High school football programs act to protect players as scorching summers become the norm. As the climate gets hotter, heat-related deaths and strokes among the young athletes have reached alarming levels, with nearly three high school players dying per year, usually in August. Now Georgia, the state leading the nation in these tragedies, is enforcing new rules. The regulations ban coaches from holding practice more than twice a day — or practicing at all when the heat index exceeds certain levels. Athletes can play with helmets, but not full pads, during a five-day acclimatization period at the start of the preseason. Colleges have followed similar rules since 2003 and have seen heat-related illness rates decline. The Daily Climate
Arctic ice disappearing faster than previously expected. Preliminary analysis of data from the first satellite launched to study the thickness of the Earth’s polar caps, the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 probe, indicates that summer sea ice is being lost at a rate 50 percent higher than scientists widely believed. With earlier satellites, scientists could see that the area covered by summer sea ice in the Arctic was dwindling rapidly. But the new measurements indicate that the remaining ice has been thinning dramatically due to global warming. In regions north of Canada and Greenland, where ice thickness stayed at around five to six meters in summer a decade ago, levels have dropped to one to three meters. Guardian
Study finds that junk food laws appear to curb childhood obesity. The results come from the first in-depth look at the effectiveness of state laws restricting school sales of junk food and sweetened drinks. Researchers found that in states with strong laws in elementary and middle school, almost 39 percent of fifth-graders were overweight when the study began in spring 2004. That fell to 34 percent in eighth grade. In states with no such laws, almost 37 percent of fifth-graders were overweight and the figure was nearly unchanged by eighth grade. The study’s lead author, Daniel Taber, a health policy researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the laws need to be consistently strong in a state to be effective. The Associated Press
Business, health advocates clash over a proposed first-ever municipal tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. In May, the city council in Richmond, Calif., a working-class city northeast of San Francisco, agreed to put a measure on the November ballot to charge businesses a penny for every ounce of those beverages they sell. The measure has drawn opposition from an association representing soft-drink makers like Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., and local merchants. But health advocates say the measure could help address the nation’s obesity problem and hope it will set a model for other cities. Inspired by Richmond’s move, El Monte, Calif., near Los Angeles, has drafted a soda-tax measure for its November ballot. The Wall Street Journal
Northern California refinery fire called a “near-disaster” for workers. More than a dozen workers were threatened when the highly flammable vapor cloud that sparked last Monday’s massive fire at Chevron’s Richmond, Calif., refinery engulfed them as they examined a leaky, four-decades-old pipe. “These workers might have been killed or severely injured had they not escaped the cloud as the release rate escalated and the cloud ignited, shortly thereafter,” said Dan Tillema, leader of a U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigative team. Investigators called the incident one of the worst refinery accidents in years and said it was rare for so many employees to be in harm’s way. Five workers suffered minor injuries. Contra Costa Times
California’s boom in metal recycling operations overwhelms regulators. Although the recyclers commonly handle hazardous materials and sometimes sit in residential neighborhoods, many of the firms are rarely, if ever, inspected. In the last three years in California, at least 23 fires and explosions have occurred at scrap metal operations. At least five people have died in workplace accidents and at least 35 have suffered serious injuries, according to state officials. Local fire departments, regional water boards, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency all have authority over aspects of the industry. But no single agency has overall responsibility. Los Angeles Times
Recalls: Fresco Green cilantro, Lucky Country black licorice, Burch Farms and Cottle Strawberry cantaloupe and honeydew melons (expanded recall), Drake’s Bay Oyster Company oysters, Ready Pac sliced apples, Ethicon surgical staplers
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein and Bridget Huber
