Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Toxic Dioxin Found In Houston Soil Samples
The Houston Health Department has discovered dioxin, a powerful toxic chemical, in a soil sample collected in the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood, the city of Houston said on Wednesday. The sample was taken from soil near a former Union Pacific Railroad creosote treatment facility, the city said in a press release. Residents and activists, as well as city and county leaders, have called for more clean-up actions to be taken at the site since a cancer cluster was discovered there in 2019. (Wayne Ferguson, 7/13)
President Joe Biden's infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu made a stop in Milwaukee to tout the benefits of the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure plan for the city. Landrieu's visit came as city officials hope to use money from infrastructure plan to significantly speed up lead lateral replacements in an effort to ensure clean drinking water and combat Milwaukee's longstanding problem of lead poisoning among children. (Spicuzza and Dirr, 7/12)
In 2019, the federal government awarded the City of Durham funding to perform lead abatement at high-risk sites throughout town. The funds, totaling more than $3 million dollars, were earmarked for the city’s Lead-Based Paint Reduction Program (LHR) and consisted of federal and city dollars. (Atwater, 7/14)
About 10 feet from Rickey Jordan’s home, just steps away from the window where his daughter and two granddaughters sleep, an orphaned well is leaking. The 83-year-old well, which runs a mile deep, has been leaking an unknown gas on and off for years. The latest started in mid-June, state records show. (Chavez, 7/13)
In updates on West Nile Virus —
West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitoes in Massachusetts for the first time this year, state health officials announced Wednesday. The virus was found by the Massachusetts State Public Health Laboratory in a mosquito sample collected on July 11 in the town of Easton. No cases of West Nile or Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) have been found in people or animals yet this year. There is no elevated risk level or risk-level change, health officials said. (7/14)
Solano County health officials said this week that a bird found in Vacaville in late June tested positive for the West Nile virus. To date, there have been no confirmed human cases of the virus, health officials said. (Parker, 7/13)
