Smoking Rates During Pregnancy Highest Among Native Americans

By Tristan Ahtone, Fronteras Desk

Debora Cartagena, CDCSmoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general, as well as those inhaling “second hand” smoke.
Debora Cartagena, CDC
Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases and affecting the health of smokers in general, as well as those inhaling “second hand” smoke.

Native Americans have the highest rates of smoking before, during and after pregnancy than any other ethnic group in the nation. That’s according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control.

According to the CDC, 55 percent of Native American women smoked before pregnancy. During pregnancy, that rate dropped significantly to 26 percent. However, that rate was still the highest of any racial or ethnic group in the nation.

“One out of two American Indian and Alaska Native women were smoking prior to pregnancy,” said Van Tong, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health. “Only half of these women quit smoking by the last trimester of pregnancy.”

Tong says the reasons for these high rates aren’t well understood, but that more outreach needed to be done to get women to stop smoking while pregnant.

Smoking during pregnancy increases risks for complications including lower birth weights and babies more prone to health issues once their born.

Washington’s GMO labeling flop, two weeks later: What it means

By , Grist

Ever since Washington state voters rejected a measure to label genetically engineered food earlier this month, I’ve been trying to understand what the vote meant.

On election night, I stressed the importance of advertising, but people on Twitter and in comments have questioned that emphasis. Political advertising rarely changes opinions; it generally sets people more deeply in their convictions. So perhaps what the Washington vote shows us is that fewer people care about GM food than it seems.

Why the measure lost is also related to the question of who voted. In the end, only 45 percent of registered voters cast their ballots — the lowest turnout in a decade. What does that mean? And what’s the significance of the fact that the race tightened up as officials counted ballots: The measure was losing by 10 percentage points in early tallies, but that margin eventually narrowed to 2 percentage points, with 49 percent voting for, and 51 against.

The answers to these questions have interesting implications for future labeling campaigns. The Washington vote seems to be telling us that concern about GM food is broad and shallow. That is, lots of people are vaguely worried about transgenics, but it’s not a core issue that drives majorities to the polls.

 

“This was a solution looking for a problem,” said Stuart Elway, president of the Seattle-based polling company Elway Research. “People were not highly agitated about GMO labeling.”

Let’s dig into the evidence that this vote gives us to suggest that conclusion:

Money

With nearly all the votes counted, I stand by my initial impression that money made all the difference in this vote. I did, however, get the precise amounts wrong: I wrote that opponents spent more than $30 per “No” vote, but more ballots came in than I’d estimated. In fact, they spent just under $25 per vote (that’s $22 million over approximately 890,000 votes). Still, that $22 million is a lot of money — more than has ever been spent before in either opposing or promoting a ballot measure in the history of the state [PDF].

And as soon as the money began to flow, Elway saw a shift in his polling numbers: The measure had a huge 45 percent lead in September. Then the ads began to run, and that lead dropped to 4 percent in October.

“There was a 41 point swing in six weeks, which is unprecedented,” he said. “I’ve been tracking politics in this state for 30 years and I’ve never seen such a big swing in such a short amount of time.”

Among the people who had seen the ads, the measure was losing.

“When we asked them why they were voting no, people were reciting the talking points from the ads back to us,” Elway said.

It’s clear that, in this case, advertising swayed public opinion. But at the same time economists have established that it’s hard to change opinion with political spending. So what gives? Well, there’s an exception to the rule. While it’s nearly impossible for advertising to shift core values — like getting a lifelong Democrat to vote Republican or vice versa — it is possible for advertising to change the mind of someone who hasn’t fully committed. When people haven’t encountered the arguments on each side, those arguments tend to work.

One poll found that 93 percent of Americans favor labeling GM food. But half of the people questioned in that poll weren’t aware that GMOs were already widespread in processed foods — in other words, they were concerned, but brand new to the debate. In previous Washington polls Elway conducted on food safety, GMOs had come in sixth out of six potential problems with the food supply. So, while it’s clear that there’s widespread anxiety about GMOs, it doesn’t seem to be deep-seated.

Voter turnout

The low voter turnout is especially remarkable since Washington sends a vote-by-mail ballot to every voter. From one perspective, this means that 55 percent of voters cared so little about GMOs that they ended up throwing out their ballots. Just 22 percent of all registered voters in the state sent in a ballot voting yes on the measure.

But look at it another way: If all the voters in King County, where the measure passed, had turned out, the initiative would probably have passed.

“Low turnout votes do tend to be more conservative,” said David Ammons, communications director for the Washington Secretary of State’s office. And Democrats had shown they were more likely than Republicans to favor the initiative.

In Elway’s October poll, the measure was trailing among people who had voted in all of the last four elections, but it was winning among those who voted less than half the time. All this suggests that a higher voter turnout could have led to the initiative’s passage. Perhaps if more people were motivated to vote by a concurrent presidential election, for instance, they would have checked “Yes” on this initiative a little farther down the ballot.

Perhaps. Or maybe those non-voters would be swayed by the same ads. When California voted on a similar initiative in 2012, during a presidential election, 72 percent [PDF] of registered voters showed up, but the initiative still failed by an infinitesimally wider margin than in Washington.

Either way, it turned out that Washington’s labeling initiative relied on infrequent voters — they favored the proposition 49 to 37 percent, according to Elway — and they couldn’t be bothered to vote this time. GMOs aren’t driving people to the polls. Once again, concern about GM food looks shallow.

Timing

Lots of votes came in late. “We did see a general trend toward people keeping their ballots longer,” Ammons said. “I think a lot of people were still studying the GMO issue. There was a lot of media on this, a lot of explanatory journalism. I think there were a lot of people seriously trying to understand if this was the right answer, weighing it, and holding onto their ballots up until Election Day.”

The later voters were more likely to favor the initiative, but Ammons said, “We don’t have a good working hypothesis on that yet.”

He pointed out that later Seattle-area ballots elected a socialist councilmember while also voting down a minimum wage hike. It’s hard to tell what, if anything, can be learned from the timing of the votes.

What’s the lesson here?

Advocates in Oregon are already preparing a similar initiative for the 2014 election in that state. If the pattern holds, we’ll see widespread support early on (they’ll have no trouble getting the signatures necessary to put it on the ballot). Then the food industry will wade in and begin buying up advertising slots, and sentiment will shift. In the end, the proposition will lose by a couple of points.

Of course, that pattern could break. Businesses could decide they don’t want to be forking over cash every year to defeat propositions. The seed-company Syngenta, for instance, stayed out of the Washington contest after contributing in California.

But if that pattern holds, I have some advice for labeling advocates: It’s not enough to raise the specter of danger. You’ve already got the populist base, so simple, broadly appealing arguments won’t be sufficient. You’ll need more sophisticated arguments that stand up to scrutiny — the kind of arguments that convince newspaper editorial boards (they almost all advised voting no in Washington) and scientific organizations, rather than alienating them.

Panic-free GMOS: See the full story list

The Great American Smokeout and the National COPD Awareness Month Team Up to Help Smokers Quit

National COPD Awareness month and the Great American Smokeout provide smokers in the U.S. with support to help them kick the habit this November.

Written by Joe Bowman, Healthline

If you are one of the nearly 44 million Americans who have yet to kick their smoking habit, November might be the perfect time to put the cigarettes out for good.

On Thursday, November 21, the American Cancer Society (ACS) will hold the 37th annual Great American Smokeout. In 1976, the California Division of the ACS encouraged nearly 1 million smokers to give up cigarettes for the day. The success of the first Great American Smokeout prompted the ACS to expand the program to the rest of the U.S. the following year, turning the third Thursday of November into a day when Americans can support one another in the fight to quit smoking.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking is the principal cause of preventable death in the U.S. It is responsible for one in five deaths—or more than 440,000 deaths annually. Tobacco use greatly increases a person’s risk for cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory diseases, and a host of other conditions.

The ACS reports that smoking is not only responsible for nearly a third of all cancer deaths but also for about a fifth of deaths from all causes. Changes in attitude toward tobacco usage have helped the percentage of American smokers over the age of 18 drop from more than 42 percent to close to 18 percent. Though many states now have laws that restrict smoking in public areas, it’s estimated that 1 in 5 U.S. adults still smoke.

The ACS believes that even quitting for a day is a step in the right direction toward a healthier lifestyle.

Take a Minute to See the Timeline of What Happens When You Quit Smoking  »

 

Starting a Dialogue About COPD

November is also National COPD Awareness Month. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease that affects the lungs, making breathing more difficult as it progresses. COPD, which is also known as emphysema or chronic bronchitis, is characterized by three main symptoms: shortness of breath during physical activity and, as the disease worsens, while at rest; chronic coughing; and spitting or coughing mucus from the lungs.

The University of Maryland Medical Center estimates that cigarette smoking accounts for around 80 percent of all COPD cases. With more than 120,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone, COPD moved ahead of stroke in 2010 to become the third leading cause of death in the U.S. While more than 12 million people are currently diagnosed with COPD, the more disturbing fact is that there are likely another 12 million with the disease who are unaware of it.

In an effort to educate patients and health care providers of COPD, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has launched the COPD Learn More Breathe Better campaign, aimed at current and former smokers over the age of 45.

James Kiley, director of the NHLBI Division of Lung Diseases, hopes that increased awareness of the disease will encourage more patients and health care providers to discuss symptoms and treatments for COPD in the doctor’s office.

“It’s no secret that early diagnosis and treatment can improve daily living for those who have COPD, but you can’t get there without an open line of dialogue in the exam room,” Kiley said in a press release.

Although there is no cure for COPD, lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation, exercise, and a healthy diet can lessen the symptoms of the disease. You should also speak with your doctor about medications that can also help.

Not Convinced? Here Are 7 More Reasons to Quit Smoking  »

 

Additional Tips to Keep You Smoke-Free

While the task of giving up cigarettes might seem daunting to many current smokers, the ACS offers these tips to help you stick to your goal after the clock strikes 12 during this year’s Great American Smokeout:

  • Seek out support in the form of smoking cessation hotlines or stop-smoking groups in your city or online.
  • Look into counseling to give you an additional, professional support system.
  • Ask your doctor about prescription medications, including Bupropion or Chantix.
  • If counseling or medication aren’t possible, there are many books out there that can help.
  • Ask your doctor or pharmacist about nicotine replacement products, like patches or gum.
  • Talk about quitting with friends and family. Don’t underestimate the power of positive reinforcement and encouragement from loved ones.

For more information about quitting smoking and tobacco products, call the ACS at 1-800-227-2345.

Code Talkers From 33 Tribes Receive Congressional Gold Medals

 Code Talkers from 33 tribes other than the Navajo Nation receive their Congressional Gold Medals.
Code Talkers from 33 tribes other than the Navajo Nation receive their Congressional Gold Medals.

By Vincent Schilling, November 20, 2013, ICTMN

This morning at 11 a.m., Native American Code Talkers from 33 tribes were honored at the nations Capitol in Washington D.C. Taking the limelight with such notable historical figures as Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Astronauts, the Native Code Talkers and their prospective tribes were awarded Congressional Gold Medals.

A plethora of Senatorial and Congressional notables were present at the awards ceremony to include House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH), Tom Cole (R-OK), Ron Kind (D-WI), Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV).

Also in attendance were family members and tribal leaders representing the Native Code Talkers as well as 96-year-old Edmond Harjo.

Speaker John Boehner opened the ceremony by applauding the efforts of Harjo who had recognized a fellow soldier’s language in 1944 and was later utilized by the U.S. military as a code talker.

“Edmond and his brothers were at Normandy and Iwo Jima and they mobilized the weapon of language to thwart the fiercest enemy the free people have ever known and made a difference …join me in applauding their perseverance and the deeds that have been relegated to legend and may they now live in memory,” said Boehner.

Native American Congressman Tom Cole then shared his thoughts. “It is an enormous honor for me to get to share this moment with you – no one has fought against an alliance like Native Americans. Native Americans enlist at a higher rate than any ethnicity in this land. Most famous of those warriors are the Navajo code talkers of World War II, but 33 different tribes contributed to the code talkers.”

“From my home state of Oklahoma three are Choctaw, Comanche and Kiowa they saved lives and won battles. They did so by giving the United States the unique battlefield advantage of secure communication,” said Cole.

Similar appreciative sentiments were also given by Kind, Johnson, McConnell and Inhofe who also described ways code talkers were critical to war efforts. Their descriptions included how code talkers could decipher their messages instantly with 100 percent accuracy, while machines took up to 30 minutes to decipher alternative codes. Also, more than 800 battlefield communications were shared in the first 48 hours of Iwo Jima. Several speakers mentioned that code talkers enlisted at a time when they were not even honored as citizens.

Pelosi expressed appreciation for representing California as a state with the highest percentage of Native Americans before thanking the code talkers.

“The code talkers, using their language… committed to the cause of freedom. Their sense of duty was never shaken nor was their resolve. Their patriotism never wavered nor did their courage. Their bonds of brotherhood were never broken nor were their codes. Their heroism and sacrifice and these contributions went unrecognized for too long. It is a privilege for Congress to bestow the Native American code talkers the highest honor we can bestow, the Congressional Gold medal,” said Pelosi.

After Pelosi, Senator Reid delivered a poignantly truthful account of the history of Native people and their contribution to the war efforts of the United Sates.

“According to firsthand accounts from the pilgrims, who arrived to this continent, Native Americans did not farm the land so this wasn’t truly their land. According to the pioneers who pushed past the Mississippi, Native Americans were not civilized, so they didn’t truly own the land. According to the prospectors who rushed for the hills of Nevada, California and even Alaska, Native Americans did not speak English so they did not truly own the land.

“Strangers had forced the Native peoples from their lands slaughtered their game, stifled their religions outlawed their ceremonies and ravaged their communities…in the late 1800s, the United States government forced Native American children to attend English only boarding schools. Native children were torn from their families, taken far from home in boxcars and buggies, given English names, forced to cut their hair short and teachers beat the children with leather straps when they spoke their Native languages. The government told them their language had no value, but the children held onto their language, culture and history at great personal risk.”

“In this nation’s hour of greatest need these same Native American languages proved to have great value in the early years of World War II…Why would Native Americans, who had been robbed of their land and their culture agree to use their precious language to protect the country that had neglected and abused them for centuries? As one Navajo Native American code talker by the name of Chester Nez put it, ‘Somebody has got to defend this country, somebody has to defend freedom,” said Reid.

Watch the video here.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/11/20/code-talkers-33-tribes-receive-congressional-gold-medals-152355

Cherokee Nation Responds to Offensive ‘Trail of Tears’ Banner

 Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker

Cherokee Nation; Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

The Cherokee Nation has responded to an offensive banner displayed at an Alabama high school football game that has drawn national attention.
The banner, made by McAdory High School students for a football playoff game, referenced the opposing team’s mascot, the “Indians,” by displaying the message: “Hey Indians, get ready to leave in a Trail of Tears, Round 2.”

RELATED: High School Slammed for Its Mocking and Shocking ‘Trail of Tears’ Banner

In the 1830s, the Cherokee Nation and many other tribes were forcibly removed from their homelands in Alabama and other states in the Southeast, and marched hundreds of miles to Indian Territory, now present-day Oklahoma.
 Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker issued the following statement.

“Ironically, the Cherokee Nation is commemorating the 175th anniversary of the start of our Trail of Tears this year. About 16,000 Cherokees began the trek to Oklahoma from our homelands in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky, but only 12,000 lived through the harsh conditions that winter.

“
The Trail of Tears was arguably the most horrific period in the Cherokee Nation’s history and among the worst atrocities ever sanctioned by the United States government.
 The legacy of that terrible era has had a profound effect on generations of tribal citizens, and still lingers today.
 This unfortunate display shows how much improvement is still needed in the understanding of Native peoples, our triumphs and our challenges, both historical and modern.

“We hope this becomes an opportunity for administrators at McAdory High School, and at schools all across the United States, to teach our young people not only the terrible history behind the Indian removal era, but also the resilience of tribes across the nation.”

November is also Native American Heritage Month. To learn more about observances this month, please visit NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov.

RELATED: Principal Apologizes for ‘Trail of Tears’ Banner—Makes it a Teaching Moment

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com//2013/11/20/cherokee-nation-responds-offensive-trail-tears-banner-152345

24,000-Year-Old Body Is Kin to Both Europeans and American Indians

Niobe ThompsonA view of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia near where the young boy buried at Mal’ta was discovered.
Niobe Thompson
A view of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia near where the young boy buried at Mal’ta was discovered.

By Nicholas Wade, The New York Times

The genome of a young boy buried at Mal’ta near Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia some 24,000 years ago has turned out to hold two surprises for anthropologists.The first is that the boy’s DNA matches that of Western Europeans, showing that during the last Ice Age people from Europe had reached farther east across Eurasia than previously supposed. Though none of the Mal’ta boy’s skin or hair survive, his genes suggest he would have had brown hair, brown eyes and freckled skin.

The second surprise is that his DNA also matches a large proportion — some 25 percent — of the DNA of living Native Americans. The first people to arrive in the Americas have long been assumed to have descended from Siberian populations related to East Asians. It now seems that they may be a mixture between the Western Europeans who had reached Siberia and an East Asian population.

The Mal’ta boy was aged 3 to 4 and was buried under a stone slab wearing an ivory diadem, a bead necklace and a bird-shaped pendant. Elsewhere at the same site some 30 Venus figurines were found of the kind produced by the Upper Paleolithic cultures of Europe. The remains were excavated by Russian archaeologists over a 20-year period ending in 1958 and stored in museums in St. Petersburg.

There they lay for some 50 years until they were examined by a team led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen. Dr. Willerslev, an expert in analyzing ancient DNA, was seeking to understand the peopling of the Americas by searching for possible source populations in Siberia. He extracted DNA from bone taken from the child’s upper arm, hoping to find ancestry in the East Asian peoples from whom Native Americans are known to be descended.

But the first results were disappointing. The boy’s mitochondrial DNA belonged to the lineage known as U, which is commonly found among the modern humans who first entered Europe some 44,000 years ago. The lineages found among Native Americans are those designated A, B, C, D and X, so the U lineage pointed to contamination of the bone by the archaeologists or museum curators who had handled it, a common problem with ancient DNA projects. “The study was put on low speed for about a year because I thought it was all contamination,” Dr. Willerslev said.

His team proceeded anyway to analyze the nuclear genome, which contains the major part of human inheritance. They were amazed when the nuclear genome also turned out to have partly European ancestry. Examining the genome from a second Siberian grave site, that of an adult who died some 17,000 years ago, they found the same markers of European origin. Together, the two genomes indicate that descendants of the modern humans who entered Europe had spread much farther east across Eurasia than had previously been assumed and occupied Siberia during an extremely cold period starting 20,000 years ago that is known as the Last Glacial Maximum.

The other surprise from the Mal’ta boy’s genome was that it matched to both Europeans and Native Americans but not to East Asians. Dr. Willerslev’s interpretation was that the ancestors of Native Americans had already separated from the East Asian population when they interbred with the people of the Mal’ta culture, and that this admixed population then crossed over the Beringian land bridge that then lay between Siberia and Alaska to become a founding population of Native Americans.

“We estimate that 14 to 38 percent of Native American ancestry may originate through gene flow from this ancient population,” he and colleagues wrote in an article published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

A European contribution to Native American ancestry could explain two longstanding puzzles about the people’s origins. One is that many ancient Native American skulls, including that of the well-known Kennewick man, look very different from those of the present day population. Another is that one of the five mitochondrial DNA lineages found in Native Americans, the lineage known as X, also occurs in Europeans. One explanation is that Europeans managed to cross the Atlantic in small boats some 20,000 years ago and joined the Native Americans from Siberia.

Dr. Willerslev thinks it more likely that European bearers of the X lineage had migrated across Siberia with the ancestors of the Mal’ta culture and joined them in their trek across the Beringian land bridge.

Enhance Your Holiday Landscape

by Melinda Myers

Candy cane birdseed
Candy cane birdseed

By Melinda Myers

Add a little holiday sparkle to your landscape for you and your guests to enjoy. No matter the weather outside, a few decorative touches can greatly increase the beauty and enjoyment of your winter landscape.

Try one, two or all eight of these tips to improve your landscape’s winter appeal.

Add some solar powered accents. Light a pathway, your favorite tree or front porch without installing additional outlets. Look for unique colors and shapes like the solar star lantern or the changing colors of northern lights spheres (gardeners.com) for added appeal. The wide variety now available can help create a memorable winter display. Be sure to select solar accents that provide hours of enjoyment when fully charged.

Create an outdoor holiday tree for you and your feathered visitors to enjoy. Decorate a few of your evergreen trees and shrubs with purchased or homemade birdseed ornaments. Holiday shapes made of energy rich birdseed and suet give the trees a holiday flare, while providing important food for birds to enjoy. These also make great gifts for your favorite gardener or bird watcher.

Light up your winter containers. Fill a weather-proof planter with potting mix or play sand.  Purchase greens from your favorite garden center or trim a few from your landscape. Stick the cut end of the greens in the potting mix or sand to create an attractive display. Add some colorful berries, decorative twigs and ribbon. Then add some height and light to your winter container with fiber optic solar lights. Place the container by your front steps for holiday visitors to enjoy day or night.

Increase color and motion with the help of heated birdbaths. Attract greater numbers and variety of birds by providing water year round.  Northern gardeners should consider heated birdbaths to insure water is available even during the coldest months. Further help the birds by adding a few stones or branches to the birdbath. This allows the birds to drink without getting wet; helping them to preserve their body heat.

Create your own homemade outdoor lights. Line pathways, accent plantings or dress up fence posts with ice globe luminaries.  Produce your own or purchase ready to make kits. Use colorful outdoor LED lights or tea candles to light up blocks or spheres of ice. You and your family will have fun creating these memorable nighttime accents.

Add some livable art. Hang a few colorful and unique birdhouses in your backyard. They provide color and whimsy to the winter garden and will be ready for your feathered friends to move in this spring.

Include a “gingerbread” house for the birds. Hang decorative birdseed houses from a shepherds crook or tree branch. Be sure to place it in an area where you and the birds can enjoy the decorative treat. Look for a sheltered, but open area where the birds can watch for predators while enjoying their winter feast.

Move your holiday tree outdoors. Place your cut tree in a snow bank, vacant spot in the garden or make it part of your bird feeding station. The tree provides some extra greenery in the often drab winter landscape as well as shelter for the visiting birds. Then add a few of those birdseed ornaments for added food and winter decoration.

 

Gardening expert, TV/radio host, author & columnist Melinda Myers has more than 30 years of horticulture experience and has written over 20 gardening books, including Can’t Miss Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment segments. Myers is also a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ web site, www.melindamyers.com, offers gardening videos and tips.