Day: January 2, 2018

The record-shattering cold gripping most of the United States has been blamed for at least nine deaths in recent weeks and forecasters say the worst is yet to come. 

The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings Tuesday for 40 U.S. states.

“Arctic air mass will bring a prolonged period of much-below-normal temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills to the central and eastern U.S. over the next week,” NWS tweeted.

Hard freeze warnings remain in effect through Wednesday in typically balmy states, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Temperatures fell to -13 Celsius (8.6 Fahrenheit) near Cullman, Alabama, and -7 Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit) in Mobile, Alabama.

City officials opened warming shelters across the South as cold temperatures brought rare snow flurries as far south as Austin, Texas. In Savannah, Georgia, where the average high temperature in January is 16 Celsius (61 Fahrenheit),  the temperature hovered at -1 Celsius (30.2 Fahrenheit) at noon Tuesday.

Hospitals across the U.S. are seeing a surge in emergency room visits for hypothermia and other ailments as temperatures plunge well below freezing.

The central U.S. has borne the brunt of the frigid temperatures since the snap began around Christmas. Omaha, Nebraska, broke a record dating back more than 130 years as teeth chattered in temperatures of -29C (-20 Fahrenheit). While Aberdeen, South Dakota, saw the mercury fall to -36C (32.8 Fahrenheit), breaking a record set in 1919.

Arctic temperatures also caused problems on waterways, for both waterfowl and boats. Firefighters in Richmond, Virginia, freed a swan that was stuck for hours Monday in the middle of a frozen pond.

In New York, transportation officials suspended the Newburgh-Beacon commuter ferry service on Tuesday because of icy conditions on the Hudson River. In Florida, several water parks in Orlando are closed because of the extreme temperatures, CNN reported. 

Tourists visiting the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara Falls snapped photos of flowing water that had turned to icicles.  

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy reported frozen sharks were washing on beaches south of Boston

Meanwhile, forecasters are tracking a storm that could bring snow and ice to the East Coast later this week. The private AccuWeather forecaster said the cold snap could combine with a storm brewing off the Bahamas to bring snow and high winds to much of the Eastern Seaboard as it heads north on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Every day after work, Ariana Hawk drives to a water distribution center in Flint, Michigan, where the city provides free bottled water to its residents.

Hawk’s 4-year-old son, Sincere Smith, became the poster child for Flint’s water crisis when his face, pocked by lead-poisoning scars, appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 2016.

His mother says she still only uses bottled water when she bathes her five children and prepares food. She continues this practice even though the state of Michigan has declared the water is safe to drink, but only if filtered because not all of the lead-affected pipes have been replaced.

“Governor Snyder say that we need to use that filter because our water is safe,” Hawk says. “Our water is not safe.”

Two years after a state of emergency was declared because of lead-poisoned water, many in Flint, like Hawk, still don’t believe the water is safe.

“Some people do not trust regardless of what scientific data shows,” says Sheryl Thompson of the Flint Department of Health and Human Services.

“I even had my pipes redone,” says Flint resident Clades Beal, “but the water is still looking the same.”

Pregnant women and people younger than 21 who drank Flint water are now eligible for special health care coverage paid for by the government. So far, there is no way to reverse the effects of lead poisoning.

“In children, we are worried about decreased IQ points, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as well as other cognitive impairment,” says Nathaniel DeNicola, MD of George Washington University. “For children, there is not really a way to reverse those effects, but with proper diet, nutrition, counseling, decrease of the exposures, you can help to not make that adverse effects as impactful.”

And while Flint residents continue to receive help, including bags of food, the government works on replacing lead pipes, which was made possible by a settlement from a $97 million lawsuit brought the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Right now we are in the implementation of the settlement, of the agreement,” says Dimple Chaudhary of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We were able to get this great agreement. Again recognizing that there is still so much to do in Flint but this piece of it is a good step forward.”

“The state who in my opinion is liable and really should step up so we can get this mass construction,” says Eric Mays, a Flint City councilman. “It should be a national infrastructure project.”

Meanwhile, Flint residents continue their daily battle for clean water.

“That is not fair to the citizens,” Hawk says. “That is not fair to these kids.”
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For people who are in the workforce already, the added burden of unpaid caregiving for a family member or loved one may lead to insomnia and other sleep issues, according to a large study from Sweden.

Researchers found that the likelihood of sleep problems rose with the number of hours spent in unpaid caregiving, and when caregiving stopped, sleep disturbances were reduced.

“Informal caregiving is common, and the need for carers is expected to grow due to population aging and cuts to social care services in various countries,” said lead study author Lawrence Sacco of the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London in the UK.

Caregivers often face conflicting schedules and feel a sense of obligation, leaving some with little or no choice about when and how to help loved ones, he noted.

“Sleeping problems are common and deserve attention because people with insomnia are more likely to suffer from other physical illnesses,” Sacco told Reuters Health by email. “Sleep disturbance and tiredness are also symptoms of depression and other mood disorders.”

Sacco and his colleagues at the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University analyzed responses from 12,200 participants in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, a questionnaire mailed every two years to employed residents of Sweden aged 16 to 64. The researchers focused on surveys in 2010 through 2016.

They defined informal caregivers as those who, without pay, help or care for an elderly, ill or disabled relative other than a child or grandchild. Participants were asked how many hours they typically spend on this caregiving each week.

They were also asked how often in the prior three months they had difficulties falling asleep, repeated awakenings, premature awakenings or restless sleep.

About 85 percent of the survey participants were not caregivers, while 12 percent spent 1 to 5 hours providing care each week and 2 percent spent anywhere from 6 to 15 hours caregiving.

After adjusting for social and economic factors, as well as the caregiver’s own health status, the researchers found that sleep problems were more common among caregivers overall, and most common among those who provided more than five hours a week.

When caregiving ceased from one survey year to the following one, researchers saw a drop in reported sleep troubles.

Caregivers were more likely to be female and older, to have less education, to work less than 20 paid hours per week and to report physical pain, chronic illness, poor health and depression.

“This means that increases in informal caregiving that are expected in the years ahead as a result of population aging may hit those who are already struggling the hardest,” Sacco said.

The study team saw no difference in sleep problems between men who provided no care versus those who provided up to five hours of caregiving, but women reported sleep problems at all levels of caregiving. That could be related to the different tasks that men and women perform as caregivers, the authors write in the journal Sleep.

Future studies should look at working people in various countries, Sacco added, since Sweden uses a welfare model aimed at minimizing conflict between paid work and caregiving commitments.

“This is a wake-up call to governments and employers that they should be supporting informal caregivers better,” he said.

In addition, future research should examine what types and aspects of caregiving affect sleep the most, said Dr. Barry Oken of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Caregiving at home for someone with dementia or chronic pain may cause more problems with the care recipient’s sleep and perhaps then the caregiver’s sleep,” he told Reuters Health by email.

Oken said he is interested in finding ways to help caregivers improve their sleep. In recent studies, he and colleagues have found that mind-body practices, such as mindfulness meditation, can improve mental health in caregivers and stressed older adults.

“Be aware that sleeping may be impacted by caregiving and explore with health providers what you can do to minimize it,” he said. “What society can do to help minimize this is alluded to here but is a bigger question.”

 
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