NYC man bit by venomous copperhead snake on NJ bike path
Dan Geiger was pedaling along the Palisades Cliffs recently when he saw a snake in the middle of the bike path.
'I notice a lot of squashed snakes because snakes go out to the pavement to sun themselves or to gather heat, and I guess they're a target for automobiles,' Geiger told Fox 5.
To prevent the animal from getting run over, he stopped to get off his bike and move it with his water bottle. Then disaster struck.
'I nudged it, it didn't, it was very lethargic seeming, and I just sort of nudged again, and I was just like too close, you know, my hand was just too close to its head, I guess, and it just, it struck me with precision and speed,' Geiger told the outlet.
Geiger was able to call 911 with the help of two passersby, but he was already feeling the effects of the copperhead's bite. He was taken Hackensack University Medical Center, which has a team that specializes in treating bites from venomous snakes.
While copperhead venom isn't usually deadly, it can cause serious symptoms like internal bleeding, swelling and tissue death.
Daria Falkowitz, director of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Hackensack University Medical Center, told the station antivenom isn't a miracle cure.
'It just stops things from getting worse and so whatever tissue damage has already occurred prior to receiving it is there,' she said.
Photos of the aftermath show Geiger's swollen, discolored right index finger. However, Falkowitz said because the antivenom was administered so quickly, Geiger likely avoided permanent damage.
Copperheads are one of the 22 types of snakes native to New Jersey.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
17 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
As Trump Scrubs Climate Reports, NASA Breaks Its Promise to Save Them
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has launched a major effort to limit public access to information about climate change. After the president canned the official government site that hosted the national climate assessments earlier this month, NASA has broken its promise to publish them on its own site. On Monday, July 14, NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens told the Associated Press that NASA will not host any data from which served as the official website for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This interagency program publishes national climate assessments about every four years as mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. These reports provide authoritative scientific information about climate change risks, impacts, and responses in the U.S. After the USGCRP website went dark in early July, the White House and NASA said the space agency would publish the reports on its site to comply with the 1990 law, according to the AP. Apparently, that is no longer the case. 'NASA has no legal obligations to host data,' NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. Fortunately, copies of past reports are still available in NOAA's library, and the latest report and its interactive atlas can be found here. The Trump administration essentially dismantled the USGCRP in April when it removed federal employees from their positions. It also terminated the program's contract with ICF International, a technology and policy consulting firm that provided technical, analytic, and programmatic support for the USGCRP and particularly its national climate assessments. Later that month, the administration dismissed all scientists working on the next assessment, which was supposed to be published in 2028. Now, past reports are more inaccessible to the public than ever before. Eviscerating the USGCRP and squirreling away its national climate assessments are just part of the all-out assault the Trump administration has launched against U.S. climate information. Thousands of employees across other federal agencies that study and track global warming—including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—have lost their jobs since Trump took office in January. His administration has also frozen climate-related grants, killed major federal climate programs, proposed significant cuts to federal research programs, and purged references to climate change from federal websites. Trump's effort to obscure the realities of climate change will have real consequences, but it's ultimately futile. Americans confront this crisis every single day as they navigate new challenges driven by rising global temperatures. The fifth national climate assessment, published in 2023, warned of 'potentially catastrophic outcomes' for the nation as climate change exacerbates extreme weather. Many parts of the U.S. are already feeling these effects. Multiple severe flooding events have already killed scores of Americans in the first half of 2025. Most recently, at least two people in New Jersey died when torrential rain triggered flash floods across much of the Northeast on Monday, July 14, and over 100 people in Texas—including at least 36 children in Kerr County—died during the devastating July 4 flash floods. While it's difficult to link a single weather event directly to climate change, numerous studies show that rising global temperatures are increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme rain in the U.S. and around the world, thus heightening flood risk. This is because warmer air increases both evaporation and the amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold. An atmosphere that contains more moisture can produce more intense precipitation events, which is exactly what the U.S. has been experiencing lately. Wildfires are also becoming more difficult to manage. This was apparent in January, when more than a dozen fast-moving, destructive wildfires decimated parts of Los Angeles. In Arizona, firefighters have struggled to contain two active blazes near the Grand Canyon's North Rim that destroyed a historic lodge, triggered evacuations, and forced officials to close this part of the national park on Sunday, July 13. Both fires remained 0% contained as of Tuesday, July 15. In the fifth national climate assessment, experts concluded that fires in the Southwest have become larger and more severe, according to Human-driven warming is playing a significant role in this trend, drying out the vegetation that feeds wildfires. One study found that climate change may be responsible for nearly two-thirds of the observed increase in summer fire weather conditions over the past 40 years. Everywhere Americans look, they see evidence of climate change. It's not just deadly floods and rampant wildfires—it's severe heatwaves, shifting seasons, and sinking shorelines. It's farmers losing their livelihoods, families facing rising insurance costs, and infrastructure buckling under extreme weather conditions. Making it harder to access information about this ongoing crisis won't shield the public from its effects, but it will make it more difficult for governments and communities to adapt to them.
CNN
17 minutes ago
- CNN
Following these guidelines can transform your health from head to toe, study suggests
Better health for your whole body can be broken down into just seven factors, according to a new study. Life's Simple 7 is the American Heart Association's guidelines for achieving and maintaining ideal cardiovascular health. The factors include not smoking, a nutritious diet, regular exercise, a healthy weight, optimal blood pressure, controlled blood sugar and well-managed cholesterol. Researchers reviewed 483 studies on the impacts of maximizing Life's Simple 7 on the health of many different body systems over the course of people's lives in a meta-analysis published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Maintaining ideal levels of at least three of Life's Simple 7 metrics was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, even if someone had a genetic predisposition, according to the data. And better scores across all of the factors showed benefits in many body systems beyond cardiovascular health. 'A few years ago, we learned that heart health and brain health are very closely tied. Through this review, we found that almost every organ system and bodily function also benefits from maintaining the healthy lifestyle behaviors of Life's Simple 7,' said lead study author Dr. Liliana Aguayo, a research assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Global Diabetes Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, in a statement. 'We were pleasantly surprised to find that Life's Simple 7 at optimal levels touched every aspect of health, from head to toe. It goes well beyond just cardiovascular health to encompass whole-body health,' she added. The researchers conducted a systemic review of studies that followed a gold standard approach, said Dr. Nour Makarem, assistant professor of epidemiology and co-leader of the Chronic Disease Unit at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. Makarem was not involved in the research. One of the most significant findings of the research is that a little change makes a big difference when it comes to lifestyle and health, Aguayo said. The study assessed adherence to Life's Simple 7 using a scale from 0 to 14 points. Each improvement by 1 point was associated with an 11% decrease in dementia risk, a 6% decreased risk of eye disease, a 23% decreased risk of fatty liver disease, and an 11% decreased risk of chronic kidney disease, Aguayo said. 'This means that small changes, for example, moving from obesity to overweight, adding any physical activity even if below recommended levels counted as progress,' she said. Many of the studies showed an adherence to Life's Simple 7 was associated with maintaining brain and lung function, vision and hearing, and teeth and muscle strength over the course of aging, according to the data. The studies included in the meta-analysis used Life's Simple 7 to evaluate lifestyle behaviors, but the AHA has since updated the metrics to Life's Essential 8. The new guidelines are more comprehensive, such as including avoiding secondhand smoke, vaping and nicotine products in the not smoking factor and pointing people to the Mediterranean diet or DASH diet under the healthy eating metric, Makarem said. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; high blood pressure is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke. Importantly, the update added an eighth metric that recognizes the role of sleep in long-term health, he added. Good sleep means seven to nine hours a night for most adults, 10 to 16 hours for children ages 5 and younger, 9 to 12 hours for kids ages 6 to 12, and 8 to 10 hours for adolescents ages 13 to 18, according to the AHA. The study confirms that adopting a healthy lifestyle is important to achieve optimal health as well as managing the conventional risk factors for cardiovascular disease –– weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, Aguayo said. Everyday lifestyle choices have a big impact on overall health, and it's worth it to take steps toward better cardiovascular health, Aguayo said. 'The key message is that it is never too early or too late to make small, feasible changes,' she said in an email. 'Small improvements in diet, physical activity, smoking, or managing risk factors (weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar) can have meaningful benefits, not just for heart health, but for all the body, from head to toe.' For a heart-healthy diet, Makarem recommends focusing on plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains and consuming lean proteins such as fish. She also recommended limiting processed foods, sodium and sugar-sweetened beverages. Adults should engage in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity — like walking, dancing or gardening — or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week, Makarem added. Even considering how impactful small changes can be, ideal cardiovascular health is very rare –– with less than 4% of people worldwide meeting the criteria, Aguayo said. 'We must do more to support young people, especially women, by making it easier, more affordable, and achievable for all to improve their cardiovascular health,' she added. 'Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer of women. Supporting the heart health of young people and women is both cost-effective and the right thing to do.' Sign up for CNN's Fitness, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide will help you ease into a healthy routine, backed by experts.
Fast Company
17 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Americans throw out 5.7 disposable vapes every second
The majority of e-cigarette sales now come in the form of disposable vapes, meaning that when someone has taken the last puff, that vape—and its lithium ion battery and plastic casing—go right into the trash. Americans now throw away an incredible number of these disposable vapes: nearly 500,000 every day, or about 5.7 vapes per second. That number comes from the latest vape waste report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which looked at 2023 data. And vape waste is increasing, the public advocacy group found. In 2022, U.S. PIRG documented that Americans threw out 4.5 disposable vapes per second. Disposable vapes are a 'particularly insidious' form of pollution for a few reasons, says Lucas Gutterman, the Designed to Last campaign director with PIRG. For one, these devices contain nicotine, a toxic chemical that can leach into water and soil, harming wildlife and ecosystems. They're also made of plastic that isn't recyclable, and which also spreads toxins and microplastics into the environment. Increasingly, disposable vapes double as digital gadgets, with screens that show animations or include built-in games or speakers to play music. That means all this trash is a type of electronic waste, so each disposable vape tossed is like 'throwing away miniature computers after a few days of use,' Gutterman says. Those lithium ion batteries in disposable vapes are made using critical minerals that require mining. Laptops, cellphones, and electric vehicles all use lithium ion batteries too. The amount of lithium used in the batteries of disposable vapes sold every year weighs nearly 30 tons, according to U.S. PIRG—equivalent to the amount of lithium needed to create 3,350 EV batteries. Mining is also tied to human rights abuses, and in 2023, a TikToker explained in a viral video that she was quitting vaping as a way to help people in Congo, which currently supplies 70% of the world's mined cobalt. When disposable vapes are tossed into the trash and make their way to recycling and waste facilities, those lithium ion batteries can also cause fires because the devices get caught and crushed in machinery. The report estimates that disposable vapes cause $95 million of damage from waste facility fires each year. When disposal vapes don't go into these facilities, they can pollute the environment directly. If a disposable vape is tossed on the street, it can be swept into a storm drain, travel through streams and rivers, and end up in the ocean or along the coast. Predictably, disposable vapes are becoming a dominant source of beach pollution: According to the Surfrider Foundation, from 2021 to 2024 volunteers have seen a 150% increase in vapes among litter collected during beach cleanups. Disposable vapes are a serious threat, says Kelsey Lamp, oceans campaign director with the Environment America Research & Policy Center, because they include three types of waste in one: 'They're hazardous waste, since they contain nicotine and heavy metals; they're electronic waste with batteries and circuits; and they're plastic waste that never biodegrades,' she says. Studies have found that vape liquids decrease the hatching success of fish embryos and cause DNA damage, among other effects, plus the plastic casings can both carry toxins and break down into microplastics. Some states are taking action against disposable vapes. California banned flavored tobacco products, which led to a 52% decrease in disposable vape sales. Massachusetts also banned flavored e-cigarettes, resulting in a 74% drop in disposable vape sales. But Lamp and U.S. PIRG urge legislators to take more action and ban disposable vapes across the country. 'We wouldn't dump 30 tons of lithium directly into our ocean. We wouldn't pour thousands of pounds of nicotine into our waterways. Yet that's exactly what we're doing by allowing disposable vapes to pollute our waterways,' Lamp says. 'Our oceans are already under pressure from rising temperatures, overfishing, and land-based pollution. We cannot afford to add this entirely preventable source of toxic waste to the mix.'
