Health officials warn San Diegans about two serious respiratory illnesses
Good Morning, I’m Katie Anastas, in for Debbie Cruz….it’s Tuesday, November 19th.>>>>
There’s an increase in two serious respiratory illnesses this season.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….#######
The measure proposing a countywide half-cent sales tax to fund transit projects, road and highway repairs and transportation maintenance had more people against it, than for it.
As of late last week, more than 51-percent voted “no” on Measure G.
The measure needed a simple majority to pass.
It would have authorized spending the sales tax money on a number of transit-related operations, including commuter safety, transit operations for M-TS and the North County Transit District, and for streets and road maintenance.
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There’s still time to fill out a survey on sewage pollution in the South Bay.
It’s the federal Assessment of Chemical Exposures survey.
The survey is for people who live, work or play around the Tijuana River Valley and South San Diego County beaches, to find out how sewage pollution in those areas has impacted their lives.
Nearly 2-thousand people have already completed it.
The survey is available on the county’s website.
You can fill it out through Friday.
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Warm weather is in store for most parts of the county this week.
Starting today (Tuesday), temperatures are expected to rise a couple degrees each day.
In the inland areas today (Tuesday), temps will be in the low 70s, by the coast and in the deserts, it’ll be in the high 60s, and in the mountains, it’s expected to be in the low 50s.
The National Weather Service says there’s a slight chance of rain this weekend.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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AS WE APPROACH THE PEAK OF COLD AND FLU SEASON, HEALTH REPORTER HEIDI DE MARCO SAYS HEALTH OFFICIALS ARE WARNING COUNTY RESIDENTS ABOUT A RISE IN TWO SERIOUS RESPIRATORY ILLNESSES: WALKING PNEUMONIA AND WHOOPING [HOOPING] COUGH.
WHOOPING1 trt: 1:13 SOQ
Whooping cough starts off like a typical cold—cough, runny nose, maybe a mild fever. But for some, the harmless sniffle can soon spiral into something much worse. Dr. Edmund Milder is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital. He says identifying whooping cough is tricky. “What becomes unique is that, as the rest of your symptoms fade away, the cough only worsens, and…these bouts of coughing that are pretty severe, and people can, you know, sort of turn very red in the face. They can even have vomiting at the end of this like cough, cough, cough.” This year, San Diego County has seen a significant increase in whooping cough, or pertussis. There are 547 confirmed cases so far, compared to just 332 last year. Health officials are also tracking a surge in walking pneumonia. Cases in local ERs for children ages 2 to 4 quadrupled between Oct. 19 and Nov. 2. Milder recommends staying up to date with vaccines. He warns parents to stay vigilant, especially if their child’s symptoms seem more severe than usual. Heidi de Marco, KPBS.
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A LAWSUIT WAS ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY (Monday) ON BEHALF OF SOUTH BAY RESIDENTS AFFECTED BY DISCHARGED RAW SEWAGE AND CONTAMINATION.
FRANTZ LAW GROUP FILED THE LAWSUIT AGAINST VEOLIA WATER NORTH AMERICAN WEST AND OTHER OPERATORS OF THE SOUTH BAY INTERNATIONAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT FOR QUOTE "SIGNIFICANT MONETARY DAMAGES."
THE PLAINTIFFS IN THE CASE CLAIM REPEATED EXPOSURE TO ILLEGALLY DISCHARGED RAW SEWAGE AND CONTAMINATION, VIOLATING THE CLEAN WATER ACT.
JAMES FRANTZ IS THE C-E-O OF FRANTZ LAW GROUP.
HE SAYS THEIR HEALTH IS IN DANGER.
SEWAGESUIT 2A :30
“Recent testing has revealed the presence of significantly toxic chemicals DDT, Benzedrine, polychlorinated biphenyls, along with fecal matter, bacteria and pathogens. We can only guess how many other terrible chemicals bacteria is in this fecal matter that they are, releasing every day through their misconduct.”
THIS IS THE SECOND LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST VEOLIA IN RECENT WEEKS.
IN RESPONSE TO THE LATEST SUIT, THE COMPANY SAID IT HAS PROPERLY MAINTAINED THE PLANT AND THAT THE U-S AND MEXICAN GOVERNMENTS HAVE FAILED TO FUND OR IMPLEMENT SOLUTIONS.
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Living things evolve to fit their environment.
At UC-SD, they’re speeding up the process to create organisms that do some important jobs for us.
Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge has more.
EVOLVEQUICK 1 (tf) …SOQ.
AMBI Robots are at work full time at this UC San Diego lab, creating challenging conditions for different cellular compounds. Robot arms remove the cells from one liquid solution and expose them to an even more harsh environment to see if they can survive it. “Basically what we can do is create an environment where we can grow them reproducively over and over again, and the ones that are fittest and grow the fastest will win out and have a selection for the property that we want.” Organisms are being created to consume plastic waste. They can create chemical building blocks to transform organic waste into medicines or into building materials like plastic. Again the process used in this bioengineering factory is evolution. Scientists are just giving it a push. “So what we’re actually doing is we’re using the natural process of evolution and we’re enabling it on a faster scale. So the microbes themselve are growing and dividing and mutating. We’re just facilitating that process here in the lab and selecting them under specific conditions, to get the ones that are useful for our application.” Feist says the raw materials of bioengineering are all around us. Even the plants in our green waste bins. Soq.
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For nearly 30 years, Carlsbad has had a moratorium on drive-thru restaurants.
North County reporter Alexander Nguyen says the city is rethinking that ban.
DRIVETHRU 1 (:xx) SOQ
Drive-thrus .. are a ubiquitous part of American culture. But in Carlsbad … they are few and far in between.“26 years ago, they instituted a blanket moratorium on all eatery drive thrus throughout the city of Carlsbad.”
Bret Schanzenbach is the C-E-O of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. He says the city instituted the ban because of Legoland, and fears Carlsbad would become like Anaheim…-crowded with drive-thrus and motels. Businesses that had drive-thrus back then were able to keep them… but no new ones were allowed. “Most of the community members we've talked to about this issue have no idea that there was a blanket prohibition in place in Carlsbad until Chick-fil-A came in. And everybody wants to know how come there's not a drive through at Chick-fil-A?” Schanzenbach says some restaurants and coffee chains are reluctant to open in Carlsbad because of the drive-thru ban…. So the Chamber is advocating to get it lifted. The City Council’s Economic Development Subcommittee will take up the issue at its meeting Tuesday at 10 a-m. AN KPBS News.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. Join us again tomorrow for the day’s top stories. I’m Katie Anastas. Thanks for listening and have a great Tuesday.
