Day: November 8, 2023

Transsexual people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop. 

The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague, however, in response to a question about whether a same-sex couple could have a church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother. 

Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro, Brazil, sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBTQ people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony. 

The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department’s head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernandez, and approved by Pope Francis on October 31. They were posted in Italian on the department’s website Wednesday. 

Francis, 86, has tried to make the church more welcoming to the LGBTQ community without changing church teachings, including one saying that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are. 

In response to a question of whether transsexual people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is “no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful.” 

It said a transsexual people could be godparents at a baptism at the discretion of the local priest, as well as a witness at a church wedding, but the local priest should exercise “pastoral prudence” in his decision. 

A person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current church canonical legislation that contained no prohibition against it. 

The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the church for infants, children or adults. 

The Brazilian bishop sought guidance on whether a same-sex couple who had adopted a child or obtained it from a surrogate mother could have that child baptized in a Catholic ceremony. 

The response said that for the child of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there had to be “a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion.” 

There was a similarly nuanced response to a question about whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a church baptism. It said the person had to “lead a life that conforms to the faith.” 
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A new study by the World Health Organization and International Labour Organization finds nearly 1 in 3 deaths from non-melanoma skin cancer are caused by working in the sun.

“We know that around the world, 1.6 billion workers are exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation globally. Depending on where you live, you will have more or less protection,” said Maria Neira, director of the WHO department of environment, climate change and health.

“The number of those deaths from occupational non-melanoma skin cancer burden has doubled over the last 20 years and, of course, unfortunately, we can expect to see many cases in the future. It takes a number of years to develop a cancer,” she said.

The joint study issued Wednesday provides data for 183 countries and produces the first comprehensive global picture of the extent of this growing occupational health problem. Authors of the study say governments can use their data to identify unsafe workplaces and design policies to protect workers from the harmful effects of the sun’s rays.

According to the joint estimates, 1 in 4 of the 1.6 billion people of working age was exposed to UV radiation while working outdoors in 2019 and nearly 19,000 died from non-melanoma skin cancer.

“We pooled a large number of case control studies, epidemiological evidence in three regions of the world, 90,000 people, and found there was a 60% increased risk” of developing non-melanoma skin cancer among working people exposed to solar UV radiation, said Frank Pega, a technical officer in the WHO department of environment, climate change and health, and the report’s lead author.

“It is not only a question of life and death,” he said, “but actually skin cancer is extremely disabling. Skin cancer poses a lot of lesions on your skin and your face, and your arms and is highly visible. It is a really big burden for people — half a million lives lost every year to this horrible risk factor.”

The report says occupational exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is estimated to have decreased by almost one-third between 2000 and 2019. However, it noted that during this same period, “there has been an 88% increase in non-melanoma skin cancer deaths and a 77% increase in non-melanoma skin cancer” due to occupational ultraviolet radiation.

Pega said that these large work-related occupational skin cancer deaths were very unusual in that they were almost equally distributed around the world.

“Skin cancer normally is concentrated in high income countries, in the European and North American regions and in Australasia. But this burden is different. It actually affects low and middle-income countries.

“So, it is really a global health issue, and it actually is equally present in Africa as it is in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia,” he said. “So that is very new and that is something that we have to think about.”

The WHO and ILO are calling for action to mitigate this serious workplace hazard.

“There are effective solutions to protect workers from the sun’s harmful rays, and prevent their deadly effects,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

Echoing the WHO chief’s sentiments, Joaquim Pintado Nunes, head of the ILO’s Labor Administration, inspection and occupation safety and health branch, said, “We know that preventing death from this kind of exposure is quite cost effective and does not require much.”

“For example, organizing work in a way to avoid workers to be exposed and working under the sun at given hours of the day, providing shade for the workers, hydrating also the workers while they work, providing clothing that will also cover the skin to protect it from the sun,” he said. “I would say with a very minor investment, this impressive number of 19,000 deaths could, as a matter of fact, be prevented.”

While agreeing with the substance of these measures, Pega observed that a large category of workers is cut out of these protections because of inequalities baked into the system.

“We cannot forget informal economy workers,” he said. “These are 61% of all workers globally and they are likely much more commonly to be outdoor workers. So, they will be most affected, and often not have any protections from employers because they do not have one or actually any protections from labor, labor laws or labor institutions because there is no employer to work with.”

WHO and ILO warn these deaths will continue to increase unless governments, employers, and workers’ representatives cooperate to enact life-saving policies that will protect workers from the sun’s harmful rays.
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A new version of the popular diabetes treatment Mounjaro can be sold as a weight-loss drug, U.S. regulators announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, or tirzepatide. The drug helped dieters lose about a quarter of their body weight, or 27 kilograms, in a recent study.

Zepbound is the latest diabetes drug approved for weight loss, joining Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, a high-dose version of its diabetes treatment Ozempic.

The FDA approved Lilly’s drug for people who are considered obese, with a body mass index of 30 or higher, or those who are overweight with a related health condition, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. The drug should be paired with a healthy diet and regular exercise, the FDA said.

In the U.S., at least 100 million adults and about 15 million children are considered obese.

The drug tirzepatide in Zepbound and Mounjaro and semaglutide in Wegovy and Ozempic work by mimicking hormones that kick in after people eat to regulate appetite and the feeling of fullness. Both imitate a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1. Tirzepatide targets a second hormone, called glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.

Zepbound appears to spur greater weight loss than Wegovy. Approved for chronic weight management in 2021, Wegovy helped people lose about 15% of their body weight or 15.4 kilograms, according to study results.

“This would be the most highly efficacious drug ever approved for the treatment of obesity,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine expert at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Touted by celebrities and on social media, semaglutide and tirzepatide have been in such demand that their manufacturers have struggled to keep up. Both have been listed on the FDA’s drug shortage site for months. All strengths of tirzepatide are currently listed as available, but a company spokesperson said that could vary by location and demand.

Side effects of the new weight-loss drug include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, constipation and other gastrointestinal problems. In the most recent published trial, about 10% of people taking tirzepatide dropped out of the study because of such problems, compared to about 2% of people taking dummy shots.

While experts lauded approval of Zepbound, they worried that it wouldn’t necessarily mean greater access to the drug, which has been prescribed off-label to help people pare pounds.

“Most patients won’t be able to afford Zepbound without insurance coverage and many health plans exclude obesity care,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at New York’s Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of company focused on obesity treatment.

Eli Lilly and Co. said the list price will be about $1,000 a month, the same as Mounjaro. Medicare is prohibited from covering drugs specifically for weight loss.

Kelly Burns, 50, of St. Petersburg, Florida, lost nearly 45 kilograms using tirzepatide after joining a study of the drug to treat obesity in 2021. When testing ended and she no longer had access to the medication, she struggled, but eventually lost another 23 kilograms.

“My whole life is completely different,” she said. Her health measurements improved and her confidence soared. Now that it is approved for weight loss, Burns plans to ask her insurance company about coverage.

“It would be ridiculous not to,” she said, adding: “I want to stay this way as long as I possibly can.”
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A new United Nations report says the amount of fossil fuels produced in 2030 will far exceed the levels needed for the world to alleviate global warming. 

The study by the U.N. Environment Program says 20 of the world’s major fossil fuel producing nations are on track to produce about 110% more oil, gas and coal in 2030 than the amounts consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius.

Holding down global temperatures to a 1.5 degree increase compared with pre-industrial levels was a key goal of the global climate pact signed in Paris in 2015. 

The 20 countries in the report include Australia, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, which account for 82% of fossil fuel production and 73% of consumption.  

The report says none of them have committed to reducing production of oil, gas and coal to levels that would meet the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold. Many of those countries have continued to offer government subsidies or tax breaks to fossil fuel companies, while others produce oil through state-owned enterprises. 

The report was also produced by experts with the Stockholm Environment Institute, the  

International Institute for Sustainable Development, and research groups Climate Analytics and E3G.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.  
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This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world’s hottest October in that period.

Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.

“The record was broken by 0.4 degrees Celsius, which is a huge margin,” said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess, who described the October temperature anomaly as “very extreme.”

The heat is a result of continued greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, combined with the emergence this year of the El Nino weather pattern, which warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Globally, the average surface air temperature in October was 1.7 degrees Celsius warmer than the same month in 1850-1900, which Copernicus defines as the pre-industrial period.

The record-breaking October means 2023 is now “virtually certain” to be the warmest year recorded, C3S said in a statement. The previous record was 2016, another El Nino year.

Copernicus’ dataset goes back to 1940. “When we combine our data with the IPCC, then we can say that this is the warmest year for the last 125,000 years,” Burgess said.

The longer-term data from the U.N. climate science panel IPCC includes readings from sources such as ice cores, tree rings and coral deposits.

The only other time before October a month breached the temperature record by such a large margin was in September 2023.

“September really, really surprised us. So after last month, it’s hard to determine whether we’re in a new climate state. But now records keep tumbling and they’re surprising me less than they did a month ago,” Burgess said.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at University of Pennsylvania, said: “Most El Nino years are now record-breakers, because the extra global warmth of El Nino adds to the steady ramp of human-caused warming.”

Climate change is fueling increasingly destructive extremes. This year, that included floods that killed thousands of people in Libya, severe heatwaves in South America, and Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.

“We must not let the devastating floods, wildfires, storms, and heatwaves seen this year become the new normal,” said Piers Forster, climate scientist at University of Leeds.

“By rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, we can halve the rate of warming,” he added.

Despite countries setting increasingly ambitious targets to gradually cut emissions, so far that has not happened. Global CO2 emissions hit a record high in 2022.
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