like so many other mosquito-plagued spots up and down the Florida Keys, residents long ago made peace with insecticides dropped into town by planes or rumbling by on trucks. Cans of Off are offered at outdoor parties. Patio screens are greeted with relief.
But Keys residents are far less enamored of another approach to mosquito control — a proposal to release the nation’s first genetically modified mosquitoes, hatched in a lab and pumped with synthetic DNA to try to combat two painful, mosquito-borne viral diseases, dengue and chikungunya.
If the federal Food and Drug Administration gives the go-ahead for the trial, Key Haven, with 444 houses built on a tiny peninsula, would become the focal point of the first American release of several million mosquitoes genetically altered by Oxitec, a British biotechnology company.
For denizens of a chain of islands notorious for their renegade spirit — Key West once jokingly broke away from the United States as the Conch Republic — this possibility is fraught with suspicion and indignation.
More flame retardant toxic concerns, via Newswise:
Flame Retardants Found to Cause Metabolic, Liver Problems
Findings Suggest Strong Link to Insulin Resistance, Obesity
Chemicals used as synthetic flame retardants that are found in common household items such as couches, carpet padding, and electronics have been found to cause metabolic and liver problems that can lead to insulin resistance, which is a major cause of obesity, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.
“Being obese or overweight increases one’s risk of many diseases including Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and certain cancers,” said Gale Carey, professor of nutrition and the lead researcher. In 2003, overweight and obesity-related medical expenses were 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenses at about $80 billion. New Hampshire’s portion of this expense was $302 million.
Carey and her team of researchers found that laboratory rats exposed to polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, experienced a disruption in their metabolism that resulted in the development of metabolic obesity and enlarged livers.
“Despite the plethora of resources devoted to understanding the roles of diet and exercise in the obesity epidemic, this epidemic continues to escalate, suggesting that other environmental factors may be involved. At the biochemical level there is a growing body of experimental evidence suggesting certain environmental chemicals, or ‘obesogens’, could disrupt the body’s metabolism and contribute to the obesity epidemic,” she said.
Mashable covers a notable African health win:
How Guinea worm disease went from 3 million cases to 126
Program notes:
In the late 1980s, Guinea worm disease — a nasty, parasitic infection caused from drinking contaminated water — affected more than 3 million people in Africa. Now, only 126 cases remain.
From Newswise, toxic concerns in the laundry room:
Laundry Detergent Pods: What You Need to Know
Laundry detergent pods became available on the US market in 2010 and are easy to use. They are a single detergent packet that can be easily dropped into a load of laundry. These pods contain highly concentrated detergents wrapped in a thin film that easily dissolves in water. They may resemble a small, brightly colored piece of candy which may be easily mistaken by children. These pods can also break when light pressure is applied to them. The appeal and design of laundry detergent pods has already resulted in many reported poisonings among children.
What do laundry detergent pods contain that is so toxic and what are the symptoms of exposure?
The film that surrounds the pod is often made of polyvinyl alcohol. It acts as a poor barrier between the person handling the pod and the detergents inside. The film dissolves easily and is safe for washing clothes. The detergents inside the pod are actually a cocktail of harsh chemicals. Ingredients are frequently disclosed on manufacturer websites.
These chemicals may include surfactants, bleaches, solvents, optical brighteners, enzymes, and preservatives. Relative to conventional laundry detergents, pods contain higher concentrations of surfactants which are often ethoxylated alcohols, of which 1,4-dioxane is a known carcinogenic byproduct. Other common ingredients include but are not limited to propylene glycol, ethanolamine, disodium distyrylbiphenyl disulfonate, and fragrances which are often volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
California takes on Big Soda, via the Guardian:
California takes fight to soft drink industry with plan for warning labels
State Democrats introduce bill that would require labels with warnings about obesity and tooth decay but admit industry is ‘formidable lobbying force’
Campaigners against sugary drinks have opened a new front in California with a proposal to label the drinks with warnings about obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.
Bill Monning, the state’s senate majority leader, and an influential Democrat, has introduced a bill which would require labels be placed on the front of containers or at the point of purchase.
If passed, it will set a precedent in the US and potentially transform public health policy, according to supporters.
“The root motivation for this is the continued epidemic of preventable diabetes and obesity in young people in California,” Monning told the Guardian. The problem was not just sodas, but sweet teas, sports drinks and energy drinks, he said.
Agence France-Presse covers a toxic holiday traditional fruit:
Toxic ‘Tet’ kumquats highlight Vietnam’s pesticide problem
Program notes:
Come the Lunar New Year, most Vietnamese families buy a kumquat tree — a symbol of prosperity whose candied fruits were once a delicacy but are now left uneaten as food safety scandals batter consumer confidence in Vietnam’s produce.
Agrochemical health fears in the Argentine, via VICE News:
Argentina’s Soybeans Help Feed the World But Might Be Making Locals Sick
Silvina Bettini is a bubbly young woman with purple makeup and matching earrings who lives six blocks from a soybean field in central Argentina. Already the mother of one child, she had hoped for another until a medical survey by a German NGO in April 2013 suggested her blood is contaminated with agrochemical residue from pesticides, including a toxic insecticide that is banned in most countries. Now she’s worried about what could happen to her baby.
Like many residents of Argentina’s farming communities, Bettini is concerned by a growing list of cases of birth defects, cancers, and other health problems that locals and some experts attribute to the ubiquitous use of agrochemicals in Argentina’s agriculture industry, the country’s economic engine. Argentine officials and Monsanto, the American agribusiness giant that manufactures the most common type of the herbicide, deny that the health problems are linked to the chemicals.
The agrochemical issue is most evident in Argentina’s soybean industry. The country is the world’s third-largest producer of soybeans. The crop is a staple ingredient of livestock feed, and therefore plays a part in almost every bite of commercially produced meat in the world. At the same time, most of Argentina’s soybeans — 98 percent — are genetically modified.
Because Argentina is the world’s biggest soybean exporter, selling significantly more soybean to foreign markets than Brazil or the United States, the soy sent from Argentina to the rest of world may pose a threat to global food security if levels of agrochemicals in exported products are not properly monitored, experts told VICE News.
After the jump, how the sun keeps burning even after you’ve escaped its rays, rising seas endanger millions of Bangladeshi islanders, climate change claims lemurian land, climate change suspected in a California sea lion crisis, evacuation by drought feared in Brazil, Chinese profits from Myanmar conflict logging, foreigners grab land in malnourished Mozambique, China takes a first in oceanic plastic dumping, Washington sets up air monitors in overseas missions, renewed hopes for a European tar sands oil ban, petro layoffs and a slowdown in Mexico, on to Fukushimapocalype Now!, with a stark declaration about lost fuel and a fear of regulatory collapse, plus dreamas of Liberian environmental banking. . .
The lingering kiss of sunlight, from New Scientist:
UV rays damage skin hours after exposure to sun
Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has long been linked to exposure to ultraviolet wavelengths of sunlight. These UV rays cause kinks in the DNA of cells called cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. These CPDs form in the DNA of cells, ultimately causing mutations that can lead to cancer. This damage was thought to happen immediately when the UV light strikes the DNA in the skin cells.
But now a team led by Douglas Brash, a biophysicist at Yale University, have evidence that the effects are less direct – and longer lasting. They noticed that mouse skin cells continue to produce CPDs up to three hours after irradiation with UV light – but only in cells that contain melanin, the pigment responsible for skin colour and for giving us a tan. Because melanin absorbs UV light the thinking was that the pigment protected us from some of the damaging effects of sunlight. “The melanin, which is supposed to be protecting us, is also doing something harmful,” says Brash. “That shouldn’t happen.”
When Brash’s team looked more closely, they found that UV light activates two enzymes that combine to chemically excite an electron in the melanin pigment. The energy of this electron then gets transferred to the DNA in the cell, causing the production of CPDs. Once “turned on” by sunlight, the enzymes remain active for several hours, continuing to produce these “dark CPDs”.
Rising seas endanger millions of Bangladeshi islanders, via the Associated Press:
Millions at Risk From Rapid Sea Rise in Swampy Sundarbans
The tiny hut sculpted out of mud at the edge of the sea is barely large enough for Bokul Mondol and his family to lie down. The water has taken everything else from them, and one day it almost certainly will take this, too.
Saltwater long ago engulfed the 5 acres where Mondol once grew rice and tended fish ponds, as his ancestors had on Bali Island for some 200 years. His thatch-covered hut, built on public land, is the fifth he has had to build in the last five years as the sea creeps in.
“Every year we have to move a little further inland,” he said.
Seas are rising more than twice as fast as the global average here in the Sundarbans, a low-lying delta region of about 200 islands in the Bay of Bengal where some 13 million impoverished Indians and Bangladeshis live. Tens of thousands like Mondol have already been left homeless, and scientists predict much of the Sundarbans could be underwater in 15 to 25 years.
Climate change claims lemurian land, via Scientific American:
Look Out Lemurs: Climate Change Is Taking Your Land
As if rampant deforestation and poaching weren’t bad enough, climate change will have a devastating effect on the majority of Madagascar’s lemur species, most of them already imperiled, according to a paper published this week in Ecology and Evolution.
The threat will vary by species but the paper—by researchers Jason Brown and Anne Yoder from Duke University—found that lemurs will lose an average of 59.6 percent of their current habitats due to climate change alone over the next 70 years, independent of other factors.
Take the Wright’s sportive lemur (Lepilemur wrightae), for example. This endangered species, which lives in southeastern Madagascar, had 489 square kilometers of habitat in the year 2000. By 2080, according to the paper, climate change will shrink that to just 128 square kilometers, a loss of more than 73 percent.
Another species, the endangered Coquerel’s sifaka (Propithecus coquereli), will fare much better. Its range of more than 5,300 square kilometers is only expected to shrink by about 4 percent by 2080.
The worst news is that climate change will completely wipe out the habitats of three species. The Hubbard’s sportive lemur (L. hubbardorum), small-toothed sportive lemur (L. microdon) and Danfoss’s mouse lemur (Microcebus danfossi) will all go extinct by 2080 because their habitat will vanish.
Climate change suspected in a California sea lion crisis, via the Los Angeles Times:
California sea lion crisis: Warmer seas may be to blame
Nearly 1,000 abandoned California sea lions have washed ashore this year in what rehabilitation centers say is a growing crisis for the animals.
Emaciated and dehydrated sea lions, mostly pups about 8 months old, have been admitted in record numbers to facilities up and down the California coast.
As of now, there are 550 sea lions at facilities statewide, according to NOAA Fisheries, which addressed the crisis Wednesday morning during a conference call with media.
It’s the third straight year for record numbers of sea lion strandings in the state.
Evacuation by drought feared in Brazil, via teleSUR:
Drought Causes Evacuation Fears in Brazil’s Largest City
Brazil’s southeastern states are experiencing the worst drought the country has seen in over 80 years.
Brazil’s southeastern states have been experiencing drought for over a year and new fears have been raised this week that residents of Brazil’s largest city of Sao Paulo may be forced to flee due to lack of water.
With over 11 million residents, Sao Paulo is Brazil’s most populous city and the country’s economic center. But senior officials at Sao Paulo’s water facility said residents might soon be evacuated because there is not enough water, to bathe or to clean homes, reported the New York Times this week.
“We’re witnessing an unprecedented water crisis in one of the world’s great industrial cities,” said Marussia Whately, a water specialist at Instituto Socioambiental, a Brazilian environmental group. “Millions of people in São Paulo are now wondering when the water will run out.”
Chinese profit from Myanmar conflict logging, via Want China Times:
Cutting down Myanmar’s forests a hard knock life for Chinese
“Dangerous places hold a lot of opportunity, so everyone wants to get a piece of the action,” said Liu Wei (pseudonym) in an attempt to explain why he goes logging in northern Myanmar, in an interview with the Chinese-language Beijing News.
The local militia grant them permission but logging activities are forbidden by the central government, which means that loggers, while they can stand to profit immensely, often get caught up in the power struggle between the two.
The high demand for rosewood furniture in China has created a massive market for the wood. After the Ming and Qing dynasties there is little rosewood left in China to meet this demand, however, so it has to be met with imports. Most is sourced from Southeast Asian and African mahogany and palisander, with Myanmar being one of the main rosewood sources. Research from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO, suggests that in the last two years imports of rosewood from Myanmar have accelerated, particularly Dalbergia bariensis/oliveri (Burmese rosewood) and Pterocarpus macrocarpus (Burmese Padauk) and the organization added that “the huge scale of illegal and unsustainable logging poses a real threat to governance, the rule of law and the viability of dwindling forests.”
Foreigners grab land in malnourished Mozambique, via the Thomson Reuters Foundation:
Despite hunger, Mozambique leases huge land holdings to foreigners
Mozambique, a country wracked by hunger, has signed away land concessions three times larger than Greater London to outside investors in the past decade, displacing thousands of farmers in the process, said a report released on Thursday.
Since 2006, the country has signed at least 35 long-term land leases, covering more than 535,000 hectares, Mozambique’s National Peasants Union (UNAC), a farmers’ group, reported after surveying public records and interviewing displaced farmers.
New large plantations, often joint ventures between foreign investors and politically-connected local officials, are producing food for export rather than feeding hungry local people, advocates said.
An “alarmingly high” number of Mozambican children under five – more than 42 percent – are malnourished, according to the World Food Programme.
China takes a first in oceanic plastic dumping, via China Daily:
China No 1 dumper of plastic into ocean
Over three quarters of waste is not properly processed: report
With more than three quarters of waste going inadequately processed in China, the world’s most populous country is now the world’s No 1 dumper of plastic into the sea, according to research published in Science.
Eight researchers from seven US universities and institutions estimated the annual input of plastic into the ocean from waste caused by costal populations in 192 costal countries in 2010. They also used population growth data to project the increase of plastic waste in 2025.
China, with a costal population of 262.9 million, generated 8.82 MMT (million metric tons) of mismanaged plastic waste and 1.32 to 3.53 MMT plastic marine debris in 2010, followed by Indonesia with 3.22 MMT and the Philippines with 1.88 MMT.
From the New York Times, Washington sets up air monitors in overseas missions:
U.S. to Monitor Air Quality in India and Other Countries
The United States says it will expand air-quality monitoring at some overseas diplomatic missions, following several years of reporting pollution data in China.
The goal is to increase awareness of the health risks of outdoor air pollution, which easily spreads across borders, Secretary of State John Kerry said in announcing the program on Wednesday.
The program is intended to help United States citizens abroad reduce their exposure to pollution and to help other countries develop their own air-quality monitoring through training and exchanges with American experts, he said.
“We’re hoping that this tool can also expand international cooperation when it comes to curbing air pollution,” Mr. Kerry said.
From the Guardian, renewed hopes:
New hopes that tar sands could be banned from Europe
Landmark EU fuel quality directive gets a reprieve, opening the way for more-polluting tar sands oil to be taxed at a higher rate effectively pricing it out of the market
A landmark directive with the potential to ban tar sands oil from Europe has been reprieved, the Guardian has learned.
The EU’s most senior energy official confirmed that the fuel quality directive (FQD) to encourage greener road fuels will not be scrapped at the end of the decade, as had been thought.
Around 15% of Europe’s carbon emissions come from road transport and ambitious plans for cutting emissions from vehicles are expected to form a significant chunk of the bloc’s ‘Energy Union’ proposals next week.
Asked by the Guardian whether that meant the FQD would continue after 2020, the EU’s vice president for energy union, Maroš Šefcovic, said: “My first reaction is yes. We just have to adjust it to all the lessons learned from biofuels, and all the [other] lessons learned from the previous time.”
Petro layoffs and a slowdown in Mexico, via teleSUR:
Mexico’s Oil Company to Lay-Off Workers, Cut Back on Projects
The director of Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, confirmed that budget cuts will affect the companies labor force and projects.
Mexico’s state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) confirmed Wednesday that it will lay-off workers as well as cut back on modernizing installations and oil exploration in deep water reserves as part of overall budget cuts.
In an interview with Radio Formula, the company’s director, Emilio Lozoya, confirmed that the reductions are due to federal budget cuts announced in January by Mexico’s finance minister Luis Videgaray.
Pemex is set to lose approximately US$6.2 billion – a drop in about 11.5 percent of it’s budget. Mexico announced public spending cuts amounting to US$83 billion dollars, or 0.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
On to Fukushimapocalype Now!, with a stark declaration via ABC News — with the “A” for Australia:
Inside Fukushima: ABC tours crippled power plant as Japan prepares to restart nuclear industry
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 were strictly off limits, and looking from about 500 metres away the area was clearly deserted, with cars and equipment abandoned.
Removing the molten fuel from these reactors will be an enormous challenge as workers cannot enter because it would lead to instant death.
Mr Matsui admitted they did not know the extent of the problems. “We do not know [the] exact situation in detail,” he said. “Fuel has been melted down but nobody has seen it … We need to develop robotic technology with help from around the world to know the real situation.”
And fear of regulatory collapse, via Reuters:
Japan nuclear regulator advisers fear loss of its ‘essential’ independence
International advisers to Japan’s atomic regulator have raised concern a mandatory review of its performance could lead to a loss of independence for the body, which was set up in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
A lack of independent regulatory oversight of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station north of Tokyo was to blame for the meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami, an official inquiry into the disaster found.
After the disaster, the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) was created under the environment ministry with more autonomy but legislation provided for a review after three years of operation with a proviso to consider placing it under the Cabinet Office, involving closer political oversight.
Finally, from the Monrovia Inquirer, Liberian environmental banking?:
IBEX Trains Bankers on Environmental Issues
Several bankers from EcoBank Liberia and International Bank were trained recently on the importance of environmental risks assessment by USAID Liberia, Investing for Business Expansion Program (IBEX).
Speaking during the training, the IBEX’s Chief of Party, Watchen Bruce, said the purpose of the training was to mitigate the risks that the banks could have when giving out loans.
Mrs. Bruce said the training would build the capacity of the banks when they realize the financial, environmental and social risks that projects could develop. She said by improving social and economic risks investments would receive a better return.
International environmental specialist, Ethan Myer, who presented at the training, said environmental risks are also tied in with financial risks.
