Could birth control pills ease concussion symptoms in female athletes?

High levels of progesterone during menstrual cycle reduce stress after concussion and speed recovery

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

• Higher progesterone level is protective in mild traumatic brain injury
• Blood flow in brain is linked to progesterone and stress symptom levels
• Most concussion research has been focused on male athletes

CHICAGO --- Could birth control pills help young female athletes recover faster from concussions and reduce their symptoms?

A new Northwestern Medicine pilot study has shown when a female athlete has a concussion injury during the phase of her menstrual cycle when progesterone is highest, she feels less stress. Feeling stressed is one symptom of a concussion. Feeling less stressed is a marker of recovery.

The study also revealed for the first time the physiological reason for the neural protection is increased blood flow to the brain as a result of higher levels of progesterone.

"Our findings suggest being in the luteal phase (right after ovulation) of the menstrual cycle when progesterone is highest -- or being on contraceptives, which artificially increase progesterone -- may mean athletes won't have as severe symptoms when they have a concussion injury," said co-author Amy Herrold, research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

"Resolving those symptoms is especially problematic for our athletes who are trying to return to school, their sports and everyday life after a concussion," said lead author Jennie Chen, research assistant professor of radiology at Feinberg.

The study was published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

The athletes in the study were in soccer, ultimate frisbee, crew, triathlon, lacrosse, women's rugby and tennis clubs. The focus on club athletes is important because more college students take part in club athletics than varsity athletics, Herrold said. In addition, club athletics are not as tightly monitored, possibly leading to increased exposure and under-reporting of concussion.

Northwestern investigators found increased blood flow in the brain when a female athlete had a higher level of progesterone due to her menstrual cycle phase. The region, the middle temporal gyrus, is important for information processing and integrating visual and auditory stimuli. It also has been implicated in social anxiety disorder. Recovering from concussion is stressful for athletes Following a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), athletes are pulled from classes for a period of time and struggle to keep up with classes.

"When they are recovering from a concussion, they get very stressed trying to keep up with coursework and making up for lost time," Herrold said. "Their ratings on perceived stress are really important for their overall recovery from the injury and getting back to normal."

Big gap in research on female concussion

The bulk of sports-related concussion research has been focused on male athletes. The study fills a big gap in literature by studying female club athletes, Herrold said. "The trajectory of recovery from mild traumatic brain injury is different in female athletes than male athletes. Male athletes have shorter length of recovery than females, despite similar symptom severity."

For the study, investigators enrolled 30 female collegiate athletes and assessed them three to 10 days after a concussion or mTBI. Assessments included an MRI scan to examine brain blood flow, a blood draw to examine progesterone levels and self-reported mTBI symptom questionnaires including the perceived stress questionnaire. Once an injured athlete was studied, the investigators enrolled a healthy control athlete that was matched based on age, ethnicity contraceptive use and type, and menstrual cycle phase.

Clinicians may consider menstrual cycle phase when caring for injured athletes

It may be helpful for clinicians caring for injured athletes to consider the phase of the athlete's menstrual cycle and what, if any, hormonal contraceptives they are on, Herrold said. Both will affect progesterone levels and could affect brain blood flow and perceived stress.

"Clinicians also may want to evaluate wider use of hormonal contraceptives that raise progesterone levels for athletes who are at risk for incurring a concussion or mild TBI as there could be potential for neuroprotection," Herrold said.

In future research, Chen and Herrold plan to study if these results can be replicated in a larger more heterogenous sample of female athletes. They also want to compare what they found in males and females competing in sports with concussion risk such as soccer.

###

This study was funded by the Northwestern Memorial Foundation Eleanor Wood Prince Grant Initiative.

New study predicts changing Lyme disease habitat across the West Coast

Army of 'citizen scientists' collect more than 18,000 tick samples for analysis in study funded by Bay Area Lyme Foundation

THE TRANSLATIONAL GENOMICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research News

 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- March 16, 2021 -- The findings of a recent analysis conducted by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggest that ecosystems suitable for harboring ticks that carry debilitating Lyme disease could be more widespread than previously thought in California, Oregon and Washington.

Bolstering the research were the efforts of an army of "citizen scientists" who collected and submitted 18,881 ticks over nearly three years through the Free Tick Testing Program created by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, which funded the research, producing a wealth of data for scientists to analyze.

This new study builds on initial research led by the late Nate Nieto, Ph.D., at Northern Arizona University, and Daniel Salkeld, Ph.D., of Colorado State University.

This immense sample collection represented a multi-fold increase in the number of ticks that could be gathered by professional biologists conducting field surveys in far less time and at a fraction of the cost. This kind of citizen participation -- which in the future could include smart-phone apps and photography -- could become "a powerful tool" for tracking other animal- and insect-borne infectious diseases important for monitoring human and environmental health, according to study results published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

This study expands on previous work in California and is the first study to produce high resolution distributions of both actual and potential tick habitat in Oregon and Washington. AND BY ECOLOGY BC

"This study is a great example of how citizen scientists can help -- whether tracking climate change, fires, habitat changes or species distribution shifts -- at a much finer scale than ever before," said Tanner Porter, Ph.D., a TGen Research Associate and lead author of the study.

Specifically, Dr. Porter said the findings of this study could help raise awareness among physicians across the West, and throughout the nation, that tick-borne diseases are possible throughout a wider expanse than ever thought before.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato), which is carried by ticks, and in this study specifically, the western black-legged tick known as Ixodes pacificus. These ticks also carry pathogens associated with relapsing fever and anaplasmosis, which like Lyme disease can cause fever, headache, chills and muscle aches. Some patients with Lyme disease may experience a rash that may look like a red oval or bull's-eye.

If not treated promptly, Lyme disease can progress to a debilitating stage, becoming difficult and sometimes impossible to cure. This may include inflammation of the heart and brain.

Lyme disease is the most common tickborne illness in the U.S., annually causing an estimated 500,000 infections, according to the CDC. However, even the most commonly-used diagnostic test for Lyme disease misses up to 70% of early stage cases. There is no treatment that works for all patients.

"We hope this study data encourages residents of California, Oregon and Washington to take precautions against ticks in the outdoors, and helps to ensure that local healthcare professionals will consider diagnoses of Lyme when patients present with symptoms," said Linda Giampa, Executive Director of the Bay Area Lyme Foundation.

Citizen scientists were encouraged to mail in ticks collected off individuals' bodies, pets and clothing. They noted the time and place where the ticks were discovered, and described activities involved, the surrounding environment, and in many cases specific GPS coordinates.

Field studies could take decades to produce the same amount of data, said Dr. Porter, adding, "this citizen science technique could allow for real-time distribution monitoring of ticks and other relevant species, an important consideration with emerging pathogens, changing land-use patterns, and climate change."

###

This study builds on TGen's "One Health Collaborative," an initiative that uses a holistic approach to monitor the health of humans, animals and the environment, according to David Engelthaler, Ph.D., head of TGen's infectious disease studies.

The study -- Predicting the current and future distribution of the western black-legged tick, Ixodes pacificus, across the Western US using citizen science collections -- was published Jan. 5 In PLOS ONE.

About TGen, an affiliate of City of Hope

Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix, Arizona-based nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life-changing results. TGen is affiliated with City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases: CityofHope.org. This precision medicine affiliation enables both institutes to complement each other in research and patient care, with City of Hope providing a significant clinical setting to advance scientific discoveries made by TGen. TGen is focused on helping patients with neurological disorders, cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases through cutting-edge translational research (the process of rapidly moving research toward patient benefit). TGen physicians and scientists work to unravel the genetic components of both common and complex rare diseases in adults and children. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities worldwide, TGen makes a substantial contribution to help our patients through efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. For more information, visit: tgen.org. Follow TGen on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @TGen.

Soil microbes left behind during decades of corn breeding

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: USING A CHRONOSEQUENCE OF CORN LINES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCHERS FOUND DECADES OF BREEDING AND RELIANCE ON CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS PREVENTS MODERN CORN FROM RECRUITING NITROGEN-FIXING MICROBES. view more 

CREDIT: ALONSO FAVELA, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

URBANA, Ill. - Corn didn't start out as the powerhouse crop it is today. No, for most of the thousands of years it was undergoing domestication and improvement, corn grew humbly within the limits of what the environment and smallholder farmers could provide.

For its fertilizer needs, early corn made friends with nitrogen-fixing soil microbes by leaking an enticing sugary cocktail from its roots. The genetic recipe for this cocktail was handed down from parent to offspring to ensure just the right microbes came out to play.

But then the Green Revolution changed everything. Breeding tools improved dramatically, leading to faster-growing, higher-yielding hybrids than the world had ever seen. And synthetic fertilizer application became de rigueur.

That's the moment corn left its old microbe friends behind, according to new research from the University of Illinois. And it hasn't gone back.

"Increasing selection for aboveground traits, in a soil setting where we removed all reliance on microbial functions, degraded microbial sustainability traits. In other words, over the course of half a century, corn breeding altered its microbiome in unsustainable ways," says Angela Kent, professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois and co-author of a new study in the International Society of Microbial Ecology Journal.

Kent, along with co-authors Alonso Favela and Martin Bohn, found modern corn varieties recruit fewer "good" microbes - the ones that fix nitrogen in the soil and make it available for crops to take up - than earlier varieties. Instead, throughout the last several decades of crop improvement, corn has been increasingly recruiting "bad" microbes. These are the ones that help synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and other sources of nitrogen escape the soil, either as potent greenhouse gases or in water-soluble forms that eventually end up in the Gulf of Mexico and contribute to oxygen-starved "dead zones."

"When I was first analyzing our results, I got a little disheartened," says Favela, a doctoral student in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at Illinois and first author on the study. "I was kind of sad we had such a huge effect on this plant and the whole ecosystem, and we had no idea we were even doing it. We disrupted the very root of the plant."

To figure out how the corn microbiome has changed, Favela recreated the history of corn breeding from 1949 to 1986 by planting a chronological sequence of 20 off-patent maize lines in a greenhouse.

"We have access to expired patent-protected lines that were created during different time periods and environmental conditions. We used that understanding to travel back in time and look at how the associated microbiome was changing chronologically," he says.

As a source of microbes, Favela inoculated the pots with soil from a local ag field that hadn't been planted with corn or soybeans for at least two years. Once the plants were 36 days old, he sequenced the microbial DNA he collected from soil adhering to the roots.

"We characterized the microbiome and microbial functional genes related to transformations that occur in the nitrogen cycle: nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification," he says. "We found more recently developed maize lines recruited fewer microbial groups capable of sustainable nitrogen provisioning and more microbes that contribute to nitrogen losses."

Kent says breeding focused on aboveground traits, especially in a soil context flooded with synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, may have tweaked the sugary cocktail roots exude to attract microbes.

"Through that time period, breeders weren't selecting for maintenance of microbial functions like nitrogen fixation and nitrogen mineralization because we had replaced all those functions with agronomic management. As we started selecting for aboveground features like yield and other traits, we were inadvertently selecting against microbial sustainability and even actively selecting for unsustainable microbiome features such as nitrification and denitrification," she says.

Now that it's clear something has changed, can breeders bring good microbes back in corn hybrids of the future?

Bohn, corn breeder and associate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at Illinois, thinks it's very possible to "rewild" the corn microbiome. For him, the answer lies in teosinte, a wild grass most people would have to squint pretty hard at to imagine as the parent of modern corn.

Like wild things everywhere, teosinte evolved in the rich context of an entire ecosystem, forming close relationships with other organisms, including soil microbes that made soil nutrients easier for the plant to access. Bohn thinks it should be possible to find teosinte genes responsible for creating the root cocktail that attracts nitrogen-fixing microbes. Then, it's just a matter of introducing those genes into novel corn hybrids.

"I never thought we would go back to teosinte because it's so far removed from what we want in our current agricultural landscape. But it may hold the key not only for encouraging these microbial associations; it also may help corn withstand climate change and other stresses," Bohn says. "We actually need to go back to teosinte and start investigating what we left behind so we can bring back these important functions."

Bringing back the ability for corn to recruit its own nitrogen fixation system would allow producers to apply less nitrogen fertilizer, leading to less nitrogen loss from the system overall.

"Farmers don't always know how much nitrogen they will need, so, historically, they've dumped as much as possible onto the fields. If we bring these characteristics back into corn, it might be easier for them to start rethinking the way they manage nitrogen," Bohn says.

Kent adds that a little change could go a long way.

"If we could reduce nitrogen losses by even 10% across the growing region of the Midwest, that would have huge consequences for the environmental conditions in the Gulf of Mexico," she says.

###

The article, "Maize germplasm chronosequence shows crop breeding history impacts recruitment of the rhizosphere microbiome," is published in the International Journal of Microbial Ecology Journal.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Crop Sciences are in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

Tired at the office? Take a quick break; your work will benefit

WE USED TO CALL THEM SMOKE BREAKS

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Recent research shows that people are more likely to take "microbreaks" at work on days when they're tired - but that's not a bad thing. The researchers found microbreaks seem to help tired employees bounce back from their morning fatigue and engage with their work better over the course of the day.

At issue are microbreaks, which are short, voluntary and impromptu respites in the workday. Microbreaks include discretionary activities such as having a snack, chatting with a colleague, stretching or working on a crossword puzzle.

"A microbreak is, by definition, short," says Sophia Cho, co-author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State University. "But a five-minute break can be golden if you take it at the right time. Our study shows that it is in a company's best interest to give employees autonomy in terms of taking microbreaks when they are needed - it helps employees effectively manage their energy and engage in their work throughout the day."

The new paper is based on two studies that explored issues related to microbreaks in the workday. Specifically, the studies were aimed at improving our understanding of how people boost or maintain their energy levels throughout the day in order to engage with work even when they start the day already exhausted. The studies also examined which factors might play a role in determining whether people took microbreaks, or what they did during those microbreaks.

The first study surveyed 98 workers in the United States. Study participants were asked to fill out two surveys per day for 10 consecutive workdays. The surveys were completed in the morning and at the end of workday. The second study included 222 workers in South Korea. This study had participants complete three surveys per day for five workdays. Study participants completed the surveys in the morning, after lunch and at the end of the workday.

Survey questions in both studies were aimed at collecting data about each study participant's sleep quality, levels of fatigue, as well as their engagement with their work and their experiences at the workplace that day. In the studies, the researchers analyzed the survey data with statistical tools to examine day-to-day fluctuations in sleep quality, fatigue, work behavior and engagement in varying types of microbreaks.

The results were straightforward: on days that people were already fatigued when they arrived at work, they tended to take microbreaks more frequently. And taking microbreaks helped them maintain their energy level. This, in turn, helped them meet work demands and engage with work better.

"Basically, microbreaks help you manage your energy resources over the course of the day - and that's particularly beneficial on days when you're tired," Cho says.

In addition, the researchers found that people were more likely to take microbreaks if they felt their employer cared about the health and well-being of its workers.

"When people think their employer cares about their health, they feel more empowered to freely make decisions about when to take microbreaks and what type of microbreaks to take," Cho says. "And that is ultimately good for both the employer and the employee."

###

The paper, "Daily microbreaks in a self-regulatory resources lens: Perceived health climate as a contextual moderator via microbreak autonomy," is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The paper was co-authored by Sooyeol Kim of the National University of Singapore, and by Youngah Park of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

 

Standing out from the crowd

Research team from Göttingen and Groningen Universities shows importance of investors on uniqueness of company strategies

UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN

Research News

 

Corporate strategies should be as unique as possible, in fact highly specific to each individual company. This enables companies to compete successfully in the long term. However, the capital market and others, including analysts, often react negatively to the idea of unique strategies. The reason is that deviating from typical industry standards makes them more complex to evaluate. This regularly discourages companies from focusing on unique strategies, even though they would be beneficial for the company in the long term. This contradiction is known as the "uniqueness paradox". A research team from the Universities of Göttingen and Groningen has investigated the influence of different types of investors on the extent of the paradox and thus on the choice of unique strategies. The results were published in Strategic Management Journal.

The researchers analyzed data from around 900 listed US companies over a period of twelve years. The focus was on US companies because of the larger number of companies listed on the stock exchange. The main findings: a company's investors have significant influence on the uniqueness of its chosen strategy; and "dedicated" investors (e.g. pension funds) exert increasing influence. Their actions are characterized by the fact that they take a long-term perspective and are prepared to take a close look at the company's strategies. They can help resolve the uniqueness paradox, as they can recognize the value of unique strategies for long-term corporate development. "They are more likely to encourage management to implement these strategies," says co-author Professor Michael Wolff, who holds the Chair of Management and Controlling at the University of Göttingen. "This is especially true for industries where companies are more difficult for the capital market to assess because, for example, corporate profits vary widely."

The research team derives specific recommendations for action from the study. Firstly, the study shows companies the great importance of continuous and, above all, detailed strategy communication with investors. In particular, it is important to explain the reasons in a transparent and coherent manner for following a different course from the strategies of other companies in the same industry. Secondly, the study shows investors how important their function as owners is in actively engaging with corporate strategy in order to encourage management to operate in the long term. Thirdly, the study makes it clear that investors who have so far acted very passively should be made more accountable by institutions that regulate the capital market to engage more intensively with companies and their strategies.

###

Original publication: Jana Oehmichen, Sebastian Firk, Michael Wolff, Franz Maybüchen (2021). Standing out from the crowd: Dedicated institutional investors and strategy uniqueness, Strategic Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3269

 

Easing the burden on transgender and nonbinary graduate students

Report offers suggestions to relax a "toxic" atmosphere

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

Research News

 

IMAGE: NATHAN G. SMITH, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY DOCTORAL PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL, HEALTH,... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

It would surprise no one that pursuing a graduate degree can be a stressful endeavor, and for students who are transgender and nonbinary (TNB), the atmosphere can become toxic, according to University of Houston researcher Nathan Grant Smith. In a new paper published in Higher Education, Smith provides an analysis of current literature pertaining to TNB graduate student experiences and suggests interventions in graduate education to create more supportive environments for TNB students.

"Nearly 50% of graduate students report experiencing emotional or psychological distress during their enrollment in graduate school. Levels of distress are particularly high for transgender and nonbinary graduate students who experience daily discrimination and marginalization," reports Smith, associate professor in the counseling psychology doctoral program at the UH College of Education and chair of the Department of Psychological, Health, and Learning Sciences.

In compiling and analyzing the literature, Smith was joined by Douglas Knutson of Oklahoma State University. Their team included Em Matsuno, Palo Alto University; Chloe Goldbach, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; and Halleh Hashtpari, The University of Utah.

The existing literature suggests that discrimination against TNB college students is increasing and that discrimination on college campuses (e.g., reduced access to housing, restricted access to bathrooms and locker rooms) is associated with negative psychological outcomes such as suicidal ideation. Smith and team offer a social-ecological model of transgender stigma and stigma interventions.

"We are providing a framework for understanding that people interact with the outside world at different levels," said Smith. "Those levels are one-on-one, interpersonal with groups and structural with interactions between policies and norms of an institution."

Since all levels are connected, Smith suggests everyone start by doing their own exploration of gender and challenge their internal biases that will surely impact others. For example, consider how your gender identity helped or hindered your current career path and other life experiences. Reflect on which gender pronouns you use (e.g., he/him/ his, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs) and how you would feel if others repeatedly used incorrect pronouns when talking to or about you.

"Students who are trained in TNB-affirmative environments will enter the workforce, equipped to cultivate more empowering and diverse spaces for their colleagues, their families, and for the communities in which they live," said Smith. "We encourage everyone to think of TNB inclusion as an opportunity and as an affective experience based in empathy, love, and an impulse toward community building."

Some of the team's recommendations include:

Creating affirming spaces for TNB graduate students

Reviewing - and making inclusive - university paperwork, such as applications, intake forms for student services (like counseling and health), program handbooks, course syllabi, website pages, faculty pages and student evaluations

Inclusion of gender-affirming care in student insurance plans

Training of counseling center and health center staff

"These and other steps are crucial for building a foundation of empathy and humility in order to provide safe, inclusive and affirming spaces for TNB graduate students," Smith reported.

###

There Have Been At Least 3,795 Hate Incidents Against Asian Americans During The Pandemic, A New Report Shows

"Time and time again, we’re seen as outsiders to be excluded, incarcerated, deported," said Russell Jeung, cofounder of Stop AAPI Hate.

Julia Reinstein BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 16, 2021

Ringo Chiu / Getty Images
A protester holds a sign at a Los Angeles rally on Feb. 20 to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence after 84-year-old Thai immigrant Vicha Ratanapakdee was killed in a random assault.


Throughout the past year, Asian Americans have had to survive more than just a deadly pandemic: They've also faced a rise in verbal and physical attacks as a result of racist scapegoating over COVID-19.

A new report by the organization Stop AAPI Hate shows there have been at least 3,795 reported hate incidents targeting Asian Americans in just the past year alone, from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28.

Though the report does not include numbers from previous years for comparison, other data has shown an extreme uptick in these attacks. Though overall hate crimes decreased by 7% in 16 major US cities in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes increased 149%, first spiking in March and April when COVID-19 began its spread, according to California State University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

Of the incidents documented by Stop AAPI Hate, 68% involved verbal harassment, and 11% involved physical assault. Shunning, defined as the "deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans," made up 20% of reports. Civil rights violations, such as discrimination in the workplace or being refused service by a business, made up 8.5% of reports, with another 6.8% being for online harassment.

Women reported attacks at more than twice the rate of men, and Chinese Americans numbered over 42% of the victims.


Ringo Chiu / Getty Images

Because the report analyzed solely self-reported attacks, the actual numbers are likely even higher.

"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face," the report says.

Racism against Asian Americans has exploded in the past year, at both the individual level and in the country's highest offices. Throughout the pandemic, Donald Trump repeatedly pushed blame for COVID-19 onto China, calling it the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu." He continued to do so, and denied it was racist, even after a reporter questioned him on the increase in attacks on Chinese Americans.

The new report was published just weeks after a San Francisco man was arrested on assault charges for allegedly pushing three Asian Americans to the ground, including one who was 91. One of the others he attacked, a 55-year-old woman, was knocked out.

These assaults were just three of many that have been recently reported across the US. In January, 84-year-old Thai immigrant Vicha Ratanapakdee died of a brain hemorrhage after a random attacker slammed him to the ground in San Francisco. Throughout the pandemic, Asian Americans have been chemically burned, mocked and robbed on video, and kicked in the face. In at least two other instances, including one of a family of three, the attackers have allegedly tried to kill the victims.

The racism Asian Americans are facing now is keenly reminiscent of the "yellow peril" stereotype that first swept the US in the 1850s, Russell Jeung, cofounder of Stop AAPI Hate and a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, told BuzzFeed News.


"It’s the fear that Asians would come and overcome the West with their hordes [of] racialized, diseased bodies, and take over — dominate," Jeung said. "In the 19th century, that fear was stoked with the diseases of smallpox, cholera, and leprosy, and [there was] the fear of Chinese taking away white workers’ jobs, so they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act."

A century and a half ago, this stereotype was just as dangerous to Asian Americans as it is now, he added. "My great-grandparents' home in Monterey, they had a village of 200 people, and they were burned down and burned out and had to move to San Francisco’s Chinatown to avoid the racism."

It's part of a pattern across US history, he said.

"We had Japanese American incarceration during World War II, [and] we had Islamophobia after 9/11," Jeung said. "Time and time again, we’re seen as outsiders to be excluded, incarcerated, deported."



CBS News@CBSNews

Biden calls out the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic, saying they're "attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated" "They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It's wrong, it's un-American and it must stop"01:12 AM - 12 Mar 2021
Reply Retweet FavoriteTwitter: @CBSNews


In a speech on March 11, President Joe Biden condemned "vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who've been harassed, attacked, blamed, and scapegoated."

"They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America," he said. "It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop."


Jeung said he was glad to see Biden speaking out on the attacks, and he hopes to see the president's words translated into concrete actions, such as expanding ethnic studies education and civil rights protections.

The Stop AAPI Hate report includes details of some of the victims' stories, which include being harassed in public, coughed or spat on, called slurs, and several incidents in which people were told to "go back" to China.

"A white man catcalled me, then aggressively followed me down the block, and got
inches from my face and yelled 'Ch*nk!' and 'C*nt!' after realizing I was Asian," one person from Brooklyn reported. "Lots of neighbors were standing outside their homes and no one intervened."


"My boyfriend and I were riding the metro into DC," another person, from Annandale, Virginia, said. "When on the escalator in the transfer station, a man repeatedly punched my back and pushed past us. At the top, he circled back toward us, followed us, repeatedly shouted 'Chinese b**ch' at me, fake coughed
at, and physically threatened us."


In some cases, the victims reported being conspicuously shunned or avoided.

"I came into the coffee shop at Mercato and people started leaving the area where I sat one by one," one person, from Naples, Florida, said. "People started coming in and they sat on the other side of the coffee shop away from me. I became isolated on one side of the coffee shop."

A Car Drove Into A Homeless Encampment In California, Killing Three People

"We train for this, but there’s just no way to prepare for something that’s this devastating."

Amber Jamieson BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 15, 2021

Gregory Bull / AP
A car involved in a deadly crash sits at the scene on March 15, 2021, in San Diego.

Three people were killed Monday after a car veered into an encampment of unsheltered people in San Diego, authorities said.

The incident took place around 9 a.m. in a tunnel beneath a bridge in downtown, where many people live in tents and other temporary shelters on sidewalks. Nine people in all were struck, with two of the survivors left critically injured.

Police arrested the driver, 71-year-old Craig Voss, on suspicion of three counts of vehicular manslaughter and a felony DUI.


Gregory Bull / AP
Lisa Brotzman, right, stands with Terry Goffigan at the scene of the deadly accident on March 15 in San Diego.

“Our crews found, obviously, a tragic incident under the bridge," San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said at a news conference.

The three people who were killed died at the scene, he added.

"We train for this, but there’s just no way to prepare for something that’s this devastating," the fire chief said. “This was a very tragic, tragic accident that will make an impact on a lot of lives.”


NBC San Diego / Via nbcsandiego.com

One witness, Ronnie Williams, described the horrifying event to NBC San Diego.

“I turned around and I saw yellow headlights and next thing you know, I was almost getting sucked under the car. And then I managed to pull my leg out from under the car right here," said Williams, who is also unsheltered. “You could see everything popping up, going in the air, dragging — it was, it was very loud. It was like something you see in a movie scene."

Officials noted that the incident highlighted the need for more permanent housing options to get people off the street.

“The street is not a home and this tragedy further highlights the dangers of living on the streets,” Hanan Scrapper, the San Diego regional director of PATH, an organization working to end homelessness, said in a statement.

City Council President Stephen Whitburn said the deadly crash was "stark evidence of the need to find permanent solutions to the homelessness crisis so that no San Diegans are forced to seek shelter in unsafe places such as under bridges and in tunnels that vehicles pass through."

Global campaign calls on apparel brands to pay their workers, reform broken industry



Today, MSN joins with more than 200 trade union and civil society organizations in over 40 countries in launching the #PayYourWorkers #RespectLabourRights campaign.

Other Canadian endorsers of the campaign include Above Ground, Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), Centre International de Solidarité Ouvrière (CISO), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), Oxfam Canada, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), SHARE, Steelworkers Humanity Fund and USW, and Workers United Canada Council.

As the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to be felt by vulnerable workers in Canada, the pandemic is pushing millions of already low-paid garment workers around the world deeper into poverty and hunger. A year into the crisis, many apparel brands have returned to profitability and some have even raked in record level earnings, while workers in their supply chains struggle to survive.

PayYourWorkers #RespectLabourRights is calling on apparel retailers and brands to contribute funds to sustain the incomes of the workers who make their products throughout the pandemic, ensure respect for their right to organise and bargain collectively, and sign onto a severance guarantee fund so that workers are never left penniless if their factories go bankrupt in the future. In this week of action, the brand targets are Amazon, Nike and Next, a UK fast fashion retailer. As the campaign progresses, other brands will also be targeted.

The campaign launch follows the release last week of a major report from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), which found that 16 brands, including Mark’s (Canadian Tire), linked to unpaid wages and benefits in supplier factories in various countries, had made a combined $10 billion in profits in the second half of 2020.

PayYourWorkers.org, the campaign website, was launched today and is available in eight languages. We invite you to join the campaign, sign the petition and add your organization’s name to the list of endorsers. Read MSN’s media release on the campaign here.

Read the BHRRC Report: Wage theft and pandemic profits: The right to a living wage for garment workers, available here.

We’ll keep you updated as the campaign progresses.

Lynda Yanz


The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a labour and women's rights organization that supports the efforts of workers in global supply chains to win improved wages and working conditions. Please consider supporting MSN's important work by making an online contribution or by sending a cheque to the address below.

606 Shaw St.
Toronto, ON M6G 3L6
Canada

Study uncovers safety concerns with some air purifiers

Joint university research finds some air purifiers may actually increase harmful airborne chemicals

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

    SHARE

 PRINT  E-MAIL

IMAGE: THE ENVIRONMENTAL TEST CHAMBER WHERE RESEARCHERS CONDUCTED AIR PURIFIER EXPERIMENTS. (A) IS THE EXTERIOR WITH INSTRUMENTS SET UP OUTSIDE, AND (B) IS INSIDE THE CHAMBER WITH MOCK-UP FURNISHINGS AND MATERIALS.... view more 

CREDIT: ILLINOIS TECH

The market for air purifiers is booming, but a new study has found that some air cleaning technologies marketed for COVID-19 may be ineffective and have unintended health consequences.

The study, authored by researchers at Illinois Tech, Portland State University, and Colorado State University, found that cleaning up one harmful air pollutant can create a suite of others.

Both chamber and field tests found that an ionizing device led to a decrease in some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including xylenes, but an increase in others, most prominently oxygenated VOCs (e.g., acetone, ethanol) and toluene, substances commonly found in paints, paint strippers, aerosol sprays and pesticides. According to the EPA, exposure to VOCs has been linked to a range of health effects from eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination and nausea, to damage to liver, kidney and central nervous system, and some organics can cause cancer in animals, some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans.

The study, published this week in Building and Environment, mimicked real-world operating conditions for these ionization devices to test the effectiveness and potential to form chemical byproducts in environments similar to where we all live, work, and learn.

One of the most popular types of air purifiers on the market right now are ion-generating systems, including 'bipolar ionization' devices that electrically charge particles so they settle out of the air faster, and are generally marketed to kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

Understandably, the "virus-killing" capability has drawn attention and been heavily featured in advertising over the past year and led to a flood of new and revamped products on the market.

However, the study finds that the air purifier marketplace is fraught with inadequate test standards, confusing terminology, and a lack of peer-reviewed studies of their effectiveness and safety. Unlike air filtration (where air is pushed through a filter to remove airborne pollutants), there has been very little research on the effectiveness and side effects of "additive" air cleaning methods like ionizing devices.

"Manufacturers and third-party test labs commonly demonstrate their product's effectiveness using chamber tests, but these test reports often don't use experimental conditions that could show how the device actually performs in real-world conditions," said Brent Stephens, Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Illinois Tech. "To the extent that there are testing standards for ionization and other devices, those are largely industry-led standards that remain underdeveloped at this point, focused mostly on ensuring just one pollutant, ozone, is not generated during operation."

In everyday operating conditions, ions added to occupied environments such as a school or office building can react with other compounds present in indoor air, which can potentially lead to the formation of harmful byproducts such as formaldehyde and ozone. Ions can also rapidly bind to other gases and spur the formation of new 'ultrafine' particles, which are known air pollutants. But little independent data exists on these mechanisms.

The research team conducted a series of experiments on the operation of a commercially available in-duct bipolar ionization device. Lab tests were conducted with air sampling of particulate matter and gases in a large semi-furnished chamber and in a field test with an ionizer device installed in an air handling unit serving an occupied office building. The research also found that despite small changes in particle concentrations, there was very little net effect on the overall concentration of PM2.5 in the air.

According to the EPA, particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health as they can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Numerous scientific studies have linked fine particle pollution exposure to a range of health impacts, including premature death in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeat, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, irritation of the airways, coughing or difficulty breathing.

Health impacts of air ionizers are largely unknown, although a small number of recent studies give cause for concern. In August 2020, a study concluded that exposure to negative ions was associated with increased systemic oxidative stress levels (a marker of cardiovascular health), and despite reduced indoor particulate matter concentrations, there were no beneficial changes to respiratory health.

Another recent study of air ionizers in school classrooms reduced particulate matter concentrations led to some improvements in respiratory health among 11-14 year old children, the ionizers had an adverse effect on heart rate variability (a measure of cardiovascular health), meaning that any benefit to the lungs came at a cost to the heart.

"We should have a much better understanding of these effects before widespread use of these types of devices," said Delphine Farmer, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University and a co-lead author of the paper.

"Without peer-reviewed research into the health impacts of these devices, we risk substituting one harmful agent for another," said Stephens. "We urge others to follow guidance from organizations like the U.S. EPA and ASHRAE, which generally recommend the use of established, evidence-based measures to clean indoor air, including high efficiency particle filtration and enhanced ventilation, in addition to face coverings and physical distancing, to help reduce airborne transmission of COVID-19."

###

The authors of this research are Yicheng Zeng, Prashik Manwatkar, Marina Beke, Insung Kang, Akram Ali, Mohammad Heidarinejad, and Brent Stephens from Illinois Tech, Aurélie Laguerre and Elliott Gall from Portland State University, and Delphine Farmer from Colorado State University.