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Lung Cancer Deaths Surge in Northern Thailand Due to PM2.5 Haze

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Lung Cancer Deaths Surge in Northern Thailand

People in northern Thailand, particularly Chiang Mai and Lampang, have a high mortality rate owing to lung cancer. The Faculty of Medicine at Chiang Mai University has identified increased levels of PM2.5 particles in the air as one of the primary culprits.

According to Associate Professor Chalerm Liewsisakul of Chiang Mai University’s (CMU) Faculty of Medicine, PM2.5 pollution in northern Thailand has worsened over the last decade, increasing in patients suffering from lung ailments.

According to one study, the rate of lung cancer deaths per 100,000 persons in the North climbed from 20.3 in 2010 to 30.7 in 2019. This compares to data for Bangkok (14.9 in 2010 to 22.6 in 2019), the Northeast (10.2 in 2010 to 17 in 2019), and the South (9.5 in 2010 to 16.8 in 2019).

According to data from 2010 to 2021, Chiang Mai and Lampang in Northern Thailand have the highest death rates from lung cancer. This emphasizes the critical need for tailored initiatives to combat air pollution and its health impacts in these locations.

“In addition, the incidence of lung cancer among young people in the northern region is higher than in other locations. This correlation is most likely due to PM2.5 pollution, according to global data confirming the increased cancer risk, particularly lung cancer, associated with continuous exposure to PM2.5 particles,” he stated.

He cited a Faculty of Medicine study focusing on emphysema patients in Chiang Dao, an area known for high PM2.5 levels.

Cell study from emphysema patients’ cheek scrapings revealed significant cellular alterations when PM2.5 levels were high vs low. He said these changes indicate genetic anomalies that may lead to cancer cells in the future.

Furthermore, respiratory illnesses ranging from nosebleeds to persistent coughs have increased during elevated PM2.5 levels, notably in March and April in northern Thailand.

Lung Cancer Deaths Surge in Northern Thailand

Severe illnesses such as emphysema exacerbation, coronary heart disease, and strokes are particularly common at these pollution peaks, emphasizing the acute health hazards associated with elevated PM2.5 levels.

A CMU’s Faculty of Medicine study found a concerning correlation between PM2.5 levels and deaths in Chiang Mai. For every 10 µg/m³ increase in daily average PM2.5 concentration, Chiang Mai’s mortality rate increased by 1.6% over the next six days.

The lab also determined the cause of death for Prof Rawiwan Olarnratmanee, a former dean of Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Architecture. Test results revealed that the cancer cells discovered in her lungs had genetic abnormalities caused by PM2.5 exposure.

Her husband, Jittrakorn Olarnratmanee, stated that she was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in February and died from the disease on April 3. She was one of four university instructors who died from lung cancer in 2022.

According to Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, 30,339 patients sought treatment for pollution-related disorders between January 1 and March 15, double the number from last year.

On Saturday, IQAir.com stated that the province has returned to the top of the list of cities in the world with the poorest air quality, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 237 at 8.52am.

Lung Cancer Deaths Surge in Northern Thailand

Transboundary Haze in Northern Thailand

In recent weeks, northern Thailand has seen some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution. In Chiang Mai, the air quality index measuring particulate matter (PM2.5) remained above 300 for two weeks beginning March 25th, 20 times the World Health Organization’s upper limit.

On April 7th, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha met with counterparts from Laos and Myanmar to explore collaborative actions to address the transnational issue.

Air pollution is a serious economic and public health issue in Thailand. Peaks normally occur during the dry season (November-February) and occasionally extend into April. Slash-and-burn farming is the primary culprit, and forest fires worsen the problem.

The problem has resurfaced and gotten worse in recent years, corresponding with the growth of commercial farming. Large agricultural producers, for example, hire rural farmers to grow cash crops for animal feed. Farmers who work on larger projects use slash-and-burn farming to clear their fields rapidly and prepare them for the following crop.

Thailand’s current situation is similar to the haze pollution that impacted Singapore in the 2010s, which resulted from commercial farming on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Singapore has to seek Indonesia’s assistance to address the issue. According to a study by the local Kasetsart University, the cost of air pollution is considerable, at around Bt2 trillion (US$60.2 billion), or more than 10% of GDP, due to negative consequences on the economy and public health, such as loss of output, income, and early death.

Air pollution also reduces visitor revenue during Thailand’s peak season. Hotel occupancy in Chiang Mai, the country’s third-largest city and a renowned tourist destination, was only 45% ahead of the important Thai New Year holiday, compared to an average of 80% over the same period.

With a general election scheduled for May 14th, the administration and various political parties have been pushed to take a stand on air pollution. In actuality, little has been done to solve the haze issues of recent years.

Better awareness and a better-coordinated effort by Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar to address the haze problem are welcome, but given Laos and Myanmar’s low government performance, they will not result in a quick solution.

Thailand will discuss transboundary haze at the next ASEAN conference in May. The issue will resurface throughout the dry season and continue to pose economic and health concerns, particularly in northern Thailand, for the foreseeable future.

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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion

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Trudeau's Gun Grab
Trudeau plans to purchase 2,063 firearm from legal gun owners in Canada - Rebel News Image

A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.

The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.

This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.

The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.

In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.

Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened

“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.

Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.

Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.

In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.

An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.

Enforcement efforts Questioned

By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.

“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).

The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.

The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.

“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.

Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem

Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.

“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.

Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.

Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.

“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.

“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

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(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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