Health and Science

Editor's Note: Florida Disaster has a section on Florida Shelters; National Hurricane Center; Key Messages for Hurricane Irma. FEMA: Hurricane Irma; Read safety tips, up-to-date info & rumor control, and how to help Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. FloridaHealth.gov. and other sources: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; US Army Corps of Engineers Responses to Climate Change. more »

The nine Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nation’s first market-based regulatory program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, announced consensus on a set of draft program elements that will guide the RGGI states as they conduct final economic analysis and establish a post-2020 path forward for the program. more »

Continue to listen to local officials. Only call 911 if you have an immediate need for medical attention or evacuation assistance. Don't drive on flooded roadways. Remember - turn around, don't drown. If you are in a high rise building and need to shelter in place, go to the first or second floor hallways or interior rooms. You want to stay on floors above floodwater or storm surge, but do not go to the highest floors due to wind impacts. If you are under a tornado warning, seek shelter immediately in the center of a small interior room (closet, interior hallway) on the lowest level of a sturdy building. Put as many walls as possible between you and the outside. more »

In a bid to detect cancers early and in a noninvasive way, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report they have developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood and have used it to accurately identify more than half of 138 people with relatively early-stage colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian cancers. The test, the scientists say, is novel in that it can distinguish between DNA shed from tumors and other altered DNA that can be mistaken for cancer biomarkers. more »