Temporal Variability of Microparticles Under the Seattle Aquarium, Washington State: Documenting the Global Covid-19 Pandemic.

Anthropogenic debris including microparticles (<5 mm) are ubiquitous in marine environments. The Salish Sea experiences seasonal fluctuations in precipitation, river discharge, sewage overflow events, and tourism-all variables previously thought to have an impact on microparticle transport and concentrations. Our goals are two-fold: 1) describe long-term microparticle contamination data including concentration, type, and size; and 2) determine if seasonal microparticle concentrations are dependent on environmental or tourism variables in Elliott Bay, Salish Sea. We sampled 100 L of seawater at a depth of approximately 9 m at the Seattle Aquarium, Seattle, Washington State, United States, approximately every two weeks from 2019 through 2020 and used an oil extraction protocol to separate microparticles. We found that microparticle concentrations ranged from 0 to 0.64 particles L-1 and fibers were the most common type observed. Microparticle concentrations exhibited a breakpoint on 10 April 2020, where estimated slope and associated microparticle concentration significantly declined. Further, when considering both environmental as well as tourism variables, temporal microparticle concentration was best described by a mixed-effects model, with tourism as the fixed effect and the person counting microparticles as the random effect. Although monitoring efforts presented set out to identify effects of seasonality and interannual differences in microparticle concentrations, it instead captured an effect of decreased tourism due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Long-term monitoring is critical to establish temporal microparticle concentrations and to help researchers understand if there are certain events, both seasonal and sporadic (e.g., rain events, tourism, or global pandemics), when the marine environment is more at risk from anthropogenic pollution. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:917-930. © 2021 Seattle Aquarium. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Accompaniment to healthcare visits: the impact of sensory impairment.

BACKGROUND: Millions of older adults in the United States experience hearing, vision, and dual sensory impairment (concurring hearing and vision impairment) yet little research exists on their needs in interactions with the healthcare system. This piece aims to determine the use of accompaniment in healthcare interactions by persons with sensory impairment. METHODS: These cross-sectional analyses included data from the 2015 Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey and survey weighting provided by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Adjusted odds of reporting accompaniment to healthcare visits and given reasons for accompaniment among United States Medicare beneficiaries with self-reported sensory impairment (hearing, vision, and dual sensory impairment) were examined. RESULTS: After excluding observations with missing data, 10,748 Medicare beneficiaries remained representing a 46 million total weighted nationally representative sample, of which 88.9% reported no sensory impairment, 5.52% reported hearing impairment, 3.56% reported vision impairment, and 0.93% reported dual sensory impairment. Those with vision impairment and dual sensory impairment had 2.139 (95% confidence interval [CI] =1.605-2.850) and 2.703 (CI = 1.549-4.718) times the odds of reporting accompaniment to healthcare visits relative to those without sensory impairment. A secondary analysis suggests communication needs as the primary reason for accompaniment among persons with hearing loss, while those with vision impairment were more likely to indicate transportation needs. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare accompaniment is common for persons with sensory loss and healthcare systems should consider accommodations for and leveraging accompaniment to improve healthcare for persons with sensory impairments. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals limit visitors to reduce the spread of infection, arrangements should be made to ensure that the communication and transportation needs of those with sensory impairment are not neglected.