Just a few years ago, a little-known drug called Ozempic – previously used only to treat diabetes – emerged as a promising recent drug for weight management.

The Food and Drug Administration of the Administrative Agency Approval of Ozempic in 2021 for weight reduction treatment ushered in a brand new era for the category of medication that was called Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonistsor GLP-1.

Today, GLP-1 drugs, including Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, have turn into household names and key tools within the fight against obesity: 1 in 8 American adults Say they used a GLP-1 drug, and projections show that by 2030, 1 in 10 Americans are more likely to with these medications.

Research from my lab and others now suggests that GLP-1 drugs could also treat dozens of other ailments, including cognitive problems and addiction problems. However, my colleagues and I also found previously unidentified risks.

I’m a Physician Scientist And I lead a clinical epidemiology center that addresses essentially the most pressing public health issues. My team is working to handle critical knowledge gaps about Covid-19, Long Covid, influenza, vaccines, effectiveness and risks of common medicines, and way more.

On January 20, 2025, my team published a study of greater than 2.4 million individuals who evaluated the risks and advantages of GLP-1 drugs over 175 possible health outcomes. We found that these drugs reduced the danger of 42 health outcomes, nearly 1 / 4 of the entire we analyzed. These include neurocognitive disorders similar to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, substance use and addiction disorders, coagulation disorders, and a number of other other medical conditions.

Unfortunately, we also found that GLP-1 drugs carry significant unwanted side effects and increase the danger of 19 health conditions we studied, similar to: B. Gastrointestinal problems, kidney stones and Acute pancreatitisthrough which the pancreas becomes inflamed and dysfunctional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npyvr_2_rj4

Cognitive advantages

One of the important thing health advantages was that the GLP-1 drugs reduced the danger of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and dementia. These results are consistent with other research, including evidence from preclinical studies, showing that these drugs may reduce inflammation within the brain and improve the brain's ability to form and strengthen connections between its cells, thereby improving the way in which how they convey with one another. These effects help reduce cognitive decline.

Two other key studies have shown Patients treated with a GLP-1 drug for diabetes had a lower risk of dementia.

All of those studies strongly suggest a possible therapeutic use of GLP-1 drugs within the treatment of cognitive decline. Ongoing randomized trials—the gold standard for evaluating recent drug uses—are examining the results of GLP-1 drugs in early Alzheimer's disease, with results expected later in 2025.

Curb addiction and suicidal thoughts

GLP-1 medications have also shown potential for reducing the risks of several substance use disorders similar to alcoholPresent tobaccoCannabis, opioids and stimulants. This could also be attributable to the flexibility of those medications to modulate reward pathways, impulse control, and inflammatory processes within the brain.

The effectiveness of GLP-1 drugs in curbing addictive behavior may explain their spectacular success in treating obesity, a chronic disease state that many have suggested is actually a food addiction disorder.

Our study showed a reduced risk of suicidal ideation and self-harm in people using GLP-1 medication. This finding is especially significant Previous reports of suicidal thoughts and self-harm In people using GLP-1 drugs. In response to those reports, the European Medicines Agency conducted a review of all available data and concluded that it existed No evidence of an increased risk of suicide In people using GLP-1 drugs.

Now at the least two studies, including our own, show that GLP-1 drugs actually do Reduce the danger of suicide.

Other advantages

In addition to the well-documented effects of GLP-1 drugs in reducing the risks of undesirable cardiovascular And Kidney resultsOur study shows a major effect on reducing the danger of blood clotting, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

A puzzling finding in our study is the reduced risk of infectious diseases similar to pneumonia and sepsis. Our data complement one other recent study that reached an analogous conclusion cardiovascular death and death from infectious causesespecially Covid-19.

This is especially vital as Covid-19 is taken into account to be significant cardiovascular risk factor. Whether GLP-1 drugs fully offset the increased risk of heart problems related to CoVID-19 must be thoroughly evaluated.

GLP-1 drugs might also be useful in Fatty liver disease treatment and conditions from asthma to chronic obstructive pulmonary diseasesleep apnea, OsteoarthritisDepression and eye disorders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sygijtbx2xs

Risks and challenges

Despite their broad therapeutic potential, GLP-1 drugs will not be without risks.

Gastrointestinal problems similar to nausea, vomiting, constipation and constipation and gastroesophageal reflux disease are amongst essentially the most common opposed effects related to GLP-1 drugs.

Our study also identified other risks, including low blood pressure, sleep problems, headaches, kidney stone formation, and Gallbladder disease and diseases related to the bile ducts. We also saw an increased risk of drug-induced inflammation of the kidneys and pancreas – each serious conditions that may result in long-term health problems. These results highlight the importance of careful monitoring in people taking GLP-1 drugs.

A big challenge in the usage of GLP-1 drugs is the high rates at which patients stop usingoften driven by their exorbitant costs or the occurrence of opposed effects. Stopping can result in rapid weight gain.

This is an issue because obesity is a chronic disease. GLP-1 drugs provide effective treatment but don’t address the underlying causes of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. As a result, GLP-1 drugs should be taken long-term to take care of their effectiveness and stop rebound weight gain.

In addition, many questions remain concerning the long-term effectiveness and risks of those drugs, in addition to whether there are differences between GLP-1 formulations. Answering these questions is critical to guiding clinical practice.

Ontario: Canada's car capital

Industry on the road to recovery

After greater than every week of uncertainty over the congressional election results, Republicans appear to have done so gained control of the US House of Representatives — Solidifying the primary state GOP trifecta since 2017.

But the party's razor-thin majority poses further uncertainty for each Republicans and Democrats, as a single emptiness could tip the balance for power within the nation's Capitol.

That possibility has raised questions on a rarely discussed topic: the power of aging or ailing federal lawmakers to do their jobs effectively — and even keep their seats.

The average age of the 118th Congress in November was 57.9 years within the House and 64 years within the Senate. Next 12 months, greater than a dozen California lawmakers will likely be among the many 20 oldest members of the House; Starting with 86-year-old Maxine Waters, soon to be the third-oldest member of Congress, this list of Democrats includes Nancy Pelosi, Doris Matsui and John Garamendi.

Additionally, quite a few elected officials have disclosed cancer diagnoses or other serious health problems lately. Garamendi, who represents California's eighth District, was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in July and started chemo-immunotherapy in Sacramento. The 79-year-old incumbent is returning to Congress for his ninth term after garnering support from 74% of voters within the Nov. 5 election.

There is currently just one approach to replace a sitting federal lawmaker who’s physically or mentally incapacitated but has not voluntarily resigned: a two-thirds vote to expel the member from either house, allowing his state's governor to carry a special election. That has This has never happened within the history of Congress.

More than 110 years ago, the seventeenth Amendment ensured that senators could possibly be temporarily appointed before a special election to fill a emptiness that will be declared even when a member of Congress dies or leaves office before the tip of his or her term.

But House members should not have similar transition options.

Federal lawmakers have sporadically discussed calls for a constitutional amendment that will allow the House of Representatives to fill vacant seats with temporary appointments, arguing that elected officials should have the opportunity to call a listing of successors to forestall delays of voters could turn it the wrong way up.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, one in every of the Bay Area's most distinguished Democrats, is one in every of several advocates who argue that having a substitute plan is a matter of national security and continuity of presidency.

“It's pretty obvious that if you really wanted to decapitate the Democratic government, you would have to wipe out the House of Representatives,” Lofgren said in an interview with DC on Thursday. “I don't mind mentioning it because anyone with a brain who is a foreign enemy already knows this. It’s not a secret.”

Lofgren, 76, said the approach to prevent violence from being essentially the most attractive option for bad actors to vary the bulk within the House of Representatives is to amend the Constitution to create a path to revive Congress before one Catastrophe occurs.

There's a recurring problem: A constitutional amendment requires support from two-thirds of every chamber of Congress and ratification from three-quarters of state legislatures.

Lawmakers have previously sounded the alarm that Congress's narrow margins of power could possibly be quickly upended in a disaster like Sept. 11, the 2017 GOP baseball practice shooting, the pandemic and the Jan. 6 rebel. But as tensions cooled after each of those crises, initiatives to vary House rules on vacancies were downgraded or ignored by the last seven speakers.

While Democrats were in the bulk in 2019, Lofgren was assigned to the nonpartisan caucus Select Committee on Modernizing Congresswhich adopted 97 recommendations over 4 years to make Congress a more efficient and effective institution.

That list included a review of plans to have each member of Congress create a listing of possible successors. In the event of that member's death, his state's governor would choose an individual from this list to serve until the subsequent election – the identical idea discussed in 2001, 2017 and 2021.

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., chairman of the committee that was disbanded last 12 months, said the chance that majority power could shift for months was “terrible.”

“And our reaction can't be, 'Well, that's never going to happen.' Or, 'Well, we'll deal with it when the time comes'” Kilmer said in September. “Because when the time comes, it will be too late.”

When it involves cancer or other serious illnesses, Lofgren hopes that every one of her colleagues could make a full recovery and return to work. But she also acknowledged that it was “no small thing” that many members of Congress were temporarily absent for health reasons.

“Especially with narrow majorities, death and disease could determine the majority in Congress, not the election,” Lofgren said. “You'd think people would want to prevent that too, but I think some (of the resistance) might be because people don't like to think about their own demise.”

Previous attempts to resolve the House emptiness problem and preserve government institutions have been met with outrage, even with substantive proposals for succession planning after Congress narrowly avoided disaster in September 2001. Lawmakers like Republican Rep. David Dreier were steadfast, viewing the thought as anti-democratic, despite safeguards designed to forestall one party from gaining a bonus through appointments and special elections.

There hasn't been a significant partisan fight lately, Lofgren said, but without consensus it's not plausible to achieve the required two-thirds majority.

The biggest challenge was getting anyone to concentrate.

“I could rant and rave and spend all my time on something (like a constitutional amendment) that isn't going to happen, but I'd rather spend my time working on things that have even a small chance of happening Lofgren said. “We’re just not getting any traction.”

Originally published: November 17, 2024 at 6:15 am PST

Hundreds of commercial plants with toxic pollutants are in operation The path of Hurricane Milton en path to Florida, lower than two weeks later Hurricane Helene flooded communities across the Southeast.

Milton, which is predicted to make landfall as a serious hurricane late on October ninth, is Pressure on boat and spa factories along Florida's west-central coast, together with the rubber, plastic and fiberglass manufacturers that offer them. Many of those facilities eat tens of hundreds of registered pollutants every year, including toluene, Styrene and other chemicals known to cause hostile effects on the central nervous system through prolonged exposure.

Further inland, along the Interstate 4 and Interstate 75 corridors and their feeder roads, there are lots of more manufacturers that use and store hazardous chemicals on-site. And many are in the best way of the storm's fierce winds heavy rain.

Helene heavy rain End of September 2024 flooded industrial sites across the southeast. A decommissioned nuclear power plant south of Cedar Key, Floridawas flooded by the storm surge from Helene.

In disasters like these, industrial damage can spread for days, and residents may not learn concerning the release of toxic chemicals into the water or air until days or even weeks later. in the event that they even discover.

Nevertheless, pollutant releases often occur.

After Hurricane Ian flooded Florida's west coast in 2022, runoff spilled containing thousands and thousands of gallons of sewage in addition to hazardous materials from damaged storage tanks and native fertilizer mining facilities visible from spaceand spills over the coastal wetlands into the Gulf of Mexico. A 12 months earlier, Hurricane Ida triggered More than 2,000 reported chemical accidents.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, floodwaters inundated chemical plants near Houston. Some caught fire when the cooling systems failedLarge amounts of pollutants are released into the air. emergency services and residents, Those who didn't know what risks they could be exposed blamed the chemicals to cause respiratory diseases.

Many varieties of Toxins can spread, settle and alter the long-term health and environmental safety of surrounding communities – often without residents being aware of it. Our team from Environment sociologists And Anthropologists has mapped hazardous industrial sites across the country and matched them with predicted hurricane impact maps to assist communities hold nearby facilities accountable.

Major Gulf Coast polluters are at grave risk.”

The risks posed by industrial facilities are most evident on the U.S. Gulf Coast, where there are numerous large petrochemical complexes Are bundled in peril. These refineries, factories and storage facilities are sometimes built along rivers or bays to permit easy accessibility for shipping.

But these rivers may also cause storm surges, which may raise the ocean several meters during hurricanes. Helene's storm surge was over 10 feet above the bottom in Big Bend, Florida 6 feet in Tampa Bay. With Milton, meteorologists warn of 1 10 to fifteen foot storm surge in Tampa Bay.

A recent study found evidence of this two to thrice more pollution fewer releases during hurricanes within the Gulf of Mexico than during normal weather from 2005 to 2020.

The impacts of those pollutant emissions disproportionately affect low-income communities and folks of color, further exacerbating the situation Environmental health risks.

Why residents may not know concerning the release of toxic substances

The statistics are disturbing, but they receive little attention. This is because hazardous releases remain largely invisible as a consequence of limited disclosure requirements and little public information. Even Emergency responders They often don't know exactly which dangerous chemicals they might be confronted with in emergency situations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires major polluters to file paperwork just very general information about chemicals and risks on site of their Risk management plans. Partly large areas Fuel storage facilitiesFor example, those that transport liquefied natural gas will not be even obliged to accomplish that.

These risk management plans describe “worst case” scenarios and ought to be publicly available. But in point of fact we’re and others found them difficult accessible, heavily edited and housed in federal reading rooms with limited access. The reason for that is local officials and national scientific review panels The secrecy often serves to guard the facilities from terrorist attacks.

Adding to this opacity is the indisputable fact that many states, including those within the Gulf, are lifting restrictions on the discharge of pollutants when declaring emergencies. Meanwhile, real-time incident notifications are provided by the National Response Center – the federal government’s final repository for all chemical discharges into the environment – ​​typically with a delay of every week or more,

We imagine this limited public information concerning the increasing chemical threats posed by our changing climate ought to be on the front page every hurricane season. Communities should pay attention to the risks related to housing vulnerable industrial infrastructure, especially as rising global temperatures increase the chance of utmost rainfall events strong hurricanes.

Nationwide risk mapping to boost awareness

To help communities understand their risks, our team at the brand new Center for Coastal futures and adaptive resilience examines how industrial communities in flood-prone areas across the country can higher adapt to such threats, each socially and technologically.

Our interactive map shows where increased future flood risks could flood the key polluters we discover using EPAs Inventory of toxic releases.

There are several hotspots within the United States with clusters of flood-prone polluters. The largest include the Ship Channel in Houston, the waterfront steel industry in Chicago and the ports in Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey.

But as Helene revealed, there can be big concerns in less obvious places. Inland, particularly within the mountains, runoff can quickly turn normally calm rivers into rapidly rising torrents. The French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina rose about 12 feet during Helene and in 12 hours set a brand new flood stage record.

When hurricanes and tropical storms head toward the U.S., our interactive maps show where the largest polluters are positioned within the storm's projected impact cone. The maps discover dangerous, flood-prone facilities right down to the address, anywhere within the country.

Knowledge is step one

Knowing where these sites are positioned is just step one. Often it’s as much as the communities themselves, lots of them already overexposed and historically underservedto boost concerns and call for strategies to mitigate the health, economic and environmental risks that will arise from industrial sites liable to flooding and other damage.

These discussions cannot wait until disaster strikes. When communities understand where these risks might lie, they will take motion now to construct a safer future.

In just a couple of years, brand-name injectable medications comparable to Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have skyrocketed to fame Billion dollar annual sales for weight reduction in addition to controlling blood sugar levels and reducing the danger of heart disease.

But the worth of those injections is high: they cost about $800-$1,000 per 30 daysand when used alone for weight reduction, they are usually not covered by most insurance firms. Both medications mimic the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1 to control blood sugar and reduce food cravings. They can only be taken with a health care provider's prescription.

The Food and Drug Administration announced an official shortage of energetic ingredients in these drugs in 2022, but on October 2, 2024, the agency announced that this is able to be the case The shortage of the drug tirzepatide has been resolvedthe energetic ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Despite the increasing demand and limited supply of those medications, no generic versions can be found. This is because of the patents for semaglutide – the energetic ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, which remains to be briefly supply – and tirzepatide won’t expire until 2033 and 2036respectively.

As a result, Non-branded alternatives Medicines, available with or with no prescription, flood the market. Still, these products pose real risks for consumers.

I’m a pharmacist Who is investigating weaknesses in federal supervision? recipe and over-the-counter medications And Dietary supplements within the USA My research group recently investigated loopholes which enable alternative products for weight reduction to enter the market.

High demand is driving GLP-1 wannabes newbies

The complement market is attempting to capitalize on GLP-1 demand with pills, teas, extracts and all types of other products claim to provide similar effects just like the brand names at a less expensive price.

Products containing the herb berberine only provide a a couple of kilos of weight reductionwhile many contain weight reduction supplements Stimulants comparable to sibutramine and laxatives comparable to phenolphthaleinthat increase the danger Heart attacks, strokes And Cancer.

The role of compounding pharmacies

Unlike the dietary supplements disguised as GLP-1 weight reduction products, pharmacies that manufacture supplements can produce customized versions of products that contain the identical energetic ingredients as the unique for patients who for some reason are neither branded nor Can use generic products.

These pharmacies may produce alternative versions of brand-name medications when official drug shortages exist.

Because demand for GLP-1 drugs far exceeds supply, compounding pharmacies legally produce a drug Variety of various semaglutide and tirzepatide products.

These products may are available different versions than those offered by brand manufacturers, comparable to vials containing powder that have to be dissolved in liquid, or as tablets or nasal spray.

Just like with brand name medications, you will have a legitimate prescription to acquire one. The prices range from $250 to $400 per 30 days – still a high price for a lot of consumers.

Compounding pharmacies must comply FDA sterility and quality production methodsbut these rules are usually not as strict for compounding pharmacies as they’re for business manufacturers of generic drugs.

In addition, the products that pharmacies produce are manufactured don’t must be tested on humans on safety or effectiveness, as is the case with branded products.

Even with compounded drug forms, getting the proper dosage is usually a challenge.

Companies using the system

For individuals who can't afford a compounded pharmacy product or can't get a legitimate prescription for semaglutide or tirzepatide, opportunistic corporations are stepping in to fill the gap. These include “peptide companies,” manufacturers that produce non-FDA-approved copycat versions of the drugs.

From November 2023 to March 2024, my team conducted a study to evaluate which of those peptide corporations were selling semaglutide or tirzepatide products. We searched the web for these peptide corporations and gathered details about what they sell and what their sales practices are.

We found that peptide sellers a Loophole for the sale of those drugs. On their web sites, the businesses state that their drugs are “for research use only” or “not for human consumption,” but they do nothing to confirm that the buyers are researchers or that the product is meant a research institution goes.

Reading the comment sections on company web sites and targeted ads on social media, it's clear that each buyers and sellers understand the farce. Unlike drug pharmacies, these peptide sellers don’t provide the materials you want to dissolve and inject the drug, don’t provide instructions, and typically don’t answer questions.

Because peptide sellers supposedly don’t sell to consumers, they don’t require a legitimate prescription and sell consumers the quantity of medication they want to buy. Even if an individual has an eating disorder, comparable to: Anorexia nervosaThe corporations are completely satisfied to sell you a semaglutide or tirzepatide product with no prescription. The average prices of those peptide products range from $181 to $203 per 30 days.

Base regulations

Peptide sellers would not have to stick to the principles or regulations that drug manufacturers or compounding pharmacies follow. Many corporations claim that their products are 99% pure, but a independent investigation of three corporations Products from August 2023 to March 2024 revealed that the purity of the products was far lower than promised.

A product contained endotoxin – a toxic substance produced by bacteria – suggesting it was contaminated with microbes. Additionally, the products' promised dosages were reduced by 29 to 39%. Poor purity may cause discomfort to patients Fever, chills, nauseaSkin irritation, infections and low blood pressure.

In this study, some corporations didn't ship the drug in any respect and told buyers they might must pay an extra fee to get the product through customs.

If a consumer is is broken by an inferior productit could be difficult to sue the vendor because the products specifically state that they’re “not intended for human consumption.” Ultimately, consumers are tricked into spending money on products which will never arrive, could cause an infection, may not have the proper dosage, and will not contain instructions on safely use or store the product.

Will prices for branded products fall?

To combat these alternative sellers, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly began offering an alternate version of his brand name Zepbound Weight loss product in September 2024.

Instead of traditional injection pens, which cost greater than $1,000 a month to provide, this product is available in vials that the patient picks up and injects themselves. For patients taking 5 milligrams of Zepbound each week, the vial products would cost $549 per 30 days if patients purchase it through the corporate's online pharmacy and might prove they would not have insurance coverage for the drug.

After one Grilling on Capitol Hill In September 2024, the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk got here under intense pressure to supply patients without prescription insurance a less expensive product for its brand name Wegovy.

Additional brand-name drugs containing GLP-1 agonists are expected to come back onto the market in the following few years. As of October 2024, a A handful of those products are in late-stage clinical trialswith energetic ingredients comparable to Retatrutid, Survive And Ecnoglutideand greater than 18 other drug candidates are in earlier stages of development.

As latest pharmaceutical corporations enter this market, they have to offer patients lower prices than Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to be able to gain market share. This is the most definitely medium-term solution to scale back the fee of GLP-1 drugs and eliminate drug shortages in the marketplace.

Olympic medalists from North Korea, South Korea and China posed for a selfie after the table tennis mixed doubles medal ceremony.

China's Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin beat North Korea's Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong in the ultimate to take gold, while South Korea took bronze, beating Hong Kong's Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin pair.

South Korean Lim Jong-hoon took the group photo of all of the medal winners, all smiling broadly. The picture was taken with a South Korean Samsung phone.

“I congratulated them when they were introduced as silver medalists,” Lim said after the photo, in quotes picked up by Korean media.

South Korea and North Korea each claim to be the only real legitimate government of the complete Korea, which has been divided since September 1945. There are military tensions between the 2 states and the border is heavily fortified.

Before these Olympic Games, all personal items, including mobile phones, were banned from medal ceremonies and pictures could only be taken by official media.

However, an agreement between Samsung and the IOC allows the usage of their products in ceremonies. “Thanks to the foldable nature of the Galaxy Z Flip6, athletes can take creative selfies from different angles,” Samsung said in a press release this week.

Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip6, which was handed out to participating athletes ahead of its official launch earlier this month, comes pre-installed with the Athlete 365 app and offers the flexibility so as to add participants' “winning selfies.”

The shared photo was taken just days after 143 South Korean athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Koreans on the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to issue a “deep apology” for the incident during which the South Korean delegation was announced because the “Democratic People's Republic of Korea”, which is the complete official name of North Korea, as their boat passed along the Seine. The official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea.

North Korea, which is an element of its delegation for the primary time since 2016 with 16 athletes (it was not represented on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic), was presented extensively in French and English later in this system.

PHOENIX — Ron Falk lost his right leg, underwent extensive skin grafting on his left and remains to be recovering after collapsing a 12 months in a while the sweltering asphalt outside a Phoenix supermarket where he had stopped for a chilly lemonade during a heat wave.

Now confined to a wheelchair and having lost his job and residential, the 62-year-old is recovering at a medical recovery center for patients with nowhere else to go. There he’s receiving physical therapy and treatment for a bacterial infection in what stays of his right leg, which is simply too swollen to support the prosthetic he had hoped would allow him to walk again.

“If you can't cool down somewhere, the heat gets to you,” says Falk, who lost consciousness from heat stroke. “Then you don't know what's going to happen, like in my case.”

Hot sidewalks and unshaded playgrounds pose the danger of burns as air temperatures reach recent summer highs in Southwest cities like Phoenix, which just recorded the most well liked June on record. The average each day high was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, with no 24-hour periods below 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Young children, the elderly and the homeless are particularly prone to contact burns, which might occur inside seconds when the skin touches a surface that’s 82 °C (180 °F).

Since early June, 50 people have been hospitalized with such burns and 4 have died at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix. Valleywise Health Medical Center operates the most important burn center within the Southwest and treats patients from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Southern California and Texas, in response to its director, Dr. Kevin Foster. About 80 percent of those injured got here from the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Last 12 months, the middle admitted 136 patients with superficial burns from June to August, and 85 in the course of the same period in 2022, Foster said. Fourteen died. One in five was homeless.

“Last year's record heat wave left an alarming number of patients with life-threatening burns,” Foster said of a 31-day period that included all of July last 12 months when temperatures reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit or more during Phoenix's hottest summer on record.

A map released this week by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California highlights just how hot surfaces like asphalt and concrete are getting within the Phoenix metropolitan area. The data visualizing land surface temperatures was collected on the afternoon of June 19 by a NASA instrument aboard the International Space Station that measures thermal infrared emissions from the Earth's surface. The yellows, reds and purples of hot urban areas on the map contrast with cooler green areas.

In Las Vegas, where summer temperatures commonly reach triple digits, 22 people were hospitalized at University Medical Center's Lions Burn Care Center in June alone, spokesman Scott Kerbs said. That's nearly half the variety of 46 hospitalizations during all of last summer.

Like Phoenix, Las Vegas experiences hours of desert sun, frying outdoor surfaces like asphalt, concrete, and metal doors on cars, in addition to playground equipment like swings and jungle gyms.

Victims of superficial burns often include children who’ve been injured by walking barefoot on scorching hot concrete or touching hot surfaces, adults who’ve collapsed on the sidewalk while drunk, and elderly individuals who have fallen to the sidewalk resulting from heat stroke or other medical emergency.

Some don’t survive.

Thermal injuries were among the many primary or contributing causes of 645 heat-related deaths last 12 months in Maricopa County, which incorporates Phoenix.

One of the victims was an 82-year-old woman with dementia and heart disease who was admitted to a hospital in a Phoenix suburb after she was found on the scorching hot asphalt on an August day in temperatures as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

With a body temperature of 40.5 degrees, the girl was admitted to hospital with second-degree burns on her back and right side, covering 8% of her body. She died three days later.

Many patients with superficial burns also suffered potentially fatal heat stroke.

The emergency department at Valleywise Hospital recently introduced a brand new protocol for all heat stroke victims: to quickly lower the patient's body temperature, they’re immersed in a bag of ice slurry.

Patients with skin burns often had a protracted recovery time, requiring quite a few skin grafts and other surgeries after which spending months recovering in nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities.

Bob Woolley, 71, suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands, arms, legs and torso when he stumbled into the scorching hot rock garden within the backyard of his Phoenix home wearing only swimming trunks and a tank top.

“The ordeal was extremely painful; it was almost unbearable,” said Woolley, who was within the Valleywise burn center for several months. He said he considers himself “95% recovered” after extensive skin grafts and physical therapy and has resumed some previous activities, akin to swimming and riding motorcycles.

Some of the burn victims in each Phoenix and Las Vegas were children.

“In many cases, it involves young children walking or crawling on hot surfaces,” Kerbs said of the patients stationed on the Las Vegas center.

Foster said about 20 percent of the skin burn victims treated on the Phoenix center, each inpatients and outpatients, are children.

Young children don’t realize the damage that a hot metal doorknob or a scorching hot sidewalk can do.

“Because they're playing, they're not paying attention,” says urban climatologist Ariane Middel, assistant professor at Arizona State University and leader of the SHaDE Lab, a research team studying the consequences of urban heat.

“Maybe they don’t even notice that it’s hot.”

When measuring the surface temperatures of playground equipment, the team found that a slide at 37.7 °C (100 °F) can heat as much as 71.1 °C (160 °F) without shade, but a canopy can reduce that temperature to 43.8 °C (111 °F). A rubber ground cover can reach as much as 86.6 °C (188 °F), a handrail can heat as much as 48.8 °C (120 °F), and concrete can reach as much as 55.5 °C (132 °F).

Many parks within the Phoenix metropolitan area have covered picnic tables and plastic sheets over playground equipment that keep metal or plastic surfaces as much as 30 degrees cooler. But that's not the case in lots of parks, Middel says.

She said cooler wood chips are higher for the ground than rubber mats, that are designed to guard children from head injuries but absorb heat within the scorching sun. Like rubber, artificial turf heats up faster than asphalt.

“We need to think about alternative surface types because most of the surfaces we use for our infrastructure are thermal sponges,” said Middel.

Hot concrete and asphalt also pose a risk of burns for pets.

While recovering at Circle the City in Phoenix, a short-term care facility where he was sent after being released from Valleywise's burn unit, Falk said he never imagined the Phoenix heat could cause him to collapse on the sweltering asphalt in shorts and a T-shirt.

Because he had no ID or phone with him, nobody knew where he was for months. He still has a protracted technique to go, but still hopes to resume a few of his old life, working for an entertainment concessionaire.

“I went into a kind of downward spiral,” Falk admitted. “When I finally woke up, I thought, 'Hey, wait, I lost a leg.' But that doesn't mean you're useless.”

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Michael Phelps, 39; Monica Potter, 53; Mike Tyson, 58; David Alan Grier, 68.

Happy birthday: Set boundaries, have a goal, and develop a disciplined mindset that may assist you to stay on course. Use your connections, influence, and persuasive powers, and also you'll zigzag through any obstacle course you encounter. Controlling your emotions shall be difficult but doable, and your success will depend upon how well you take care of those that provide you with trouble. Avoid joint ventures, subscriptions, and shared spending. Your numbers are 9, 16, 23, 29, 31, 40, 47.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19): Take care of your responsibilities first, otherwise someone will point them out to you. Once you've cleared your schedule, take motion when something catches your interest. Change is probably not welcome, but something good will come from tweaking what isn't working properly. 3 stars

TAURUS (April 20 – May 20): Turn up the quantity, get moving, and solve problems. Do your best and improve your life and your interactions with family members. Bring issues to the forefront and foster higher relationships. Be open to what's happening and respond with compassion. Romance is on the rise. 3 stars

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20): Listen, learn from experts, and apply your knowledge to elements of your life which might be under attack or causing emotional turmoil. Your strength lies in the power to simply accept and thrive with change. Move in a direction that encourages growth and recent beginnings, and don't look back. 4 stars

CANCER (June 21 – July 22): Treat yourself to something that brings you joy. Use your imagination, surround yourself with creative people, or chat with someone who can offer helpful suggestions that may guide you in a healthy direction. Personal and physical progress is obvious. Make romance and self-improvement your priorities. 2 stars

LEO (July 23 – August 22): Be open-minded, but don't give away personal information, secrets, or plans. Giving an excessive amount of away will get you stuck. Let your persuasive charm guide you as you gather information that may further your interests. Be smart, take your time, and play to win. 5 stars

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22): Be meticulous. When it involves who wins, knowledge comes first. Focus your energy on attending to the reality and be keen about showing what . Your attention to detail will attract the interest of somebody who can assist you to get what you would like. 5 stars

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Focus on what you possibly can accomplish and put every little thing else on hold. Pay attention to how your family members are feeling and take the time to work out how you possibly can make a difference without jeopardizing your relationship. An alternative proposal that encourages a contract change looks promising. 3 stars

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Connect, interact, and learn from conversations. New information will spark your imagination and encourage you to participate. Your input will get you a seat on the table and let you make decisions that may impact your lifestyle. Love and romance are on the rise. 3 stars

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21): Opportunity is knocking; be able to reap the benefits of every little thing that comes your way. Review information and adjust anything that doesn't feel right. Intelligence and research are obligatory to avoid spending that is probably not obligatory. Get a couple of quote or opinion. Opt for cost efficiency. 3 stars

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19): Follow the trail that captures your attention. Interacting with someone who fascinates you’ll result in interesting conversations and provide you with the possibility to explore possibilities. Home improvements that provide you with more room to pursue a passion look promising. Love and romance are in the celebrities. 5 stars

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18): Stop, listen, and consider what you're going to do next. You don't must follow in other people's footsteps. Think for yourself and expand your interests. Take the trail that results in something you enjoy. Choose peace over discord and do your personal thing. 2 stars

PISCES (February 19 – March 20): Get on the market and socialize. The people you meet will make suggestions that may spark your imagination and take you in exciting directions. Personal gains and artistic pursuits will result in financial opportunities and a probability to lift your profile. Love is on the rise. 4 stars

Birthday child: You are appealing, sensitive and empathetic. You are disciplined and productive.

1 star: Avoid conflicts, work behind the scenes. 2 stars: You can achieve something, but don't depend on others. 3 stars: Focus and you’ll achieve your goals. 4 stars: Set high goals, start recent projects. 5 stars: Nothing can stop you, aim for gold.

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The damage to the Orion capsule from the Artemis I mission is already a priority for NASA as it really works to make the Artemis II mission protected for humans. But a brand new agency report revealed the extent of the issue, including quite a few cracks in Orion's critical heat shield.

The NASA Office of Inspector General Report outlined six issues that require NASA's attention, with heat shield damage discovered after the uncrewed Artemis I test mission in late 2022 topping the list.

NASA found greater than 100 spots on the warmth shield where the so-called carbon layer “ruptured, breaking the spacecraft into fragments that left a trail of debris instead of melting as intended,” the report said. Images published for the primary time within the report showed the extent of the damage.

It says re-entry speeds emanating from a lunar orbit reach nearly 25,000 miles per hour, which is about 40% faster than the speeds astronauts face when coming back from low-Earth orbit on SpaceX's Crew Dragon. The heat shield must withstand temperatures of roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Although there was no evidence of an impact on the crew module, the amount and size of the debris may have caused enough structural damage to cause one of Orion's parachutes to fail,” the report said. “If the same problem occurs on future Artemis missions, it could result in the loss of the vehicle or crew.”

“Given the high risks of the first manned flight, the agency is working to identify and mitigate all risks and challenges to ensure the safe return of the Artemis II crew and to support NASA's significant investment in Artemis vehicles and systems protect,” the report says.

Artemis II is scheduled to be Orion's first crewed mission, launching on the Space Launch System rocket no sooner than September 2025 and can launch from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B. The test flight with 4 astronauts will go to the moon and back without landing. The aim is to point out that it may well fly safely with people on board.

The report was released May 1 by independent NASA mission investigators as a watchdog on mission hazards and price realities. It says that by the point Artemis II launches, NASA can have spent greater than $55 billion on the SLS, Orion and Exploration Ground Systems programs, which include the mobile launch vehicle stationed at KSC.

The report specifically recommends that NASA “ensure that the root cause of the release of coal from the Orion heat shield is well understood in advance.” [the] “Start of the Artemis II mission.”

NASA officials say they’re committed to repairing the warmth shield, but acknowledge they might not find a way to find out the basis explanation for the damage. The report warned that NASA's plan to think about changing Orion's re-entry trajectory or redesigning its heat shield could also pose unknown risks.

The second advice is to further analyze NASA's planned changes to Orion's separation bolts that connected the crew module to the service module. The service module can be disposed of immediately before reentry, and NASA noted “unexpected melting and erosion that created a gap that resulted in increased heating inside the bolt during Orion's reentry.”

The third point has to do with damage to the mobile launch vehicle because the Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, requiring NASA's Exploration Ground Systems to “conduct additional verification and validation of launch imaging equipment prior to launch attempts.”

The final three recommendations were to review landing operations procedures to extend the probabilities that dropped hardware, including the parachutes that sank within the sea on Artemis I, wouldn’t be lost. to resolve erroneous telemetry data encountered on this flight; and be sure that any design changes fit inside a schedule for upcoming SLS and Orion stacking operations at KSC's vehicle assembly constructing.

NASA is commended for working to deal with all the problems already. NASA's response said it had already finalized plans for the ultimate three recommendations. NASA expects to finish plans to repair the warmth shield and screws by June and make changes to the mobile launch vehicle by September.

But the report warns that plans to repair the Orion problems may lead to further delays and price increases, corresponding to the danger of getting to slow rocket and spacecraft stacking operations on the VAB.

“Human spaceflight is inherently risky, and the Artemis campaign is no exception,” the report said. “We urge NASA leadership to continue to balance the achievement of its mission objectives and schedule with the priority of the safety of its astronauts and to take the time necessary to avoid undue risks.”

Artemis II has already been pushed back from a planned launch in November of this yr to September 2025 on the earliest. Flying on the mission are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, in addition to Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Glover is glad to have extra eyes on such a sophisticated mission.

“I love the guard dogs. “I think it's great that we have this thing called inspectors general,” he said last weekend while at KSC ahead of the Boeing Starliner's attempted launch.

The report “has given new energy to this thing, but we've been following it since they found it,” Glover said. “We noticed the problems with Artemis I before we were assigned to Artemis II. That's why I have faith in this team. The people leading this investigation know what they're doing. However, we still have a lot of work to do.”

Glover indicated that this could include not having a heat shield with fist-sized holes in it, and replied, “Amen.”

He praised NASA's recent Moon to Mars Program Office, established in early 2023, which is designed to bring together all the Artemis program's various stakeholders, including major contractors Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SpaceX and Axiom Space, to make sure everyone seems to be aligned keep the identical schedule.

Its formation just months before Artemis II was scheduled to launch raised alarms for Glover, who identified that the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report discussed the hazards of organizational changes near a mission.

And while the brand new program consolidates redundancies in order that mission objectives are very clear, “it's still something for us to be aware of as we tiptoe into areas that have previously caused us tragedy.”

Changing lines of authority near the mission carries risks, he said.

“We are a new team. People need to learn to be open and transparent,” he said. “It's not in people's natural state to just say, 'Hey, let me tell you what I messed up today.' And now they have a new boss and they say, 'I just got comfortable telling the old boss.'”

Pushing the launch date to 2025 will not be a delay, Glover said, only a correction.

“I am not committed to this data. I am indebted to Dionna, Genesis, Maya, Joia and Corinne and Nala. This is my family and my dog,” he said. “And yes, I work for Bill Nelson, but at the end of the day we work for the people. …Sorry to be so crass, but I don’t give a shit about this date.”