Latest news with #Mande
New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Foday Musa Suso, 75, Dies; Ambitious Ambassador for West African Music
Foday Musa Suso, a griot, kora virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist and composer whose work with artists like Herbie Hancock and Philip Glass helped thrust West African musical traditions into conversation with the world, died on May 25 in his native Gambia. He was 75. The percussionist Stefan Monssen, a mentee of Mr. Suso's, confirmed the death, in a hospital. He did not specify a cause, but said Mr. Suso had been in ill health in recent years after suffering a stroke. Mr. Suso was born into a long line of griots, the caste of musician-storytellers who are traditionally responsible for retaining oral histories in the areas of West Africa where the Mande languages are spoken. He traced his lineage back to Jeli Madi Wlen Suso, who is said to have invented the kora centuries ago by attaching 21 strings and a cowhide to a large calabash gourd. Mr. Suso was the rare musician who learned to play in the various regional styles of griots from around West Africa. In a tribute published in Gambia's major newspaper, The Standard, Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the country's high court wrote, 'Jali Foday was more than a musician, he was a living archive, a teacher, and a symbol of continuity in a rapidly changing world.' (The honorific 'Jali' refers to Mr. Suso's status as a griot.) And yet Mr. Suso's career was powered as much by his will to expand as by reverence for tradition. He added three bass strings to his kora's traditional 21, allowing him to hold a steady beat and make its sound more danceable — and therefore more appealing to young listeners in the 1970s. He wrote many of his own compositions. He also learned to play more than a dozen other instruments, including the balafon (an African predecessor of the xylophone), kalimba (also known as the thumb piano), nyanyer (a one-stringed violin-like instrument), ngoni (an early West African banjo) and talking drum. After moving to the United States, he began experimenting with electronic instruments as well. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
News18
22-05-2025
- Health
- News18
Unlikely To See Another Delta-Like Covid Wave Ever, No Need To Panic Over Fresh Surge: Ex-CSIR Chief
Last Updated: Dr Shekhar Mande said hospitalisations and severe symptoms are very unlikely at this stage as the population has developed immunity to the virus It's unlikely that the world will ever see Covid-19 raging and causing deaths like it did before, prominent biologist Dr Shekhar Mande has told News18. After a period of relative calm, Covid-19 infections are once again surging in several Asian regions, including Hong Kong and Singapore, raising alarms about a resurgence of the virus. However, so far, India has remained largely unaffected, with the Union Health Ministry maintaining that the situation is under control. According to Singapore's health ministry, the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country has been caused by the LF.7 and NB.1.8 variants—sub lineages of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, they are descendants of the JN.1 variant, which itself is a sub lineage of Omicron BA.2.86. 'Omicron was not a deadly strain, and India has already experienced a wave caused by it. There is no need to worry on the medical front. A large part of the population is already double vaccinated," Mande, who is former secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, said. 'Many people have also been exposed to variants that can escape vaccine protection, yet they have recovered. In my opinion, there is no reason to panic," he said, adding, 'it's highly unlikely that these strains will cause any kind of damage similar to what we have seen during the Delta wave." During the Omicron wave, Mande recalled that India did not see a surge in hospitalisations. 'We don't expect one now with the new strains either. Certain mutations have occurred in JN.1, but it's still unclear whether they have increased its infectivity. So far, its spread has not resulted in a rise in hospitalisations or deaths. Hence, based on the latest observations, there's no reason to panic." Mande, who is also a former Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), believes that India should ramp up its genomic sequencing of viruses in circulation. 'There is a strong case for active surveillance of new variants. Even the WHO would want to know if a Variant of Concern (VOC) is emerging." Generally, the sequencing is done from random samples taken from Covid-19 positive patients admitted to hospitals. Current status of Covid-19 According to government data, India had 257 active Covid-19 cases nationwide as of May 19. Kerala leads with 69 cases, followed by Maharashtra (44) and Tamil Nadu (34). Other states, including Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Sikkim, have also reported fresh infections. However, according to Mande, the states reporting higher number of cases does not necessarily mean that they have more cases. 'It just shows that their surveillance mechanisms are well-oiled." 'Kerala has always had strong surveillance. Even during the Delta wave, it was among the first to report cases." However, he said, many cases across the country go unreported. 'People often don't come forward for testing, as symptoms tend to subside within a few days. Because of this, the average person may not consider testing necessary." When asked if people should go for Covid-19 testing once again, he replied, 'if desirable. Get tested if needed but testing decisions should ideally be made with a doctor's guidance." Not much evidence on booster shots 'Regardless of the vaccine type—Moderna, Pfizer, inactivated vaccines like Covaxin, or adenovirus-based Covishield vaccine—we currently do not have sufficient data on whether boosters are helpful, or whether immunity has waned to the point that boosters are needed," he said. 'While some attempts have been made to gather this data, there is no conclusive evidence yet. So, the final word on boosters is still pending." On being asked if humans are at risk of acquiring Covid-19 infections once again due to weakening immunity, Mande explained that 'currently, it is not well-characterised whether our cell-based (T-cell) immunity has declined significantly or not". 'A significant decline in immunity is unlikely. T-cell immunity doesn't wane that quickly." Can Covid-19 become lethal, once again? Most likely, no. In 2020, when we first encountered this virus, Mande said, 'our bodies had no prior exposure and reacted strongly, leading to complications. Now, after being exposed to multiple variants, our population has developed a better immune response. It's highly unlikely that our bodies would now hyper-react". As a result, he said, 'hospitalisations and severe symptoms are very unlikely at this stage." He further added 'In general, with most viruses, the first infection tends to be more severe. Over time, infections usually become milder. This pattern has been seen with influenza as well." However, new strains can always emerge. 'For example, SARS-CoV-1 was mostly seen in eastern countries and didn't affect India much. With SARS-CoV-2, we might continue to see mutations and periodic outbreaks of milder variants — similar to how new flu strains appear during the rainy season." 'But it's unlikely that they will cause the kind of damage we saw during the Delta or first wave." What should public do? 'What we have learned from science is that this virus is airborne," he said, explaining that as we speak or cough, we release aerosols—tiny particles, 5 to 10 microns in size—that can trap the virus and float in the air. 'Others can inhale them and get infected." People with symptoms should avoid mingling with others to prevent spreading the virus. Also, ventilation plays a very important role. 'In densely populated areas, if everyone wears a mask, it can significantly reduce the chances of transmission during inhaling and exhaling." Hence, he advices to 'wear masks, especially in crowded areas. Also avoid gatherings, if symptomatic and stay home if sick, to avoid infecting others." Watch India Pakistan Breaking News on CNN-News18. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : coronavirus Council of Scientific and Industrial Research covid-19 delta variant news18 specials omicron Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: May 22, 2025, 10:19 IST News india Unlikely To See Another Delta-Like Covid Wave Ever, No Need To Panic Over Fresh Surge: Ex-CSIR Chief
USA Today
15-03-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Girl Scout cookies may contain heavy metals. Why is our food like this?
Girl Scout cookies may contain heavy metals. Why is our food like this? Show Caption Hide Caption Lawsuit filed against Girl Scouts A New York woman has filed a class action lawsuit against the Girl Scouts after a study about toxic contaminants allegedly found in their cookies went viral on social media. Fox - 5 Atlanta Baby food, spices, chocolate. And now, Girl Scout cookies. In recent years, tests have found heavy metals like lead in some of the most common food products in American households. A proposed class-action lawsuit filed earlier this week blames the Girl Scouts for the presence of heavy metals and the herbicide glyphosate in its cookies, citing a study that wasn't peer reviewed of a small sample size of cookies purchased in three states. In those cookies, according to the analysis commissioned by Moms Across America and GMO Science, four out of five heavy metals tested for were present in all the cookie samples, and most of the 25 cookie samples tested had all five: aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. The Girl Scouts, meanwhile, defended their cookies as safe to eat, and said its products are manufactured according to current safety standards. Their bakers don't add any contaminants, and any of these substances found in the cookies come from environmental exposure, the Girl Scouts said. The Girl Scout cookie debacle is the latest instance of a food product raising alarm over the presence of contaminants. Aside from heavy metals and herbicides, Americans have also faced product recalls over listeria, salmonella and E. coli. Bird flu virus was found in raw milk. The Food and Drug Administration earlier this year banned Red Dye No. 3 from food and drinks over concerns about modern research suggesting it may be linked to cancer and behavioral issues in children. Americans are on edge over the safety of their food, said Jerold Mande, an adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health and a former senior policy official at the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food safety programs in the Obama administration. But it's not surprising that Girl Scout cookies contain some amount of contaminants, and given a sensitive enough test, most processed foods would probably come back positive for at least one toxin or another, Mande said. The question, according to Mande, should be: how much is too much? (And who gets to decide that?) Mande said even foods that fall below the required threshold for contaminants might be behind health issues plaguing Americans, because there just isn't enough research being done by government scientists to answer those questions. "Consumers are rightly concerned, and I'm concerned," Mande said. "But there's nothing you can do as an individual to really protect yourself, unless you're going to grow all the food yourself, and even then there can be contaminants." How do heavy metals get into food? At the advent of many food safety regulations and the FDA itself, tests for contaminants weren't as sensitive as they are today, Mande said. And when lawmakers passed laws like the 1950s-era Food Additives Amendment that banned any amount of cancer-causing substances from food, testing for such substances may have only been in the parts-per-million range. Now, scientists can test in parts per billion or trillion, Mande said, revealing much tinier amounts in many more foods than previously known. When testing at such a sensitive level, he said, contaminants can probably be found in many household food products. There are several pathways that may lead heavy metals to the food we eat. Some are naturally occurring in the environment. Others trace back to the widespread use of pesticides in crops that contained heavy metals, Mande said. While they're no longer used on food crops, they've long since contaminated soil, water and even the air. Sometimes heavy metals get into food during their processing. The levels found in foods depend on how much a plant or animal "takes up" from the environment, according to the FDA. Cadmium, for example, is "a naturally occurring metal," said Ana M. Rule, assistant professor and director of the Exposure Assessment Laboratories at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 'But just because they're naturally occurring, doesn't mean they're safe," Rule told USA TODAY last year when high levels of cadmium were found in chocolate. Should Americans be worried about their food? Heavy metals are linked to a variety of acute and long-term illnesses and developmental issues, particularly in young children. The FDA has set some recommended lead levels for babies and young children – and is in the midst of developing similar levels for arsenic, cadmium and mercury – but doesn't have suggested levels for the general population. Instead, the agency says its goal is to reduce the levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in food. "It's hard to get a low lead" level in certain foods, Mark Corkins, division chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, told USA TODAY in 2023 after Consumer Reports found heavy metals in baby foods. "To be honest, there's nothing that's going to be completely free of any contamination," Corkins said. As to whether you can still eat the Girl Scout cookies on your shelf, Mande said it's a personal decision based on how much risk you want to take. But consider this: Heavy metals and other toxins can probably be found in all manner of foods in our pantries if we were to use sensitive enough tests. "There's no question, almost every individual is taking greater risks in your day than what would come from that Girl Scout cookie that's meeting government standards but that still has detectable levels," Mande said. Can you still eat Girl Scout cookies? Here's what to know about risks to consumers Still, Mande said the fact that Girl Scouts promises its cookies adhere to regulatory standards shouldn't necessarily put consumers at ease, either. The claim the cookies are safe "feels like they're dodging the point," consumer protection and environmental attorney Vineet Dubey told USA TODAY. "It's very hard for the Girl Scouts to claim that with any certainty." Mande said there's still so much unknown about the chronic health impacts that chemicals in our food may cause, not just heavy metals. And Americans are experiencing much more chronic illness than other wealthy nations, Mande said. Most of the food sold in the U.S. doesn't go through preapproval by the agency before they are put on the market, Mande said. When problems arise, they are usually caught after the fact. That means it's up to the companies themselves to self-determine that their foods are safe to eat, even when profit is their priority, he said. "The government's not doing its job ensuring the safety of our food, and the industry's not doing its job ensuring the safety of our food," Mande said. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Mike Snider and Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Girl Scout cookies may contain heavy metals. Why is our food like this?
Baby food, spices, chocolate. And now, Girl Scout cookies. In recent years, tests have found heavy metals like lead in some of the most common food products in American households. A proposed class-action lawsuit filed earlier this week blames the Girl Scouts for the presence of heavy metals and the herbicide glyphosate in its cookies, citing a study that wasn't peer reviewed of a small sample size of cookies purchased in three states. In those cookies, according to the analysis commissioned by Moms Across America and GMO Science, four out of five heavy metals tested for were present in all the cookie samples, and most of the 25 cookie samples tested had all five: aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. The Girl Scouts, meanwhile, defended their cookies as safe to eat, and said its products are manufactured according to current safety standards. Their bakers don't add any contaminants, and any of these substances found in the cookies come from environmental exposure, the Girl Scouts said. The Girl Scout cookie debacle is the latest instance of a food product raising alarm over the presence of contaminants. Aside from heavy metals and herbicides, Americans have also faced product recalls over listeria, salmonella and E. coli. Bird flu virus was found in raw milk. The Food and Drug Administration earlier this year banned Red Dye No. 3 from food and drinks over concerns about modern research suggesting it may be linked to cancer and behavioral issues in children. Americans are on edge over the safety of their food, said Jerold Mande, an adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard's School of Public Health and a former senior policy official at the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food safety programs in the Obama administration. But it's not surprising that Girl Scout cookies contain some amount of contaminants, and given a sensitive enough test, most processed foods would probably come back positive for at least one toxin or another, Mande said. The question, according to Mande, should be: how much is too much? (And who gets to decide that?) Mande said even foods that fall below the required threshold for contaminants might be behind health issues plaguing Americans, because there just isn't enough research being done by government scientists to answer those questions. "Consumers are rightly concerned, and I'm concerned," Mande said. "But there's nothing you can do as an individual to really protect yourself, unless you're going to grow all the food yourself, and even then there can be contaminants." At the advent of many food safety regulations and the FDA itself, tests for contaminants weren't as sensitive as they are today, Mande said. And when lawmakers passed laws like the 1950s-era Food Additives Amendment that banned any amount of cancer-causing substances from food, testing for such substances may have only been in the parts-per-million range. Now, scientists can test in parts per billion or trillion, Mande said, revealing much tinier amounts in many more foods than previously known. When testing at such a sensitive level, he said, contaminants can probably be found in many household food products. There are several pathways that may lead heavy metals to the food we eat. Some are naturally occurring in the environment. Others trace back to the widespread use of pesticides in crops that contained heavy metals, Mande said. While they're no longer used on food crops, they've long since contaminated soil, water and even the air. Sometimes heavy metals get into food during their processing. The levels found in foods depend on how much a plant or animal "takes up" from the environment, according to the FDA. Cadmium, for example, is "a naturally occurring metal," said Ana M. Rule, assistant professor and director of the Exposure Assessment Laboratories at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 'But just because they're naturally occurring, doesn't mean they're safe," Rule told USA TODAY last year when high levels of cadmium were found in chocolate. Heavy metals are linked to a variety of acute and long-term illnesses and developmental issues, particularly in young children. The FDA has set some recommended lead levels for babies and young children – and is in the midst of developing similar levels for arsenic, cadmium and mercury – but doesn't have suggested levels for the general population. Instead, the agency says its goal is to reduce the levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in food. "It's hard to get a low lead" level in certain foods, Mark Corkins, division chief of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, told USA TODAY in 2023 after Consumer Reports found heavy metals in baby foods. "To be honest, there's nothing that's going to be completely free of any contamination," Corkins said. As to whether you can still eat the Girl Scout cookies on your shelf, Mande said it's a personal decision based on how much risk you want to take. But consider this: Heavy metals and other toxins can probably be found in all manner of foods in our pantries if we were to use sensitive enough tests. "There's no question, almost every individual is taking greater risks in your day than what would come from that Girl Scout cookie that's meeting government standards but that still has detectable levels," Mande said. Can you still eat Girl Scout cookies? Here's what to know about risks to consumers Still, Mande said the fact that Girl Scouts promises its cookies adhere to regulatory standards shouldn't necessarily put consumers at ease, either. The claim the cookies are safe "feels like they're dodging the point," consumer protection and environmental attorney Vineet Dubey told USA TODAY. "It's very hard for the Girl Scouts to claim that with any certainty." Mande said there's still so much unknown about the chronic health impacts that chemicals in our food may cause, not just heavy metals. And Americans are experiencing much more chronic illness than other wealthy nations, Mande said. Most of the food sold in the U.S. doesn't go through preapproval by the agency before they are put on the market, Mande said. When problems arise, they are usually caught after the fact. That means it's up to the companies themselves to self-determine that their foods are safe to eat, even when profit is their priority, he said. "The government's not doing its job ensuring the safety of our food, and the industry's not doing its job ensuring the safety of our food," Mande said. Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Mike Snider and Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Girl Scout cookies may contain heavy metals. How could that happen?
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Processed food must be regulated: Nutrition expert
(NewsNation) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services has been controversial, but one area where he has seen broad support is his effort to make American food healthier. Nourish Science CEO Jerold Mande told NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas that the food in America is making people sick. 'Food's basic purpose is for us to thrive, and yet we've ended up with a food industry producing products that, if eaten as intended, will make you sick,' he said. Fewer than half in new poll trust Trump, RFK Jr. to make right health recommendations Kennedy isn't the first to champion healthier food. Nutrition was one of first lady Michelle Obama's causes during the Obama presidency, and she pushed efforts to make school lunches healthier. Still, Americans have the shortest lifespans among the wealthiest 20 countries. Children in the U.S. have high rates of obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease, which used to be rare in children. Today, artificial food is synonymous with food that makes people sick, Mande said. The power of food companies to influence politics has made it difficult to invest in nutrition science. Highly processed foods make up 73% of the American food supply. Mande told NewsNation the FDA should regulate the design of ultraprocessed food, which is engineered to be irresistible. 'They need to tell companies yes, taste, cost and convenience should be three of your four North Stars, but the fourth is you have to do the research and prove to us that the food you're designing can be eaten as intended and not make people sick,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
