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Air pollution is likely to increase the risk of irreversible sight loss, according to the results of a long-term study published Tuesday.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness among over-50s in richer nations, with roughly 300 million people predicted to be affected by 2040.
<p>Known risk factors include age, smoking and genetic make-up.</p><p>Now researchers have drawn a link between AMD and air pollution, which is already known to carry a host of health risks including heart and lung disease.</p><p>Writing in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers analysed data from more than 115,000 participants who reported no eye problems at the start of the study period in 2006.</p><p>Official data on traffic and levels of nitrous oxide and small particulate matter was used to calculate the annual average air pollution levels at the home addresses of the participants.</p><p>They were asked to report formal diagnosis of AMD by a doctor and were tested on their sight performance several years later.</p><p>In all, 1,286 participants were diagnosed with AMD at the end of the study period.</p><p>After accounting for other influencing factors including underlying health conditions and lifestyle, fine particulate matter exposure was associated with an eight-percent higher risk of an individual contracting AMD.</p><p>"Overall, our findings suggest that ambient air pollution, especially fine (particulate matter) or those of combustion-related particles, may affect AMD risk," said the study authors.</p><p>"Our findings add to the growing evidence of the damaging effects of ambient air pollution, even in the setting of relative low exposure."</p><p>The World Health Organization estimates air pollution is responsible for at least seven million deaths every year.</p><p>Last week, a separate study estimated that reducing air pollution to WHO-recommended levels could prevent more than 50,000 deaths annually across Europe.</p><p>Tuesday's study was observational and so could not establish a causal link between air pollution and AMD.</p><p>But experts said it provided further evidence for the health risks of poor air quality.</p><p>"The association of macular degeneration with smoking is well recognised, but this new finding of an environmental link related to atmospheric pollution will add further to the climate change debate," said Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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US Supreme Court declines to wade in on police use of hypnosis
January 26, 2021
The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to examine the case of a man condemned to death in a trial in which police used hypnosis to bolster the memory of a key witness.
The case would have provided the highest court in the country the chance to pronounce on the use by some police departments of the use of the controversial method known as investigative hypnosis.
<p>The court's decision leaves intact the death sentence against Charles Flores for the murder of a woman in her sixties in Texas in 1998.</p><p>During his trial, Flores was identified by a neighbor of the victim, who recalled seeing him when put in a state of hypnosis by police.</p><p>Flores' lawyers said the state of Texas' "reliance on now-discredited 'science' to put unreliable, hypnotically induced identification testimony before the jury violated his constitutional rights to due process and to be free from cruel-and-unusual punishment."</p><p>Hypnosis is used by some police forces, including those in Texas, in the hope of gaining access to overlooked memories that might help investigators.</p><p>It gained popularity in the US law enforcement community after the 1976 hijacking of a school bus whose driver managed to recall the license plates of the kidnapper while under hypnosis.</p><p>But since then, the scientific community has become more skeptical of the use of hypnosis in criminal investigations.</p><p>"It invites inaccuracies, false memories, and the creation of 'super' witnesses who are unnaturally confident, often impervious to cross-examination, and therefore disproportionately impactful," said the testimony of 28 experts in cognitive science in the deposition to the Supreme Court.</p><p>The Justice Department has also called for greater caution in the use of hypnosis. It warns that "information obtained from a person while in a hypnotic trance cannot be assumed to be accurate."</p><p>Yet several US states, Texas among them, allow the use of information obtained through hypnosis under some conditions.</p><p>Opponents of the practise, many of them organizations that fight against miscarriages of justice, were hoping that the Flores case would give the Supreme Court an opportunity to end the use of hypnosis by police.</p><p>One of these groups, the Innocence Project, had called on the Supreme Court to "address the fundamental lack of reliability of hypnotically enhanced eyewitness identifications."</p><p>But by refusing to take up the case, the nine justices of the top court left the decision with individual states.</p><p>In Texas, two lawmakers recently introduced a bill to prevent local courts from using information obtained through hypnosis.</p><p>"We need as much integrity in the criminal justice system as possible. The stakes are high. A person's life -- there's no amount, there's no dollar value you can place on that," said Democratic lawmaker Eddie Lucio III, quoted by the Dallas News.</p>
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There won't be fewer guns in the Texas Capitol this legislative session. But there might be more firearms tucked away in boots, holsters, bags and desks under the pink dome, already reputed to be one of the most armed state capitol buildings in the country.
The recent armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and threats of right-wing extremist violence have prompted calls in some states to curtail legal weaponry in statehouses, but in keeping with Texas' embrace of firearms, no new rules are expected.
<p>Texas is one of at least eight states with <a href="https://www.michiganadvance.com/2021/01/11/advance-investigation-michigan-joins-just-2-other-states-without-capitol-firearm-regulations/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">virtually no restrictions</a> on guns in its capitol building, according to the Michigan Advance, a nonprofit news site tracking statehouse security rules nationwide. Texans with handgun licenses can carry firearms into the Capitol openly or concealed and bypass the building's metal detectors for entry within seconds. Licensed state lawmakers can bring their guns on the chamber floors, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/us/guns-get-a-pass-at-texas-capitol.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">and some have been known to keep firearms in their desks.</a></p><p>The Texas Capitol "is probably one of the most well-armed buildings in the state," one then-state lawmaker told The New York Times in 2013. That year, dozens of Texas lawmakers routinely carried guns inside the Capitol, current and former lawmakers told The Times.</p><p>Even with restrictions to curtail spread of the coronavirus, the building's occupants and visitors are likely even more armed today, gun groups on both sides of the aisle told the Tribune.</p><p>State Rep. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/briscoe-cain/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Briscoe Cain</a>, a Harris County Republican, said there are a few dozen guns in offices along the hallway of his Capitol office alone, and Texas Department of Public Safety leadership recently estimated that <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/15/texas-readies-fbi-warns-state-capitols-protest-threats/4174667001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">several lawmakers carry weapons into the building</a>. One lawmaker is known to carry three guns on them at all times, said Cain.</p><p>"There's more (guns) in my office than there are people," Cain said.</p><p>Other states across the country are tightening security in their capitol buildings. Michigan, which previously had almost no statehouse gun restrictions, reversed course on Jan. 11 to <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/01/11/michigan-capitol-open-carry-gun-ban/6623331002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ban people from openly carrying inside</a>. A majority of states ban guns from their statehouses altogether, and at least nine have varied restrictions, according to the Advance.</p><p>Texas officials dismissed calls to restrict guns in the Capitol, even as DPS <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/15/texas-capitol-closes-inauguration/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">closed the building</a> in anticipation of armed protests surrounding the presidential inauguration. That move was "a recognition that allowing guns in the Capitol and around the Capitol … is a threat to public safety," said Ed Scruggs, board member and spokesperson for Texas Gun Sense.</p><p>Before the Legislature gaveled in on Jan. 12, three lawmakers asked Gov. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Greg Abbott</a> and other top brass to <a href="https://twitter.com/Menendez4Texas/status/1348808745216835585" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bar the public from carrying guns inside the Capitol on opening day</a>, arguing that "allowing individuals to carry deadly weapons, especially when there are planned protests, will threaten the safety of all those gathered in the building, including our fellow legislators, staff members, their spouses and children."</p><p>That request went unanswered, said state Sen. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/carol-alvarado/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Carol Alvarado</a>, who co-signed the letter and said she felt safe on opening day because of the many <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/12/texas-legislature-first-day/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">state troopers</a> stationed throughout the building. In a statement, a spokesperson for House Speaker <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/dade-phelan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dade Phelan</a>, R-Beaumont, thanked DPS for its efforts to keep everyone safe on opening day. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick did not respond to requests for comment.</p><p>Gun rights advocates, who equate carrying weapons with emergency preparedness, say allowing firearms in the Texas Capitol can deter violent actors. But gun safety proponents worry about mixing firearms with the Legislature's sometimes heated and intensely partisan debates.</p><p>"It's well known that you cannot have a firearm on your person in the U.S. Capitol," Cain said. "The opposite is true for Texas. It's well known that the people here in this capitol are armed."</p><p>Some Capitol visitors might be shaken to see a lawmaker or fellow Texan testify on a bill wearing a gun on their hip. But licensed firearm owners, held to the state's vetting and training rules, have "coexisted peacefully" in the Capitol for more than two decades, said Andi Turner, legislative director for the Texas State Rifle Association. Texas made it legal to carry concealed weapons in 1995, and lawmakers allowed the open carry of firearms in 2015.</p><p>"It's a little bit like health insurance," Turner said. "You have it, you hope you never need it, but it's good to have if you think you need it."</p><p>Without restrictions on guns inside the Capitol, Alvarado said the onus is on individual lawmakers and staffers to be vigilant of their surroundings. Gun safety proponents would rather see tighter security for those carrying weapons, Scruggs said, but even measures that do not directly limit access to guns, such as installing metal detectors, are political sticking points.</p><p>"It's a different environment now, and it initiated in Washington with (former President Trump)," said Alvarado, D-Houston.</p><p>When metal detectors were recently installed outside the U.S. House chamber, several Republican members from Texas, including U.S. Reps. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/louie-gohmert/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Louie Gohmert</a>, TX-01, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/chip-roy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chip Roy</a>, TX-21, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/van-taylor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Van Taylor</a>, TX-03 and <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/randy-weber/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Randy Weber</a>, TX-14, <a href="https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-statement-metal-detector-policy-members-congress-entering-house-chamber" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">complained</a> or were seen <a href="https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349159492383100928" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">refusing to comply</a>. Firearms are generally prohibited in the U.S. Capitol, and members' weapons must be kept in their offices.</p><p>Metal detectors were installed at the Texas Capitol's <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2010/03/02/perry-dps-leader-disagree-over-capitol-security/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">four public entrances</a> in 2010 after a gunman fired shots on the building grounds. At the time, then-Governor Rick Perry and other lawmakers worried the security hurdles would make the Capitol unwelcoming to the public. At least 32 states use metal detectors in their capitol buildings, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.</p><p>Both sides of the debate in Texas agree the current Republican-controlled Legislature is unlikely to pass sweeping gun policy changes in either the Capitol or the state, but other security updates may be on the way. The Texas Senate earmarked in its <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/21/texas-budget-2021/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">preliminary budget</a> nearly $40 million to enhance Capitol security over the next two fiscal years, including $36.3 million for troopers and related personnel and $1.8 million for equipment, such as panic buttons, x-ray technology, video cameras and gunshot detection.</p><p>Meanwhile, gun safety proponents are focusing their energy on a bill that would prohibit displaying firearms during protests, Scruggs said.</p><p>"It's not realistic to expect the Legislature is just going to wake up and say, 'OK, no more guns in the building,'" Scruggs said. "But … some people want to see more access to guns in the building, and that just doesn't make any sense."</p><p><em>Disclosure: The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/support-us/corporate-sponsors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">list of them here</a>.</em></p>
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