Recent editorials from Louisiana newspapers:
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Feb. 14
The Houma Courier and The Daily Comet on recent winter weather conditions:
An Arctic blast that swept into Terrebonne and Lafourche is something everyone should take seriously. …
The biggest concern here is that temperatures will fall low enough - the coldest this winter - for residents to take steps to protect people, pets and plants.
Officials are always concerned about fires this time of year, as people use heaters for the first time in a while. The State Fire Marshal’s Office says it has investigated 10 fire-related deaths so far this year.
“This is an alarming number of deaths due to fire already in 2021,” State Fire Marshal H. “Butch” Browning said in a news release last week. “Six of these deaths have happened in February alone, and we’re not even to the middle of the month yet.”
Causes varied but included unsafe smoking practices, improper electrical wiring and dangerous home-heating practices.
“Every single person, young to old, needs to make a concerted effort to stop this trend and there are simple ways to do that,” Browning said.
Most of this year’s deaths occurred in homes that lacked working smoke alarms. Make sure you have one, and check to ensure the batteries have power. If you can’t afford a smoke alarm, call any local fire department and it will install one free through the fire marshal’s Operation Save-A-Life program. You can also apply for a free smoke alarm at lasfm.org or by calling (225) 925-1716.
Among other tips from state and local officials:
- Place space heaters 3-5 feet from combustible objects like blankets, plug electric heaters directly into wall outlets and not power strips or extension cords, don’t use stoves or ovens to heat homes and don’t leave candles or open flames unattended.
- Make sure your loved ones are in a place with safe and adequate heating.
- Brings pets inside or give them warm shelter.
- Insulate exposed outdoor and attic pipes with weather-resistant material.
- Cover outdoor plants if you can and take potted plants inside if possible.
- State Police caution that freezing weather, coupled with the wind chill, can cause bridges to freeze. If that happens, state and local agencies will decide whether to close any bridges or roads. In the meantime, avoid unnecessary travel during the freeze.
- If you do drive, reduce speed, allow extra time to reach your destination and increase the distance between you and the car in front of you. If your car begins to skid, take your foot off the accelerator and steer into the skid until you regain control.
- Expect road closures and treacherous conditions if you’re traveling farther north. Keep track of road closures by downloading the Louisiana 511 mobile app or visiting 511la.org.
Sure, a couple of nights of freezing weather are no reason to panic, but they are no reason for complacency either. Just follow the Boy Scouts’ motto: Be prepared.
Online: https://www.houmatoday.com
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Feb. 11
The Advocate on President Joe Biden’s remarks on pollution and its health effects in Louisiana:
Louisiana does have a “cancer alley” problem but it isn’t the same one that President Joe Biden has casually and thoughtlessly cited.
That political slogan, rather than a considered and medical diagnosis, was uttered by the president as he signed executive orders to combat climate change and pollution.
Biden said “environmental justice” will take center stage as his administration works to improve the health and well-being of communities of color, especially “the hard-hit areas like Cancer Alley in Louisiana or the Route 9 corridor in the state of Delaware.”
There’s a lot to unpack in this. One thing that Louisiana folks might not know, having seen difficult environmental challenges here, is that Delaware was a center of America’s chemical industry a century or more ago.
Some of Biden’s predecessors in Congress were called the senators from DuPont, so influential was the company in that small state.
Does anyone in Delaware, or Louisiana, or anywhere else question that industrial growth results in emissions, and that those can indeed be injurious if not fatally hazardous to health? Or that we need effective environmental protection to reduce emissions?
But the phrase “cancer alley” is political shorthand for industry pollution that critics charge has ballooned death rates along Louisiana’s Mississippi River corridor.
As far as the facts can be determined, with large state investments in objective studies and a tumor registry, the overall health of folks may be better in “cancer alley” parishes where good-paying jobs with insurance benefits exist because of the petrochemical industry.
The causes of specific cancers can be extremely difficult to determine because there are so many variables. The census tracts used to generate statistical data are not perfect indicators but they are the standard approach to such a difficult epidemiological problem.
We do not doubt that smokestacks of plants are a contributor to some peoples’ health problems. That’s “common sense,” as Gail LeBoeuf, an environmental and civil rights activist in St. James Parish, said.
But it is hard to justify her attack on the more detailed analysis of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. He is not “blaming the victims.” Cassidy, a physician, was simply stating facts that myriad factors underline cancer rates.
Does Louisiana have a “cancer alley” problem? Absolutely, but it goes way beyond industrial development. It is rooted in poverty and bad habits and lack of access to health care, as well as the obvious contribution of a century of industrial development and its accompanying pollution.
To paraphrase Josef Stalin’s famous and cynical remark, the thousands of cancer incidents recorded in the registry are statistics, and the individual battling cancer is a tragedy. But responsible leadership, whether of the nation or of activist groups, requires that the statistics not be clouded by the emotional appeals to the tragedies of individuals.
Online: https://www.theadvocate.com
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