Nation in Brief

Americans impacted by extreme weather

Over 70% of Americans experienced extreme weather in 2023, a new poll finds.

A person jogs following heavy rains in Los Angeles in February 2024. Most Americans experienced some form of extreme weather in 2023 and recognize the events are linked to climate change, a recent Pew Research Center Survey finds.

Photo by David McNew, courtesy AFP/Getty Images

A Pew Research Center Survey, released in July, found that over the previous 12 months, most respondents experienced one or more extreme weather events, such as flooding, heavy rains, heat waves, drought or wildfire.

Half of people living in the West and South reported experiencing extended heat days, and nearly 40% of Westerners also had dealt with major wildfires. Most respondents recognized that rising sea levels, heat waves, wildfires and other extreme weather events were linked to climate change.

Eleven percent of respondents experienced mental health consequences from climate change, such as worries about flooding and social isolation from being stuck at home.

For more information, visit www.pewresearch.org.

USDA issues proposed rule on salmonella

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a proposed rule Aug. 7 to reduce salmonella illnesses in poultry.

FSIS said that raw poultry products contaminated with high levels of certain types of salmonella will be considered “adulterated,” meaning they cannot be sold. The change would cover three types of salmonella that accounted for 68% of outbreak-associated illness in the past five years.

Once enacted, the rule would require the poultry industry to implement safeguards to contamination, such as changes in testing protocol and a microbial monitoring program.

The August announcement follows an April decision by FSIS declaring salmonella an adulterant in raw breaded stuffed chicken products, which have been linked to multiple disease outbreaks.

For years, the U.S. poultry industry has knowingly sold products with potentially dangerous bacteria. The industry placed responsibility on consumers to take precautions before eating potentially tainted meat, according to food safety advocates. Many of them praised the new rule.

“The proposal is one of the greatest advances in food safety in a generation,” said Sarah Sorscher, JD, MPH, director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, in a news release. “USDA and industry have been testing for salmonella for years, but when a product tests positive, it still gets stamped ‘USDA inspected’ and shipped out to consumers.”

Salmonella in chicken, turkey and other poultry products causes over 1 million illnesses, 26,500 hospitalizations and 420 deaths each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

US infant deaths increase 3% in 2022

Infant deaths in the U.S. rose 3% in 2022, the first overall increase in two decades, a new federal report finds.

The overall U.S. infant mortality rate was 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, with almost 20,600 recorded deaths, the July 25 report from the National Center for Health Statistics found.

Infants of Black women had the highest death rates at 10.9 per 1,000 live births. Mortality for American Indian and Alaska Native infants rose the most compared to 2021, to 9 deaths per 1,000 live births, which was a 21% jump. They were followed by Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander infants, at 8.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Hispanic infants at about 4.9, white infants at 4.5, and Asian infants at 3.5.

By state, Mississippi had the highest rate of infant deaths at 9.1 per 1,000 live births, with Massachusetts the lowest at 3.3 per 1,000. About 3.6 million infants were born in the U.S. in 2022.

For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/nchs.

Federal flood models may be out of date

National flood data does not reflect actual flood risks in urban regions of the U.S., a new article says.

Published in July in Advancing Earth and Space Science, the article examined flood models for the Los Angeles region. Researchers compared newer models with those from the First Street Foundation, a non-profit that uses climate data to determine flood risk.

Researchers found that the foundation maps were outdated and failed to account for disproportionate exposure and impacts for disadvantaged communities.

The findings are significant because the federal government uses First Street Foundation findings to determine flood management, flood insurance pricing and provide risk communication to the public. Its data is also used for environmental justice strategies developed by the federal government.