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Smoking rates at ‘all-time lows’ in Australia

by www.abc.net.au Leave a Comment

Australians are lighting up in fewer numbers than ever before, and tobacco use is continuing to decline, a new report into cigarette smoking has revealed.

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) compiled a report into smoking patterns, finding less than 13 per cent of Australians are daily smokers.

Overall, the report found improvement in a majority of indicators used to measure smoking rates under a strategy to reduce tobacco usage.

“The most pleasing result probably is the fact that 11 of the 14 indicators are moving in what we’d look at as a positive direction,” AIHW spokesman Tim Beard said.

“Regular smoking rates have continued to come down under the past three years, so we’ve found that … the daily smoking rate is down to an all-time low of [under] 13 per cent. That’s one of the lowest smoking rates in the world.

“It’s come down by a good 3 percentage points [since 2010].”

Mr Beard said smoking rates had rapidly dropped over the past two decades.

“Even 15, 20 years ago it’s almost halved. It was 21, 22 per cent … so the rates are just continuing to drop quite dramatically and that’s a very large drop compared to some of the international rates you look at,” he said.

Fewer young people trying cigarettes

The report also said fewer high school students were experimenting with cigarettes.

“We’ve also found that in general terms … when you look at school students and young adults taking up smoking, they’re not only taking up at a much lower rate, but they’re also taking it up later,” Mr Beard said.

“When you put those two things together, it’s a very powerful story about the fact that the smoking rates are coming down with those factors working in combination.”

However the report noted that some population groups were improving more slowly than others.

Indigenous Australians and people living in remote areas reported improvements, but they were less dramatic than people living in major cities.

Mr Beard said it was difficult to determine the cause of the improvements, but listed increasing costs, plain packaging, and more restrictive laws about where smokers can light up as contributing factors.

“The increased excise on smoking has been a strong policy of multiple governments … the rising excise over the past few years has certainly been coupled in a lot of research with dramatic drops in smoking rates,” he said.

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What Does All This Rain Mean for California’s Drought?

by www.nytimes.com Leave a Comment

As you’re well aware, California has had an extremely wet winter, replete with severe flooding, snowed-in mountain communities and a massive snowpack accumulating in the Sierra Nevada.

So what does that mean for the state’s drought?

In January, after back-to-back atmospheric river storms, it was still largely unknown whether the downpours could reverse our drought, which began in 2020 and has stretched through the three driest years on record in the state.

At the time, many experts said that it could very likely take multiple wet months, or even multiple wet seasons, to end the drought — and there was no telling whether the wet weather early in the season would be followed by a dry spell, which is exactly what happened last year .

But this winter has continued to bring torrents of rain and snow through March, which has changed the drought outlook.

I worked with my colleagues Mira Rojanasakul and Nadja Popovich on a set of maps and charts that illustrates just how big of an effect these very wet months have had on the Golden State’s longer-term drought conditions.

When you look at how much precipitation California received over the past three years, excluding this winter, you’ll notice that almost the entire state experienced levels far below what’s normal, with normal defined as the average precipitation received between 1991 and 2020.

But when you include this winter’s rain and snow, the picture shifts: The precipitation that California received between December and mid-March has offset much of the shortfall that accumulated over the past three years.

The rains have helped replenish reservoirs, many of which have quickly returned to their historical averages, or surpassed them. Snow has built up snowpack levels statewide to the highest they’ve been in decades — more than three times what they were at the same time in each of the last three years.

This is undoubtedly a silver lining to our extreme weather of late. But experts are still hesitant to say definitively that California’s drought is over, for a number of reasons.

First, even though storms may temporarily ease the dry conditions, drought is likely to return relatively soon. California has long cycled through spells of deluge and drought , in part because of natural climate variability. But research suggests that a warmer climate has supercharged the “whiplash” between these extremes.

Second, even an extremely wet winter isn’t a magic bullet for the long-term water concerns in the state, which have been exacerbated by years of extreme aridity, rising temperatures and unsustainable water use.

California’s groundwater aquifers have huge potential for storing water; they can hold eight to 12 times as much as all of the state’s major reservoirs combined. But, they have been badly depleted by decades of heavy pumping, especially in the agriculture-heavy Central Valley. Data suggests that groundwater supplies in the region decline precipitously during dry periods, recovering only modestly during wet ones.

When it comes to replenishing those aquifers, the state has had trouble capturing water from downpours and redirecting it to fields and sandy basins where it can seep underground, experts say. That means we still have a long way to go in restoring our groundwater supplies.

Heavy influxes of rain and snow during the winter can also have destructive repercussions later in the year. The state’s record-level snowpack could mean more flooding in the spring as the snow melts, especially if much of the soil is already saturated with water and can’t absorb much more of it.

And, as Alex Hall, the director of the Center for Climate Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out to me, disputes over the dwindling Colorado River still loom. Seven western states, including California, depend on the river for water, but those states have struggled to reduce their water use even as the river’s flow has plummeted because of climate change, drought and population growth.

Recent rains are not nearly enough to alleviate a crisis that has been decades in the making, Hall said. “We would need multiple years of good and healthy water inputs to recover.”

For more:

Elena Shao is a climate reporting fellow for The New York Times.

The rest of the news

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

  • Evacuating Tulare : Flooding in Tulare County has forced nearly 100 residents into evacuation shelters , with over 680 structures damaged by flood water and the possibility of more rain, Visalia Times-Delta reports.

  • Gas for sale: The Cambria General Store, one of the oldest gas and convenience stores in San Luis Obispo County, is selling its property and business for $2.7 million , The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports.

  • Pajaro floods: A levee break in Monterey County has affected 2,500 residents, leaving nearly 500 people in shelters and many others without access to clean water or sewers, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

  • Storm damage: At least five people were killed in the Bay Area by falling trees during this week’s strong winds and precipitation.

What we’re eating

Spiced red lentils.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Mame Kell, who recommends a hike to Potato Chip Rock near San Diego: “The hike to the rock isn’t anything to write home about, but standing on the potato chip is amazing!”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected] . We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

What we’re reading

In “Guardians of the Valley,” Dean King chronicles the friendship between the naturalist John Muir and the journalist Robert Underwood Johnson.

And before you go, some good news

Beverly Bao Ngoc Pham and Brett Andrew Lynch met in March 2021 in Palm Springs, where Pham was on vacation with a friend. Lynch, 30, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, was on assignment in Twentynine Palms at the time.

“I’m pretty sure the first thing I said was, ‘I don’t date Marines,’” Pham recalled, laughing.

Pham graduated with a degree in broadcast and digital journalism from the University of Southern California and now works as an editorial designer for Fox Sports. She grew up in Westminster in Orange County.

Lynch graduated from the University of San Diego with a degree in economics. He began his career in television before deciding to join the Marine Corps at 27, inspired by his father, who served in the Navy.

Lynch said he was quickly enamored with Pham.

“Just talking with her that first night, everything was so effortless,” he said. “I knew I wanted to at least take her on a date.”

Last year, the couple got engaged. And a video of the engagement ceremony went viral.

Read more in The Times.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword .

Soumya Karlamangla, Briana Scalia, Fariha Rahman and Isabella Grullón Paz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected] .

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox .

Utah social media law means kids need approval from parents

by www.chron.com Leave a Comment

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) —

Children and teens in Utah would lose access to social media apps such as TikTok if they don’t have parental consent and face other restrictions under a first-in-the-nation law designed to shield young people from the addictive platforms.

Two laws signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox Thursday prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and open the door to lawsuits on behalf of children claiming social media harmed them. Collectively, they seek to prevent children from being lured to apps by addictive features and from having ads promoted to them.

The companies are expected to sue before the laws take effect in March 2024.

The crusade against social media in Utah’s Republican-supermajority Legislature is the latest reflection of how politicians’ perceptions of technology companies has changed, including among typically pro-business Republicans.

Tech giants like Facebook and Google have enjoyed unbridled growth for over a decade, but amid concerns over user privacy, hate speech, misinformation and harmful effects on teens’ mental health, lawmakers have made Big Tech attacks a rallying cry on the campaign trail and begun trying to rein them in once in office. Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok’s CEO testified before Congress about, among other things, the platform’s effects on teenagers’ mental health.

But legislation has stalled on the federal level, pushing states to step in.

Outside of Utah, lawmakers in red states including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Louisiana and blue states including New Jersey are advancing similar proposals. California, meanwhile, enacted a law last year requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.

The new Utah laws also require that parents be given access to their child’s accounts. They outline rules for people who want to sue over harms they claim the apps cause. If implemented, lawsuits against social media companies involving kids under 16 will shift the burden of proof and require social media companies show their products weren’t harmful — not the other way around.

Social media companies could have to design new features to comply with parts of the laws that prohibit promoting ads to minors and showing them in search results. Tech companies like TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, make most of their money by targeting advertising to their users.

The wave of legislation and its focus on age verification has garnered pushback from technology companies as well as digital privacy groups known for blasting their data collection practices.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this month demanded Cox veto the Utah legislation, saying time limits and age verification would infringe on teens’ rights to free speech and privacy. Moreover, verifying every users’ age would empower social media platforms with more data, like the government-issued identification required, they said.

If the law is implemented, the digital privacy advocacy group said in a statement, “the majority of young Utahns will find themselves effectively locked out of much of the web.”

Tech industry lobbyists decried the laws as unconstitutional, saying they infringe on people’s right to exercise the First Amendment online.

“Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.

What’s not clear in Utah’s new law and those under consideration elsewhere is how states plan to enforce the new regulations. Companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. To comply, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.

Cox said studies have shown that time spent on social media leads to “poor mental health outcomes” for children.

“We remain very optimistic that we will be able to pass not just here in the state of Utah but across the country legislation that significantly changes the relationship of our children with these very destructive social media apps,” he said.

The set of laws won support from parents groups and child advocates, who generally welcomed them, with some caveats. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on kids and technology, hailed the effort to rein in social media’s addictive features and set rules for litigation, saying with its CEO saying it “adds momentum for other states to hold social media companies accountable to ensure kids across the country are protected online.”

However, Jim Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense, said giving parents access to children’s social media posts would “deprive kids of the online privacy protections we advocate for.” Age verification and parental consent may hamper kids who want to create accounts on certain platforms, but does little to stop companies from harvesting their data once they’re on.

The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on the fragility of children in the digital age. Two years ago, Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cellphones and tablets sold in the state, after arguments about the dangers it posed to children found resonance among Utah lawmakers, the majority of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers ultimately revised that legislation to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws.

The regulations come as parents and lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about kids and teenagers’ social media use and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others are affecting young people’s mental health. The dangers of social media to children is also emerging as a focus for trial lawyers, with addiction lawsuits being filed thorughout the country.

___

Ortutay reported from Oakland, California.

California prepares ultimatum for food brands

by www.newsweek.com Leave a Comment

  • California Assembly members Jesse Gabriel and Buffy Wicks recently proposed a bill that would prohibit food brands from including certain ingredients, such as brominated vegetable oil, red dye 3, potassium bromate, propylparaben and titanium dioxide, in their items.
  • The ingredients have been linked to various health issues.
  • While the bill could lead to some products being banned in California, Gabriel hopes that companies will voluntarily change their recipes instead.
  • The bill takes a shot at the FDA for having a “huge loophole for approving chemicals” and its first hearing is anticipated for April.
  • If passed, Gabriel hopes the bill will influence companies to change their recipes in all states, not just California.

A new bill proposed by California state legislators could require certain food brands to amend their ingredient list or no longer be sold in the state.

The bill, which is authored by Assembly members Jesse Gabriel and Buffy Wicks, both Democrats , would prohibit brands from including ingredients such as brominated vegetable oil, red dye 3, potassium bromate, propylparaben and titanium dioxide in their products.

The ingredients, all of which have been banned in the European Union ( EU ), can be found in sodas, processed foods, cereals and candy. Several companies such as Coke and Pepsi have moved away from using the ingredients in their items. If passed, the bill would make it law that other companies follow suit.

It is unlikely that the bill will ban any food brands. Instead, Gabriel told Newsweek he hopes the brands will shift to healthier versions of the ingredients to follow the new protocol.

For example, Skittles contains titanium dioxide, an additive that enhances color, in its candies in the U.S. The candy company faced a lawsuit in 2022 for using the ingredient, despite being FDA-approved. But Skittles still sells its products in the EU, where the candy is modified to not include titanium dioxide.

“The idea here is to have these companies change their recipes,” Gabriel said. “All of these chemicals are banned in Europe, but [the companies] still sell in EU by making minor modifications to their recipes.”

Gabriel said that the ingredients listed in the bill have a variety of health issues when consumed in dangerous amounts with links to cancer, reproductive issues and development and behavioral issues in children. He said there are “readily available, safer alternatives” for the ingredients without banning the products entirely.

Some brands using titanium dioxide in their ingredients are Goya, Skinnygirl and Land O’Lakes.

Newsweek reached out to Skittles, Goya and Skinnygirl through a website contact form for comment. Newsweek reached out to Land O’Lakes by email for comment.

If a company refuses to make the changes, it could be banned from being sold in California, but Gabriel doesn’t expect that to happen.

“Hypothetically it’s possible, but as a practical matter the chances are virtually zero,” he said. “They would be choosing voluntarily to exit a market of 40 million people. It doesn’t make any financial sense.”

Coke and Pepsi stopped using brominated vegetable oil in their sodas in 2014. Gabriel hopes that under the new bill, other brands will follow suit.

The bill takes a shot at the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ), which Gabriel accuses of having a “huge loophole for approving chemicals.” A press release from Gabriel’s office said many of the listed ingredients were never independently evaluated by the FDA or were reviewed years ago.

“Instead, these chemicals have entered the nation’s food supply through a loophole in federal law—known as GRAS, or “generally recognized as safe”—that was intended to apply to common household ingredients like vinegar,” the release said. “As a result of this loophole, chemical companies have added new substances to the food supply with almost no meaningful federal oversight.”

An FDA spokesperson told Newsweek that it does not comment on proposed or pending legislation.

The bill was recently introduced and assigned to the Assembly’s Health Committee. Its first hearing is anticipated for April. If passed, Gabriel hopes the bill influences companies to change their recipes in all states, not just California.

“Our expectation is that no products come off the shelf and people make minor modifications to their recipes to take out toxic chemicals,” Gabriel said.

California Flood Victims Outraged at Newsom, Biden for Broken Promises on Aid

by www.breitbart.com Leave a Comment

Residents of Pajaro, California, a flooded community in Monterey County, are furious at Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and President Joe Biden for failing to deliver the federal disaster aid that was promised earlier this month.

As Breitbart News reported March 12, a levee that had not been improved in decades broke during storms and caused a large area of the Pajaro Valley, where many of the nation’s vegetables are grown, to be flooded.

Pajaro flooding (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty)

Flooded strawberry fields in Pajaro, California, US, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. Flooding from a levee breach on the Pajaro River Friday put nearly 2,000 residents under mandatory evacuation orders. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Gov. Newsom visited and promised $42 million in relief aid. However, it turned out that the aid had been signed into law years earlier by President Donald Trump as part of coronavirus relief, and only $300,000 was available. Worse yet, the $300,000 was not specifically for flood relief, but was available in the form of $600 for farmworkers.

Relief workers vented their frustration last week at Newsom’s apparent broken promise.

Now, the situation is even worse, according to the San Jose Mercury News , as residents recall Newsom promising that the president had promised him “an ‘immediate response’” to the state’s request for a federal disaster declaration. But the state had not yet provided that response, because they had yet to identify 1,200 homes that had suffered major damage. Many of the residents of Pajaro are currently homeless.

The Mercury News reported :

“They let us down,” said Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli. “We’re still waiting on the presidential emergency declaration that was promised to us over a week ago. Governor, please pick up the phone and call the president and ask him to have empathy for the suffering of people in Pajaro. Ask him to sign the declaration.”

When evacuation orders are lifted, residents won’t be going back to the same Pajaro they left. There is still no potable water or working sewer system in the town, and about 400 buildings — nearly half of those in the town — were damaged by the flooding, according to a preliminary damage assessment by CalFire.

Newsom has been on a statewide tour, giving speeches in lieu of a formal “State of the State” address, sending a letter to the legislature instead.

Earlier this month, Newsom disappeared on a personal trip to Mexico as the state battled deadly blizzards.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’ . He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election . He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak .