Red Cross official asks world not to ‘shift’ away from Yemen

By JON GAMBRELL

 People gather at the site of a Saudi-led airstrike near Yemen's Defense Ministry complex in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. The world must not lose sight of the plight of those living through the yearslong war in Yemen, Katharina Ritz, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation in Yemen said Friday, March 11, 2022, urging continued aid for the Middle East's poorest nation as the war in Ukraine grabs the world's attention. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world must not lose sight of the plight of those living through the yearslong war in Yemen, a Red Cross official said Friday, urging continued aid for the Middle East’s poorest nation as the war in Ukraine grabs the world’s attention.

Katharina Ritz, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of delegation in Yemen, also said discussions continue over possible future prisoner swaps between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the country’s exile government.

However, a major swap hasn’t happened in several years as the war intensified around several front lines, including the energy-rich city of Marib.

“I think our duty is to respond equally to the needs and do our best,” Ritz told The Associated Press. “I think it’s not about is it Ukraine or not? Now it’s Ukraine and Yemen and Syria and Iraq and Congo and so on. ... We have to add Ukraine on all the crises, but we shouldn’t shift.”

The Iranian-backed Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 to back the country’s expelled government.

In the time since, Yemen has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the warfare, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Those include both fighters and civilians; the most recent figure for the civilian death toll in Yemen’s conflict stands at 14,500.

Also, Saudi airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians and targeted the country’s infrastructure. The Houthis have used child soldiers and indiscriminately laid landmines across the country.

Meanwhile, the splintered nation has faced the coronavirus pandemic and still sees African migrants hoping to cross Yemen and reach neighboring oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

The country also has been on the brink of famine for years, a crisis that may be exacerbated by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Yemen imports some 40% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

“Now obviously, we have the wheat supply, which will have an impact on the the food supply for Yemen,” Ritz said. “The coping mechanism in the country is very limited, and I think that is going to be a major struggle.”

Meanwhile, the Red Cross continues to have access to prisoners held by militias, the Houthi-controlled government in Sanaa and that of the Yemeni government in Aden, Ritz said. In 2020, the warring sides engineered a mass prisoner exchange, but there hasn’t been one of a similar size since. A 2018 agreement in Stockholm saw the sides agree to swap over 15,000 prisoners.

“The dialogue between the parties is ongoing. The negotiation has never stopped,” Ritz said. “I think it is an important part also to keep the parties on the table engaged.”

The Houthis meanwhile have seized nearly a dozen former Yemeni employees of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. Asked about their case, Ritz said prisoners’ families would need to come forward to the Red Cross for its assistance. She declined to say whether the families had.

The Red Cross also saw its name invoked by Saudi Arabia after a coalition airstrike in January struck a Houthi prison in the city of Saada, killing at least 87 people. Saudi Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki alleged at the time that the Houthis hadn’t reported the site as needing protection from airstrikes to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The responsibility remains with the parties of the conflict, Ritz said. “No matter what ICRC says or does not say or does or does not do, the responsibility remains.”

However, Ritz said the Red Cross worked with the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis and other militias in the war to stress the importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure in the country.

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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Human trafficking case sparks government response in China
By HUIZHONG WU

March 9, 2022

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Delegates leave after the opening ceremony for the National People's Congress held at the Great Hall of the People on March 5, 2022, in Beijing. Sustained, palpable anger in China over the case of a mother-of-eight found chained inside a shed has prompted an unusually strong government response to human trafficking at the annual session of China's rubber-stamp legislature. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)


TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Sustained, palpable anger in China over the case of a mother of eight found chained inside a shed has prompted an unusually strong government response to human trafficking at the annual session of China’s rubber-stamp legislature.

The issue even merited a brief mention by China’s premier Li Keqiang in his annual report on government performance delivered Saturday. That marked part of a direct attempt by a government not often given to responding to public pressure to address the widespread outrage.

Local governments have announced crackdowns on the practice of trafficking vulnerable women in the vast country, while the Public Security Ministry is pursuing a nationwide anti-trafficking campaign aimed at solving a backlog of cases, to be carried out by all levels. On Tuesday, China’s top prosecutor, Zhang Jun, announced his department would “strictly enforce” laws against abduction and trafficking.

The woman found on the outskirts of the eastern city of Xuzhou had been trafficked multiple times and had eight children by the man who ultimately purchased her.

State media reported that at least half a dozen proposed legal reforms on the issue were brought by members of the National People’s Congress and its consultative body, which are holding their annual sessions this week in Beijing.

A proposal from delegate Jiang Shengnan would raise criminal penalties in trafficking cases so that the buyer would face the same penalties as the seller, according to state newspaper Beijing Youth Daily.

“Appropriately increasing the penalty and increasing the criminal penalty for buying will play a certain deterrent effect,” Jiang was quoted as saying by the paper.

Activists have welcomed the response, though some question whether the focus on heavy criminal penalties is the best approach to take.

“I personally think all of these proposals are positive, and they are meaningful,” said Feng Yuan, co-founder of Beijing Equality, a group that focuses on gender-based violence.

“But I think they are missing some important angles,” Feng said, because the proposals she saw have been too focused on the buyers’ criminal penalties.

Under current Chinese criminal law, those who traffic women or children can be sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison, and even a death sentence. Purchasers can be sentenced to no more than three years.

Jiang’s proposal also included the prospect of a follow-up mechanism after victims are rescued from trafficking. Others called on local governments to correctly identify trafficking victims who may have been registered under false names, create a nationwide alert system for kidnapping and trafficking, and increase criminal penalties.

Authorities did not respond to a request to interview NPC delegates, including Jiang. A similar request for members of the advisory body the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was declined.

NPC delegates do not directly draft legislation, although their proposals are passed on to the appropriate ministries. The body’s Standing Committee, aided by legal experts, actually writes the laws.

The chained woman’s plight ignited a public demand to ensure a crackdown on trafficking. According to Zhang’s 2022 report, the number of people charged annually with trafficking women and children declined from 14,458 in 2000 to just 1,135 people last year. However it’s unclear if the decline in the number charged is due to less trafficking or due to looser enforcement.

A desire to quiet and divert public anger while China was hosting the Winter Olympics last month may have been a factor in the government’s response.

“They don’t want this case to suck up all the air,” said Dali Yang, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. “So there’s clearly an interest in, ideally, resolving it in a way that it would disappear.”

Yang said proposals to address the issue appeared to be politically “within the realm of acceptability.”

Feng, the women’s rights activist, urged the government to look at reform beyond criminal penalties. More urgent issues include verifying a victim’s identity, helping them live independently after rescue and providing resources for mental health and physical recovery, she said.

Among activists’ concerns is whether those rescued will be able to register for public services such as health insurance because they had been given new names and household registrations in the places to which they had been trafficked.

“I hope these points can also attract attention,” Feng said.

China’s Cabinet addressed some of those issues in an April 2021 document, including verifying marriage registrations and increasing anti-trafficking education in remote areas. New measures seek to give these initiatives a boost.

Trafficking is fed in part by a large gender imbalance resulting from China’s former one-child policy.

“The logic of constructing a family as being the most important thing in a way overrides concern about where someone came from,” said Johanna Ransmeier, a professor at the University of Chicago who studied the history of human trafficking in China.

Ultimately, such underlying attitudes need to change for a solution to be found, Ransmeier said.

“It’s distressing that this remedy is purely about punishment, and not about social change,” she said.

MLB LOCKOUT OVER, CBA AGREED TO

Test for MLB players will be how deal looks to them in ’26
By RONALD BLUM

Chicago White Sox minor league outfielder Duke Ellis prepares for batting practice during a minor league baseball spring training workout Thursday, March 10, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)


NEW YORK (AP) — Now comes the test: Will baseball players be happy with their new collective bargaining agreement in 2026?

They clearly were unhappy with the just-expired five-year contract, which saw payrolls drop to their lowest level since 2015.

The agreement reached Thursday raises the competitive-balance tax threshold by $34 million over five years, up from a $21 million hike over the 2017-21 deal and an $11 million rise from 2011-16.

“I think that the MLBPA historically has wanted a market-based system. Over multiple negotiations that has been a primary objective of theirs,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said after Thursday’s deal ended a 99-day lockout.

“Markets produce market results. And I think that the changes that were made in this agreement moved dramatically in their direction on topics like the CBT threshold, and I think you’ll probably see a little different market results as a result of the changes.”

Young star players were the biggest beneficiary of the deal.

Shohei Ohtani earned $545,000 in 2018, when he was voted AL Rookie of the Year. Had the new agreement been in place then, he would have earned an additional $750,000.

Cody Bellinger was at $605,000 in 2019, when he won NL MVP. Under the new deal, he would have gotten an extra $2.5 million.

The minimum salary goes up from $570,500 to $700,000, a 22.7% rise that is the largest in a single season since 2003.

The union also hopes the deal boosts the middle: The median salary was $1.15 million at the start of last season, according to calculations by The Associated Press, down 30% from the $1.65 million record high at the start of 2015.

“The deal pushes the game forward,” Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, a member of the union’s executive subcommittee, said in an telephone interview with the AP. “It addresses a lot of the things that the players in the game should be focused on: the competitive integrity aspect of it.”

Veteran players in leadership hoped to get more. The union’s executive subcommittee voted 8-0 against the deal: Zack Britton, Jason Castro, Cole, Francisco Lindor, Andrew Miller, James Paxton, Max Scherzer and Marcus Semien. Five of the eight are represented by agent Scott Boras, and Castro, at $3.5 million, is the only one of the eight who earned under $12 million last year.

Team player representatives voted 26-4 in favor, leaving the overall player executive committee vote 26-12 to approve.

“You call it a division, I call it a healthy dialogue and conversation,” union head Tony Clark said at a news conference Friday,

Clark and Manfred notably did not have a joint news conference. Clark chose to wait a day for his.

“I spoke to Tony after their ratification vote. I told him that I thought we had a great opportunity for the game in front of us,” Manfred said. “One of the things that I’m supposed to do is promote a good relationship with our players. I’ve tried to do that. I think that I have not been successful in that. I think that it begins with small steps.”

Clark said Manfred called him on Thursday to congratulate him on the union’s ratification vote.

“There’s a lot of work to do moving forward with respect to where our game is at and where we need to head,” Clark said.

___

Play ball! MLB players reach deal, salvage 162-game season
By RONALD BLUM

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Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred holds a news conference after baseball players and owners voted to approve a new labor agreement, Thursday March 10, 2022, in New York. “I am genuinely thrilled to say Major League Baseball is back and we're going to play 162 games,” Manfred said. “I want to start by apologizing to our fans. I know the last few months have been difficult.”

 (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s players and owners ended their most bitter money fight in a quarter-century Thursday when the players’ association accepted management’s offer to salvage a 162-game season that will start April 7.

The work stoppage ended at 7 p.m. sharp, closing an acrimonious 99-day lockout that delayed spring training and threatened to cancel regular-season games for the first time since 1995.

Training camps in Florida and Arizona will open Friday, with players mandated to report by Sunday. Opening day was pushed back just over a week from its March 31 date, but all that might be forgetten when the Yankees’ Aaron Judge digs in against the rival Red Sox, or Shohei Ohtani eschews the new universal designated hitter and plays both ways for the Angels

“I do want to start by apologizing to our fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said, his voice quavering at times, later adding: “I hope that the players will see the effort we made to address their concerns in this agreement as an olive branch in terms of building a better relationship.”

A frenzy of free-agency action was expected. A freeze on roster transactions was dissolved Thursday night, spurring a wave of speculation about new homes for Carlos Correa, Freddie Freeman and more than 100 other free agents who had been kept in lockout limbo.

The deal brings major changes that include expansion of the DH to the National League, increasing the postseason from 10 teams to 12, advertisements on uniforms, a balanced schedule that reduces intradivision play starting in 2023 and measures aimed to incentivize competition and decrease rebuilding, such as an amateur draft lottery. Most of the labor fight, of course, centered on the game’s core economics.

The players’ executive board approved the five-year contract at about 3 p.m. in a 26-12 vote. Owners ratified the deal 30-0 just three hours later, and just like that, baseball’s ninth work stoppage ended.

Not that all is resolved. Union head Tony Clark did not appear alongside Manfred and scheduled a separate news conference for Friday, a visible sign of the sport’s factions.

“Our union endured the second-longest work stoppage in its history to achieve significant progress in key areas that will improve not just current players’ rights and benefits, but those of generations to come,” Clark said in a statement.

Manfred pledged “maybe to more regularly get to the bottom of player concerns so that they don’t build up.”

“I spoke to Tony after their ratification vote. I told him that I thought we had a great opportunity for the game in front of us.” Manfred said. “One of the things that I’m supposed to do is promote a good relationship with our players. I’ve tried to do that. I think that I have not been successful in that. I think that it begins with small steps.”

Players’ pictures that had been scrubbed from the league’s website were restored. Teams tweeted videos and statements celebrating the lockout’s end and sharing info about tickets for the new opening day.

The 184 games canceled by Manfred were instead postponed, and the regular season was extended by three days to Oct. 5. Approximately three games per team will be made up as part of doubleheaders.

With pitchers Max Scherzer and Andrew Miller taking prominent roles as union spokesmen, players let three management deadlines pass — Manfred called them “the art of collective bargaining” — before accepting an agreement before the fourth.

While the union’s executive subcommittee voted 8-0 against the deal — all earned $3.5 million or more last year — player representatives were in favor by 26-4.

“Time and economic leverage. No agreement comes together before those two things play out,” Manfred said. “I think we made an agreement when it was possible to make an agreement.”

After narrowing the economic gap this week, MLB made another offer Thursday afternoon, saying this was the absolute, final, last moment to preserve full salary and service time.

“The deal pushes the game forward,” Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, a member of the union’s executive subcommittee, said in an telephone interview with the AP. “It addresses a lot of the things that the players in the game should be focused on: the competitive integrity aspect of it.”

The union especially wanted to boost pay of young players and enourage teams not to delay their debuts in order to push back free agency.

Under the new postseason format, two division winners from each league receive first-round byes and the remaining four teams play in a best-of-three wild card round.

The deal allows teams to have advertising on uniforms and helmets for the first time and established a fast-track MLB-dominated rules committee that could recommend a pitch clock and limits on defensive shifts starting in 2023. Tiebreaker games for playoff berths have been eliminated, replaced by mathematical formulas.

The luxury tax threshold rises from $210 million last year to $230 million this season, the largest yearly increase since that restraint began in 2003. The threshold rises to $244 million by 2026, a loosening for the biggest spenders such as the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Red Sox. The 3% annual growth is well over the 2.1% during the expired contract and the 1.2% in the 2011 deal.

Tax rates remain unchanged at the initial threshold, second and third thresholds. A new fourth threshold, aimed at billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, starts $80 million above the first and has rates of 80% for the first offender, 90%, for the second and 110% for the third.

The minimum salary rises from $570,500 to $700,000 this year, a 22.7% rise that is the highest since 2003, with $20,000 annual increases each season.

A new $50 million bonus pool was established for players not yet eligible for arbitration, a way to boost salaries for young stars.

While the sides preserved a full regular season, the cost was rancor that cast both owners and players as money obsessed. Spring training was disrupted for the third straight year following two exhibition seasons altered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“People can go to the ballpark. That will help,” Cole said. “Maybe some people will go to the ballpark to tell us know how they feel negatively. That’s their right to do as well. I will say that nobody wants it to go this way. And some of the hurdles we’ve had to jump through over the last few weeks have not necessarily been ill will but just due process.

“It’s just a very democratic process and some of these sorts of things take some time. But I think everybody is tremendously excited to get back and tremendous excited to get back in front of the fans.”

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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Rattlesnake roundups take 2 paths, drawing praise and scorn

By JEFF MARTIN


-Sweetwater Jaycees clean and skinned rattlesnakes during 57th Sweetwater Jaycees World Largest Rattlesnake Round-up at the Nolan County Coliseum in Sweetwater Texas, March 14, 2015. Animal rights activists praised an annual rattlesnake roundup in south Georgia that recently changed the format of this month’s event to celebrate living snakes without skinning and butchering them. But no such changes are occurring at a huge rattlesnake roundup beginning this weekend, Saturday March 12, 2022 in Texas, a festival that the activists say is barbaric.(Courtney Sacco/Odessa American via AP, File)

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) — An annual rattlesnake roundup in south Georgia recently changed the format of this month’s event to celebrate living snakes without skinning and butchering them, earning plaudits from animal rights activists.

But no such changes are occurring at a huge rattlesnake roundup beginning this weekend in Texas, a festival that the activists say is barbaric. The two events are a marked contrast in how rattlesnakes are handled. They also show the huge divide in how they are seen by some, with the Georgia festival heralded by animal advocates and the Texas roundup shamed.

“A few rattlesnake roundups still persist,” the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement full of scorn for the Texas festival, which is “notorious for openly killing and skinning western diamondback rattlesnakes by the hundreds in front of crowds.”

Plans for the “World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup” this weekend in the Texas town of Sweetwater are full-scale ahead, with snakes set to be skinned and others “milked” of their venom. There’s even a pageant for local young women, Miss Snake Charmer. The town of 11,000 is expected to swell to around 30,000 during the festival that runs Friday through Sunday, said Dennis Cumbie, one of the organizers.

“It’s the biggest event in this town every year,” Cumbie said. “It’s very much part of our culture.”

The same is true in the south Alabama town of Opp, where an annual rattlesnake festival that has drawn thousands for nearly six decades opens March 25. While organizers say the snake hunters who bring in big rattlers get rid of nuisance reptiles, opponents say Eastern diamondback snakes are declining in population.

Sweetwater has held its rattlesnake roundup for more than six decades, “and what we have figured out over 64 years is that we’re not damaging the population of the snakes whatsoever,” Cumbie said. Rather, organizers liken snake hunting to how other hunters keep deer numbers in check.

In Georgia, organizers say the more humane format they launched for the first time last weekend was a success. Exact attendance figures are unknown because many people such as children are admitted free, but “I’ve heard anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000,” said longtime volunteer Jeffrey Cox, who has been helping to organize the Whigham Rattlesnake Roundup for the past four decades.

“Everybody was nervous about it and didn’t know how it would go,” Cox said.

Then came perfect weather for the one-day Georgia show, “and there were no complaints whatsoever,” he said. “We probably had more actual snakes there this year, even though it was a different format than what we’ve had.”

In Texas, the Sweetwater roundup is intertwined with the town’s culture and draws visitors from all over the world. It began 64 years ago to keep snakes from overtaking the town and attacking livestock, pets and people, organizers say.

Karen Hunt grew up in Sweetwater, and recalls fellow Texans asking her about her hometown. “Yes, we’re the rattlesnake town,” they would say. Now, as director of the Sweetwater and Nolan County Chamber of Commerce, Hunt fields calls from people in England, Germany and other parts of the world inquiring about the festival and making plans to visit.

“This does put us on the map,” she said. “What it does for our community is give us a sense of place.”

Hunters gather the snakes — there’s a contest for those capturing the largest ones — and they’re brought to the Nolan County Coliseum, where multiple parts of the snakes are harvested, Cumbie said. He’s the chairman of the milking pit, where venom is extracted and then used to develop various drugs for a range of illnesses. The snakes’ skins will eventually show up on cowboy boots, belts and other western wear. Rattles are used for souvenirs, as are the heads, Cumbie said.

“There’s literally no waste,” he said. “We also butcher about 1,000 pounds of them each year that we actually cook on the spot.”

WE HAVE ANNUAL RATTLESNAKE RUNS IN MEDICINE HAT NOBODY THERE HAS THOUGHT OF DOING THIS, LETS BE THANKFUL AND NOT ENCOURAGE IT

Indigenous people in Bolivian Amazon have low rates of dementia
By HealthDay News

Sunset in the Bolivian Amazon at the Yacuma River. A new study found that only about 1% of older Tsimane and Moseten people have dementia, compared with 11% of people 65 and older in the United States. Photo by Elias Bizannes/Wikimedia Commons

Two groups of indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon have some of the world's lowest dementia rates, and that may offer insight on how to prevent Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

Researchers found only about 1% of older Tsimane and Moseten people have dementia, compared with 11% of people 65 and older in the United States.

Among those 60 and older, there were only five cases of dementia among 435 Tsimane people and just one case among 169 Moseten people, according to the study.

"Something about the pre-industrial subsistence lifestyle appears to protect older Tsimane and Moseten from dementia," study author Margaret Gatz, a professor of psychology, gerontology and preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, said in a school news release.

The 17,000 Tsimane people are physically active throughout their lives as they fish, hunt and farm with hand tools and gather food from the forest, the researchers explained.

The 3,000 Moseten people live in rural villages and have a subsistence agricultural lifestyle. They live closer to towns than the Tsimane and have schools, access to clean water and medical services, and are more likely to be literate.

About 8% of the Tsimane people and 10% of the Moseten people had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which typically involves early stage memory loss or decline of other cognitive ability, such as language or spatial perception

These rates are more comparable to MCI rates in wealthy nations like the United States, the researchers noted.

They also compared their findings to a previous review of 15 studies of indigenous populations in Australia, North America, Guam and Brazil that found dementia rates ranging from 0.5% to 20% among older adults.

High rates of dementia among some indigenous populations in other parts of the world may be due to more contact with and adoption of the lifestyles of non-indigenous people. This could raise the odds for dementia risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, alcohol abuse, obesity and heart disease.

These risk factors are extremely low among the Tsimane and Moseten populations, according to the researchers.

Worldwide, the number of people with dementia is expected to triple, to more than 152 million by 2050.

"We're in a race for solutions to the growing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias," said study co-author Hillard Kaplan, a professor of health economics and anthropology at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. Kaplan has studied the Tsimane for two decades.

"Looking at these diverse populations augments and accelerates our understanding of these diseases and generates new insights," Kaplan said.

The study was published Wednesday in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Houseplants may remove common air pollutant

By HealthDay News

In a poorly ventilated small office with high levels of air pollution, five houseplants would reduce NO2 levels by around 20%, the study found. 

Photo by sodamtree/Pixabay

Want to breathe better air indoors? Go green.

Houseplants can make your home or office air cleaner, according to British researchers.

In lab tests, they found that three common houseplants -- peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), and ZZ plant or fern arum (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) -- could reduce levels of a common air pollutant called nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by as much as 20%.

"The plants we chose were all very different from each other, yet they all showed strikingly similar abilities to remove NO2 from the atmosphere," said lead author Christian Pfrang, of the University of Birmingham.

The plants aren't costly and are easy to maintain, the researchers noted.

For the study, a single plant of each variety was put into a test chamber containing levels of NO2 comparable to those in an office next to a busy road. Over an hour, all three species removed about half of the NO2 in the chamber.

Researchers then calculated what those results might mean for a small office and a medium-sized office with different levels of ventilation.

In a poorly ventilated small office with high levels of air pollution, five houseplants would reduce NO2 levels by around 20%, the study found. In a larger space, the reduction would smaller -- 3.5%, but could be increased by adding more plants, according to the findings.

It's not clear how the plants remove NO2 from the air, researchers said.

In earlier studies, they noted that indoor plants' ability to take up carbon dioxide (CO2) is "strongly dependent on environmental factors such as night time or daytime, or soil water content."

But Pfrang said that how the plants remove different gases appears to differ.

"We don't think the plants are using the same process as they do for CO2 uptake, in which the gas is absorbed through stomata -- tiny holes -- in the leaves," he said in a university news release.

"There was no indication, even during longer experiments, that our plants released the NO2 back into the atmosphere, so there is likely a biological process taking place also involving the soil the plant grows in -- but we don't yet know what that is," Pfrang said.

The study was recently published in Air Quality Atmosphere & Health.

More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an interactive tour detailing ways to protect your indoor air quality.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.




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TYRANT TIME

Experts urge Congress to switch country to daylight saving time permanently

By Annie Klingenberg, Medill News Service


The debate over whether to make daylight saving time permanent reached a House subcommittee this week. 

Photo by Garonzi Stefania/Wikimedia Commons


WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- As Americans prepare to switch their clocks forward Sunday, members of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee and a variety of experts agreed it's time for the country to stop switching times.

But they couldn't agree on which time to keep -- daylight saving time or standard Time.

"None of us can change how much sunlight there is in a given day. ... Congress does not have the power to change time; Congress has the power to balance time," National Association of Convenience Stores lobbyist Lyle Beckwith said at a hearing Wednesday.

He argued for the unpopular opinion among Americans of maintaining the status quo of making the time switch twice a year.

RELATED Daylight Saving Time: brighter mornings, darker afternoons

A November 2021 YouGovAmerica Poll found that 63% of Americans want to eliminate the practice of changing clocks twice a year to account for daylight saving time, which was adopted to preserve energy during World War II.

Steve Callandrillo, a law professor who has researched the costs of changing to daylight saving time, testified before the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee that while saving energy "was the original justification for daylight saving time, it's no longer as strong as it used to be, but it still does save energy."

But the energy saved is relatively small. According to a 2008 study by the Department of Energy, "the total electricity savings of extended daylight saving time was about 1.3 terawatt-hour. That corresponds to ... 0.03% of electricity consumption over the year."

RELATED 'Fall back' time change potentially bad for health, experts say

Another argument from the witnesses for ending the switching between times was the harm it has on physical and mental health.

"Permanent standard time maximizes sunlight in the winter mornings when we need abundant light to wake up and become alert and minimizes sunlight late into the summer evenings when too much light can work against our sleep," said Dr. Beth Malow, director of the sleep division at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., acknowledged that the transition for phones and other devices might be easy, but "it is not so much for our bodies."

RELATED Sleep experts: It's time to ditch daylight saving time

Lawmakers touted choosing daylight saving time as the permanent time, pointing to the economic benefits of having the extra hour of sunlight in the afternoon or early evening.

"That the extra hour of sunshine in the evening can be beneficial, a real boom to restaurants, commercial commerce and tourism," said subcommittee Chair Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.

Beckwith, representing convenience stores, cited a study conducted by JP Morgan Chase & Co. that compared credit card spending in Los Angeles, a city that observes daylight saving time, and Phoenix, a city that does not.

The study found that credit card spending increased in Los Angeles at the onset of daylight saving time decreased at the end of it relative to spending in Phoenix.

"When the clocks change in the spring, people feel as though they have more time after work to engage in a range of activities that increase commerce, from eating out to shopping," he said.

Lawmakers from both parties have introduced bills in the House related to time changes. Two bills would make daylight saving time permanent, and two others would give states the option to observe it year-round.

No bills have been introduced this session that would make standard time permanent.

It’s time to ‘spring forward’ this weekend in most of the US & CANADA



People in parts of the United States that observe daylight saving time will set their clocks ahead this weekend as the country switches from standard time. (AP Graphic)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even though winter doesn’t slip away until next weekend, time has its marching orders. In the United States, it’s time to “spring” forward.

Daylight saving time announces its entrance at 2 a.m. local time Sunday for most of the country. Standard time hibernates until Nov. 6. It will stay lighter for longer into the evening but the sun will rise later in the morning than it has during the months of standard time.

Remember to set clocks an hour ahead, usually before bed Saturday night.

No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.

A poll conducted last October shows that most Americans want to avoid switching between daylight saving and standard time, though there is no consensus behind which should be used all year.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 25% of Americans said they preferred to switch back and forth between standard and daylight saving time.

Forty-three percent of Americans said they would like to see standard time used during the entire year. Thirty-two percent say they would prefer that daylight saving time be used all year.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,083 adults was conducted Oct. 21-25 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Big decline reported in U.S. teen tobacco use in 2021, government says

Tobacco use among adolescents and teens in the United States continues to decline, but remains high based on new data. Photo by 1503849/Pixabay

March 10 (UPI) -- Some 2.55 million middle-school and high school students in the United States used tobacco products in 2021, according to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the 2020, the agency estimated 4.5 million tobacco users among middle school and high school students nationally, down from 6.2 million in 2019.

Although the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration "remain confident in our study results," the fact the survey was conducted online, with many respondents at home due to pandemic-related school closures means the results cannot be compared with those from previous years.

However, both the 2019 and 2020 surveys were conducted primarily on school campuses, the agencies said.

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Still, if the year-to-year numbers are accurate, tobacco use among teens nationally declined by more than 40% from 2020 to 2021.

Among tobacco-using middle and high school students, about one in three reported a preference for at least one type of product, while 30% indicated they switched between two or more, the data showed.

Electronic, or e-cigarettes, were the most popular tobacco product among middle school and high school students in 2021, with an estimated 2 million users, the report found.

RELATED CDC, FDA data find 2 million current teen e-cigarette users

An estimated 400,000 of students in that age range smoked traditional cigarettes, while approximately 380,000 used cigars. Roughly 240,000 used smokeless tobacco, while 220,000 used hookahs and 200,000 tried nicotine pouches, according to the report.

"Youth use of tobacco products is unsafe in any form, combustible, smokeless or electronic," Dr. Karen Hacker, director of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said in a press release.

"This report provides critical insights needed to combat this serious public health concern and help protect our nation's youth from the harmful effects of tobacco," she said.

RELATED Study: Youth vaping down, but 1 in 5 U.S. teens still using e-cigarettes

The estimates are based on responses from middle school and high school students across the country to the 2021 National Youth Tobacco Survey.

The survey, an annual assessment of smoking prevalence among adolescents and teens that was conducted online this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is an ongoing project overseen by the CDC and FDA.

In 2021, current use of any tobacco product was higher among middle school and high school students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, at 14%, compared to those who considered themselves to be heterosexual, at 8%, and those who described themselves as "not sure" about their sexual identity, at 6%, the data showed.

Tobacco use also was higher among students who identified as transgender, at 19%, compared to those who are not transgender, at 8%. In addition, current use of any tobacco product was higher among students who had "psychological distress," up to 14%, as opposed to those who did not, at 6%, the report said.

About eight in 10, or 1.95 million, of student tobacco users nationally reported using flavored tobacco products in the past 30 days, with 76% indicating they were exposed to marketing messages for these products in newspapers or magazines, the data showed.

Approximately 74% of student respondents who used social media indicated that had seen e-cigarette-related posts or content at some point, the agencies said.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they were seriously thinking about quitting all tobacco products and just over 60% had tried to do so in 2021, the report found.

"It's revealing that about two-thirds of current youth users expressed a desire to quit tobacco products," Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release.

"But the 2021 use data are still concerning and will be valuable for policymakers and educators committed to protecting the next generation from tobacco-related disease and death," he said.

Victims reach tentative $83M settlement over Florida condo collapse


A residential building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021. 

File Photo By Gary I Rothstein/UPI | License Photo


March 10 (UPI) -- Lawyers for unit owners who survived the Surfside condo collapse in South Florida last June have reached a tentative $83 million settlement.

The partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 24, 2021, in Surfside, Fla., near Miami Beach, killed 98 people, destroyed 55 condominium units, and the remainder of the 136-unit building had to be demolished.

A class action ensued against defendants including developers, engineers, inspectors and consultants, by victims whose family members died in the collapse and victims who suffered economic harm, according to court documents obtained by Local10.com, and ABC News.

A dispute broke out between the victims of property loss and the families of non-owners who lost their lives in the collapse with some of the families of those who died believing that they should receive full compensation before other people are compensated for property claims.

Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman's order grants preliminary approval to the settlement agreement between property claims and wrongful death or personal injury claims.

The agreement creates an $83 million Common Fund to compensate unit owners for the loss of their condominium units and contents, in exchange for relieving them from any liability in the injury and wrongful death claims, according to the document.

"Unit owners will receive $55 million of the first $100 million recovered from all sources," the judge wrote. "The remaining $33 million will be paid out of the first dollars recovered over $100 million. All other funds will inure solely for the benefit of wrongful death claimants."

"Put simply, upon acceptance of their proportionate share of the $83 million Common Fund, surviving unit owners will leave this case with no further liability, except to any tenant or guest who may have occupied their particular unit at the time of the collapse," the judge added. "The same is true for the families of deceased unit owners who accept their proportionate share of the $83 million Common Fund. Their wrongful death claims, however, are unaffected by the agreement."

The judge referred to the agreement negotiated by counsel for the property claims and counsel for the injury and wrongful death claims with the assistance of a mediator as "a reasonable compromise of competing claims."

"Absent some defect being brought to the court's attention, it is highly likely to secure final approval," the judge wrote.

The final approval hearing is slated for 2 p.m. on March 30 at the Miami Dade County Children's Courthouse. Any objections must be submitted in writing no later than March 23.

Report: Supply chain challenges boosted cost of solar energy in 2021

Keith Plume of PayneCrest Electric Company checks that solar panels are lined up correctly at the Ameren O'Fallon Renewable Energy Center in O'Fallon, Missouri. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

March 10 (UPI) -- The cost of solar energy increased over the past year because of "unprecedented supply chain challenges," a report released Thursday found.

Solar prices increased up to 18% "due to unprecedented supply chain challenges, trade actions and legislative uncertainty," according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight 2021 Year in Review report, which Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie released Thursday.

A third of all utility-scale solar capacity slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2021 was delayed by at least a quarter and 13% of capacity slated for completion in 2022 was delayed by a year or more due to these issues, the report found.

The supply chain problem in 2021 reversed solar price declines in previous years that had driven solar adoption and led to prices rising for the first year across all three markets, residential, commercial and utility scale, which Wood Mackenzie has tracked since 2014.

SEIA has previously said in a statement that lawmakers could help by passing the Build Back Better Act, which includes a 10-year extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit.

The SEIA noted that if the bill were to become law it would triple the amount of solar capacity currently installed in the United States, double the size of the solar workforce, and offset an additional 400 million metric tons of carbon by 2030 to combat climate change.

Recently, amid analysts noting that the Russia-Ukraine war has driven up natural gas prices worldwide, solar energy has been touted as way to reduce dependence on "hostile nations."

"In the face of global supply uncertainty, we must ramp up clean energy production and eliminate our reliance on hostile nations for our energy needs," SEIA CEO and President Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement Thursday. "Policymakers have the answer right in front of them: if we pass a long-term extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit and invest in U.S. manufacturing, solar installations will increase by 66% over the next decade, and our nation will be safer because of it. America's energy independence relies on our ability to deploy solar, and the opportunity before us has never been more obvious or urgent."