Unhealthy Fine Particles Expected Saturday due to Wildfire Smoke

Heavy rain today and tonight should cut through the smoke but creates its own hazards

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) forecasts that air quality will reach UNHEALTHY levels for sensitive groups due to elevated fine particles on Saturday, July 18.

 Heavy smoke pushing south of Rhode Island on Friday, under a northwest flow, will recirculate back into the area on Saturday under a southwest flow. Some improvements in air quality are expected Sunday.

What to Expect:

• Poor air quality
• Reduced visibility
• Smell of smoke

Health Advisory:

Wildfire smoke contains tiny particles (and other pollutants) that can irritate eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. It can also worsen symptoms in individuals with asthma, lung, or heart conditions. To reduce exposure, the following precautions are recommended for those with asthma, lung, or heart conditions:

• Stay indoors with windows closed when fine particle levels are high.
• If running air conditioning, turn off any fresh intake options so as not to draw in outside air.
• Limit outdoor activity; choose less strenuous activities and reduce time spent outdoors
• Wear a properly fitted N95 mask when outside
• While driving, set the car’s air system to “recirculate”
• Learn how to create a clean air room in your home using a box fan
• Use high-efficiency (HEPA) air filters in heating and cooling systems

Stay Informed:

• www.airnow.gov or download the AirNOW app 
• www.dem.ri.gov/airquality.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Fire and Smoke Map has detailed information on current air quality readings, including DEM and RI Department of Health (RIDOH) air quality monitors, along with the network of regional low-cost sensors.

For more information on DEM programs and initiatives, visit www.dem.ri.gov. Follow DEM on Facebook, Twitter/X (@RhodeIslandDEM), or Instagram (@rhodeisland.dem) for timely updates. Sign up here to receive the latest press releases, news, and events from DEM's Public Affairs Office to your inbox.

Exposure to everyday chemicals can add up

A toxicologist offers simple steps to reduce your dose

Brad Reisfeld, Colorado State University

Imagine an ordinary Tuesday. You wash your hair, put on deodorant, drink coffee, pack lunch in a plastic container and commute through traffic to get to work. At work, the custodial staff wipes down a shared table with disinfectant. At home, you cook dinner, clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher.

Each of these ordinary moments can involve exposure to chemicals. By itself, that is not a reason for concern. After all, chemicals make up the entire physical world.

But depending on the dose, timing and circumstances of exposure, some chemicals in our environment – both naturally occurring and human-made ones – may affect health.

Most everyday exposures occur at low levels, and many products are designed and regulated with safety in mind. But as a board-certified toxicologist who studies how chemical exposures affect human health, I rarely ask whether a single chemical is safe in isolation.

A more realistic question is: What might the health effects be when many low-level exposures overlap?

ICE Killings Are Acts of Terrorism

ICE’s indiscriminate violence conveys that nonwhite immigrants, lawful or otherwise, have no place in Trump’s America.

Mitchell Zimmerman

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Slain by ICE in Houston,
Texas on July 7, 2026.

In less than one week, ICE agents killed twice.

Neither victim was the man they were looking for. And each time their excuses made no sense. But the killings served a purpose: terrorizing immigrant communities, in pursuit of Trump’s white nationalist agenda.

On July 7 in Houston, masked ICE agents who did not identify themselves stopped and shot to death Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52 year old Mexican national and father of three. Araujo had lived in the United States for 35 years and had applied to obtain legal status. He was on his way to work in construction.

Using its by-now familiar excuse, Homeland Security officials claimed that Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and tried to run down ICE agents by “weaponizing” his van. The claim was disputed by witnesses, is inconsistent with the video evidence, and makes no sense.

Araujo had no criminal record. Why would this law-abiding, middle-aged family man ram an ICE vehicle and try to kill ICE agents?

Johan Sebastian Guerrero

Six days later, in Biddeford, Maine, ICE killed again. This time they killed Johan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the United States.

Again, ICE claimed that Guerrero tried to run down the ICE agent. Again, no evidence supported the excuse. Twelve hours later Homeland Security abandoned the “weaponized” vehicle claim and tried another story: The ICE agent, “fearing for public safety,” shot Guerrero because he “attempted to flee the scene.”

Under Homeland Security’s account, an unmarked ICE vehicle driven by an unknown masked man attempts to stop a vehicle, the driver (who was not their intended target) tries to escape, and the agent fires. They claim, essentially, that failing to stop (if that actually even happened) amounts to “fleeing the scene” — and requires deadly force.

Johan Sebastian Guerrero was working legally at two jobs, as a cleaner and a food delivery driver. He had a wife and a three-year-old daughter. Who can claim he was so dangerous he had to be killed?

Since Trump returned to the White House, ICE agents have killed at least 10 times, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as of this writing.

ICE agents routinely shoot at people in vehicles, even though official U.S. government policy warns against the practice and says law enforcement officers should “move out of the path of the vehicle” rather than shoot. In addition, at least 49 people have died in ICE custody so far in Trump’s second term — a number that will only climb.

Brutality and violence are routine features of ICE operations, yet no ICE agent has been held responsible. In Trump’s war against immigrants, ICE agents know they may slay with impunity.

Donald Trump’s campaign of demonization and vilification sets the stage. Trump calls immigrants “animals” and “not human,” likening them to criminals or escaped mental patients. He calls them “vermin” who “infest our country,” and he embraces the Nazi theme that a despised group is “poisoning the blood of our country.”

The unrestrained brutality of ICE is a reign of terror. Killing without cause is not a problem for the Department of Homeland Security; it is a feature. ICE’s indiscriminate violence conveys that nonwhite immigrants, lawful or otherwise, have no place in Trump’s America.

There is little point in considering DHS’s pretexts for killing on a case-by-case basis. ICE’s abuse of immigrants is not the result of individual misdeeds — it is policy. ICE cannot be reformed because its purpose is not enforcing the law. It is terrorism for a white supremacist vision of America.

Those who reject Trump’s vision, who insist on the humanity of our neighbors, who still believe we must welcome to America’s shores those yearning to breathe free, must stand up and say No.

Mitchell Zimmerman is an attorney, longtime social activist, and author of the anti-racism thriller Mississippi Reckoning. He's also a longtime contributor to Progressive Charlestown. His writing can also be found on his Substack, Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman.

Subscriptions to Reasoning Together with Mitchell Zimmerman are free at this time. If you find my writing of value, please like, subscribe and recommend Reasoning Together to your friends. Thank you.

You may also be interested in my road-trip novel / social thriller Mississippi Reckoning. Read an excerpt. Read the Progressive Charlestown review HERE.

Prudent advice

Things that used to be fine

 

Zapping lanternflies

URI entomologist suggests novel removal technique to help tackle invasive pest

Kristen Curry

Jack Whitney ’26 demonstrates the SLF vacuum technique;
 URI researchers say it can help tackle invasive
spotted lanternfly. (URI Photo / Dana Terrill)

Most of the student researchers in Lisa Tewksbury’s Biocontrol Lab at the University of Rhode Island were born after the film “Ghostbusters” came out in theaters, but they’re experimenting with an iconic technique from the popular 1984 movie as part of efforts to stop a local invasive pest leaving its own destructive, oozy impact on agriculture around the state, including local vineyards.

Tewksbury, an entomologist in URI’s Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology, conducts research on biological control of species which can put local crops at risk. She says donning a URI-inspired version of the iconic vacuum pack could help Rhode Islanders do battle with the aggressive spotted lanternfly, one persistent planthopper making inroads in the northeastern U.S.

Tewksbury says that residents of impacted areas could even use this approach at home, deploying a handheld vacuum, then carefully disposing of the captured insects afterward.

Research highlights dangers of eating toxin-contaminated seafood

Bad fish

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers probe the 402 US foodborne disease outbreaks caused by marine toxins in fish and shellfish over 23 years, revealing 1,280 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and one death.

Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education parsed data from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) from 2011 to 2023. 

Local, state, and territorial health departments have voluntarily reported foodborne illness outbreaks to FDOSS through the CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System since 2009.

Storage of fish under uncontrolled temperatures can trigger production of histamine, which can cause allergic responses in people, and scombroid toxins made by bacteria with highly active enzyme histidine carboxylase. Other marine toxins can be produced by algae and build up in fish and shellfish through the food chain, occur naturally in fish species, or stem from unknown sources. 

The authors said that marine toxins cause most of the noninfectious outbreaks reported to FDOSS each year. 

“Marine toxins that cause foodborne illness are tasteless, odorless, resistant to cooking or freezing, and can produce a complex variety of gastrointestinal, neurologic, and neuropsychologic symptoms,” they wrote. “Among persons with severe illness resulting from ingestion of marine toxins, cardiovascular and respiratory manifestations can result in hospitalization and death.” 

CDC is falling behind on tracking the spread of dangerous diarrhea outbreak

Is it incompetence, stupidity, or malice?

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

In parts of the country, including southeast Michigan and northern Ohio, clinicians are tracking scores of cases of sudden, explosive diarrhea and gastrointestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensi.

Michigan now has 1,251 cases of cyclosporiasis, according to state officials today, more than doubling the case count reported over the July 4 weekend. Typically, Michigan reports around 50 cases per year, but during the last week of June state officials first noted an outbreak of 170 cases that has since skyrocketed.

Of the 1,251 patients, 44 have been hospitalized, according to the case count.

In Ohio counties that border southeast Michigan, officials are tracking more than 500 cases, including 306 in Lucas County, the Associated Press reports. In an update yesterday, however, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) confirmed only 177 cases statewide as of July 2, with 28 people hospitalized. Most cases have occurred since June 20, the ODH said.

Officials tell restaurants to wash produce carefully 

No source has been identified in the outbreaks, but the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS) is now recommending enhanced washing procedures for “restaurants, commercial kitchens, and other entities preparing or serving raw produce in Southeast Michigan.”

The recommendations include careful washing of lettuce, herbs, green onions, raspberries, and snow peas, all foods associated with past Cyclospora outbreaks.

“Cyclosporiasis is not usually life-threatening, but dehydration from frequent bouts of diarrhea can cause severe illness, particularly among younger or older people and those who have weakened immune systems,” the MDHHS said. “The time between being exposed and becoming sick is usually about one week but can range from two days to two weeks or more. Untreated, the illness may last from a few days to more than a month. Symptoms may go away and then return.”

The Ongoing Presidential Psychiatric Emergency

Will We Overtake Mental Pathology, before It Overtakes Us?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee

I was forwarded this astute video, which I quote in full:

MAGA cult isn’t a political movement; it’s a mental illness. There is a psychological reason for that. Forensic psychiatrist [Bandy] Lee at Yale School of Medicine spent years studying what happens when a psychologically dangerous leader gains mass influence.

She found that leaders’ mental pathology does not stay confined to the leader. It spreads to his followers through emotional bonds, through rallies, through constant exposure. It induces delusions, paranoia, and a propensity for violence in people who were previously psychologically healthy. 

Psychiatrists call this, folie à millions, or the madness of millions. Sixty-two courts ruled the 2020 election was not stolen. Trump’s own attorney general said there was no fraud. His own Department of Justice confirmed it and they still believe the election was stolen. This is not a political opinion. This is an induced delusion. This is why his followers stormed the Capitol and tried to commit an insurrection.

This is why they excused federal agents for killing Americans in the streets. This is why nothing that happens will ever change their minds. 

Lee found that the treatment is the same as any contagion: remove the exposure. The symptoms begin to fade when the source is gone, which is exactly why Trump cannot stop holding rallies. He knows what happens when the exposure stops. The delusion starts to break. These people are not true believers. They are addicted to their delusion. The delusion feels better than their real lives do, and they will try to burn everything down before they give up that delusion.

Now that we understand this, what shall we do about it?

No AFL-CIO endorsement is a win for Foulkes

Influential AFL-CIO opts not to endorse in RI Democratic gubernatorial race

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

The focus of the governor’s race temporarily shifted one block west of the State House Wednesday to a nondescript office building where leaders of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO met but opted not to endorse in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

The labor federation boasts more than 80,000 members, with endorsements determined by a two-thirds vote of its 15-person executive committee. But the panel that met behind closed doors didn’t even get as far as taking a vote on the two candidates seeking their backing, Gov. Dan McKee and challenger Helena Buonanno Foulkes. 

“The consensus was, we could not get to a consensus,” Patrick Crowley, organization president, said in an interview Wednesday night. “We’re taking the position to stay neutral in the governor’s race. Individual affiliates can make their own endorsements if they wish.”

The decision marks another setback for McKee, whose reelection campaign is in need of a boost after trailing Foulkes by double digits in recent polls. Neither candidate received an endorsement from the Rhode Island Democratic Party at its state convention in June.

“He’s had so many losses,” said Joe Fleming, a political analyst for WPRI 12. “He really needs to find a way to start building momentum now that we’re heading into the primary.”

McKee’s campaign did not immediately respond to calls for comment Wednesday.

Early voting begins on Aug. 20. The primary is Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The AFL-CIO and the Rhode Island Democratic Party both endorsed McKee in 2022. Foulkes lost to McKee by three percentage points in a four-way Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Tides appear to have turned in Foulkes’ favor, with the former CVS executive prevailing with commanding, 20-percentage-point leads in polls released by WPRI-TV and the University of New Hampshire in May and June, respectively. 

Foulkes maintains a significant cash advantage and has picked up endorsements from a majority of municipal Democratic committees, including McKee’s hometown of Cumberland. On Tuesday, she unveiled endorsements from 26 state and local Democratic lawmakers in conjunction with a ceremonial opening of her campaign headquarters on Broad Street in Providence.

Nice plane

Not in the Epstein files

Misquamicut Pilot Composting Program Off to Strong Start

It's a start

By Dan D'Ambrosio / ecoRI News contributor

Sharon Saunders is encouraged by how well a pilot composting program is working at Misquamicut Beach. The program was launched June 1, after Saunders successfully pitched it to the board members of the Misquamicut Beach Foundation, on which she serves.

“It’s been very exciting,” Saunders said. “We’ve already had 13 people sign up to participate in the program. It’s easy to recruit people who are aware of the benefits and are educated about some of the negative components of throwing your food scraps into the landfill — the methane that’s produced in landfills that are close to capacity.”

Bottom of Form

The pilot program is starting small, with a collection bin provided by Black Earth Compost, based in Massachusetts. The bin — labeled “Food Scraps” — is in Saunders’ yard, because the foundation was unable to secure a public location.

“We did explore several options to see if we could come up with a more public space, either on town or municipal property or some other private property, but this was the best solution in the end for this year,” Saunders said.

The pilot program, which will run for the summer, can handle up to 30 families.

“I do believe we’ll easily get there,” Saunders said.

The foundation provided $2,000 to cover the purchase of the bin, some small canisters for people participating in the program, and a service contract for Black Earth Compost.

David McLaughlin, sustainability coordinator for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, said the state’s Central Landfill, in Johnston, is projected to reach capacity by 2046.

URI food safety expert offers information, tips to avoid summer’s cyclosporiasis

Paranoid about parasites? 

Kristen Curry 

Cooking (to 158 degrees Fahrenheit or higher)
 kills the Cyclospora parasite.

A food safety specialist at the University of Rhode Island, Nicole Richard leads efforts to help businesses and restaurants be food-safe for their customers. Now she’s sharing tips for consumers wondering what to do this summer as a fearsome illness makes news: How to avoid the dreaded cyclosporiasis?

Richard, a URI research associate and food safety researcher with the University’s Cooperative Extension, shares tips on food safety that can be applied year-round for good health and stress-free dining. 

She has more than 20 years of experience developing resources and programming for businesses and consumers through URI’s Food Safety Research and Education Program and is a frequently requested expert on food safety in home and business settings. Richard also chairs the Rhode Island Food Safety Task Force.

What should people know about cyclosporiasis and how much do we need to be concerned here in New England or if traveling to other parts of the country?

Cyclosporiasis is a foodborne illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora that primarily affects the intestines, causing diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, and fatigue. It is typically associated with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, likely contaminated by water, soil or food handlers. Humans serve as a host for the parasite. They may not show signs of illness and can shed the parasite while handling food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet identified a specific source of the outbreak.

Has an outbreak like this happened to this degree before?

Good agricultural practices on farms minimize risk
of contamination; URI has trained nearly 300 farmers,
agricultural professionals, and partner organizations in
science-based practices that help reduce food safety risks.
(URI Photo / Nora Lewis)

The United States has experienced outbreaks caused by cyclosporiasis before, but not to the magnitude of this current outbreak.

What measures do you recommend for people to protect their health and that of loved ones?

If immunocompromised or concerned about this parasite, the best advice is to wash your hands and any fresh produce thoroughly under running water before eating, cutting, or cooking. This will reduce the risk of infection. Cooking kills the parasite, so heating food to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (or 70 degrees Celsius) or higher is effective.

Is Cyclospora found in water or in food? Is eating out in restaurants safe?

Water is the transmission vehicle that carries the parasite to fresh produce.

A Cyclospora outbreak does not mean restaurants are unsafe. Outbreaks are usually linked to specific contaminated foods or suppliers; restaurants use food safety practices to prevent contamination and remove affected products. The risk is highest from the specific food items involved in the outbreak, not from eating at restaurants in general. 

Wildfire smoke persists over Charlestown and the rest of the state. It stinks.