YCLOAK

The United Nations warns accelerating climate change is causing a dramatic intensification of global drought disasters, which are threatening agricultural production, the world’s safe water supply and other essential aspects of human development.   The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has launched a “Special Report on Drought 2021.”  U.N. researchers say drought has affected more people around the world in the past four decades than any other natural disaster.  The U.N. report warns the impact of the climate-driven drought emergency on the lives and livelihoods of people across the planet will worsen in the coming years.  The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori says drought has directly affected 1.5 billion people so far this century.  She says most of the world will be living with water stress in the next few years as drought disasters grow.  She says drought is a major factor in land degradation and is responsible for declining yields of major crops.  She adds shifting rainfall patterns and variability pose a risk to the 70 percent of global agriculture that is rainfall-dependent.”A warming planet threatens to multiply the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation, thereby seriously increasing the spread of diseases, the risk of displacement and the potential even for conflict over scarce water resources,” Mizutori said. G-7 Ministers Discuss COVID Vaccines, Climate ChangeForeign ministers of world’s wealthiest democracies are meeting ahead of a summit of the group’s heads of state next month  While droughts always have been part of the human experience, the damage and costs resulting from them are seriously underestimated.  The report estimates the global economic costs arising from drought from 1998 to 2017 of at least $124 billion.The World Health Organization considers drought to be the most serious hazard to livestock and crops in nearly every part of the world.  It says water scarcity impacts 40 percent of the world’s population.  WHO projects as many as 700 million people are at risk of being displaced by 2030 because of drought.Leading co-author of the report Roger Pulwarty agrees the data contained within the report is grim but does not see an apocalyptic picture ahead.  “I do not think that there is in fact this issue surrounding the collapse of civilizations…We are not seeing truly an increase in the frequency of drought,” Pulwarty said. “But we are seeing that where they occur in the different regions in which they do exist, an increase in intensification when they occur and the rapid onset of drought.”   Over the millennia, Pulwarty notes people have found ways to adapt to risks from drought and other natural disasters.  He says lessons learned from over 20 cases around the world – including the Horn of Africa and the Euphrates and Tigris River system in Western Asia  – have been incorporated in the report. However, he says tried and true drought management measures taken in the past must be adapted to meet the challenges of today’s changing nature of drought risk.
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Adding a crew to China’s new orbiting space station is another major advance for the burgeoning space power.  
Here’s a look at key developments:  What’s The Mission’s Purpose?  
The three-member crew is due to stay for three months in the station’s main living module, named Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony. They will be carrying out science experiments and maintenance, space walks and preparing the facility to receive two additional modules next year.
 
While China concedes it arrived late at the space station game, it says its facility is cutting-edge. It could also outlast the International Space Station, which is nearing the end of its functional lifespan.  
The launch Thursday  also revives China’s crewed space program after a five-year hiatus. With Thursday’s launch, China has now sent 14 astronauts into space since it first achieved the feat in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to do so.  Chinese astronauts, from left, Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming listen to a journalist’s question during a press conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center ahead of the Shenzhou-12 launch from Jiuquan in northwestern China.Why Is China Building The Station?  
As the Chinese economy was beginning to gather steam in the early 1990s, China formulated a plan for space exploration, which it has carried out at a steady, cautious cadence. While China has been barred from participation in the International Space Station, mainly over U.S. objections to the Chinese program’s secretive nature and close military connections, it’s likely the country would have built its own station anyway as it sought the status of a great space power.  
At a news conference Wednesday, China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming told reporters at the Jiuquan launch center that the construction and operation of the space station will raise China’s technologies and “accumulate experience for all the people.”  
The space program is part of an overall drive to put China on track for even more ambitious missions and provide opportunities for cooperation with Russia and other, mostly European, countries along with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.  Politics And Security  
China’s space program has been a massive source of national pride, embodying its rise from poverty to the world’s second-largest economy over the past four decades. That has helped shore up the power of the Communist Party, whose authoritarian rule and strict limits on political activity have been tolerated by most Chinese as long as the economy is growing.
 
President and head of the party Xi Jinping has associated himself closely with that success, and Ji in his remarks cited Xi as setting the updated agenda for China’s rise to prominence in space. The first mission to the station also coincides with the celebration of the party centenary next month, an important political milestone.  
At the same time, China is modernizing its military at a rapid pace, raising concerns from neighbors, the U.S. and its NATO allies. While China espouses the peaceful development of space on the basis of equality and mutual respect, many recall that China in January 2007 sent a ballistic missile into space to destroy an inactive weather satellite, creating a debris field that continues to be a threat.  Who Are The Astronauts?
Mission commander Nie Haisheng, 56, and fellow astronauts Liu Boming, 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45, are former People’s Liberation Army Air Force pilots with graduate degrees and strong scientific backgrounds. All Chinese astronauts so far have been recruited from the military, underscoring its close ties to the space program.  
For Nie, it is his third trip to space, and for Liu, his second following a mission in 2008 that included China’s first space walk. Tang, who was recruited as one of the second batch of candidates in 2010, is flying in space for the first time.  
Future missions to the station will include women, according to officials, with stays extended to as long as six months and as many as six astronauts on the station at a time during crew changeovers. With China stepping up international cooperation and exchanges, it’s only a matter of time before foreign astronauts join the Chinese colleagues on missions to the station, Ji told reporters Wednesday.  What Else Is China Doing in Space?  
Along with its crewed space program, China has been moving boldly into exploration of the solar system with robotic space ships. It landed a probe on Mars last month that carried a rover, the Zhurong, which is conducting a range of surveys, looking particularly for frozen water that could provide clues as to whether the red plant once supported life.  
Earlier, China landed a probe and rover on the moon’s less explored far side, joining the Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, rover that was part of an earlier lunar exploration mission. China also brought back the first lunar samples by any country’s space program since the 1970s and officials say they want to send Chinese astronauts to the moon and eventually build a research base there.
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The first manned crew of China’s new permanent space station docked with the outpost Thursday evening.The Shenzhou-12 spacecraft carrying veteran space travelers Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo rendezvoused with the Tianhe module six hours after blasting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.The trio will spend the next three months aboard the module, whose name translates to “Heavenly Harmony,” outfitting it with equipment and testing its various components.This mission is China’s first manned space flight in five years, and the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational next year. The new station is expected to remain operational for 10 years.The station could outlast the U.S.-led International Space Station, which may be decommissioned after its funding expires in 2024. China has never sent astronauts to the ISS due to a U.S. law that effectively bars the space agency NASA from collaborating with China.China is aggressively building up its space program as an example of its rising global stature and technological might. It became the third country to send a human into space in 2003, behind the United States and Russia, and has already operated two temporary experimental space stations with manned crews.Just this year, it sent an unmanned probe into orbit around Mars, while another probe brought back the first samples from the moon in more than 40 years. 
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For some people, COVID has led to changes in lifestyle, or even a new job.  That’s the case of a cyclist in Los Angeles, California, who ended up opening several bicycle shops to meet a growing demand by people wanting to get exercise while exploring their city. Mike O’Sullivan has more.
Camera: Mike O’Sullivan and Roy Kim 
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China launched the first crew of its new permanent space station into orbit Thursday morning.Veteran astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China aboard the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft.A crowd of well-wishers bid the three astronauts farewell in an elaborate ceremony before they boarded a van to take them to the launch pad to board their spacecraft.  The mission is China’s first manned space flight in five years.The trio is expected to reach the first module of the station, dubbed Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony,” by Thursday evening, where they will spend the next three months outfitting the module with equipment and testing its various components.This mission is the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational next year. The new station is expected to remain operational for 10 years.The station could outlast the U.S.-led International Space Station, which may be decommissioned after its funding expires in 2024. China has never sent astronauts to the ISS due to a U.S. law that effectively bars the space agency NASA from collaborating with China.China is aggressively building up its space program as an example of its rising global stature and technological might. It became the third country to send a human into space in 2003, behind the United States and Russia, and has already operated two temporary experimental space stations with manned crews.Just this year, it sent an unmanned probe into orbit around Mars, while another probe brought back the first samples from the moon in more than 40 years.
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The U.S.-based biotech firm Moderna said Wednesday the U.S. government has purchased another 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total number of Moderna doses it has committed to 500 million.
 
In a release Wednesday, the Massachusetts-based company said the U.S. government orders include 110 million doses expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 90 million expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022. As of Monday, the company says it has supplied 217 million doses of the vaccine to the U.S. government.
 
In the statement, Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said the company appreciates the collaboration with the U.S. government on the additional doses, adding that it could be used for the continuing primary vaccination program or for children or perhaps as a booster down the road.
 
Last month, the company announced its vaccine was safe and effective for people age  12 to 17 and applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its use in that group.
 
The doses could also be part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s commitment to supply the World Health Organization-administered global vaccine cooperative, known as COVAX, with vaccine for the world’s lower-income nations.
 
During a summit with the European Union Tuesday, Biden committed to continue supporting the COVAX facility and urged the world’s donors to supply it with at least two billion doses of vaccine by the end of the year.
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The current rate of forest fires burning through the Rocky Mountains in the United States is the highest it’s been in the past 2,000 years, University of Montana professor Philip Higuera, right, and his team collect lake sediment from Chickaree Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, used to reconstruct fire and vegetation history. (Grace Carter photo; image courtesy of Philip Higuera)“The 2020 fire season was record-setting across the West [of the United States],” said Philip Higuera, a fire ecologist at the University of Montana and lead author of the study. “Colorado broke the previous record for largest fires in the state three times last year.”At the forest’s high elevations, the environment normally keeps the trees cool and wet relative to forests at lower elevations. Naturally occurring forest fires may burn every few hundred years, but even then, fires need unusually warm, dry weather to first dry out the vegetation to serve as fuel.’Sentinels’ of climate changeThe areas known as subalpine forests are also less sensitive to fire suppression and less impacted by past land management than lower-elevation forests, Higuera said. “They’re better sentinels of climate change.”Ecologists wondered if the fires of 2020 were unprecedented, even relative to the forests’ history of fires stretching back over millennia. They studied historical records to understand if the recent fires were an anomaly and published their results June 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Modern human records of forest fires go back only a few decades. The study authors used government satellite records to track fires and how far they spread from 1984 to 2020. For fires before 1984, they relied on records of fires that had been preserved by nature.Tree rings and their fire scars or charcoal deposited and preserved in lake sediments, for example, are like signatures left by past fires. Each layer of lake sediment, deposited at a certain time in history, provides information about conditions during that time.  Similarly, a tree’s rings, which correspond to its age in years, can retain marks that act as a time stamp for past fires.The Calwood Fire erupts west of Boulder Colo., Oct. 17, 2020, contributing to a record-setting fire season in the central Rocky Mountains. (Bryan Shuman)To see if the pace of forest fires had recently changed, the authors estimated how long it would take to burn all of Colorado’s subalpine forests at the rate they burned in a given era. Accounting for fires over the past two millennia, that number was about 204 years or more. Fires from 2000 to 2020 cut that time almost in half, to 117 years.“It puts into perspective how far of an anomaly the 2020 fire season was,” said Julie Korb, a forest and fire ecologist at Fort Lewis College in Colorado, who was not involved in the study. “In these high-elevation forests, up until this point, we thought they were kind of protected from the changes that we’ve been seeing in the climate.”Weather heightened dangerAccording to the study, warmer, drier weather made the trees more prone to burning.Although the results showed that climate change has pushed the Rocky Mountain forest systems into uncharted territory with respect to historical wildfires, Higuera said it was important to keep in mind that the specific conditions of these high-elevation forests shouldn’t be generalized across all forests.“Forest fires are not necessarily all negative,” said Larissa Yocom, a fire ecologist at Utah State University, who also was not involved in the study.University of Montana researchers examine lake sediment cores from subalpine forests in the Rocky Mountains. Each core is sliced into sections, and variation in charcoal within the core is used to reconstruct past wildfires. (University of Montana)Wildfires, which burn outside human control, are often naturally part of the long-term life cycle of environments such as forests or grasslands.Studies have shown that many lower-elevation forests on the West Coast of the United States were experiencing a “deficit” in fire activity compared with historical patterns, partly because of the suppression of fires through human intervention. At the same time, those land management practices likely helped accumulate fuel for even more intense wildfires, such as the ones that occurred in 2020.When fires occur repeatedly or too severely, forests can have trouble recovering to healthy states, Yocom said. The resulting smoke can also impact human communities and cause health issues like lung damage.“This really emphasizes that we can’t rely on what we’ve seen in the past as a good strategy for what to expect and what to plan for,” said Kyra Wolf, a fire ecologist at the University of Montana and co-author of the study. “We need to rethink or reimagine what it looks like to live in these fire-prone areas in the West.”Scientists expect more extreme weather and human intervention will continue to change the planet’s environment.“It’s no longer a projection. It shows that change is already occurring. We’re living in the middle of it,” Yocom said of the study.
 
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A new study in the United States reveals that nearly 25% of COVID-19 patients experienced new health problems well after their initial diagnosis.The non-profit group FAIR Health analyzed the health insurance claims of nearly two million people between February 2020 and February of this year. The study found the most common new conditions among so-called “Long COVID” patients included pain, breathing difficulties, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol and fatigue. The new ailments affected patients of all ages, including children, and even included patients who were asymptomatic, or experienced no symptoms whatsoever. The study found 19% of asymptomatic COVID-19 patients came down with Long COVID symptoms, increasing to 27% who had mild or moderate symptoms but were not hospitalized, and 50% of those who were hospitalized.Other ailments revealed in the study included intestinal symptoms, heart disorders and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.  A health worker in protective suit collects nasal swab sample of a traveler to test for COVID-19 outside a train station in Bengaluru, India, June 16, 2021.The CDC says the Delta variant accounts for nearly 10% of all new cases in the United States as of June 5, and experts are concerned it could lead to a surge of new infections due to the slowing rate of COVID-19 vaccinations. A new study published this week in The Lancet medical journal says two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer is 79% effective against the Delta variant, compared to 60% effectiveness after both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.  The World Health Organization classified Delta as a variant of concern last month.US Surpasses 600,000 Deaths from COVID, Leading the World An AP analysis of CDC data estimates that Native Americans, Hispanics and Blacks in the US are two to three times more likely than whites to die of the disease As the United States passed 600,000 COVID-19 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, two of its most populous states, New York and California, are celebrating significant milestones in the long fight against the pandemic.  Fireworks lit up the skies over New York City’s iconic New York Harbor Tuesday night hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo eliminated nearly all COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, with 70% of all adults across the state having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.  Cuomo’s California counterpart, Gavin Newsom, used a flashy movie-themed event at the Universal Studios amusement park in Hollywood to announce the official end of most of his state’s coronavirus restrictions, including limits on indoor social gatherings and dropping facemask requirements.
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Researchers in New Zealand are testing new techniques to find out whether masks and gowns used by health workers as protection against COVID-19 can be decontaminated and safely used again.   Researchers want to reduce the “mountain” of personal protective equipment, or PPE, that is discarded around the world daily. According to experts in New Zealand, estimates indicate that in China alone, hundreds of thousands of metric tons of PPE are going to the landfill each day.    FILE – Workers in protective suits walk past the Hankou railway station on the eve of its resuming outbound traffic in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, April 7, 2020.Mark Staiger is an associate professor of materials engineering at the University of Canterbury.   “The amount of waste that is being produced by the pandemic is absolutely huge. It has been estimated that something like 3 million face masks are being used per minute around the world. Other studies have shown that something like 3.5 billion face masks and face shields are being discarded globally every day,” he said. FILE – A discarded N95 protective face mask lies amongst other bits of disposed medical waste at a landfill site, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in New Delhi, India, July 22, 2020.Masks and gowns contain plastics that cannot easily be recycled. Researchers from Canterbury, Otago and Auckland universities are testing a process that would destroy the COVID-19 virus and allow the PPE to be used again.   The aim is to safely disinfect protective equipment so it can be used by frontline workers. If successful, Staiger says the system could increase the supply of N95 masks, which filter out airborne particles, by 40%.    “The particular challenge in decontaminating face masks, for example, is making sure that whatever technique you use for killing off the virus does not affect the materials contained within the mask. For example, N95 masks have a special electrostatic layer inside them, which is used for capturing very small particles, and if that layer is damaged by the treatment that you are using or the decontamination treatment that you are using, this would render the mask ineffective and lose its functionality.”    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said PPE creates a barrier between an individual’s skin, mouth, nose, or eyes and viral and bacterial infections. It is mostly designed to be used only once. The New Zealand university study began in 2020. Its final stage is under way, and it is due to finish later this year. The research team is also building a mobile disinfection unit that could be transported in shipping containers to other countries.   New Zealand has an enviable record of containing COVID-19, in large part because it closed its borders to most foreign nationals in March 2020. It has recorded about 2,700 confirmed or probable infections. Twenty-six people have died.   
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The delta variant of the COVID-19 virus is more infectious and more virulent than the alpha variant first identified in the United Kingdom, according to new research.  The good news is that vaccines still work against it, though somewhat less well, the studies say. “Delta is a much more concerning variant globally, even than the other variants,” said Bill Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. As vaccine access moves at a snail’s pace outside of wealthier countries, “much of the world remains extraordinarily vulnerable,” said William Powderly, director of the  Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis. FILE – People register their names to receive a coronavirus vaccine at a free camp in Kolkata, India, June 14, 2021.The delta variant was first identified in India. It is likely responsible for that country’s explosive outbreak, which has set grim world records for the most deaths per day of any country.  When it spread to the U.K., it overtook the fast-spreading alpha variant in a matter of weeks. Delta now causesFILE – A health worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the newly-opened mass vaccination program for the elderly at a drive-thru vaccination center in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 25, 2021.Vaccines still work against it, though not quite as well, the study found. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were about 13% less effective against delta than they were against alpha. Two weeks after the second dose, Pfizer was 79% effective, and AstraZeneca was 60%.  While some vaccinated people may still get sick, they are not likely to get severely ill, FILE – Austin Kennedy, left, a Seattle Sounders season ticket holder, gets the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in a concourse at Lumen Field, May 2, 2021.While nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, “lots of the world is going to be facing delta with no such protection,” Hanage said. “It’s really important that those countries that are able to supply vaccines get [them] to those parts of the world that are struggling with [vaccine access] as quickly as possible.” “If we continue to not vaccinate the rest of the world,” Powderly added, “the virus will continue to evolve, and this delta virus could well be the start of something even worse.” 
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Turkey’s Sea of Marmara is battling an explosion of sea algae, dubbed sea snot, which is now threatening an ecological disaster. As Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul, the mucus-like substance is fast becoming politically toxic as well.
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China will launch the first crew of its new permanent space station into orbit on Thursday.  An official with the China Manned Space Agency announced Wednesday that veteran astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming and rookie Tang Hongbo will blast off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China aboard the Shenzhou-12. At age 56,  Nie Haisheng will become China’s oldest astronaut to fly to space. The trio will spend three months aboard the first module of the station, dubbed Tianhe, which translates to “Heavenly Harmony.” The mission, China’s first manned space flight in five years, is the third of 11 needed to add more elements to the space station before it becomes fully operational in 2022. The new station is expected to remain operational for 10 years.   The station could outlast the U.S.-led International Space Station, which may be decommissioned after its funding expires in 2024. China has never sent astronauts to the ISS due to a U.S. law that effectively bars the space agency NASA from collaborating with China.      China is aggressively building up its space program as an example of its rising global stature and technological might. It became the third country to send a human in space in 2003 behind the United States and Russia, and has already operated two temporary experimental space stations with manned crews.  Just this year, it sent an unmanned probe into orbit around Mars, while another probe brought back the first samples from the Moon in more than 40 years.  
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More than half the cosmetics sold in the United States and Canada are awash with a toxic industrial compound associated with serious health conditions, including cancer and reduced birth weight, according to a new study.  Researchers at the University of Notre Dame tested more than 230 commonly used cosmetics and found that 56% of foundations and eye products, 48% of lip products and 47% of mascaras contained fluorine — an indicator of PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals” that are used in nonstick frying pans, rugs and countless other consumer products.  Some of the highest PFAS levels were found in waterproof mascara (82%) and long-lasting lipstick (62%), according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Twenty-nine products with higher fluorine concentrations were tested further and found to contain between four and 13 specific PFAS, the study found. Only one item listed PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as an ingredient on the label. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates cosmetics, said the agency does not comment on specific studies. The FDA said on its website that there have been few studies of the presence of the chemicals in cosmetics, and the ones that have been published generally found the concentration is at very low levels not likely to harm people, in the parts per billion level to the hundreds of parts per million. A fact sheet posted on the agency’s website says, “As the science on PFAS in cosmetics continues to advance, the FDA will continue to monitor” voluntary data submitted by industry as well as published research. But PFAS are an issue of increasing concern for lawmakers working to regulate their use in consumer products. The study results were announced as a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to ban the use of PFAS in cosmetics and other beauty products.  The move to ban PFAS comes as Congress considers wide-ranging legislation to set a national drinking water standard for certain PFAS and clean up contaminated sites across the country, including military bases where high rates of PFAS have been discovered. “There is nothing safe and nothing good about PFAS,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who introduced the cosmetics bill with Republican Senator Susan Collins. “These chemicals are a menace hidden in plain sight that people literally display on their faces every day.” Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., talks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, June 15, 2021.Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat who has sponsored several PFAS-related bills in the House, said she has looked for PFAS in her own makeup and lipstick but could not tell whether they were present because the products were not properly labeled. “How do I know it doesn’t have PFAS?” she asked at a news conference Tuesday, referring to the eye makeup, foundation and lipstick she was wearing.  The Environmental Protection Agency is also moving to collect industry data on the uses and health risks of PFAS as it considers regulations to reduce potential risks caused by the chemicals. The Personal Care Products Council, a trade association representing the cosmetics industry, said in a statement that a small number of PFAS may be found as ingredients or at trace levels in products such as lotion, nail polish, eye makeup and foundation. The chemicals are used for product consistency and texture and subject to FDA safety requirements, said Alexandra Kowcz, the council’s chief scientist. “Our member companies take their responsibility for product safety and the trust families put in those products very seriously,” she said, adding that the group supports prohibition of certain PFAS from use in cosmetics. “Science and safety are the foundation for everything we do.”  But Graham Peaslee, a physics professor at Notre Dame and the principal investigator of the study, said the cosmetics pose an immediate and long-term risk. “PFAS is a persistent chemical. When it gets into the bloodstream, it stays there and accumulates,” Peaslee said. No specific companies were named in the study.  Environmental, health risksThe chemicals also pose the risk of environmental contamination associated with manufacturing and disposal, he said. The man-made compounds are used in countless products, including nonstick cookware, water-repellent sports gear, cosmetics and grease-resistant food packaging, along with firefighting foams. Public health studies on exposed populations have associated the chemicals with an array of health problems, including some cancers, weakened immunity and low birth weight. Widespread testing in recent years has found high levels of PFAS in many public water systems and military bases. Blumenthal, a former state attorney general and self-described “crusader” on behalf of consumers, said he does not use cosmetics. But speaking on behalf of millions of cosmetics users, he said they have a message for the industry: “We’ve trusted you and you betrayed us.” Brands that want to avoid likely government regulation should voluntarily go PFAS-free, Blumenthal said. “Aware and angry consumers are the most effective advocate” for change, he said. 
 
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The novel coronavirus was present in the U.S. in December 2019, weeks before health officials first identified infections, according to a new government study.
 
Conducted by a team that included researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study analyzed 24,000 blood samples. The findings suggest that some Americans were infected as early as the middle of December 2019, weeks before the world recognized the spread of the new deadly virus that erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
 
While the analysis is inconclusive, and some experts remain unconvinced, more federal health officials are accepting a scenario during which small numbers of people in the U.S. were infected with the virus before the world was aware of its spread.
 
The study, published Tuesday by the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, is the latest and largest to suggest the virus first appeared in the U.S. earlier than previously known. It found that at least seven people in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were infected earlier than any COVID-19 case was ever reported in those states.
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