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The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is relaxing rules for the disposal of spent coal used to fuel hundreds of power plants nationwide.
The coal industry petitioned the Trump administration for the roll back, announced by Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler — a former lobbyist for the coal industry.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-epa-rolls-back-obama-era-coal-ash-regulations-n892586


An Alabama sheriff who once endorsed Roy Moore for U.S. Senate — and whose office helped investigate a fire at the home of one of Moore’s accusers — is now mired in his own scandal: Police are investigating him for allegedly having sex with underage girls in the early ’90s, according to AL.com.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sheriff-who-once-endorsed-roy-moore-accused-of-having-sex-with-underage-girls_us_5b4f6279e4b0de86f488eb64


Deaths from liver disease have risen sharply in the U.S., and doctors say the biggest factor is drinking —especially among young adults.
A study published Wednesday found a 65 percent increase in deaths from cirrhosis of the liver since 1999. The biggest increase is among millennials: the team found that deaths from cirrhosis are rising 10 percent a year among people aged 25 to 34.
People so young might not even realize that they can drink themselves to death so quickly, but they can, said liver specialist Dr. Haripriya Maddur of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
“Surprisingly, it only takes about 10 years of heavy drinking to actually lead to cirrhosis,” said Maddur, who was not involved in the study.
“From 1999 to 2016 in the U.S., annual deaths from cirrhosis increased by 65 percent, to 34,174, while annual deaths from hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) doubled to 11,073,” they wrote in their report, published in the British Medical Journal.
Earlier this week, the National Center for Health Statistics reported a 43 percent increase in death rates from liver cancer between 2000 and 2015. The increase made liver cancer the sixth-leading cause of cancer death in 2016, up from the ninth-leading cause in 2000.
One 2013 study found that even one drink a day raises a person’s risk of dying from cancer — not just liver cancer, but also breast cancer and cancers of the mouth and throat.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/deaths-liver-disease-are-surging-drinking-blame-n892521


A 71-year-old man died after consuming "flesh-eating" bacteria on an oyster, Florida health officials confirmed Wednesday.
The Florida resident consumed the oyster, tainted with Vibrio vulnificus, at a restaurant on June 8, two days before he died of a gastro-intestinal illness, the Florida Department of Health told media.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Florida-man-dead-oyster-flesh-eating-bacteria-13086434.php