Oregon
Oregon is home to 2 of the 10 most polluted cities in the US
(KPTV) – The Beaver State, despite being known for having residents who are passionate about climate change and the environment, has been found to contain some of the most polluted air in the entire country.
A new report shows that two out of the top 10 locations with the worst air quality are in Oregon.
Eugene was found to be in fourth place and the Grants Pass-Medford area came in at eighth place.
Bakersfield, California took the top spot as the US city with the most air pollution.
Just last month, Oregon environmental regulators discussed a push to drastically reduce greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel companies.
The state also adopted a statewide Climate Protection Plan in 2021, which was promised to be one of the strongest climate action plans in the country.
This new study, assembled by the American Lung Association, showed that there are 4,589 pediatric and 36,325 adult asthma cases in Eugene-Springfield which is home to 382,353 people.
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Eugene-Springfield was noted for having particularly high levels of pollution coming from car emissions, wood-burning stoves and diesel engines.
The San Francisco Bay Area ranked just under Eugene-Springfield in fifth place due to transportation emissions, wildfires, and industrial storm water runoff.
Los Angeles was listed next in sixth place due to burning of fossil fuels, especially by cars, ships, planes, manufacturing, and wildfires.
Medford earned the eighth spot, followed by Phoenix and Fairbanks, Alaska.
The study showed 4,277 pediatric and 28,473 adult asthma cases in the Medford-Grants Pass area out of a population of 309,374.
Data showed the US is responsible for 17 percent of total global greenhouse emissions.
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Oregon
Oregon hangs on to beat San Diego 5-4 after Bryce Boettcher hits tie-breaking homer in 11th
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Bryce Boettcher homered leading off the top of the 11th inning and Logan Mercado worked out of trouble in the bottom half to give Oregon a 5-4 win over San Diego on Friday in the NCAA Santa Barbara Regional.
Boettcher, the Ducks’ No. 9 batter, had gone hitless in his previous 10 at-bats before he drove reliever Calvin Schapira’s 1-0 pitch over the fence in left.
San Diego had runners at the corners with one out in the bottom of the 11th when Mercado struck out Angelo Peraza and got Ariel Armas to pop out to short to end the game.
The Ducks (38-18) will play UC Santa Barbara or Fresno State in a winner’s bracket game Saturday. San Diego (40-14) plays the UC Santa Barbara-Fresno State loser in an elimination game.
Mercado (6-1) worked the final four innings, allowing one hit and one walk. Schapira (5-2) went 2 1/3 innings.
The Torreros trailed 4-1 before Jakob Christian’s three-run homer, his 24th, tied it in the eighth.
Oregon’s Carter Garate homered in the fifth to open the scoring, and he finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.
Oregon
Shellfish biotoxin closes entire Oregon coast to harvesting, sends some people to hospital
Oregon officials closed the state’s entire coast to shellfish harvesting on Friday after an unprecedented outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning, which appears to also be affecting parts of Washington and California.
During a press conference Friday morning, officials said Oregon had never experienced such a large outbreak before, in terms of both the toxic levels being detected in shellfish and the number of people becoming ill.
At least 20 people who harvested shellfish have become ill. An Oregon Health Authority spokesperson said most illnesses have been mild, although some people required hospitalization.
“These are unprecedented levels that we’re seeing, and especially in bay clams and oysters,” Matthew Hunter, shellfish program manager with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said.
Paralytic shellfish poisoning is the most severe type of shellfish poisoning. It is caused by eating shellfish contaminated with saxitoxins, a naturally occurring toxin. Many kinds of shellfish can be contaminated by this toxin, but it most often affects mussels and clams. Saxitoxins and similar biotoxins affecting shellfish are tied to algal blooms in the ocean. These blooms are colloquially called “red tides” or “brown tides,” though they don’t always color the water.
Symptoms usually appear within an hour after a person eats toxic shellfish. They include numbness and tingling of the face, lips, tongue, arms and legs, as well as digestive issues like diarrhea, vomiting and nausea. Extreme cases could include neurological symptoms, like paralysis, or respiratory failure.
Cooking shellfish will not destroy these poisonous biotoxins, and there is no antidote for biotoxin poisoning. People who become ill need to wait for the toxins to naturally flush from their bodies.
Hunter said officials need to do more testing to see if these toxin levels have hit their peak, or if they are starting to decline.
“I doubt we’re at the decline because we’re seeing Washington have some closures,” Hunter said.
California closed part of its northern coast to razor clam harvesting in early May due to domoic acid, which is tied to a different type of biotoxin. That state has yet to close parts of its coast to shellfish harvesting because of paralytic shellfish poisoning, but Hunter said he “would be very surprised if this isn’t an event that’s covering all three states.”
Oregon first detected high levels of toxins among shellfish along the Central Oregon Coast on May 17. Since then, high levels of toxins have been found in several different types of shellfish across the Oregon coast, including bay clams, razor clams, oysters and mussels.
Paralytic shellfish poisoning has a long history of sickening people and animals along the West Coast, but Hunter said it and other shellfish poisons appear to be getting worse along with climate change.
“We’ve shown that the changing of the oceans has definitely increased the frequency, the duration and the toxicity of all of our biotoxins,” Hunter said. “That’s definitely something that we’re going to have to do adaptive management for.”
Oregon
MARINE BIOTOXIN CLOSURES AFFECT ENTIRE OREGON COAST
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