Year: 2023

As global warming intensifies and deadly heatwaves spread across the world, becoming the “new normal,” the World Meteorological Organization is calling on governments to adopt heat action plans to protect “hundreds of thousands of people dying from preventable heat-related causes each year.” WMO’s protective policies incorporate early warning and response systems for urban and nonurban settings that target vulnerable people and critical support infrastructure such as power lines, refrigeration units, roads and rail lines that often buckle under extreme heatwaves. “Worldwide, more intense and extreme heat is unavoidable,” said John Nairn, senior extreme heat adviser. He said it was imperative to prepare and adapt as cities, homes and workplaces are not built to withstand prolonged high temperatures “and vulnerable people are not sufficiently aware of the seriousness of the risk heat poses to their health and well-being.” A study published last week in the scientific journal Nature Medicine found more than 60,000 people died in Europe last year from heat-related causes. Nairn said experts and governments consider this a conservative estimate. “And it is worth noting, those numbers are for Europe, which has some of the strongest early warning systems and heat-health action plans in the world. “So, you can imagine what the numbers are likely to be globally,” he said. Heatwaves to be expected Scientists say global temperatures are at unprecedented levels. While this year’s extensive and intense heatwaves are alarming, they say this should come as no surprise as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been warning …

The heatwave engulfing the northern hemisphere is set to intensify this week, causing overnight temperatures to surge and leading to an increased risk of heart attacks and deaths, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday. “Temperatures in North America, Asia, and across North Africa and the Mediterranean will be above 40°C for a prolonged number of days this week as the heatwave intensifies,” the WMO said in a statement. Overnight minimum temperatures were also set to reach new highs, according to the WMO, creating risks of increased cases of heart attacks and deaths. “Whilst most of the attention focuses on daytime maximum temperatures, it is the overnight temperatures which have the biggest health risks, especially for vulnerable populations,” the WMO said. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, a researcher specialized in the study of heatwaves said that the high temperatures Europe was experiencing currently were bound to increase. “The Mediterranean heatwave is big but nothing like what’s been through North Africa,” said John Nairn, Senior Extreme Heat Advisor for WMO. “It’s developing into Europe at this stage.” …

The United Nations said Tuesday vaccinations for children have generally rebounded since a drop during the COVID-19 pandemic but warned that vaccination rates in many smaller and poorer countries are not experiencing the same progress. The U.N. said 20.5 million children missed one or more routine vaccinations in 2022, an improvement from 24.4 million the year before.  In 2019, before the pandemic hit worldwide, that figure was 18.4 million. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the overall figures “encouraging,” but said global and regional numbers “mask severe and persistent inequities.” “When countries and regions lag, children pay the price,” he said. The U.N. said 73 countries saw substantial declines in child vaccination rates during the pandemic, and that 34 of those countries have seen their rates either fail to improve or get worse. Rates for measles vaccines followed the larger global trend, with 83% of children receiving a first does during their first year of life in 2022, improving from 81% in 2021 but not reaching the 86% level achieved before the pandemic. Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. …

The excavator tore into the remnants of the damaged building in southeast Turkey, bringing it crashing down into a cloud of dust — the latest menace facing survivors of the deadly February quake that ravaged the region. Extending to the horizon, a cocoon of fine grey dust envelops the city of Samandag in the south of Hatay province, devastated by the February 6 earthquake that killed more than 55,000 people and laid waste to parts of Turkey and Syria. “We survived the earthquake, but this dust will kill us,” Michel Atik, founder and president of the Samandag Environmental Protection Association, said. “We are going to die of respiratory diseases and lung cancer with all these hazardous materials.” Five months after the quake, the scale of cleanup and reconstruction is enormous, with the government estimating that nearly 2.6 million buildings have been destroyed. According to the UN Environment Programme, some 210 million tonnes of rubble must be disposed of. By comparison, some 1.8 million tonnes of rubble had to be hauled away after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City that brought down the World Trade Center skyscrapers. Environmental activists and local residents worry that in the rush to clean up and rebuild, crucial safety measures are being ignored, with potentially adverse effects on the health of local residents, the environment and the economy. Landfills The landfill near Samandag is one of several that have been set up in this province bordering Syria. It lies next to the Mediterranean …

A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the mammal’s population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday. The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale’s decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick — since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year. The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA. “Additional cases will continue to be reviewed, and animals will be added if appropriate, as more information is obtained,” Gomez said. Thirty-six of the 114 whales included in the estimate had died, NOAA documents state. The agency cautioned that only about a third of right whale deaths are documented, so the total number of dead or injured animals could be much higher. Right whales are found off the Atlantic coast of the U.S. They are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. The federal government has worked to craft stricter rules to protect the whales from both threats. Commercial fishing and shipping …

In the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, a debate is raging over whether to teach teenagers about contraceptives. Comprehensive sex education is required in public schools but not all schools are following through. Dave Grunebaum has the story. …

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted air quality alerts Sunday for several states stretching from Montana to Ohio because of smoke blowing in from Canadian wildfires. “Air Quality alerts are in place for much of the Great Lakes, Midwest, and northern High Plains,” the National Weather Service said. “This is due to the lingering thick concentration of Canadian wildfire smoke over these regions. While the concentration of smoke in the atmosphere should begin to wane by Monday, there is still enough smoke to support unhealthy air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups in parts of these regions into the start of the upcoming week.” The U.S. EPA’s AirNow air quality page rated the air in Chicago as “unhealthy” as of 9 a.m. CDT Sunday. And in Michigan, state environmental officials said the air “is unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services advised people in the state to check the Air Quality Index regularly to decide if they should be participating in outdoor activities. The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability issued a Knozone Action Day for Sunday, saying people throughout central Indiana should avoid time spent outdoors as much as possible, especially active children, the elderly, anyone who is pregnant, and those with asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), emphysema, heart disease or COVID-19. Sensitive groups should remain indoors Sunday and refrain from activities that degrade indoor air quality, including burning candles and vacuuming. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that unhealthy air from the …

As much of the world swelters in record temperatures, spare a thought for Issam Genedi, who ekes out a living washing cars in one of the planet’s hottest regions, the Gulf. Pausing from his work at an outdoor carpark in Dubai, the Egyptian migrant says the United Arab Emirates’ furnace-like summer feels even hotter this year.  “This summer is a little more difficult than other years,” says Genedi, who shines cars for about 25 dirhams ($6.80) a time in temperatures that pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) each day.  “Between noon and 3 p.m. or 3:30 p.m., we simply cannot work.” The oil-rich UAE — host of this year’s COP28 United Nations climate talks, where the world will try to sharpen its response to global warming — is no stranger to unbearable summers. In the blistering summer months, those who can decamp to cooler climes, or stay cocooned inside air-conditioned homes, offices and shopping malls. The streets are largely deserted, apart from laborers hired cheaply from abroad. Many manual workers have a compulsory rest period in the hottest hours of the day. It’s a similar story all around the energy-rich desert region. In Bahrain, an island nation off Saudi Arabia, July average temperatures threaten to beat the record of 42.1C (107.8F) set in 2017. Two weeks ago, more than 1.8 million Muslims battled through a days-long hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in temperatures up to 48C (118F), with thousands treated for heat stress. And in Kuwait, which regularly records …

The U.K.’s oldest medical union Saturday hit out at government plans to increase the amount migrant workers pay to use the state health care service, to cover public-sector wage increases.   Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government this week approved recommendations to boost wages of teachers, doctors and police by between 5.0 to 7.0 percent.   Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the raise but instead said hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise $1.3 billion.   Doctors in Unite, which represents junior doctors, general practitioners and hospital consultants, said it was “appalled” at the move, as it would see migrants pay double to use the National Health Service (NHS).   Most employees in the U.K. have National Insurance contributions deducted at the source on their salaries, which pays for the National Health Service, as well as state pension and unemployment schemes.  “Just like other workers, migrants contribute to NHS funding through general taxation. Doubling the NHS surcharge to over $1,570 per year is an unjust additional penalty,” Doctors in Unite said.   “Migrants are effectively ‘taxed twice’ to access the same service,” it added, calling the move “immoral and divisive.”   The IHS, initially brought in to prevent “medical tourism,” is now paid by most migrants under tighter post-Brexit entry rules.  It is paid per person in addition to visa fees for stays of more than six months.   Over-18s pay $817 per year while students and under-18s pay $615 per year.   The government has proposed raising the …

United Nations agencies said Friday that millions of Sudanese cannot obtain treatment for emergency and chronic health conditions because fighting has brought the country’s fragile health system to near total collapse.    The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement violence and “shortages of supplies, damage or occupation of facilities and assaults on medical staff” are having a devastating impact on people’s lives and on their ability to access health care.  The World Health Organization has said that some 50 attacks on health care facilities have caused 10 deaths and 21 injuries since fighting began between the Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces three months ago.  “Ongoing violence, rampant insecurity, repeated attacks on health, and limited access to essential health supplies, are putting the people of Sudan in a life-or-death situation, with no immediate political solution in sight,” Rick Brennan, emergency director for the WHO’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean said.   Speaking from Cairo, Brennan said the violence has had a huge impact on access to the most basic health care, including treatment of such common infections as pneumonia and diarrhea, trauma treatment, and obstetric care.    He said the conflict is preventing people with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension from getting treatment.    “Patients who have been receiving dialysis for kidney failure and treatment for cancer are facing a sudden cessation of their treatment, with life-threatening consequences,” he said.  He said disrupted access to those services is risking the lives of 8,000 …

Visitors to Las Vegas on Friday stepped out momentarily to snap photos and were hit by blast-furnace air. But most will spend their vacations in a vastly different climate — at casinos where the chilly air conditioning might require a light sweater. Meanwhile, emergency room doctors were witnessing another world, as dehydrated construction workers, passed-out elderly residents and others suffered in an intense heat wave threatening to break the city’s all-time record high of 47.2 degrees Celsius this weekend. Few places in the scorching Southwest demonstrate the surreal contrast between indoor and outdoor life like Las Vegas, a neon-lit city rich with resorts, casinos, swimming pools, indoor nightclubs and shopping. Tens of millions of others across California and the Southwest, were also scrambling for ways to stay cool and safe from the dangers of extreme heat. “We’ve been talking about this building heat wave for a week now, and now the most intense period is beginning,” the National Weather Service wrote Friday. Nearly a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings. The blistering heat wave was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona and California, where desert temperatures were predicted to soar in parts past 48.8 degrees Celsius during the day and remain above 32.2 C overnight. Sergio Cajamarca, his family and their dog, Max, were among those who lined up to pose for photos in front of the city’s iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. The temperature before noon already topped 37.8 …

Countries at this year’s U.N. climate summit must face up to how far behind they are on climate change targets and agree to a plan to get on track, the United Arab Emirates’ incoming president of the event said on Thursday.  In a speech laying out the country’s plan for the COP28 summit, to be held in Dubai in November, Sultan al-Jaber said the event should also yield international goals to triple renewable energy as well as double energy savings and hydrogen production by 2030.  “We must be brutally honest about the gaps that need to be filled, the root causes and how we got to this place here today,” Jaber told a meeting in Brussels of climate ministers and officials from countries including Brazil, China, the United States and European Union members.  “Then we must apply a far-reaching, forward-looking, action-oriented and comprehensive response to address these gaps practically,” he said.  The COP28 summit will be the first formal assessment of countries’ progress towards the Paris Agreement’s target to limit climate change to 1.5 Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit) of warming. The current policies and pledges of countries would fail to meet that goal.   “We can’t afford a meaningless stocktake. This is about accountability of our previous, present and future updates,” Canadian Climate Minister Steven Guilbeault told Thursday’s meeting.  The assessment at COP28 — known as the Global Stocktake — will increase pressure on major emitters to update their actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Jaber said all governments should update …

Health care providers in Zimbabwe are leaving the country in droves for better work abroad. The government is scrambling to fill the gaps by better equipping hospitals, as Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, Zimbabwe. …

An Indian rocket hurtled into space Friday to land a robotic rover on an unexplored area of the moon – a challenging feat India was unable to accomplish on a mission four years ago.    Only three countries, the U.S., China and Russia, have made what is called a “soft” or “controlled” landing on the lunar surface. If the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, is successful this time, some observers say the mission will establish India’s position as one of the world’s leading space powers.    Millions around the country watched a live telecast of the launch of the “Chandrayaan-3” spacecraft from Sriharikota in southern India and thousands packed a viewing gallery in the launch site’s vicinity.    “Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey toward the moon,” ISRO Chairman Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said, after the launch, as scientists at the mission control center clapped and shook hands.    The mission’s real test will come some 40 days from now when the lander equipped with a robotic rover will separate from the main spacecraft to land on the lunar surface on August 23 or August 24.   “This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting France, tweeted ahead of the launch.   Friday’s launch by the ISRO is the country’s first major space mission since the failed attempt in 2019 when scientists lost contact with the lander minutes before it was scheduled to descend on the lunar surface. It …

Leading global health agencies report consumers who limit their intake of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are at little risk of getting cancer. “The occasional level of exposure, which is far from the acceptable daily intake, is safe and is not producing appreciable health risk,” said Francesco Branca, World Health Organization director, department of nutrition and food safety. “The problem is for high consumers and the problem is for situations where consumption is shifting towards high consumers,” he said. “But I think our results do not indicate that occasional consumption should pose a risk to most consumers.” Aspartame, an artificial sweetener, has been widely used in a variety of foods and beverages, including diet soda, chewing gum, ice cream, and breakfast cereal, since the 1980s. Recent media reports that the WHO’s cancer research arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, was likely to declare aspartame carcinogenic for humans created an uproar among stalwart dieters hooked on these low-fat products. Two scientific bodies conducted independent but complementary reviews to assess the potential carcinogenic hazard and other health risks associated with aspartame consumption. Mary Schubauer-Berigan, head of the IARC monographs program, says her agency’s task was to identify the possible hazards, not the risks associated with aspartame. “It is very important to note that this was a hazard identification and not a risk assessment,” she said. “A hazard identification aims to identify the specific properties of the agent and their potential to cause harm, that is the potential of …

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the sweetener aspartame — found in diet soda and countless other foods — as a possible cause of cancer, while a separate expert group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe in limited quantities. The differing results of the coordinated reviews were released early Friday in Europe. One came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a special branch of the WHO. The other report was from an expert panel selected by WHO and another U.N. group, the Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome. The Lyon, France-based cancer agency periodically reviews potential cancer hazards but doesn’t determine how likely they are to cause cancer in their evaluations, which range from possibly carcinogenic to probably to cancer-causing. Aspartame joins a category with more than 300 other possible cancer-causing agents, including things like aloe vera extract, Asian-style pickled vegetables and carpentry work. The guidance on use of the sweetener, though, isn’t changing. “We’re not advising consumers to stop consuming [aspartame] altogether,” said WHO’s nutrition director, Dr. Francesco Branca. “We’re just advising a bit of moderation.” Here’s a look at the announcement: What is aspartame? Aspartame is a low-calorie artificial sweetener that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is a white, odorless powder and the world’s most widely used artificial sweetener. Aspartame is authorized as a food additive in Europe and the U.S. and is used in numerous foods, drinks such as Diet Coke, desserts, …