Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Why you let down your guard on ads when scrolling on social media
Don't click "BUY" until the following day
Matthew Pittman, University of Tennessee
 |
| Even a few seconds of scrolling will tire your brain and make you more open to bold advertising claims. Money Knack on Unsplash, CC BY |
Honestly, I couldn’t remember. Maybe it was for a social media skit? Maybe I was planning on making her laugh? Or maybe I was just a “victim” of an online ad that showed me the wrong message at the right time.
Scroll on social media for even 30 seconds, and your brain is already a little more tired than it was before. And in that mentally foggy state, you become more open to ads that just tell you what to buy – “The facts make it clear, we’re the best!” – than to ads that invite you to draw your own conclusion.
I’m a professor of advertising who has spent years studying how social media affects consumer behavior. And my recent research underscores how the mental tax of processing information, or “cognitive load,” changes the way people respond to product claims from brands.
Tiny plastics in drinking water may be making dangerous bacteria stronger
Can plastics make you sicker?
Virginia Tech
In a study published in Water Research, Virginia
Tech researcher Jingqiu Liao and an international team found that nanoplastics
can interact with environmental microbes in ways that may create indirect risks
to human health, especially through drinking water systems.
"It is very important to better understand the adverse
effects of the nanoplastics on human health, and not just in humans but also in
the environment, which indirectly influences human health," said Liao,
assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "The
nanoplastics can make the antimicrobial-resistant pathogens better survive,
which could be harmful to the environment and would have public health
implications."
Nanoplastics May Complicate Water Treatment
The researchers reported that bacteria exposed to
nanoplastics can become more resistant to disinfectants. That could create
serious problems for water treatment facilities and distribution networks
designed to keep drinking water safe.
"When the nanoplastics interact with the biofilm and
the bacteria inside them, they can strengthen the biofilm and make it more
resistant to any kind of measures that are going to keep the water clean,"
said Liao, who is also an affiliate with Fralin Life Sciences Institute's
Global Change Center.
Jingqiu Liao is an assistant professor of civil and
environmental engineering. Photo by Peter Means for Virginia Tech.
Nanoplastics are a smaller category of microplastics. They
range from about one to 1,000 nanometers in size and cannot be seen with the
naked eye. In this study, the researchers examined how these particles affect
the formation of biofilms inside drinking water systems.
The Richest 10% Cause up to $5.7 Trillion in Environmental Damage Each Year
Anyone surprised?
By University of Oxford
According to a new study, the highest-consuming 10% of
people generate an estimated $1.7 trillion to $5.7 trillion in environmental
harm each year, several times more, at the central and upper estimates, than
current international commitments for climate action and biodiversity
conservation combined.
Published in Communications Sustainability, the analysis places a monetary value on damage across four major planetary boundaries: climate change, biodiversity loss, nutrient pollution, and freshwater use.
The findings offer a stark measure of how heavily environmental
pressures are concentrated among the world’s most resource-intensive consumers.
Monday, July 20, 2026
Trump's renewed Greenland threats are why we have no allies
And our former friends won't trust us again anytime soon.
 |
| An image Trump posted on Truth Social depicts America taking over Canada, Greenland, Cuba, and Venezuela. (TS screencap) |
Nothing, though, has really changed.
Nearly five months out from Trump’s unprovoked and disastrous attack, the bottom line is that he’s lost the war but still can’t bring himself to admit it. So we’re trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of vacillating between belligerence and fake peace deals while gas prices spike, bombs fall, and people die.
Off to the side of that debacle, Trump last week reiterated
that he wants to seize Greenland in his sweaty short-fingered appendages.
Trump’s gaseous blather about invading Greenland seems like
a minor monstrosity compared to his actual murderous bombing
of, and ongoing humiliation by, Iran. But they’re part of the same phenomenon —
a foreign policy driven by ego, ignorance, and inflamed colonial malice, in
which the US sees no allies and really no other sentient human beings, just
territory to be won and glorious carnage to commit.
The renewed threats against Greenland are serious because
they signal once again how untrustworthy, erratic, selfish, and cruel US
foreign policy has become. Neither allies, rivals, nor enemies can trust us.
Which means everyone, definitely including us, is poorer, less secure, and less
safe.
How to avoid tick bites in your yard or while hiking in the woods, and what to do if one starts feasting on you
Tick bites are not good for you
 |
| Ticks can be tiny. An adult deer tick is on the left and a nymph of the same species is on the right, both sitting on an adult’s finger. CDC |
Each year, deer ticks alone cause an estimated 476,000 new U.S. cases of Lyme disease, which can do long-term damage to a person’s joints, heart and nervous system. You may be hearing about the lone star tick, as well – it can trigger Alpha Gal syndrome, which can leave infected people allergic to red meat and its byproducts, including certain vaccines, medications and products with gelatin.
Several other tick-borne illnesses, including Heartland virus disease, Powassan virus disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis, can cause serious health problems and, in severe cases, even death.
2026 has been a tough year, with emergency room visits linked to tick bites running high going into summer.
So how can you avoid getting bitten, and what preventive measures actually work? I’m the co-director of the Tick-Borne Disease Center at Binghamton University. Here are some of the questions my team hears – and some advice:
1. Why should I worry about ticks, and how do I know if I’ve been infected?
Ticks can really pack a punch when it comes to how sick they make you. Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, both caused by bacteria that deer ticks can carry, are the most common tick-borne diseases we see in the U.S.
About 70% to 80% of people with Lyme disease will see a rash develop that often looks like a bull’s-eye, and they’ll experience flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, chills, body aches and fatigue. Antibiotics can control the infection, but only if the disease is quickly treated.
Millions take omega-3 fish oil for brain health but a new study found no benefit
But heart health recommendations remain unchanged
University of Southern California - Health Sciences
But new research from Keck Medicine of USC suggests that
boosting omega-3 levels through supplements may not provide the brain benefits
many people expect. The study, published in eBioMedicine, found
that although omega-3s from fish oil successfully reached the brain, they did
not improve measures of brain health in older adults at increased risk of
Alzheimer's disease.
Over the course of a two-year, placebo-controlled,
double-blinded clinical trial, researchers found that high-dose omega-3
supplements failed to improve memory, cognitive performance, or brain cell loss
in regions associated with Alzheimer's.
"We all wish there was a silver bullet for preventing
Alzheimer's, but our findings showed that fish oil supplements do not appear to
protect brain health," said Hussein Naji Yassine, MD, director of the USC
Center for Personalized Brain Health and lead investigator of the study.
"While omega-3s play an important role in forming brain cell connections
needed for cognition, our results do not support fish oil supplements as a
preventive measure against Alzheimer's."
Hapless McKee catches a small break
McKee’s lucky day at ballot placement lottery
By Nolan Page, Rhode Island Current
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The first place on the ballot is usually reserved for the party-endorsed candidate. But ballot placement was at the mercy of a retired Rhode Island Lottery ball machine now owned by the Department of State. That’s because the state’s Democratic Party declined to endorse either McKee or his main rival, Helena Bounanno Foulkes, at its convention on June 20.
McKee became the first sitting governor in recent history to not win his party’s endorsement. He also missed out on an influential endorsement from the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which declined to back a Democratic governor candidate on Wednesday.
Party endorsements reward candidates with the top ballot spot and an asterisk next to their name. While McKee will go without that asterisk, research suggests being the first name on a ballot advantages a candidate, said Matt Ulricksen, an associate professor of political science at the Community College of Rhode Island.
That advantage is greatest in races where voters know less about the candidates and default to whichever name is at the top, Ulricksen said. While McKee could get a “modest bump” from coming first, Ulricksen said it won’t matter as much in the Democratic governor race, where most voters are familiar with the candidates.
“Any bump that McKee gets from first placement on the ballot likely will not be sufficient to overcome the gap,” Ulricksen said.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Field is set for Charlestown Municipal elections
All but two declared candidates qualified
By Will Collette
4 PM Thursday was the deadline for the Charlestown Board of
Canvassers to certify the signatures on declared candidates’ nomination papers.
Each candidate needed to produce at least 50 signatures of registered
Charlestown voters to make the cut.
Three endorsed Democrats for the Charlestown Town Council:
Incumbent Town Council President Deb Carney,
Cynthia Drummond and Jill Fonnemann
Most candidates were certified shortly after the July 10 closing date for filing those signed forms, but there were a few nail-biters whose list counts were not posted until the last minute.
One was the de facto
leader of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA), Ruth Platner, who is running
for re-election to the Charlestown Planning Commission. Her disciple Frances
Topping’s signature count also was posted at the last minute. In the end, both
were credited with 108 certified signatures.
 |
| Apparently the CCA has given up on retaking control of the Town Council by only running these two: Bonnita B. Van Slyke and Sasha Puchalski |
As the late Rev. Jesse Jackson used to say, “Keep Hope Alive!”
a sentiment I felt as I checked the Secretary of State’s candidate database
once or twice a day. What a joy it would have been to see Ruth Platner fail to
qualify for the ballot due to some paperwork SNAFU.
But in the end, the only two candidates failing to qualify
are two guys who declared their wish to represent Charlestown on the Chariho
School Committee. Declared Republican James Sullivan and Independent James
McCabe failed to be credited with any certified signatures and are out of the
running.
I was surprised to see McCabe with no signatures. He and I
both appeared before the July 8 special hearing of the Charlestown Board of
Canvassers asking the Board to allow us to correct errors we made when we filed
our candidate declaration papers.
As I reported earlier, I had checked the wrong box on my
form. I intended to file to continue serving on the Democratic House District
36 Committee, but checked the box that, for a few days, made me an accidental
September 9 Primary opponent to our terrific state Rep. Tina Spears. The Board
allowed me to correct my filing.
McCabe had filed his declaration at Town Hall on the
deadline day. However, he filed after the 4 PM deadline thinking he was OK
since he got there before Town Hall closed at 4:30. The Board sympathized with
this obvious mistake and granted his request. However, they noted legal
precedents where candidates in contested elections who failed to file on time
were taken off the ballot.
McCabe apparently took that warning to heart and did not
turn in any certified signatures.
So now the field is set for Charlestown’s local municipal
races on the ballot for the November 3 General Election:
Town Council: Five seats at stake
Endorsed Democrats: Deb Carney, Cynthia Drummond and Jill
Fonnemann.
Endorsed Republicans: Craig Marr, Steve Stokes and Matt
Westover.
CCA Endorsed: Sasha Puchalski and Bonnita B. Van Slyke.
NOTE: Deb Carney, Craig Marr and Steve Stokes are
incumbents seeking re-election. For the first time I can remember, the CCA failed
to field a full slate of 5 Council candidates so they have apparently padded
their list by endorsing Democrat Cynthia Drummond and “conditionally” endorsed
Steve Stokes, even though neither sought their blessing.
Planning Commission: Four seats at stake
CCA candidates: Ruth Platner, Frances Topping, Coleen
Yaroshenko and Gordon Willcox
Opposition candidates: Katherine Gingras, Cheryl Lill and
Laura Rom
NOTES: Three incumbents of the seven total Planning
Commission members are not up for re-election in this cycle. One is a Platner
acolyte CCA person and two are opposed to Platner. For years, Ruth Platner has
run the Commission with an iron fist, stifling all residential construction to advance
her anti-family agenda. Platner needs to have three of the four people on the
CCA slate to win to continue to chair the Planning Commission.
Chariho School Committee: three seats at stake
Democrats: Holly Eaves, Craig Louzon and Linda Lyall
Republican Kim Coulter
Independent Nicholas Testa
The CCA fielded no candidates of their own, their Chariho
leader Donna Chambers having died earlier this year. Instead, the CCA endorsed
the three Democrats.
Town Moderator: 1 seat
This is an honorific post. Under Charlestown’s Home Rule
Charter, the moderator’s only job is to preside over the annual fiscal town
meeting on the town budget.
The CCA’s David Wilkinson will compete with Republican Tony
Jones for this all-important position.
Despite recent rain, Rhode Island remains in drought watch
Local water use restrictions remain in effect
By Nolan Page, Rhode Island Current
Recent rainfall hasn’t been enough to pull Rhode Island out of its drought watch, and the July heat hasn’t worsened conditions enough to warrant the next stage of drought monitoring, the state’s Drought Steering Committee determined Tuesday morning.
Classic cartoon available for purchase HERE.
Gov. Dan McKee announced the state’s first drought watch since 2002 on June 25. More severe than an advisory, a drought watch is the second of four designations in the state’s drought plan, followed by a warning and an emergency. The stages are issued based on the committee’s recommendation, drawing from three major indicators of drought: precipitation, groundwater and stream flow.
Meredith Brady, the committee’s chair, opened Tuesday’s meeting by saying they were “likely not to make a change one way or the other this month.” But while the stage of the drought didn’t shift in the past month, its conditions did.
Presentations from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Weather Service revealed a common theme: Recent rains haven’t reversed the trend of below-average levels of precipitation, groundwater and stream flow. Presenters from the organizations added that it took months to get into the drought, and it will take months to get out of it.
Attention couch potatoes
Hours of uninterrupted sitting could be more dangerous than you think.
By PLOS
.webp)
The study, published July 2 in the open-access journal PLOS
Medicine, was led by Frederick Ho of the University of Glasgow in
the UK and colleagues.
Sedentary behavior includes sitting, reclining, or lying
down while awake. It can happen almost anywhere, including at a desk, in a car,
or while watching television. Previous research has connected high levels of
sedentary time with poorer health, but most guidelines do not distinguish
between sitting continuously and sitting for the same amount of time with
regular movement breaks.
Tomaquag Museum presents July 27 lunch program on sovereignty with Linda Coombs
Long denied to the Narragansetts, sovereignty is a core issue for indigenous people
From the museum
Linda is a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on
Martha's Vineyard, and has lived in Mashpee for more than 40 years. Her two
grandchildren are enrolled with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, as was their
father and grandfather.
She worked for 45 years as a museum educator, and spent 11
years total at the Boston Children's Museum, 30 years in the Wampanoag
Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation, and 9 years at the Aquinnah Cultural
Center, a house museum built by an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, and showing that
history.
She's been an interpreter, an artisan, a researcher; led
workshops and teacher institutes; written children's stories and articles on
various aspects of Wampanoag history and culture; and developed and worked on
all aspects of a wide variety of exhibits.
The goal of all of her work continues to be the
communication of accurate and appropriate representations about the history,
cultures, and people of the Wampanoag and other Indigenous nations.
Saturday, July 18, 2026
‘Another Shitty Situation’ caused by Trump-Musk cuts and Bobby Jr.'s incompetence
Thank Trump for ‘Explosive Diarrhea’
Brad Reed for Common Dreams
Public
health officials still have not identified the source of the outbreak,
which typically spreads via contaminated produce.
In an interview with Axios published Saturday, David
Freedman, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, suggested that the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has not been on top of tracking the outbreak the same way it
has been in the past.
“Because we haven’t pinned it down, that means that these
cases are likely to disseminate,” said Awan. “People are still eating the
contaminated food that’s leading to so many cases.”
Awan added that mass firings at the US Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), under the leadership of anti-vaccine conspiracy
theorist Robert
F. Kennedy Jr., were hindering CDC’s ability to track the disease.
Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health
Here’s what you can do to protect yourself
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| EPA air quality monitors show high risks from smoke in many parts of the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. on July 15, 2026. Reds are considered very unhealthy levels. Purples are either extremely unhealthy for light purple or hazardous for areas in maroon. AirNow Fire and Smoke Map |
Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota has been pouring across the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. states, turning skies an eerie shade of orange. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions in July 2026.
University of Colorado environmental health researcher Colleen Reid explains what’s in that smoke and why breathing it is a health concern everyone should be aware of.
What is in wildfire smoke?
Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture that includes nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. When homes or buildings also burn, they can release an even more toxic stew of chemicals from burning electronics, furniture, plastics, paints and much more.
What you see when you see a smoke plume or when the air is hazy with wildfire smoke are the tiny particles that are too small to fall to the ground right away with gravity.
These particles, which scientists call particulate matter, are very small – we measure them in microns. When you breathe them in, they can harm your health. The smaller the particles, the deeper they can get into your lungs and body.
You may have heard the term PM2.5. It means particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter, many times smaller than the width of a human hair. High concentrations of these particles in the air during wildfire smoke episodes are what trigger air quality alerts.
Unhealthy Fine Particles Expected Saturday due to Wildfire Smoke
Heavy rain today and tonight should cut through the smoke but creates its own hazards
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?
Friday, July 17, 2026
ICE Killings Are Acts of Terrorism
ICE’s indiscriminate violence conveys that nonwhite immigrants, lawful or otherwise, have no place in Trump’s America.
 |
| Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Slain by ICE in Houston, Texas on July 7, 2026. |
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 |
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.
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.
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.
Zapping lanternflies
URI entomologist suggests novel removal technique to help tackle invasive pest
 |
| 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
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.
“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?
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.”
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