Fires Create Smoke Risk For Southern California Residents

Eventually the terrible wildfires in California will be brought under control but even when the fires are contained there is still ash and smoke to worry about. MercuryNews.com reports that hospitals do have people in emergency rooms with respiratory problems.

At the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles […]

Global Warming Fueling Mega-fires

CBS News reports that warming temperatures caused by climate change are fueling mega-fires — “forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we’re used to seeing.” The article says large fires are becoming more common.

“A fire of this size and this intensity in this country would have been extremely rare 15, 20 years they’re commonplace […]

FDA Panel Warns on Cold Medicines for Children Under 6

A FDA panel has warned that over-the-counter (OTC) cold and cough medicines do not work in children and that they should not be used in children less than six years old. The medicines the FDA Panel is warning about includes decongestants, antihistamines and antitussives but not expectorants. Over a dozen cold products for infants were […]

Alzheimer’s Blood Test Developed

The BBC reports that a new blood test can identify Alzheimer’s six years before symptoms of the disease start to show. The article says the blood test has a 90% accuracy

The test identifies changes in a handful of proteins that cells use to convey messages to one another.

The US researchers found it could indicate who […]

Lack of Rain Causing Problems in Southeast and West

Two large areas in the United States are suffering from conditions created by a lack of rainfall. In the Southeast the rain problems are extremely serious. In the graphic on the right from the U.S. Drought Monitor you can see a large area of D4 drought conditions in the Southeast U.S. D4 stands for “exceptional […]

Al Gore and UN Panel Win Nobel Peace Prize

Former U.S. President Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Gore, US vice-president under Bill Clinton, said he was “deeply honoured”.

Mr Gore, 59, won an Oscar for his climate change film An Inconvenient Truth while the IPCC is the top authority on global warming.

IPCC chairman […]

The Giant Spider Web at Lake Tawakoni

There is a giant spider web at Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas. The web was found in August by Texas Parks & Wildlife employee Freddie Gowin while mowing the trails at Lake Tawakoni State Park. The web sparked interest from experts and bloggers when Donna Garde, Lake Tawakoni State Park Superintendent, posted her photo […]

Bird Flu Facts Update

Despite serious efforts to control the deadly H5N1 virus outbreaks continue. Humans also continue to catch and die from the virus although the much feared pandemic has not occured. Reuters collected these facts containg information from the OIE, WHO and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 30 countries have reported outbreaks in the past […]

Spike in Brain-Eating Amoeba Cases Reported

KPHO Phoenix has a developing story about a local boy who was killed by a deadly amoeba he is believed to have picked up while swimming in Lake Havasu.

A 14-year-old Lake Havasu boy has become the sixth victim to die nationwide this year of a microscopic organism that attacks the body through the nasal cavity, […]