Tag Archives: Atlantic

Prepare ahead of time for possible tropical storms or hurricanes

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is encouraging citizens to get prepared for the Atlantic hurricane season, which is June 1 through November 30 each year.

Here is a list of preparedness tips from the CDC:

Visit the CDC website for more information on preparing for hurricanes or tropical storms. Also, many resources regarding hurricanes are available on the CDC Hurricanes website.

DHEC in the News: Ticks, hurricane season, obesity

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Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

Tips To Fight Off Ticks

Columbia, SC (WLTX) – Since the start of summer means the beginning of summer, News 19 has some tips for you to fight off ticks.

These crawling creatures are making their presence known outdoors. Since 2004, the number of illnesses caused by tick, mosquito, and flea bites have increased more than three times.

General Interest
Get ready for an above-average hurricane season in 2018

(CNN)The 2018 hurricane season is shaping up to be “near- or above-normal” — though not to the degree seen last year, when 17 named storms formed and three major hurricanes struck US soil — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said Thursday.

Ten to 16 named storms — including five to nine hurricanes, and one to four major hurricanes with Category 3 strength or higher — are predicted this Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1, the federal agency predicted.

World faces ‘staggering’ obesity challenge: study

In 27 years from now, almost a quarter of the global population will be obese, researchers said Wednesday, warning of the mounting medical bill.

If current trends continue, 22 percent of people in the world will be obese by 2045, up from 14 percent last year, according to research presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Vienna.

DHEC in the News: Hurricane Irma, opioids, Atlantic sturgeon

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Here’s a look at health and environmental news from around South Carolina.

South Carolina prepares for Hurricane Irma

As South Carolina eyes Hurricane Irma, the Aiken County Emergency Management Division also is meeting this week about the storm in the event it impacts the state.

“We’re just making sure the County is ready,” Aiken County’s Assistant Emergency Manager Fred Wilhite said Tuesday. “We’re having meetings, because right now, it’s hard to predict where it’s going to go.”

Irma prep underway in Dorchester County

With uncertainties surrounding Hurricane Irma’s predicted path, local emergency response agencies are wasting no time preparing for a possible direct strike.

 A Different Dragon: How Fentanyl Has Changed the Opioid Crisis

Between the ages of 17 and 22, Deb Smith was institutionalized 13 times. She calls the time around 2010 and 2011, when she was 18 and 19 years old, her “lowest spot.” The “darkest,” she says.

Even at such a young age, she found herself abusing alcohol and other substances, unable to get clean. She had left school and her parents’ home and was living in foreclosed properties with others who, like her, found their daily lives to be a routine of substance use. After a few months of squatting at one spot, people would kick her out, fed up with her character when she was high. She’d moved on to the next empty house and empty friends. …

For more than a year, opioids became one of the ghosts that haunted the void carved out by her substance abuse disorder.

Feds name critical area for Atlantic sturgeon that includes South Carolina

Federal regulators have designated a sweeping range of coastal rivers as critical habitat for the endangered Atlantic sturgeon — a range that includes South Carolina.

The “critical” designation means that human activity in those waters has to be conducted in a way that doesn’t permanently hurt the fish’s ability to survive.