How to lower your blood pressure? Home remedies, tricks to control high blood pressure.
Mythili Devarakonda, USA TODAY – February 17, 2023
High blood pressure can be dangerous and put you at risk for heart disease and can ultimately, be fatal.
Nearly half of American adults — about 116 million people — have a high blood pressure, or hypertension, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure greater than 130mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure greater than 80mmHg.
In 2019, about half a million died with high blood pressure as the primary or contributing cause of death in the United States. However, CDC says one in four adults with hypertension have their blood pressure under control.
A normal blood pressure range is less than 120/80 mmHg, according to the American Heart Association. Blood pressure can be lowered through lifestyle changes or medication or a combination of the two. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for high blood pressure once a person is diagnosed with it. Here’s how AHA advises to obtain a lower blood pressure.
Table salt can the most common culprit of increasing your blood pressure. Cutting back on processed foods that are packed with high sodium levels can help with lowering your blood pressure.
Limiting your alcohol consumption can lead to a controlled blood pressure. AHA suggests no more than one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men should be consumed if you have a high blood pressure.
Stress management is a skill that can bring a multitude of changes to your life including a lowered blood pressure. Stress releases hormones which make your heart beat faster and constrict your blood vessels which can cause your blood pressure to be raised temporarily.
A continuous monitoring of your blood pressure can make you aware of the catalysts that spike your blood pressure, which can later be avoided.
While these tips can aid in lowering blood pressure, the AHA advises you to check with your doctor for the best solution.
What are some foods that can help in lowering blood pressure?
According to an article by Harvard Medical School, “a healthful diet is an effective first-line defense for preventing high blood pressure,” so here are some foods recommended to lower blood pressure in individuals.
Fish and shellfish, unsalted nuts, fruits and vegetables, whole-grained carbohydrates such as brown rice, quinoa and oats, vegetable oil instead of butter are good dietary choices.
Avoid canned fruits or vegetables, packaged sauces, and salted butters, spreads and dressings which are high in sodium.
Ukraine war has exposed the folly – and unintended consequences – of ‘armed missionaries’
Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan – February 17, 2023
Putin’s decision to go to war has seen great geopolitical ripples. Getty Images
The evening before Russia invaded Ukraine, it seemed to many observers – me included – nearly unimaginable that Putin would carry through with weeks of a threatened military attack. As I wrote at the time, Putin is not as erratic or rash as he is sometimes painted.
I had failed to take into account that Putin is, in the words of French statesman and revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre, an “armed missionary.” Writing in 1792, Robespierre explained, “The most extravagant idea that can take root in the head of a politician is to believe that it is enough for one people to invade a foreign people to make it adopt its laws and constitution. No one likes armed missionaries; and the first advice given by nature and prudence is to repel them as enemies.”
Those words seem fitting as Vladimir Putin’s disastrous war in Ukraine reaches a grim first anniversary on Feb. 24, 2023.
As a fading power, Putin’s Russia has refused to accept its own limitations, both economically and militarily. In invading its smaller neighbor, Russia made a bid to upset the international systemheaded by the United States. It also sought to establish its own hegemony over Ukraine, and by implication, over much of the former Soviet Union.
But Russia’s failure to “decapitate” the Ukrainian government, which in turn inspired heroic resistance by Ukrainians, proved a disastrous example of what might be called “imperial overreach” – when a state tries to expand or control other states beyond its own capacity to do so.
It has produced a weakened Russia – an isolated pariah state perceived as a threat to democracies and the rules-based liberal international security system.
Putin deploys rhetoric about dangerously subversive liberal, democratic values and practices – echoing right-wing politicians like Hungary’s Victor Orbán and Giorgia Meloni, the far-right Italian leader. It appears that a new “International” – just as ominous to the liberal West as the Communist International was – is being formed of illiberal and authoritarian states, with Russia a key member.
This view of the Ukrainian war as a cultural struggle plays in the Russian media as an emotional rallying cry to mobilize the basest fears of Putin’s people.
Propaganda disguised as news, social media posts and the screeds of government officials are being deployed to shape ordinary Russians’ perceptions of the war.
Toward a multipolar world?
The consequences of Putin’s miscalculation are not limited to the war itself, or to Europe. Rather, they have had reverberations far beyond the battlefields of Ukraine and the homes of Russians whose sons have been slaughtered or fled abroad.
Putin’s imperial aggression against Ukraine – implausibly proclaimed to be a defense of a united Russia and of Ukrainian peoples against Nazi usurpers – has a long genealogy.
Ever since his famous speech at the Munich Security Forum in 2007, Russia’s president has railed against the “unipolar” military and economic dominance of the United States. What he wants is “multipolarity” – that is, the ability of other great powers to hold sway over their neighborhoods.
In such a multipolar world, Ukraine and Georgia would never join NATO and much of the former Soviet Union would fall under the umbrella of Russia. China would have paramount influence in East Asia, likewise India in South Asia. And perhaps this is Iran’s ambition in much of the Middle East.
To countries hostile to the United States – and even to some friendly states – this multipolar rearrangement of the international order has considerable appeal.
Yes, the war in Ukraine has solidified the Western alliance around its idea of the rules-based international order that has been in place since 1945. But it has also awakened the aspirations of “the Global South” – those countries in neither NATO nor the former Soviet bloc, largely in the Southern Hemisphere.
Countries from Latin America and Africa to Pacific Island nations have urged a greater dispersion and sharing of international clout. The two most populous countries in the world, India and China, have expressed their supportfor a new multipolar international order and have not been openly critical of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
Redefining regional, global power struggles
The war in Ukraine has also had ripple effects on other global tensions.
With Taiwan as a potential flashpoint and saber-rattling by North Korea, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are gravitating toward closer military cooperation with the United States in East Asia. China and North Korea are moving in the opposite direction, closer to Russia.
The Ukraine war is also reshaping the long-festering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both states desire sovereign power over the disputed region of mountainous Karabakh. But with Russia bogged down militarily and economically, Putin has been disinclined to aid Armenia, its one loyal ally in the South Caucasus. This is despite the fact that Azerbaijan has repeatedly violated the borders of its neighbor.
Azerbaijan, by contrast, has been increasingly aided by its regional allies Israel – spurred by a shared hostility to Iran – and Turkey. Both have supplied Azerbaijan with advanced weaponry, giving the country an upper hand in the conflict.
The Ukraine conflict also has an effect on the great global power struggle to come: China and U.S. With EU states and regional rivals to China forging closer ties with Washington, Beijing may eye a growing threat – or even an opportunity to exert its influence more aggressively as regional power dynamics evolve.
American policymakers in both the Trump and Biden administrations have warned that the rise of China, economically and militarily, is a serious threat to the continued position of the U.S. as the strongest, richest state on the globe. To its competitors on the global stage, the U.S. also looks like an armed missionary.
The uncertainty of the Ukraine war, and the still uncertain ways in which it is reshaping geopolitics, will do little to dislodge those fears. Rather, it may encourage international relations scholars, such as Harvard professor Graham Allison, who believe in the “Thucydides’ Trap.” Based on the ancient Greek historian’s explanation for the origins of the Peloponnesian War, the theory has it that when an emerging power threatens to displace a regional or global hegemon, war is inevitable.
As someone trained to look to the past to understand the present and possible futures, I believe that nothing in history is inevitable; human beings always have choices. This was true for Putin on the eve of the Feb. 24, 2022, invasion, and it is true for policymakers around the world today.
But the decision to invade Ukraine underscores a clear danger: When statesmen perceive the world as a Darwinian zero-sum game of winners and losers, a clash between the West and the rest, or as an ideological conflict between autocracies and democracies, they can create the conditions – through provocation, threat or even invasion – that lead to wars with unintended consequences.
Is the air in East Palestine safe to breathe? Here’s what experts and officials say.
Monroe Trombly, The Columbus Dispatch – February 15, 2023
In the week since officials conducted what they called a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride from five derailed train cars in East Palestine near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, concern has grown among some over the quality of the air in and around the village of nearly 5,000 people.
The decision to conduct the release of the carcinogen was made after officials said they noticed a drastic temperature change inside the cars. Fearing an explosion with potential shrapnel, the vinyl chloride was released in liquid form into an area surrounded by a barrier and ignited, sending a giant column of flames and black smoke into the winter sky.
Authorities in Ohio conduct a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride to reduce the threat of an explosion after a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. DETAILS: https://t.co/rrZ1c28F26pic.twitter.com/vaFu9G4b6B
Bruce Vanderhoff, director of Ohio’s health department, said during a news conference Tuesday that most of the chemicals on the Norfolk Southern train that derailed Feb. 3 are volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
VOCs are emitted during everyday activities like pumping gas, burning wood or natural gas, he said.
Low levels of VOCs can be smelled and sometimes cause headaches and irritation, said Vanderhoff, who noted that most people can be around VOCs at low levels without feeling ill. High levels can result in longer-term health effects, he said.
Vanderhoff said recent testing shows the air in East Palestine was just like it was prior to the train derailment.
“We have taken every step possible to ensure people’s safety was first and foremost,” Vanderhoff said.
What does the EPA say?
When burned, vinyl chloride gives off hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it had stopped monitoring the air in East Palestine for phosgene and hydrogen chloride the day before.
“Since the fire went out on Feb. 8, EPA air monitoring has not detected any levels of health concern in the community that are attributed to the train derailment,” EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said in a statement on the agency’s website. “Air monitoring data was provided to state health agencies on Feb. 8 for review prior to the state’s decision to lift the evacuation.
Shore also said in her statement that vinyl chloride has not been detected in any of the nearly 400 homes that the EPA had screened under a voluntary program as of Tuesday morning. Sixty-five additional homes were scheduled to be screened that afternoon, she said.
What is acid rain?
Acid rain, as defined by the EPA, is a broad term that includes any form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that fall to the ground from the atmosphere in wet or dry forms. This can include rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.
Acid rain results when sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents, the EPA says on its website. The SO2 and NOX react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. These then mix with water and other materials before falling to the ground.
Coal-burning power plants are responsible for most of the nation’s sulfur dioxide pollution and a significant portion of nitrogen oxide emissions. Sulfur dioxide emissions have decreased substantially over the years.
Coal has historically been the largest electricity source in the Ohio. However, in 2019, it was overtaken by natural gas.
Could acid rain have formed after controlled release?
Acid rain could have formed after the controlled release and burn of chemicals on Feb. 6, Kevin Crist, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the director of the Air Quality Center at Ohio University, said. If it did form and fall, it would have most likely occurred downwind of East Palestine.
When burned, vinyl chloride gives off hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosphene, which was used as a weapon during World War I. Vinyl chloride in the atmosphere breaks down into hydrochloric acid, a component of acid rain.
“There would maybe be localized problems, but once that plume is gone, it’s gone. Unless it’s sticking to a residue,” Crist said.
A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains Monday, Feb. 6, 2023.
East Palestine residents may want to wipe down surfaces in homes for possible residual material, he added.
“We’ll just have to listen to what Ohio EPA has to say about what their estimates about how much chemicals were spilled and how they are planning to monitor its movement,” Crist said. “And everybody should pay attention to where they’re getting their own water. If they have municipal supply, what they say about the level of risk.”
Monroe Trombly covers the workplace and environmental issues for The Dispatch.
drone photograph showing the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio
This photo taken with a drone shows the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 9, 2023. Credit – Gene J. Puskar—AP
On Feb. 3, 2022, a train loaded with toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, igniting a fire and forcing the controlled release and burn of vinyl chloride, a known cancer-causing compound, to avert a disastrous explosion. The environmental catastrophe killed thousands of fish in nearby streams and has triggered growing concerns over the impact on residents’ health and on the village’s surface, ground, and well water.
East Palestine joins a long list of other places in the United States facing major threats to clean water. In October 2022, a campaign called “Imagine a Day Without Water” asked Americans to stand with those who lack adequate drinking water, sanitation, or both. In one of the richest countries on Earth, the tally of those who live even without basic indoor plumbing might surprise you: more than 2 million.
The acronym WASH, which stands for “water, sanitation, and hygiene,” is often associated with nonprofits like the World Toilet Organization, working in developing parts of the globe. But the lack of access to clean drinking water, sanitary bathrooms, and treated wastewater is an ongoing emergency for many parts of the U.S. as well. In rural and urban communities throughout the country, water tainted by pollutants, woefully inadequate sewage treatment, and a lack of restrooms (or plumbing at all) have laid bare the legacy of neglect.
This photo provided by the Ohio National Guard, ONG 52nd Civil Support Team members prepare to enter an incident area to assess remaining hazards with a lightweight inflatable decontamination system (LIDS) in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 7, 2023.Ohio National Guard/AP
In her book Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, author Catherine Coleman Flowers describes how rural residents in Lowndes County, Ala., often have no means of wastewater treatment. They lack what most of us take for granted, “because septic systems cost more than most people earn in a year and tend to fail anyway in the impervious clay soil,” Flowers writes. “Families cope the best they can, mainly by jerry-rigging PVC pipe to drain sewage from houses and into cesspools outside.” With her assistance, researchers found that more than one-third of 55 stool samples collected from county residents tested positive for hookworms—intestinal parasites often associated with poor sanitation in developing countries.
To the west, historic flooding incapacitated an aging water treatment plant in Mississippi’s capital of Jackson in September 2022, leaving residents of the predominantly Black city without safe drinking water for weeks. When students returned from their holiday break in January 2023, more than half of the city’s public schools lacked water and had to hold virtual classes after cold weather again damaged the system. The majority-Black Michigan cities of Flint and Benton Harbor faced severe lead contamination in their own drinking water, a consequence of aging lead pipes leaching the toxic contaminant into the water supply. And in West Baltimore, E. coli bacteria contaminated the water, a crisis again blamed on aging water treatment infrastructure.
A 2021 analysis, “The widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States,” found that nearly half a million U.S. households lacked complete plumbing, while many more were living in communities with unclean water. Surveys suggest that the former problem is a disproportionately rural issue while the latter is disproportionately urban. “As it currently stands, counties with elevated levels of incomplete plumbing and poor water quality in America—which are variously likely to be more indigenous, less educated, older, and poorer—are continuing to slip through the cracks,” the authors of the study concluded.
Without urgent action, those cracks will only continue to widen. The 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, released by the American Society of Civil Engineering, gave a dismal D+ grade to the country’s more than 16,000 wastewater treatment plants, a significant fraction of which have reached or exceeded their design capacities. The U.S. drinking water infrastructure earned only a marginally better rating, with a C-grade.
As local and state investment in vital infrastructure has faltered, so too has federal action. Amid decades of chronic underfunding, the U.S. government’s share of capital costs on water infrastructure fell from more than 60% in 1977 to less than 10% 40 years later. A 2020 report by the American Society of Civil Engineering spelled out the growing investment gap in stark terms. But the costs of failing to update the country’s aging and deteriorating drinking water and wastewater infrastructure could be far greater, with trillions lost in preventable diseases, higher medical costs, lost productivity, and environmental pollution.
That inattention couldn’t come at a worse time. A 2021 study by Just Security, based at the NYU School of Law, explained how extreme weather events—exacerbated by global warming—are leading to even more failures of inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure. Undoing the harm will require sustained attention, especially in what environmental justice pioneer Robert Bullard at Texas Southern University describes as the “invisible” communities of color that have disproportionately shouldered the burden of environmental racism.
Effecting change will require a major investment in urban and rural systems. Nearly $800 million in federal funds have been earmarked for water projects in Jackson. And in 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture launched the Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap Community Initiative, to be piloted in Lowndes County and ten other underserved communities where residents lack basic wastewater management. The federal Inflation Reduction Act provided another $550 million for water systems in disadvantaged communities—not nearly enough but a start in reversing the decades of damage.
Well-considered projects could make a big impact by not only improving public and environmental health, but also redistributing wealth back to those same communities. More wastewater treatment plants are becoming resource recovery facilities, preventing pollution from the treated liquid waste and extracting valuable resources. Biogas and electricity, pure water, charcoal-like biochar, nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, and soil amendments can all be recovered, creating new sources of local wealth.
At the grass-roots level, organizations like PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human) are pushing for equitable access to toilets and sanitation systems. PHLUSH has positioned public restrooms as critical elements of the U.S. infrastructure, rightfully arguing that they are “as essential to community well-being as sidewalks, traffic signals and street lighting.” For people experiencing homelessness, a lack of access to sanitary toilets can be dehumanizing, dangerous, and disease-causing. The public health crisis for that segment of the population is growing throughout America, with a recent report calling for more stigma-free access to WASH facilities in rural areas.
In rural communities from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, advocates are introducing advanced biofilters and composting or incineration toilets as more affordable, sustainable, and sanitary alternatives to leaking, broken, or altogether lacking septic systems. Installing these systems in large enough numbers to make a difference will require revisions to outdated or punitive local codes and a rethinking of what might be recouped through long-term investments in our communities.
The Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, founded by Flowers, is working to “eliminate the health, economic and environmental disparities suffocating rural and marginalized communities.” Doing so will be easier with renewed local, state, and federal backing, bolstered by public awareness and the recognition that reinvesting in neglected communities helps us and our environment. Most of all, it will require a reaffirmation that access to water and sanitation are fundamental human rights—no matter where you live.
Ron DeSantis requested the medical records of trans students who sought care at Florida’s public universities. Now students are planning a statewide walkout.
Annalise Mabe – February 16, 2023
Students at the University of South Florida gather to protest the request.Justin Blanco
Ron DeSantis told all public universities in Florida to hand over the medical records of trans students who sought care.
Insider has confirmed six of the 12 universities have complied with the request.
Now, college students across the state are planning a walkout to protest the governor’s request.
DeSantis asked to see the records of any student who has experienced gender dysphoria in the past five years. In addition, he wants their ages and the dates they received gender-affirming care. The deadline to submit those records was February 10.
Insider has confirmed that University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, and the University of North Florida have complied with the request, but has yet to hear back from the rest.
Students at these universities are now planning rallies for next week along with the statewide walkout on February 23. Ben Braver, a junior at the University of South Florida and the outreach officer for the school’s College Democrats chapter, is leading the initiative, known as the Stand for Freedom Florida Walkout.
“Hate is spread when it’s innocuous, when it seems silly, and when it seems like taking a stand is an overreaction,” Braver told Insider. “We, just like any generation, need to stand for the civil rights that have already been fought for, the ones that have been won, and those which are at stake right now.”
Andy Pham, a senior and long-standing member of the University of South Florida’s Trans+ Student Union, said he sees the state’s move as a direct attack on trans rights.
“They want to legislate us out of existence,” Pham said. “That starts with attacking our healthcare, attacking our right to exist in public spaces, attempting surveillance — all of that.”
In January, 20 students at the University of South Florida held a rally protesting DeSantis’ request. They then started an online petition asking the school’s administration not to submit the medical records. The petition received over 2,600 signatures, but officials at the school said they plan to send over the records anyway. Insider hasn’t been able to confirm whether the University of South Florida sent over the data.
“As a state university, USF has an obligation to be responsive to requests from our elected officials,” the university said in a statement, according to WUSF. “However, the university will not provide information that identifies an individual patient or violates patient privacy laws.”
Among those signing on to support the walkout are the Dream Defenders, Florida College Democrats, state lawmaker Anna Eskamani, and 26-year-old Congressman Maxwell Frost.
“The governor’s abusing his power,” Frost told Insider. “He’s targeting folks that disagree with him — people who might not see eye to eye with him, marginalized communities.”
When Insider asked why the state has requested the health data of transgender college students, the state’s deputy press secretary referred to DeSantis’ second inaugural address, in which the governor stated: “We are committed to fully understanding the amount of public funding that is going toward such nonacademic pursuits to best assess how to get our colleges and universities refocused on education and truth.”
The American Civil Liberties Union reports that during this legislative session, Florida lawmakers have introduced 85 bills restricting gender-affirming healthcare, up from 43 bills last year.
Eskamani said DeSantis should prepare for student backlash.
“When students see the visual representation of their peers around them standing up and walking out, they’re going to get plugged in and help us fight back,” she said. “That will happen.”
Fetterman hospitalized to be treated for clinical depression
Al Weaver – February 16, 2023
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) checked into the hospital on Wednesday night to be treated for clinical depression, his office announced on Thursday.
“Last night, Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
“On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis,” Jentleson said.
According to Jentleson, doctors at Walter Reed “told us that John is getting the care he needs, and will soon be back to himself.”
“I stand by John Fetterman and his family. This a challenge, an unimaginable challenge, that he has faced in life. He deserves the very best in professional care and I’m sure he’ll get it at Walter Reed,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.).
Asked if Fetterman will be able to serve a full term, Durbin said, “I believe he can.”
“I believe with the proper care, which he will receive, that he’ll be back in our ranks, joining us soon,” he said.
The situation comes a little more than a week after Fetterman was hospitalized after feeling lightheaded during the Senate Democratic retreat.
A Fetterman spokesman said at the time that test results showed no evidence that he suffered a seizure, with tests also showing that he did not suffer a second stroke in less than a year.
The Pennsylvania progressive underwent a procedure shortly after his stroke in May to have a pacemaker implanted.
He also continues to deal with auditory processing issues as a result of that stroke, forcing him to rely on closed captioning in order to converse with other lawmakers.
Fetterman’s desk has been outfitted with a monitor to allow him to follow along with Senate proceedings. The upper chamber’s sergeant-at-arms has also allowed for live audio-to-text transcription for his committees.
“After what he’s been through in the past year, there’s probably no one who wanted to talk about his own health less than John. I’m so proud of him for asking for help and getting the care he needs,” Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, tweeted on Thursday.
Alexander Bolton contributed. Updated at 3:21 p.m.
Snowpack continues to grow in California, Colorado River Basin
Sharon Udasin – February 16, 2023
Deep snowpack has continued to accumulate and expand in California, the Great Basin and the Colorado River Basin, federal meteorologists reported on Thursday.
Following a series of severe storms that drenched the region earlier this winter, moderate systems with less moisture have yielded smaller but persistent gains, according to an update from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
Total “snow water equivalent” — the amount of water stored in snowpack — at a subset of monitoring stations in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona has reached the highest or second highest levels to date, NIDIS reported.
Such accumulation is now 150 percent above the mid-February average at many of these stations, according to the agency.
Snow water equivalent levels at many of the long-term snow courses in California’s central and southern Sierra Nevada have achieved record highs not seen in 60 to 90 years, the meteorologists added.
While NIDIS reported good news for snowpack in much of the West, the agency warned that much of Oregon, Washington and Idaho experienced very little growth over the past 30 days.
Most of these areas are not yet considered to be experiencing “snow drought,” but a relatively dry January has left open the possibility that such conditions could develop in the coming months, according to NIDIS.
Another location of concern cited by NIDIS is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico — including the headwaters region for the Rio Grande and Arkansas rivers.
Across this region, snow water equivalent sits at about 45 to 60 percent of quantities typical for the date, the agency reported.
A Ukrainian serviceman of the 80th Air Assault Brigade carries a shell to load into an M119 Howitzer artillery weapon to be fired towards Russian troops
Another day, and yet more worrying news from the frontline: Ukrainian troops are firing as many as 6,000 artillery shells a day to try and beat back Russia’s new offensive. It is an expenditure rate the West is struggling to feed; so high that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said that Ukraine’s forces could run out of ammunition unless they use it more sparingly. His comments remind us of an essential truth: that brute force and, critically, the ability to sustain and replenish it over an extended period, is historically what wins wars in the end.
This rule counters the orthodox interpretation of this war so far. For many, Ukraine’s early success against apparently overwhelming Russian force suggested that high-tech weaponry – and nimbleness in strategy and deployment – were enough to defeat larger forces. It also vindicated the British military consensus that we should invest in cyber, computers, unmanned vehicles, and “ranger” units to train, advise and mentor allies rather than in combat infantrymen, heavy armour and other conventional weapons – sometimes disparagingly referred to as “legacy” capabilities.
But that is not what the war has shown us at all. Indeed, it would be disastrous if Vladimir Putin’s failures fooled the West into thinking that hard military power is a thing of the past. His forces have struggled not because they have relied on the massive use of tanks, armoured vehicles, and troops against a nimbler opponent, but because those capabilities have not been deployed effectively.- ADVERTISEMENT -https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-10-1/html/r-sf-flx.html
And on the Ukrainian side, yes, cyber and drones have played a role, with electronic intelligence and airborne surveillance also pivotal. But the true game-changers have been the heavy, punchier weapons provided by the US, such as HIMARS, which have been particularly devastating against Russian logistics bases, starving front line forces of vital combat supplies. Likewise, tanks and armoured infantry fighting vehicles have shown their persistent combat utility, which is why they are at the top of Zelensky’s list for military aid.
But as in all major 20th century conflicts, it is artillery that has been the greatest life-taker on both sides in Ukraine. Not for nothing is it nicknamed the “King of Battle”.
All this underlines the foolishness of the current British defence strategy. It is not enough to invest in small amounts of high-tech weaponry which, at the expense of conventional combat power, was the emphasis of our recent defence review. Britain needs to focus also on the heavy metal of hard ground combat forces. It remains shocking that heavy machines are afforded such low priority that we are down to fewer than 200 tanks – to be reduced to 148 – and Warrior, our only armoured infantry fighting vehicle, is being phased out without obvious replacement.
Equally shocking is the lack of investment in artillery. Some have suggested that, faced with a conflict like Ukraine, the British Army would run out of ammunition in a matter of days. That is because, under budgetary pressures, we do not have anything like adequate stocks of ammunition.
Thankfully, Wallace – a true military man – seems to recognise this, and is reportedly asking for a £11 billion increase in the defence budget. But we need more than just money; we need a shift in mindset. It was embarrassing enough that, at the end of the Cold War, we had to cannibalise three armoured divisions to send just one small division to fight in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. But what is worse is that we couldn’t do anything like that today.
In Afghanistan, with equipment shortages everywhere, no attempt was made to put the defence industry on a war footing, and armoured vehicles were manufactured with all the urgency of a family saloon, at the cost of British soldiers’ lives. We see this same failure to bite the bullet in the debate on replenishing Ukrainian ammunition stocks, which should have been dealt with many months ago when it became obvious this was going to be a long war.
Every day, Russian guns are blasting out three times as many shells as Ukraine’s, but Moscow’s defence industry is on a war footing, with production ramping up and no sign of ammunition shortages. The current arms race between Russia and the West, which we are losing, should serve as a dire warning over the state of our own national defences.
Colonel Richard Kemp is a former infantry commander.
In England’s north, Ukraine’s civilians become soldiers
Andy Bruce – February 16, 2023
Ukrainian civilians receive urban warfare training at a military installation in the north of England
LONDON (Reuters) – Hundreds of Ukrainian men charged across windswept northern England in army drills on Thursday, some of more than 10,000 sent to Britain over the last year to turn them into soldiers in the war against Russia.
Under the tutelage of forces from Britain, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, among others, the Ukrainians will be taught over five weeks about the laws of armed conflict, urban and trench warfare, weaponry and battlefield medicine.
Britain’s government said on Thursday it aims to double the number taught in 2023 to 20,000, across a handful of locations around the country.
The move is one part of a ramping-up of support for Ukraine, after NATO alliance officials met the previous day to plot more assistance for Kyiv. Britain is sending 14 Challenger tanks and hundreds more missiles.
One of the recruits, a 48-year Ukrainian furniture maker who called himself Nick, said a year ago he could not have envisaged that he would be taking lessons in warfare in the north of England.
“I will have to use that knowledge to protect our country because there is a lot of blood in Ukraine nowadays and someone has to protect the motherland,” he said via an interpreter.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, saying it had to protect Russian speakers from persecution and prevent the western NATO alliance from using Ukraine to threaten Russia’s security.
Kyiv and its Western allies, including Britain, say these are baseless pretexts for an unprovoked war of acquisition.
On Wednesday, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain is training Ukrainian soldiers to fight in a more “Western way” and use less ammunition than the traditional Soviet way of fighting.
At the trench warfare grounds, where Ukrainian men in combat gear ran through muddy tunnels and dense forests with blank-firing rifles, British army corporal Carter, who declined to give his first name, said the Ukrainians were learning from the world’s top forces.
“I’m sure when they go back they’ll be able to survive and effectively win,” he said.
The programme also includes urban warfare, where men train how to fight in ordinary houses and civilian structures, and shooting practice.
Nick, the Ukrainian soldier, said he would return to Ukraine with confidence.
“I think that all of us will be ready to come back, because Ukraine really needs us, the soldiers who will stand for Ukraine,” he said.
First it was blood pressure medication. Now FDA eyes more drugs for cancer-causing chemical.
Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY – February 16, 2023
For people managing high blood pressure, recalls of the carcinogen-tainted drug quinapril might sound familiar.
Since 2018, more than 12 million bottles of blood pressure-lowering drugs such as valsartan and losartan have been removed from the market because they contained cancer-risk chemicals called nitrosamines.
The same family of contaminants triggered recalls of the heartburn drug Zantac, the diabetes drug metformin and the smoking cessation medication Chantix.
The flurry of drug recalls because of carcinogens has prompted the Food and Drug Administration to assess the scope of the problem.
The federal regulator has asked drugmakers to evaluate all products for any risk they might contain nitrosamines. Companies that identify any such risk must conduct follow-up testing, report changes and take action by October.
Nitrosamines are found in water, cured and grilled meats, dairy products and vegetables, according to the FDA. While nearly everyone is exposed to trace amounts of nitrosamines, studies link the contaminants to increased cancer risk if people are exposed to large amounts over long periods of time.
Public health experts have long been aware of the small risk associated with sustained exposure to these contaminants.
Food safety experts have worked to reduce nitrosamines in food such as cured meats to far below levels found in the 1970s and 1980s, said Dr. Stephen Hecht, a University of Minnesota professor of cancer prevention.
“The difference is with drugs it’s totally avoidable,” Hecht said. “I don’t think this could have happened in the 1970s because there was much greater awareness of the consequences.”
The FDA has said the risk for anyone exposed to nitrosamines in drugs is small.
The agency has set acceptable limits on six types of nitrosamines, which equal up to one case of cancer per 100,000 people exposed to the contaminant.
Some recalled drugs have exceeded that amount. For every 8,000 people on the highest dose of valsartan for four years, FDA scientists concluded there would be one more cancer case above average rates for that population. Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, estimated the risk to be one cancer case for every 3,000 patients.
As with the valsartan and losartan recalls in 2018 and 2019, the FDA has advised people on recalled quinapril to continue the medication until their doctor or pharmacist can identify a replacement.
Dr. Yul Ejnes, a clinical professor of medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said people might panic and immediately stop their medication when they hear about a recall. For a patient on a blood-pressure-lowering drug to manage conditions such as heart failure, halting the drug can create an immediate medical problem.
He generally recommends people call their pharmacist, who can check whether their drug is part of the recall. If it is, the pharmacist might be able to locate the same version of the drug that’s not part of the recall. Or the pharmacist and doctor can find a substitute drug.
“The key message is it’s a small risk; there’s no imminent danger,” said Ejnes, chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. “There’s no need to stop the drug. Now, we can find replacements.”
What’s being done to protect consumers?
Though the FDA said the risk is small for people who ingested these drugs, lawyers have filed thousands of lawsuits in state and federal courts on behalf of people who say they have been harmed.
In 2019, heartburn drug Zantac was removed from store shelves after the FDA found unacceptable levels of a nitrosamine called NDMA, or nitrosodimethylamine, in brand and generic versions.
In December, a Florida federal judge dismissed thousands of claims that alleged Zantac caused cancer. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs’ experts did not use reliable methods linking the drug to cancer.
More than 1,000 claims against valsartan manufacturers are pending in federal court.
Meanwhile, FDA officials said the agency expects drug manufacturers who have identified a potential risk to complete testing and report changes they’ve made by Oct. 1.
“We continue to closely evaluate this type of impurity and will continue to investigate and monitor the marketplace and manufacturing efforts to help ensure the availability of safe, quality products for U.S. consumers,” said FDA spokesman Jeremy Kahn.
Makers of generic drugs, which produce about 9 of 10 prescription drugs dispensed in the United States, have pushed back on the FDA’s required comprehensive review. The generic drug’s industry group, the Association for Accessible Medicines, said in a position paper that to review every drug would be a “Herculean task” that would divert resources and focus and could exacerbate drug shortages.
Instead, the organization wants to conduct a more efficient “risk-based” review that looks for the source of such impurities across all facets of drugmaking.
Why are we seeing so many contaminated drugs?
Independent experts say the recent recalls are partly the result of a system that values inexpensive manufacturing over drug quality.
David Light is CEO and co-founder of Valisure, an independent lab that first discovered Zantac and its generic versions contained nitrosamines. His lab’s testing led to the voluntary nationwide recall of the medication for supermarket and drug stores. Since then, his lab has flagged potential harmful contaminants in consumer products such as hand sanitizers and sunscreens.
Though the FDA sets standards for drug companies to follow, it’s up to the drug manufacturers to ensure their products are safe and free from impurities. This regulatory approach is an “honor system,” Light said, adding that “some manufacturers are going to do a better job than others.”
Generic drug manufacturers want to make inexpensive products and seek to control manufacturing costs. Insurers and consumers expect to pay less for generic medications.
“The fact that we have a broken market system where we’re only valuing price and just assuming quality certainly increases the risk for these kinds of issues to crop up,” Light said.