It's well-known that flu-like illness including COVID-19 is seasonal. What drives that seasonality is less well understood. Is it temperature, sunlight, humidity? A new suggestion is that pollen plays an important role.
The post Is COVID-19 Seasonality Driven by Pollen? appeared first on Lockdown Sceptics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released some new statistics concerning the dangers posed by air pollution. According to the global health watchdog, environmental pollutants – including unsafe water, lack of sanitation, poor hygiene practices, indoor and outdoor pollution, and injuries – claim the lives of 1.7 million children under 5 years old each year. [1]
These numbers mean that pollutants are the cause of death for 1 in 4 children 1 month to 5 years old.
Scientists in Japan have created tiny drones that pollinate plants; and if bees disappear, the insect-size drones are intended to replace them.
Two people have died in Melbourne, Australia, from “thunderstorm asthma,” a rare phenomenon which occurred following a storm that struck the city on November 21. [1]
Source: Business Insider
The 2 fatalities included an 18-year-old girl who was just days away from her high school graduation, and a female law student who died on her front lawn while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
It appears that voters in Sonoma County, California, have banned genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by a margin of 56-44%, unofficial results show. In 2005, Sonoma County voters shot down a similar measure by 5%. The ban reflects changing attitudes about the biotech industry, and its impact on the environment and human health. [1]
Source: SocialMediaFeed.me
Sonoma joins five other California counties that have already passed GMO bans: Mendocino, Marin, Trinity, Humboldt, and Santa Cruz.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made an announcement just a few months ago concerning the loss of honeybees that will undoubtedly make environmentalists say “I told you so,” and for good reason. The agency says that a pesticide widely sprayed on grains, vegetables, fruit, and other crops across the United States is threatening honeybees. [3]
The announcement could bolster efforts to have imidacloprid, a nicotine-imitating chemical, banned nationwide.
Beekeepers have instinctively known this all along, but a new landmark study has linked insecticide dust to damaged beehives. This is a sad but welcome confirmation of what beekeepers in Minnesota have been trying to tell the world for years now.
Autumn is ragweed season, so stay tuned for red, itchy eyes and a runny nose. Up to 30% of people suffer from allergic rhinitis – you know, hay fever – and for people in the eastern U.S., it can be especially miserable. But if you know how to stop hay fever, you should be able to cruise through the season without a problem.
