Officials unveil high-powered contraption to fight dangerous issue at reservoirs: 'They tend to grow rampant'
"What I like about it is it seems to be controlling the seed bed as well as the plants that we're killing. The heat seems to be going into the surface layer of the soil," forester Casey Cordes said.
The contraption looks like a carpet cleaner, with a hose connected to a hot steam machine. The workers are shown in footage shared by News 8, mushing up the invaders with water heated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
The authority bought the equipment with a grant from the U.S. Forest Service, the TV station added.
At issue are mugwort, stiltgrass, Japanese barberry, and other foreign plants that have taken root and spread quickly. The species have shallow root systems, so they don't hold soil well during heavy rains, which leads to erosion into reservoirs, per News 8.
The troublesome weeds are also a problem for many homeowners.
"They tend to grow rampant. They tend to take over areas in your yard or the edge of your yard. So, that gets the attention of a lot of homeowners," Cordes told the station.
Columbia Climate School reported that the planet's overheating is aiding invasive species that take root in unwanted places.
As conditions change in certain areas, native plants may not do as well as a new arrival, which can thrive and create an imbalance. The number of alien varieties, both plant and animal, is expected to jump 36% by 2050 as Earth continues to warm.
An insect example is the emerald ash borer, which has destroyed 100 million trees in the United States since arriving from Asia.
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The ash borer is among thousands of invasive species in the country that caused more than $20 billion in damages and losses annually from 2010 to 2020. That was a sharp increase from the $2 billion in yearly costs during the 1960s, according to a study published by ScienceDirect.
In Connecticut, the steam treatment also avoids the use of harmful herbicides, which can leach into reservoirs, per News 8.
Steam is likely not a viable option for most homeowners battling unwanted plant life. But there are planet-friendly ways to encourage native ones to grow. Native species are a boon to pollinators and, in turn, about 35% of the food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Often, plants most people assume are weeds are actually native blooms that can be a part of a rewilded yard. Natural species require less work once established and don't need costly treatments and loads of water to maintain.
A combination of steam and measures to encourage native plant growth could be a combination to tackle the unwanted and prolific outsiders plaguing reservoirs and backyards alike.
"Deer are not going to eat them, insects are not going to eat them. So, they tend to run rampant in our forests," authority forester Joshua Tracy told News 8.
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In a 2021 paper on ethical considerations for diagnosis and care, an AAN committee said that biomarker testing could be clinically useful for some symptomatic patients, but testing asymptomatic individuals is 'recommended solely in a research setting' because of potential harms 'and the absence of interventions capable of favorably altering the natural history of the disease.' Eric Topol, MD, chair of the Department of Translational Medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, is bullish on the potential for blood-based biomarker tests. In a blog post, he called the pTau-217 biomarker 'one of the most exciting advances in neurology for decades, giving us a new opportunity to accurately predict and potentially prevent (or at least substantially delay) mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's.' But, wrote Topol, who is the former editor in chief of MedscapeMedical News , 'I don't think these biomarkers are going to be useful in people at low risk.' 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DTC companies tell buyers that results could motivate them to change their lifestyle to reduce their future risk for AD and dementia. But some participants in Mozersky's study said they didn't want to know their status because there were no preventive treatments. Test results weren't seen as 'actionable,' she said. Some studies have shown a degree of fatalism in individuals after receiving a test result, whether it's positive or negative. A group of Israeli researchers studied responses of people given PET scans to detect beta-amyloid. Before testing, all participants said they were motivated to adopt lifestyle changes to fight dementia. However, after testing, both those who had elevated beta-amyloid and those who did not reported a much lower desire to change their lifestyle. Those with normal scans probably felt relieved, wrote the researchers. The group with abnormal scans was too small to fully understand their reaction, they wrote. Concerns about insurance coverage might also deter potential test-takers. Overall, 44% of those responding to the Alzheimer's Association survey said they were worried that insurers might not cover healthcare costs in the future if they had received a positive test earlier. Respondents also worried about test accuracy, the cost of testing, and whether a positive test might lead to a prohibition on some activities, like driving. What About the Doctors? The DTC companies promise buyers that results will be private and won't be shared with insurers — or with clinicians. And that raises another issue for many who are concerned about the lack of a physician intermediary with at-home testing. 'You remove the opportunity for clinicians to both review the result and figure out how to interpret it before it's communicated to the patient,' Jalayne J. Arias, JD, a bioethicist and associate professor of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences at Georgia State University, Atlanta, told Medscape Medical News . Many in the field have been 'thinking really carefully about how do we provide guidance to clinicians about biomarker testing,' she said. 'Those issues are just heightened when we put it into a direct-to-consumer model,' Arias said. Arias — who with colleagues published an analysis of potential insurance issues with biomarker tests in JAMA Neurology — said that prohibitions against discrimination based on preexisting conditions means that most likely, health insurers could not use testing data to deny coverage or increase premiums. But, she said, 'there are some question marks around the discrimination risks.' This is especially true for people seeking long-term care, disability or life insurance, she added. If a test result is not documented in a medical record, it's not clear whether the individual has an obligation to disclose the result to an insurer, said Arias. Given all the unanswered questions about how results should be interpreted, to whom the results should be disclosed, and when and how to have discussions with patients, 'it's hard for me to imagine that we're quite ready for a direct-to-consumer' test, Arias said. Mozersky noted that Washington University has a financial stake in C2N Diagnostics, which makes the PrecivityAD — biomarker tests for AD. Arias reported having no conflicts of interest.
