• Health

Australian Mouse Plague Sparks Debate Around Toxic Substances

• Australia
• rodents
• toxic chemicals
• zoonotic disease

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer In Australia, after years of drought, wildfires, a period of heavy rains have brought back some plant life and millions of mice. As a result, the country’s southern and eastern agricultural regions are now overrun with mice in their crops, barns, and homes. The ongoing infestation even prompted the evacuation of a prison in […]

• Health

This Quote: Fauci on COVID — Lab Leak or Zoonosis?

• #COVID
• COVID-19
• zoonotic disease
• zoonotic pandemics

Over the weekend, the New York Times’ Kara Swisher interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci for her popular podcast Sway.  She asked Fauci whether he thought the COVID virus originated in a Chinese lab and here is what he said: AF:  “…There is this so-called intelligence that three members of the human lab were ill, requiring hospitalization. […]

• Health

Study Finds Half of all U.S. and Canadian Cosmetics Contain PFAS

• Chemicals
• Forever Chemicals
• PFAS

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer You may have thought the days of lead, mercury, and even radioactive makeup were long gone, but a new study from the University of Notre Dame has found that over half the cosmetics sold in the U.S. contain PFAS, a class of chemicals linked to health conditions like cancer and reduced birth weights. […]

• Health

“Tick Time Bomb” to Explode in California This Summer

• Lyme disease
• ticks
• vector borne disease

by Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer The Weather Channel broadcast that this summer, the U.S will be a “tick time-bomb,” in that ticks will afflict much broader swathes of the country than in years previous. Even in dry states like California, which is in a historic drought, researchers have been seeing more ticks than ever, […]

• Health

Infrastructure Could Include Bike and Pedestrian Paths As Well As Highways

• American Jobs Plan
• bicycle
• bike paths
• green infrastructure
• Greenway
• health and fitness
• pedestrian paths

Greenways are bike paths that often serve as multi-use, car-free ways to navigate a city. Right now, the U.S. network “comprises a similarly haphazard collection of park-like bicycle- and pedestrian-oriented paths,” as CityLab reports, but that could change if environmental and transportation advocates can land $10 billion for a Greenway Stimulus in the infrastructure deal being negotiated in Congress right now.

Why This Matters: Getting people out of cars and into other modes of getting around is one of the best ways to ramp down carbon emissions in the transportation sector as well as ramp up health and fitness.

• Health

Interview of the Week: Dr. Neil Vora

• #COVID
• biodiversity
• infectious diseas
• nature
• zoonotic diseases

Preventing and preparing for pandemics is now a crucial task for world leaders. A crucial part of preventing pandemics is the protection of nature and the conservation of biodiversity. This week we had a chance to ask Conservation International’s new pandemic prevention fellow, Dr. Neil Vora, about why safeguarding our natural world is so important […]