Monthly Archives: July 2022

The FDA Is Going to Regulate Synthetic Nicotine and Puff Bar – New York Magazine

Posted: July 17, 2022 at 9:19 am

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If you walk inside a smoke shop in New York looking for a vape that tastes like candy, you might think youre out of luck. Flavored e-cigarettes have not been allowed in the U.S. since the Food and Drug Administration banned them two years ago. The only choices visible behind the clerk are menthol and tobacco, made by large corporations such as Juul and still allowed by the FDA. But to taste the full rainbow of nicotine flavors out there, you just need to ask: Do you have Air Bar?

Out come the boxes, hidden under the counter or in the back, full of disposable vapes in varieties from Aloe Blackcurrant to Watermelon Apple Ice. A lot of the names end in ice, which usually indicates the addition of menthol or synthetic coolants to make the vegetable glycerin containing nicotine taste cool after its been heated to 400 degrees through a metal coil. You can even get pudding flavor, if you like that. But if you want to know more about this company thats putting lab-made nicotine and a slurry of other chemicals in your lungs, you are out of luck. No one knows who really owns it.

Air Bar is controlled by Shenzhen Goldreams Technology Co., Ltd, an LLC out of Chinas tech-industrial hub, which has become the global capital of vape manufacturing. (Two more disposable-vape brands also operate out of the building that Shenzhen Goldreams calls its headquarters.) Legal documents show that in the United States, Air Bar is marketed by a wholesaler in a strip mall near the Dallas airport whose phone number permanently goes to voicemail. (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) To get the vape in front of customers, shop owners can buy in bulk from distributors in the U.S. or, if theyre willing to risk getting a knockoff, go directly to a manufacturer in China.

Over the past year, Air Bar has become one of the many sleek, disposable vapes that have become extremely popular after filling the enormous demand for flavored products following an FDA crackdown just before the pandemic. These disposables have avoided regulators with a simple trick: They use synthetic nicotine, which the FDA had no authority over until recently. A negligible part of vape-shop business at the beginning of 2020, synthetics were in two-thirds of these stores nationwide by 2021, market research shows. During that window, authorities have been more or less helpless to stop the flavors concocted in labs in Shenzhen from being sold in the States.

But on Wednesday, when it officially closes the loophole that allows synthetic nicotine to be sold, the FDA can finally crack down. And if the agency gets its way, the industry titan Juul could soon be banned as well. But it may already be too late for the agency to chase down many of the corporations whose kid-friendly devices have dodged their authority for some time now. Even if faceless companies an ocean away from FDA jurisdiction are for some reason willing to cooperate with the regulators, counterfeiters are in tow and easy to get in touch with.

Since Juul first came out of Silicon Valley seven years ago aiming to disrupt Big Tobacco, regulators have been playing catchup. The company launched in 2015 with mango and cucumber pods that experts said would attract teens; it took the FDA five years to ban all vape flavors except for menthol and tobacco. Juul reps told high schoolers on campuses that their vape was a safer alternative to cigarettes; it took at least a year for the FDA to tell them that message was illegal. But the threat of enforcement didnt matter. Soon enough, it seemed like everyone was pulling on a Juul.

We as a nation had achieved a remarkable public-health accomplishment in driving teen smoking above 30 percent when I was in high school to below 5 percent as recently as a few years ago, says North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein, who sued Juul for marketing to minors. Then e-cigs came on the market, and those gains evaporated like a puff of vapor. Thats predominantly because of Juul, but now there are copycat companies trying to exploit young peoples addictions to make money at the expense of young peoples health.

But Juul which once had a valuation as large as Ford and controlled around 75 percent of the market could soon be gone for good. As part of an extremely delayed process in which the FDA is reviewing tobacco-based e-cigarette products already on the shelves, the agency moved to outlaw the sale of Juul after it found last month that potentially harmful chemicals may be leaching from their plastic pods into the nicotine mix that users inhale. After Juul asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block the ban, the FDA announced last week it would re-review Juuls application, citing scientific issues. During that process, Juul is allowed to keep selling its product, and its chief regulatory officer, Joe Murillo, said in a statement that we remain confident in the quality and substance of our applications.

Whatever happens to Juul, many vapers have already moved on. Earlier this year, the company lost its status as the top e-cigarette maker by sales to the R.J. Reynoldsbacked Vuse, one of the few vapes the FDA has actually authorized. (The two companies still lead other e-cigarette makers by a huge margin.) And during the pandemic, with stress sending people toward a nicotine fix and Juul restricted to old-fashioned cigarette flavors, the disposable-vape industry soared. Users wanted a product that looked nearly identical to Juul and tasted even better.

They found one in a company called Puff Bar.

The business had been around for at least a year when, in spring 2020, two 26-year-olds from the Los Angeles area Nick Minas and Patrick Beltran became Puff Bars co-owners and CEOs after taking it over from an entity in China. Or at least they say they did: The pairs ownership has never been independently confirmed, and the childhood friends have refused to discuss how they got the capital to buy a large vape manufacturer. (Previously, they ran an online e-cigarette store with a P.O. box in Glendale, California, for an address.) With flavors like Orange Mango Guava and ads that said their vapes were an escape from parental texts, business was thriving. Sales consistently cleared $3 million per week; in May, the duo bought a $1.7 million house together in the nearby San Rafael hills where they could park their Lamborghinis.

What they were doing technically wasnt against the law: A footnote in the FDAs 2020 flavor ban allowed disposable devices to be flavored. But by that July, the regulators caught up, ordering Puff Bar to halt sales for not applying for authorization in the first place. The company went quiet for about six months, until it borrowed an idea spreading among smaller players in the field. A 2009 law passed by Congress gave the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products the same way it oversees what corporations can put in food and pharmaceuticals. So Puff Bar stopped using tobacco as its source of nicotine, synthesized the addictive chemical in laboratories, and ran right through the loophole. By September 2021, according to federal data, over 26 percent of high-school kids vaping regularly and 30 percent of middle-school kids already vaping chose Puff Bar as their preferred brand. Nielsen data showed that Puff Bar sales for the past year up to that point totaled $156 million, even though the FDA had officially shut it down for seven months out of that period.

At the time, Beltran told CBS News that he and his business partner were not trying to side skirt, you know, kind of laws. On national television, he said that if theres a law that would order us off the market tomorrow, we would pull our products off the market tomorrow.

Closing the synthetic-nicotine loophole that Puff Bar made infamous could bring serious change to the industry. Retail establishments wont be able to say, Gee, I didnt know this brand wasnt okay, says Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It ought to be pretty clear across the board. But in practice, its going to be a lot harder for the FDA to figure out how to enforce its new rule. First off, it assumes that companies that have been hesitant to cooperate with the FDA will adhere to the law.

Anything is possible with these folks, says Illinois representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law passed in March giving the FDA oversight over synthetic nicotine. I think that the Puff Bar leadership is very much intent on making sure that they take advantage of any slowness or delay on the part of FDA, any loopholes in the regulatory framework to continue making money. And thats what theyve done in the past to great effect. It would not surprise me if they continue with that type of practice. Puff Bars Minas and Beltran did not respond to requests for comment.

FDA is now basically trying to put the genie back in the bottle, says a legislative aide for Senator Dick Durbin, who also helped lead the effort to close the synthetic-nicotine loophole. All these products flooded the market without adhering to the law.

The counterfeit market is an even bigger problem. Theres been a metastasis of the Puff brand, says Stanford professor Robert Jackler, who has researched the companys marketing and corporate structure. He says that anyone in the U.S. can order knockoffs from manufacturers in Shenzhen on a website called made-in-china.com; some firms listed on the site can make up to 50,000 vapes per day. If you want to start a cigarette company and have a billion dollars, you probably cant do it, he says. But if you want to start a vaping company and have $100,000, youre in business. Its really easy. One vape-shop owner in Florida said in an interview that at the height of Puff Bars popularity last year, 90 percent of the vapes on the market were fake clones. He also says the speed of market development plus a year of bad press means a lot of customers have moved on: If I had Puff products in my shop right now, I probably couldnt give them away.

Industry groups, who point to evidence that their products offer nicotine for adults without the known carcinogens in cigarettes, argue that the FDA is at fault for this knock-off market. Weve told them that in writing, your efforts to crush this industry are creating black and gray markets, says Jim McCarthy of the American Vapor Manufacturers Association. People arent going to stop using nicotine because the FDA commissioner told them to.

The scale of the synthetic-nicotine market might be the biggest challenge of all. Counterfeiters aside, many companies, Air Bar included, remain in stores though theyve already been told by the FDA to stop selling in the U.S. The agency, widely seen as underfunded, has a small number of enforcement officers responsible for in-store crackdowns in the thousands of vape shops in the country; the FDA did not disclose how many officers it will have on the job. Buying these vapes through the mail is already technically illegal, but when has that stopped anyone? Local authorities have not always been helpful with the fight either. New York City, which banned flavored e-cigarettes years ago, has done little to stop the proliferation of synthetic nicotine in the dozens of stores across the five boroughs.

When the synthetic-nicotine loophole closes, there will still be effective ways to stop sales. Large manufacturers cant afford to just ignore FDA, and they wont, says Myers. Retail chains will be hit too. Other than vape shops, the largest number of these disposables are distributed in gas stations and convenience stores, he says. Very few are truly independently owned, meaning they, too, probably wont risk selling illegal e-cigarettes as a corporate policy.

One vape-store owner in New York who doesnt deal in disposables blames the FDA for the synthetic boom. The best they could do was to make everything illegal and not enforce any of it, she says. That was their solution. So now because flavors are illegal, because the products are illegal, because disposables are illegal, everything is being sold from under the counter. Which means its being sold for cash, theyre not paying tax, and its being sold to underage kids without showing identification because theyre already selling illegal products, so they dont give a fuck if theyre selling it to a 15-year-old. So they have done nothing to help the situation. They have only made it worse.

If the feds actually do come knocking, the store owner expects the flavored-vape market to take a turn for the illicit: Its going to become like marjiuana was for the last 50 years. Its gonna be call a guy, word of mouth, tell a friend, you can get illegal vape flavors from this phone number. Text this person and theyll drop it off at your house and youll pay a $20 delivery fee and nobody gets any money in the government.

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Ramsey County bans smoking, vaping on its property – Bring Me The News

Posted: at 9:19 am

A Ramsey County ordinance passed Tuesday will ban tobacco use on county property.

The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners passed the ordinance, which will take effect on Aug. 26., on Tuesday.

The ordinance bans smoking and vaping commercial tobacco on property owned, rented, leased or contracted by the county. It includes indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as private vehicles parked on county property.

Similar ordinances have been passed by 27 cities, counties and townships in the state, the county says.

Ultimately the objective of this ordinance is to protect the overall health of Ramsey County residents from the negative effects of commercial tobacco while in public places and places of employment, Ramsey County Public Health Director Sara Hollie said in a statement.

Members of the public passing through outdoor locations owned by the county are exempt from the ordinance, whichwill replace the 2015 Ramsey County Clean Air Ordinance.

But while it's banning tobacco use on its grounds, the county is also reducing the penalty for infractions to limit the impact on people from "historically marginalized backgrounds." The penalty for unlawful tobacco use is being reduced from $300 to $50.

Traditional tobacco used by Native Americans for ceremonial purposes is excluded from the ordinance.

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Ramsey County bans smoking, vaping on its property - Bring Me The News

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Parents in the UK: has your child or teenager taken up vaping? – The Guardian

Posted: at 9:19 am

Youth vaping is in the spotlight around the world. A leading vaping company was recently banned from selling e-cigarettes in the US due to its alleged role in the rise of youth vaping, although the ban was later suspended, and the EU is proposing a ban on the sale of flavoured vapes as part of its plan to fight cancer.

In the UK, selling vapes to under 18s is banned and there are rules on how they can be advertised. But the use of disposable vapes has risen sharply among children, with a recent study finding that many are trying them after seeing influencers promote them on social media.

We would like to speak to parents whose children use e-cigarettes in the UK. When did they take up vaping and what inspired them to try it in the first place? Have they become hooked on the habit?

We are also keen to speak to parents or teachers about vaping in schools. Do the pupils at your childs school vape? Are e-cigarettes being advertised on billboards or at bus stops near your local school? And how do you feel about it all?

We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature. We will delete any personal data when we no longer require it for this purpose. For more information please see our terms of service and privacy policy.

If you are 18 years or over, you can get in touch by filling in the form below. Your responses are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. One of our journalists will be in contact before we publish, so please do leave contact details.

This article was amended on 15 July 2022. An earlier version stated that a leading vaping company was recently banned from selling e-cigarettes in the US due to its alleged role in the rise of youth vaping. This ban was later suspended, and the article has been updated to reflect this.

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E-cigarettes used by one in five UAE university students, study finds – The National

Posted: at 9:19 am

Nearly a quarter of students in the UAE used an e-cigarette in the past month, a study has found.

Research carried out at three universities in the country recorded higher vaping rates than other recent studies in the Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf.

Experts have given a warning that while e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, they do pose a risk to health and could be a gateway to more hazardous tobacco smoking.

Students at one private and two public universities were polled on whether and when they had used e-cigarettes.

Almost all of my friends vape. I can count on one hand the number of friends I have that don't

Karthik Mallya, a 23-year-old Indian designer living in Dubai

Researchers found 23 per cent said they had smoked e-cigarettes in the past month, while 37 per cent had used them in their lifetime.

The researchers, from Maudsley Health and Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital, both in Dubai, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, published their findings in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

E-cigarettes are electronic devices that contain a liquid and include nicotine, a battery and an atomiser, which produces vapour instead of cigarette smoke.

In the paper, the researchers highlighted a 2021 study, which found only 3.7 per cent of university students in the UAE were current e-cigarette smokers.

A 2020 study in Qatar put the figure at 14 per cent, while in Saudi Arabia, the latest research points out, scientists have found figures of 7.2 per cent (in 2020) and 10.6 per cent (in 2018).

The researchers behind the latest study found that students who used e-cigarettes were more likely to also smoke other forms of tobacco, such as traditional cigarettes, shisha or medwakh pipes.

Male students, who made up about a quarter of the studys 240 participants, were about twice as likely as females to have used e-cigarettes in their lifetime. Men tended to perceive them as less harmful than females did.

This is consistent with previous research about tobacco smoking among university students in the UAE, where males are more likely to consume tobacco, the researchers wrote.

In the GCC, this pattern has also been observed in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. This could be due to smoking being more socially acceptable for males in this region and that they could also be subject to peer influence.

Prof Kamran Siddiqi, professor in public health at the University of York in the UK, who researches smoking internationally, said the latest study, based on relatively small numbers and focused specifically on university students, may not necessarily indicate wider smoking rates among young people in the country.

More broadly, he said it was difficult to determine whether e-cigarettes were a gateway to the use of combustible cigarettes.

While research has, he said, found that people who vape were more likely to go on to smoke traditional cigarettes, this did not necessarily indicate that one caused the other.

Another possible explanation is what researchers call common liability, when people who take up vaping are already more inclined to smoke cigarettes.

In Britain people are more and more thinking along the lines of common liability, because despite young people experimenting with e-cigarettes, we havent seen a huge increase in smoking, said Prof Siddiqi, who was not connected to the latest study.

The National

Compared to combustible cigarettes, he said e-cigarettes caused significantly less harm but not zero.

Individuals are still inhaling liquids with the potential to damage the lungs, he said. Nicotine is highly addictive. There are other [substances] nicotine is mixed with. They could cause long-term lung damage.

From the evidence, its nowhere near as toxic or potentially harmful as the smoke from combustible cigarettes. That said, nobody wants young people to take up e-cigarettes.

The UKs National Health Service describes e-cigarettes as not completely risk free, and carry a small fraction of the risk of cigarettes.

Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not produce carbon monoxide or tar, which Britain's National Health Service said were two of the most harmful substances found in tobacco smoke.

Arjun Chandavarkar, 22, from India, used vaping to help him quit cigarettes while he was at university and uses a refillable device regularly throughout the day.

Most of the times I tend to vape in the mornings, usually after meals and about six or seven times a day, said Mr Chandavarkar, who lives in Dubai and works as a financial analyst.

The frequency of when I vape isnt particularly set in stone, but I vape for about two minutes 'per session'.

It has helped me avoid cigarettes altogether.

The majority of the people I know within my age group tend to use a vape. I would say in a group of about 20 people, 16-17 of them will vape.

Considering the frequency of my vaping, I use one pod every two days, so I go through about four refills per week.

I am worried about my health and the impact vaping has. While it does offer a much safer and healthier alternative to smoking, I havent come across any research that suggests vaping is completely free from harmful effects.

That being said, I do exercise on a frequent basis, around five times a week, and tend to believe Im mitigating the harmful effects of vaping through this exercise.

However, based on my vaping experience over the last three or four years, I havent seen any harmful impact of vaping on my physical performance.

Karthik Mallya, a 23-year-old Indian designer living in Dubai, said vaping helps relieve stress.

Almost all of my friends vape, he said.

I think I can count on one hand the number of friends I have that don't.

Even friends of mine that don't use them regularly will usually vape when they get the chance to.

I'm definitely worried and very aware of the health risks associated with vaping.

Since there's not much research into the matter, I don't really know if it's a healthier alternative to smoking or not.

As of now, I vape to curb my urge to smoke tobacco products.

I like it because it doesn't stink up my clothes and hands and, of course, I like it for the many flavours.

Updated: July 17, 2022, 11:17 AM

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Jill Biden’s ‘breakfast tacos’ remark was not a gaffe. It was intentional and will drive Latinos to the GOP – Fox News

Posted: at 9:18 am

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

First lady Jill Biden traveled to one of the most populous Hispanic communities in America on Monday to tell Latinos that all we are good for is our breakfast tacos and bodegas.

Mrs. Bidens inflammatory and offensive rhetoric about Hispanic diversity in San Antonio, Texas, was not a gaffe. It is another example of the Biden administrations insensitive, bullying and politically divisive attacks on minorities in America.

The White House rigorously reviews and scrutinizes all public remarks prepared for the president and first lady. Yet Bidens protectors in the left-wing media say that the words Jill read from a Teleprompter "didnt come out correctly."

JILL BIDEN SAYS TEXAS HISPANICS AS UNIQUE AS BREAKFAST TACOS DURING SAN ANTONIO SPEECH

Lets set the record straight: Jills rehearsed speech was out of touch, insulting and derogatory towards Hispanics. The problem is even deeper than just her words. It starts with the fact that she spoke at the LatinX incluXion luncheon. The vast majority of Hispanics reject the term "LatinX." Yet the Democrats insist on forcing their language doctrine on the Hispanic community. What will come next?LatinX Hispanic Heritage Month?

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday, May 30, 2022, after returning from Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The first lady is a lifelong educator and teaches a writing class at a Virginia community college. Her husband Joe fawned over the English professor in their Vogue cover story for laboring over important speeches and grading student papers.

A White House spokesperson issued an apology on Jills behalf following Breakfast Taco-Gate. Latinos wont fall for a half-hearted one sentence mea culpa tweeted out from her press secretary when Jill herself drafted and delivered the insult-ridden speech.

JILL BIDEN APOLOGIZES FOR 'TACOS' COMMENTS ABOUT LATINOS

Dr. Jill Biden may have her doctorate, but she is in no way a healer. Her husband prescribed unity and truth for a nation reeling from blue state lockdowns and riots. The full-time Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, retirees, however, have exasperated cultural divisions in America and clearly have no interest in embracing Hispanic heritage, beyond a sign-of-life visit to a taqueria in Washington, D.C.

If Jill really cherished the "bodegas of the Bronx" and wanted safe communities for Hispanics, she would urge Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to drop the murder charge against Jose Alba, a bodega worker and immigrant from the Dominican Republic who stabbed an ex-con in an act of self-defense.

JILL BIDEN'S HISPANIC 'PANDERING' GAFFES ACCUSED OF CHANNELING JOE'S 7-ELEVEN, 'YOU AIN'T BLACK' REMARKS

She would also advocate for religious liberties, strong families and educational freedom with no leftist divisive propaganda.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

Democrats will always take minority voters for granted. They promise Hispanic-Americans opportunity, security, fairness and prosperity. Then they go to Washington, abandon you and sell you out. Instead of dealing with the issues that impact Latino families most, including historic inflation and energy costs, Biden is importing millions of illegal immigrants, enabling drug cartels and human traffickers and neglecting the hardworking and patriotic Hispanic-Americans who are already here.

Decades of pandering to identity politics is permanently pushing Hispanics away from the Democratic Party. A New York Times poll found 63% of Hispanics who said that they would vote in the 2024 Democratic primary do not want Biden to run again. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's strongest support in 2024 comes from Hispanics in a Republican primary.

Hispanic-Americans will lead the red wave that swamps Democrats in 2022, and the Bidens in 2024.

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"Far-Right Latinas," as inappropriately described by the New York Times, who embrace Trumps America First agenda are an essential coalition in returning peace, prosperity and freedom to all communities throughout this nation.

Now more than ever, Republicans need to support Latinos who can speak to Hispanic-Americans with humility and their own experiences so that they can serve and represent their constituents as they would their family.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MERCEDES SCHLAPP

Mercedes Schlapp is a Senior Fellow for CPAC. She was a Senior Advisor to Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and formerly the White House Senior Advisor For Strategic Communicationsin the Trump administration.

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The Health and Healing Powers of Community – The Epoch Times

Posted: at 9:18 am

There are unexpected nutrients in lifecertain experiences and habits that give the mind and body essential support and make a marked improvement in how well we think, feel, and move as we age.

Social determinants of health are aspects of everyday living that impact our health. They span from intuitive components, such as economic status, to less apparent determinants, such as community.

In their 1999 bookSocial Determinants of Health, Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson provide scientific evidence in support of this added dimension of well-being. They found that poverty alone doesnt explain discrepancies in health. When people change social and cultural environments, the authors write, their disease risks change.

What does this mean for everyday people trying to improve their own health and well-being? Access to health care, screenings, and checkups are only part of the story. A persons social and cultural environmenttheir communityalso impacts their physical and mental health. Here are five research-backed ways to tap into community-based health benefits.

Social ties are at the heart of every community and can help prevent age-associated cognitive decline, but which social ties are most important? Data collected as part of the longitudinal Survey of Ageing, Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) initiative have been helpful in exploring this question. The data measured cognitive scores using immediate recall, delayed recall, and fluency while also measuring five types of social connectionspouse, children, other relatives, friends, and volunteeringbased on the participants lists of confidants (maximum of seven).

In a 2021 study, researchers modeled the SHARE data to examine five social structure types:

Participants in the multi-tie group experienced less cognitive decline on all measures than those in other groups, an indication that varied connections might be the key to staying sharp in old age. The friend-enhanced and family-rich networks also led to benefits when compared to close-family or family-poor groups.

Theres more than one way to access the cognition-based benefits of community, which is good news for older adults whose familial ties may already be cemented. While a varied social network including family and friends is the gold standard, a friend-enhanced social network can be built at any time and offers health benefits.

The SHARE study found that volunteering was an attribute in two of three community groups most likely to improve cognitive decline. Other studies have looked at volunteering on its own and found good reason to head to your local soup kitchen or community center.

Beyond the cognition-based benefits of an enriched social network, volunteering is associated with a reduction in hypertension.Hypertension, or high blood pressure, can damage artery walls leading to stroke or heart disease, two major causes of morbidity.

Onestudy looked at Americans aged 50 and older and took baseline blood pressure readings from those who had volunteered more than 200 hours in the previous year and those who hadnt. The study found that the people who had volunteered were significantly less likely to develop hypertension over the next four years.

Retirement homes have long been a potential living arrangement for older adults, while group homes have been popular among young adults. Multigenerational living, however, is currently making a resurgence through intentional living arrangements including cohousing and familial multigenerational housing. Multigenerational communities can help delay age-associated cognitive decline by increasing a personsaccess to a diverse and multi-tiered social network.

Further, cohousing represents a unique model that allows Americans to live in a multigenerational, intentional community without giving up the independence of single-family living. The mental health benefits of these communities were highlighted during the COVID-19 period of isolation, with cohousing residentsreporting lower levels of anxiety, depression, and self-destructive coping strategies than their peers outside of intentional communities. Several studies also have reported an association with improved physical health, though more research needs to be done to corroborate these findings.

Its unclear whether familial multigenerational housing has a positive impact on elder health when compared to living with a partner. Seniors living alone, however, tend to subjectively experience poorer health and exhibitpoorer health outcomes.

Children growing up in multigenerational housingexhibit improved cognitive functioning, possibly due to the strengthening bonds generated between young children and their elders. Additionally, financial benefits and the development of a village atmosphere can decrease the burden of child-rearing in isolation for young families.

An excellent way to build a community of friends and level up into either the multi-tie or friend-enhanced social categories is to join a social group. This is especially important for retired people, as an important source of social cohesion and cognitive complexity can be lost when people leave their work.

Astudy of English retirees found that participants who remained actively engaged in two social groups after retirement experienced a 2 percent risk of death in the first six years of retirement. For participants who began retirement with two social groups but maintained neither, the rate of mortality shot up to 12 percent. The relationship was linear: For every group lost in the first year of retirement, a participant was likely to experience a 10 percent lower quality of life at the follow-up six years later.

The importance of social groups extends beyond retiree health. Stroke patients resiliency has beenlinked to the number of social groups they had before having a stroke, while people suffering from a brain injury areless likely to experience post-traumatic symptoms if they join a social group after their injury. Moreover, college students who belong to multiple social groups exhibit better mental health outcomes and higher levels of resiliency.

Gardening is a time-honored tradition known for getting people active and outdoors. In many circles, community gardening is considered an upgrade. In addition to the physical benefits of gardening, those who garden in communityreport an improved sense of well-being, resilience, and optimism. For people who dont live near a community garden, resources on how to get started and fundingopportunities have been sprouting up in support of their creation.

There are many ways to tap into your community as a resource for health. What works best is often personal and depends on a persons own interests and inclinations. If your community is lacking and the available options arent a great fit, you arent alone and you arent without options. You can be the one to take that first step by starting a book club, exploring cohousing, or spearheading a garden in our own community.

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Texas Senators Not Qualified to Give Tour of Border Communities – RAICES

Posted: at 9:18 am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, July 14, 2022Press Contact: Jessica Ortiz, [emailprotected]

TEXAS In response to the news that Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are bringing a group of GOP Senators to tour the South Texas border later this week, RAICES issued the following statement:

We are not surprised that Texass Republican senators have devised another political stunt to fuel xenophobia and rally Trump voters ahead of a critical midterm election. Like Governor Abbott, these politicians have no plan to protect the lives of people seeking safety at our border, and would rather support cruel and racist policies that endanger refugees and service providers.

Unlike our Senators who are only visiting the border to score political points, RAICES is here everyday to support immigrants and refugees in need. It is intentional and unfortunate that Cruz and Cornyn will be consciously omitting from their tour the truth of what we are seeing at the Texas-Mexico border: Communities coming together to care for and support each other in the face of immigration policies that have decimated our asylum system, and forced people to make unimaginable choices in their journey to seek safety and refuge in the U.S.

The reality is that the so-called turmoil at the border that these lawmakers have exploited for their own political gain was created and exacerbated by policies like Title 42 and Remain in Mexico. Cruz, Cornyn, and other GOP lawmakers have been fighting ardently to maintain these racist Trump-era policies, including championing Rep. Lankfords current attempt to codify Title 42 into law.

Seeking safety is a human right and RAICES and communities across the border are ready to welcome people seeking asylum to our communities. People seek asylum because their lives, and the lives of their children depend on it. Restoring a fair asylum process will help keep people safe and families together. Thats what we should be focusing on, not meaningless stunts for political attention.

###The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees. Learn more at Raicestexas.org

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Hawks and State Farm Rally 5,000 Volunteers To Pack more than One Million Meals to Fight Food Insecurity in Metro Atlanta – NBA.com

Posted: at 9:18 am

City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks Legend Dikembe Mutombo, and Congresswoman Nikema WilliamsJoin Hawks and State Farm for Teams Largest Single-Day Community Initiative

ATLANTA Today the Atlanta Hawks and State Farmgathered 5,000 volunteers at State Farm Arena to pack one million meals as part of the Million Meal Pack. Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, State Farm Senior Vice President Dan Krause, City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks Legend Dikembe Mutombo as well as Congresswoman Nikema Williams welcomed and thanked the volunteers for donating their time in support of the teams largest single-day community service initiative.

Individuals, families, community groups, schools, churches and businesses gathered on the floor of the award-winning State Farm Arena and packed alongside volunteers from U.S. Hunger and executives from the Hawks and State Farm, reaching a final count of 1,019,232 meals.

The six 90-minute shifts of the event yielded:

We are very grateful for all of todays volunteers and extremely proud of the results from todays Million Meal Pack in partnership with State Farm, said Steve Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. We understand that it is a huge undertaking to tackle food insecurity throughout Atlanta, and we believe that this one-day community service initiative will make an incredible impact and also inspire our communities throughout metro Atlanta.

The more-than-one million meals packed will be distributed throughout the metro Atlanta area with the operational support of U.S. Hunger, a hunger relief organization with innovative programs designed to help feed people struggling with food insecurity. Additionally, ten other local organizations will help distribute the meals: Atlanta Community Food Bank, CHRIS 180, City of Refuge, Fountain of Hope, Georgia State University Panthers Pantry, Goodr, Meals On Wheels Atlanta, Mimis Pantry and Second Helpings Atlanta.

The Million Meal Pack event makes a real difference in the lives of Atlanta residents facing food insecurity, said Dan Krause, Southeastern Market Area Senior Vice President at State Farm. Our local State Farm agents and employees were proud to be part of this effort, as State Farm is dedicated to giving back and strengthening communities. Were grateful to all the volunteers and thank State Farm Arena and the Atlanta Hawks for our partnership.

Statistics provided by the Atlanta Community Food Bank show that nearly one in eight Georgians are living with food insecurity, including one in six children.

There is nothing like the energy from 5,000 Atlantans coming together to take care of their community, taking a bold stand in the fight against hunger. After three years of being apart, we're honored to be invited back by the Hawks and State Farm to help pack one million meals for families in need! said Rick Whitted, CEO of U.S. Hunger.

As part of accomplishing various packing milestones throughout the day and after completing a lone volunteer shift, attendees celebrated on State Farm Drive with games, refreshments, music and fun.

Continuing to operate as the world's first TRUE Platinum certified sports and entertainment venue, this event is also marked as the first zero waste Million Meal Pack. As part of this event, State Farm Arena diverted more than 90 percent from landfills that includes all materials generated from load-in to load-out. In an intentional effort, the packaging also uses messaging to encourage recycling within the recipients' communities.

The Hawks and State Farm hosted their first Million Meal Pack in 2019, where more than 5,000 volunteers filled State Farm Arena and prepared more than one million meals. The meals were then distributed to local Atlantans through seven community food bank organizations.

Additionally, both organizations have led efforts in multiple community-focused initiatives to better serve metro Atlanta. In addition to Million Meal Pack, the two organizations have collaborated on high-impact endeavors such as providing free pop-up grocery stores in partnership with Goodr Inc., for elderly and underserved citizens in metro Atlanta and enhancing the Snack Pack Program, which gave over 24,000 snack packs to youth throughout the school year and during summer break.

As part of the 2021-22 regular season, the Hawks Foundation and State Farm presented a check of $122,000 to the Atlanta Community Food Bank as an effort to help combat childhood hunger and fight against food insecurity throughout metro Atlanta.

The Good Neighbor Giveback campaign raised $100 for every point the Hawks scored over 100 in each game during the 2021-22 regular season (originally up to $100,000) and was generously extended from State Farm.To learn more about the work that the Hawks are doing in the community, visitHawks.com/community.

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PS&E Partners with Local Park Organizations to Leave Lasting Legacy – NBA.com

Posted: at 9:18 am

Pacers Sports & Entertainment, Indy Parks, and the Parks Alliance of Indianapolis today unveiled the refurbishments at the outdoor basketball court at Brookside Park on the citys near eastside, highlighted by a vibrant mural painted on the main court capturing the vibrancy and energy of surrounding neighborhoods.

The mural, created by PS&E Art Director Joel Dale and executed by Indiana artist Carl Leck, represents a partnership between the three organizations to upgrade the courts used by more than 30,000 children and adults each year. The project is part of the NBA Cares program celebrating the NBAs 75th Anniversary Season with the goal of creating Live, Learn, and Play Centers in NBA markets across the country. Moreover, it reflects PS&Es commitment to Intentional Generosity In Intentional Geography, an effort the company launched in 2020 to redirect resources into Indianapolis most vulnerable zip codes.

So many of the important lessons our kids learn are learned right here on the basketball court, and we know there is no more important and lasting investment we make than to give the children of this neighborhood a safe and exciting place to play and grow, said Rick Fuson, PS&E Chief Executive Officer.

We are so grateful to the City of Indianapolis and the NBA for working with us on this important project, and we look forward to seeing this court come alive with local children and residents for years to come.

The court mural was designed to reflect the intersection of basketball and culture that has helped shape the character of Indianapolis neighborhoods for decades. It takes the standard brand elements of the Pacers and Fever and elevates them, turning up the dial on the colors to capture the energy and pride shared by the citys residents. The goal is to evoke the feeling people across Indianapolis, young and old, get when playing our game.

Few things unite Indianapolis residents quite like the game of basketball, said Mayor Joe Hogsett. Thanks to partnership between Pacers Sports & Entertainment and Indy Parks, countless current and future residents will be able to enjoy this enhanced court at Brookside Park. This project not only marks our continued mission of improving City facilities, but also highlights the Pacers commitment to the Indianapolis community, unifies the sports and cultural scenes across our city, and increases the pride and passion of neighbors.

This is the second investment PS&E has made at Brookside Park in the past 5 years. In 2018, the Pacers Foundation and Indianapolis Power & Light (AES) refurbished the indoor court at the Brookside Community Center at the park. This was the first indoor gymnasium renovation in a broader effort to renovate community courts across the city, a push that began in 2013.

Knowing that parks are special places for so many children and their families, we are thrilled to continue our work with Pacers Sports & Entertainment to invest in our citys parks and park spaces, said Phyllis Boyd, Indy Parks Director.

Together, we will continue to explore opportunities to enhance these spaces while connecting the people we serve to programs, outdoor activities, and engaging experiences.

"The Parks Alliance of Indianapolis is committed to connecting resources to needs on behalf of Indy's parks and public spaces for the people who use them," said Lori Hazlett, President & CEO of The Parks Alliance. "Since 2013, our team has been proud to partner with Pacers Sports & Entertainment to align their community initiatives with opportunities that invest in one of Indy Parks most utilized amenities - basketball courts. Today we celebrate nearly 10 years of this partnership that has resulted in 19 new courts in 13 Indy Parks."

About Pacers Sports & Entertainment:

Pacers Sports & Entertainment is an integrated sports and entertainment company including the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever, Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Pacers Gaming, Pacers Foundation, Inc., and operations of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Its team of inspired and dedicated employees has a shared purpose of winning through a commitment to excellence, serving the local community and entertaining fans and guests.

About Indy Parks and Recreation:

With over a century of history advancing the value of parks and welcoming all residents and visitors, Indy Parks connects communities by providing places and experiences that inspire healthy living, social engagement, and a love of nature. Annually, the parks department serves 8 million people and offers 213 parks, 11,258 acres of greenspace, 153 miles of trails, 131 playgrounds, 19 aquatic centers, 155 sports fields, more than 2,000 programs, and so much more.

About the Parks Alliance of Indianapolis:

The Parks Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and proud partner of the Central Indiana Community Foundation. For more than 30 years, The Parks Alliance has worked alongside Indy Parks & Recreation to identify needs and opportunities to develop and maintain Indys parks, trails, greenways, and public spaces. Since 1991, The Park Alliance has secured and administered nearly $100 million on behalf of Indy Parks and the people that use them. The Parks Alliance board and staff have established a strong track record of stewarding philanthropy to demonstrate its critical value in making Indy a great place to live, work, play, and visit.

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Speaker at Park River Bible Camp backs out after backlash from surrounding communities – Grand Forks Herald

Posted: at 9:18 am

PARK RIVER, N.D. A speaker at an event hosted by Park River Bible Camp near Park River, North Dakota, backed out after backlash from surrounding communities about the speakers gender and sexuality.

Pastor Drew Stever a queer, transgender pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood, California, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-affiliated church was scheduled to speak at Park River Bible Camps Youth Fest on July 10, but decided not to after people in surrounding communities expressed their disapproval to camp leadership and on social media.

He cited concerns for his and his familys safety for his decision to back out.

Camp is supposed to be a place where you can go and just be, and we didnt feel like we could be at camp and be in the town fully present, fully comfortable and fully feeling like our safety was a priority, said Stever.

Youth Fest, taking place July 10-15, is a new event for the ELCA camp, and was created for seventh- through 12th-grade students as an alternative event for the ELCAs National Youth Gathering, which was canceled due to COVID-19. Each day of the event had a speaker scheduled to give a talk about that days theme and be present for activities at the camp. Stevers talk would have been about goodness and kindness.

Rebecca Kjelland, executive director of Park River Bible Camp, said all speakers at the event were chosen intentionally and the group contained an Indigenous speaker, Black speaker and disabled speaker along with Stever, who represented the LGBTQ community.

We wanted to make sure that all voices were heard, that they all were people that would be a part of the table table meaning table of the church that were all a part of, said Kjelland.

She started hearing backlash about Stevers gender and sexuality, as well as about one of his tweets from three years ago that mentioned sex toys.

Absolutely not was that going to be the conversation this week or when he was going to be speaking for the half-an-hour time slot that I gave every speaker, she said. It is unfortunate that that was blasted on social media.

A local church also published a statement against the camps event. In the June 26 bulletin of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Grafton, a message was posted warning parents not to send their children to the event because the event would have left-leaning speakers promoting things contrary to the Catholic Faith, specifically a transgender speaker.

Unfortunately, this camp can no longer be trusted to promote genuine Christian morality, read the message.

Father Jeff Eppler, pastor at the parish, said the list of speakers was brought to his attention by a number of parishioners.

Contributed / St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church

I knew from the past that we had some parishioners sending kids to the camp, and that what the camp was promoting was contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, so as a pastor, I had a responsibility to let people know this is whats going on, said Eppler.

Kjelland says it was disappointing that leaders at St. Johns the Evangelist Catholic Church did not reach out to have a discussion with her about the event or the speakers before publishing the notice.

I am not someone where it has to be where we agree at the end of the conversation, but at least then they have all the information from myself or one of my board members, she said.

People also took to Facebook, posting comments on Park River Bible Camps posts, speculating the political views of the speakers at Youth Fest, accusing the camp of indoctrinating children and calling for Kjelland to be fired, said Kjelland.

In a July 7 statement, Kjelland reiterated the camps stance on LGBTQ individuals, saying the organization does not see identifying as part of the LGBTQ community as a sin. This is in line with ELCA policy.

One of Park River Bible Camps messages, and one that has been the same for the last 22 years she has worked at the camp, said Kjelland, is that all are welcome at the camp. This message is even on a sign for the camp posted at the junction of Highway 17 and Highway 32, which has the name of the camp, and beneath it, All Are Welcome.

If we cannot welcome all people into this camp, then we need to change our sign, which makes me very sad, because for years, we have welcomed all people onto this site, said Kjelland.

Stever says it is disappointing to have to make the decision to not speak at Youth Fest.

Its mostly the kids that Im sad for. I think the camp was trying to be really intentional about having a really diverse slate of leaders and speakers and to allow for that broadening of worldviews, not just for the kids, but other adults who would be at camp too, said Stever. I think theyre still going to get some of that, but its going to be smaller than what it was intended to be.

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