TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: With a bumper crop of blacklegged ticks possible this season, researchers in a Lyme disease-plagued part of New York’s Hudson Valley are tackling tick problems across entire neighborhoods with fungal sprays and bait boxes. The $8.8 million, five-year project aims to find out if treating 24 neighborhoods in Dutchess County for ticks, also known as deer ticks, can significantly reduce cases of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. “We want to do a better job and actually remove the threat from the neighborhoods, from the places where people are actually exposed to infected ticks,” said Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of New York City. Dutchess County is a patchwork of forests, rolling farmland and thick residential developments that has long been a hotbed of Lyme disease. Tick checks are a common end-of-day routine here, as are inspections for the red, target-shaped rashes associated with tick bites. People spray on tick repellents, treat their clothes with insecticide and even spray their yards. But Ostfeld notes that spraying individual lawns has not proved effective in fighting Lyme disease. So he’s scaling up from one backyard to many. The Tick Project involves more than 900 families in neighborhoods that consist of about 30 to 50 participants. Yards are being treated in the spring and early summer with a fungal spray that kills ticks. Researchers also are deploying bait boxes to attract rodents. An insecticide in the box kills any ticks on mice and chipmunks, two animals largely responsible for infecting ticks with the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Researchers check in with families every two weeks in season to see whether anyone in the house, including cats and dogs, had ticks on them over the period. The Tick Project is funded mostly through a $5 million grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, created by the hedge fund manager and his wife. Ostfeld said 2021 is set aside for data analysis, thought they will have some sense of early results within a year. Ostfeld would not divulge which neighborhoods are involved or who is participating, citing the need for privacy and of keeping good relations with participants. Edward Blundell, mayor of the village of Red Hook, mentioned during an interview that he had agreed to take part in the study. While he felt he could take personal steps to protect himself from Lyme disease, he would be satisfied if something comes out of the research. “Let’s let the scientists look at this and give them a mini-lab site here, so we felt our yard could be the mini-site,” Blundell said. Tick researchers say such area-wide studies are complex and difficult to do. They are costly. It can be hard to get all the needed permissions. And variabilities in tick densities over study areas can make the science challenging. Thomas Mather, director of the Tick Encounter Resource Center at the University of Rhode Island, said executing a well-designed study large enough to produce valid results is a “Holy Grail” of tick researchers. Phillip Baker, executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, said the neighborhood approach sounded like a good one but noted that ticks are a resilient parasite. “Ticks have been around for a long, long time,” Baker said, “and there’s no real easy approach to get rid of them.”

SOLUTION: Tick towns: Researchers target neighborhoods in Lyme effort.

PROBLEM: In a report released Wednesday, the experts said annual cases of Legionnaires’ jumped more than fivefold from 2000 to 2017, and that as many as 70,000 Americans get the disease every year. Legionnaires’ is caused by bacteria that can thrive in buildings with large water systems. About 20 outbreaks are reported each year, including recent ones at an Atlanta hotel and a hospital near Chicago. But there is no single set of widely accepted guidelines for preventing infections. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report pushes for requirements like minimum temperature levels for hot-water heaters, and registration and monitoring of cooling towers.

SOLUTION: Experts call for steps to stem increases in Legionnaires’.

PROBLEM: Montana Public Radio reported Thursday that Freedom Vapes stores in the cities of Bozeman and Hamilton and the town of Belgrade are offering the workaround to help maintain business. The kits allow customers to purchase vaping components separately so they can make their own products, officials said. The option was announced by Freedom Vapes owners Ron and Deanna Marshall a day after the start of a four-month statewide ban on all flavored vaping products. Freedom Vapes was one of the businesses that unsuccessfully sued Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and his administration to stop the ban. The Marshalls have not returned calls for comment since the ban was put in place on Wednesday, but a statement on their shops’ Facebook page Thursday said they plan to offer the kits for the duration of the 120-day ban. “We are trying our best to keep your needs met while we work through this blatant witchhunt (sic) against our business, and products that have helped all of you break the deadly habit of tobacco use,” the statement said. Their Facebook announcement also warns customers that buying cheap ingredients off the shelf could lead to serious lung damage or death, they said. Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesman Jon Ebelt said Friday it’s not yet clear whether the kits are in compliance with the ban. “If retailers are offering flavor components intended for use in e-cigarettes, including in the do-it-yourself kits, it would fall under the temporary restriction,” Ebelt said in an email. “The flavor may be subject to enforcement.” Do-it-yourself products may lack quality controls and health officials recommend consumers refrain from using any e-cigarettes at this time, he added. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues its investigation into lung illnesses that have sickened over 2,500 and killed 54 people in 27 states, including one in Montana. People are urged to avoid all THC vape products and recommend not using any e-cigarette or vaping products, health officials said.

SOLUTION:
Montana vape shop turns to home kits to dodge flavored ban.