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The findings, published last week on Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal, showed that different racial and socioeconomic groups are likely exposed to varying sources of the harmful substances, known as PFAS. The family of thousands of synthetic chemicals are used in a vast array of consumer products, from rugs to straws, due to their resistance to stains, grease and water. The report highlighted a longstanding need for more research around the effect of PFAS on people of Asian descent, said Shelley Liu, lead study author. (Yam, 8/28)

Sustained exposure to wildfire smoke is taking a toll on human health in California, where residents of one county are losing an average of two years off their lives due to the air they breathe, a new report has found. Twenty of the nation’s top 30 most polluted counties in 2021 were located in California, according to new data released by the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) of the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute. (Udasin, 8/29)

Workers across California are grappling with yet another climate change-induced threat: a rapidly spreading fungus that can land its unsuspecting victims with prolonged flu-like symptoms, or far worse. The culprit is a soil-dwelling organism called coccidioides, which is now spreading the disease coccidioidomycosis — known as “Valley fever” — farther and farther north of its Southwest origins. Rather than spreading from person to person, Valley fever results from the direct inhalation of fungal spores — spores climate change is now allowing to flourish in new places. (Udasin, 8/28)

Some passengers say their dogs have been rejected for simple paperwork mistakes. The required forms also have been difficult to fill out, blind travelers say, because they are often not compatible with the screen reader technology people use to convert text to speech. In interviews, blind people told The Washington Post that the regulations are so difficult to navigate that they are now hesitant to fly or are anxious about the experience. Various organizations for the blind are calling for the forms to be changed or eliminated. (Morris, 8/28)

Each year, more than 470,000 people in the United States are infected with Lyme disease, and the National Institutes of Health estimates that between 10 percent and 20 percent will go on to battle lingering symptoms, now officially referred to as Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. The experiences shared by the Pinckneys and many other chronic Lyme patients sound remarkably similar to those now battling long COVID.“Long COVID and chronic Lyme share so many features that it’s uncanny,” said Michal Caspi Tal, principal scientist in biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tal is leading one of the two Massachusetts teams awarded federal grants, and the Pinckneys have enrolled in her study. (Lazar, 8/29)

Ask Alexa or Siri about the weather. But if you want to save someone’s life? Call 911 for that. Voice assistants often fall flat when asked how to perform CPR, according to a study published Monday. Researchers asked voice assistants eight questions that a bystander might pose in a cardiac arrest emergency. In response, the voice assistants said: “Hmm, I don’t know that one" and “Sorry, I don’t understand.” (Johnson, 8/28)