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Why Seasonal Allergies Are So Miserable

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Friday, April 19, 2024

Flowers and trees are in bloom—and so are pollen allergies.The sneezes, runny noses and itchy eyes that typically come with seasonal allergies are both miserable and extremely common. About one in four U.S. adults reported having seasonal allergies in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And symptoms are getting worse and lasting longer: climate change is lengthening the growing season and exposing plants to higher carbon dioxide levels, causing them to produce more pollen. The tiny particles are not produced to hurt humans, so why do many of us react so poorly to them? It’s all an unfortunate consequence of our immune system’s attempts to navigate the world we live in.“The immune system is very complex, and it has a pretty tough job,” says Mansi Kanuga, an allergist at Mayo Clinic Health System. “It needs to be able to recognize things that can be dangerous to us and know when to fight those things off, and it also needs to know when to settle down.”On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.A human immune system has two parts: One mounts a general reaction to any foreign substance. Meanwhile the other responds to specific substances that the body has encountered before. The immune system will remember and develop dedicated resources to fight off those previous threats if the body runs into them again in the future. Allergies are such a target-specific immune response, and any substance that causes this kind of reaction is dubbed an allergen. “We can become allergic to any protein, really,” says Maya Jerath, an allergist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.How an allergy develops in the first place is still a bit of a mystery—but researchers have some solid theories. Scientists know babies aren’t born with specific allergies, Kanuga says, and they can come and go throughout someone’s life. Evidence also suggests genetics plays a role: children of parents with allergies are more likely to have them, too.Allergy formation is also determined by how reactive the immune system happens to be during the first exposure to a substance. If the system is particularly reactive, it’s likely to deem the substance a threat to watch out for in the future. Different exposure routes can also affect the likelihood of developing allergies. For example, a person’s immune system is more accustomed to seeing new substances pass through the gut, so it is less likely to respond to such substances than it might be to compounds first encountered through the skin—which rarely lets in outside material.But why is the immune system so markedly sensitive to pollen? After all, plants have dedicated defense mechanisms against herbivory, such as thorns and bitter-tasting chemicals, which don’t trigger seasonal allergies. Pollen is merely a substance plants use to reproduce—the botanical equivalent of sperm—and didn’t evolve to fend off humans. “You are not the target; they’re not trying to make the allergy,” says Nabarun Ghosh, a biologist at West Texas A&M University, who specializes in studying allergens.Unfortunately, your immune system may not be willing to listen to reason about this. Pollen is difficult to acclimate to because it’s seasonal rather than consistently present in the environment. In addition, the tiny, airborne pollen grains that cause allergies can easily make their way past the nose and deeper into the respiratory tract. In general, however, allergies develop because the immune system is reactive when it first meets an allergen; the conditions don’t arise from any specific characteristic of the pollen itself.Environmental allergies are mediated by a protein called immunoglobulin E, or IgE. Such an allergy’s initial development triggers the production of IgE molecules that are able to bind to the specific allergen. When the immune system detects the allergen again, it churns out IgE proteins, which bind to the surface of the body’s protective mast cells as scouts. When a scout IgE binds to the allergen, the mast cell releases a cocktail of chemicals—including histamines and other inflammatory substances that trigger the congestion, watery eyes and sneezing that we associate with allergies. An allergic response tends to remain strongest in the body part where the allergen was mainly encountered—so inhaling pollen might make your nose run, whereas getting it in your eyes might make them water.While it might be tempting to hate on IgE and mast cells, this branch of the immune system has a long history of protecting people from parasitic infections. Modern humans don’t encounter these threats as often, so it’s easy to paint allergies as an overreaction.Allergies are “your body’s immune system thinking that it’s doing the right thing,” says Emily Weis, an allergist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “The immune system is always trying to differentiate between self and not self. That’s what has kept us alive.”That’s cold comfort for allergy sufferers, of course. “We really recognize that seasonal allergies take a big toll on our quality of life for those of us who suffer with them,” Kanuga says. She, Weis and Jerath offer a three-pronged approach to living with allergies.First, reduce exposure to known allergens when possible. This can include monitoring local pollen levels to determine when to spend time outside and leaving your windows closed to keep your house pollen-free. When you do have symptoms, antihistamines and other over-the-counter medicines can help manage itching, sneezing and watery eyes.If these approaches aren’t sufficient, consider talking to an allergist about immunotherapy, which most commonly means allergy shots. These shots contain a personalized mixture of your allergens at low doses and act to desensitize your immune system, teaching it to tolerate these materials rather than unleash mast cells in their presence. In the U.S., immunotherapy is also available in tablet form for grass and ragweed pollens, as well as dust mites.It does take time to see results: treatment with allergy shots can take about six months to improve symptoms and five years to complete, Jerath says. Still, she says, this approach is an impressive way to actually diminish allergies instead of just treating their symptoms. “It’s a little bit mind-blowing,” she adds, “to think about the fact that you can actually retrain the immune system.”

Plants are just trying to reproduce; immune systems are just trying to keep us safe

Flowers and trees are in bloom—and so are pollen allergies.

The sneezes, runny noses and itchy eyes that typically come with seasonal allergies are both miserable and extremely common. About one in four U.S. adults reported having seasonal allergies in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And symptoms are getting worse and lasting longer: climate change is lengthening the growing season and exposing plants to higher carbon dioxide levels, causing them to produce more pollen. The tiny particles are not produced to hurt humans, so why do many of us react so poorly to them? It’s all an unfortunate consequence of our immune system’s attempts to navigate the world we live in.

“The immune system is very complex, and it has a pretty tough job,” says Mansi Kanuga, an allergist at Mayo Clinic Health System. “It needs to be able to recognize things that can be dangerous to us and know when to fight those things off, and it also needs to know when to settle down.”

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

A human immune system has two parts: One mounts a general reaction to any foreign substance. Meanwhile the other responds to specific substances that the body has encountered before. The immune system will remember and develop dedicated resources to fight off those previous threats if the body runs into them again in the future. Allergies are such a target-specific immune response, and any substance that causes this kind of reaction is dubbed an allergen. “We can become allergic to any protein, really,” says Maya Jerath, an allergist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

How an allergy develops in the first place is still a bit of a mystery—but researchers have some solid theories. Scientists know babies aren’t born with specific allergies, Kanuga says, and they can come and go throughout someone’s life. Evidence also suggests genetics plays a role: children of parents with allergies are more likely to have them, too.

Allergy formation is also determined by how reactive the immune system happens to be during the first exposure to a substance. If the system is particularly reactive, it’s likely to deem the substance a threat to watch out for in the future. Different exposure routes can also affect the likelihood of developing allergies. For example, a person’s immune system is more accustomed to seeing new substances pass through the gut, so it is less likely to respond to such substances than it might be to compounds first encountered through the skin—which rarely lets in outside material.

But why is the immune system so markedly sensitive to pollen? After all, plants have dedicated defense mechanisms against herbivory, such as thorns and bitter-tasting chemicals, which don’t trigger seasonal allergies. Pollen is merely a substance plants use to reproduce—the botanical equivalent of sperm—and didn’t evolve to fend off humans. “You are not the target; they’re not trying to make the allergy,” says Nabarun Ghosh, a biologist at West Texas A&M University, who specializes in studying allergens.

Unfortunately, your immune system may not be willing to listen to reason about this. Pollen is difficult to acclimate to because it’s seasonal rather than consistently present in the environment. In addition, the tiny, airborne pollen grains that cause allergies can easily make their way past the nose and deeper into the respiratory tract. In general, however, allergies develop because the immune system is reactive when it first meets an allergen; the conditions don’t arise from any specific characteristic of the pollen itself.

Environmental allergies are mediated by a protein called immunoglobulin E, or IgE. Such an allergy’s initial development triggers the production of IgE molecules that are able to bind to the specific allergen. When the immune system detects the allergen again, it churns out IgE proteins, which bind to the surface of the body’s protective mast cells as scouts. When a scout IgE binds to the allergen, the mast cell releases a cocktail of chemicals—including histamines and other inflammatory substances that trigger the congestion, watery eyes and sneezing that we associate with allergies. An allergic response tends to remain strongest in the body part where the allergen was mainly encountered—so inhaling pollen might make your nose run, whereas getting it in your eyes might make them water.

While it might be tempting to hate on IgE and mast cells, this branch of the immune system has a long history of protecting people from parasitic infections. Modern humans don’t encounter these threats as often, so it’s easy to paint allergies as an overreaction.

Allergies are “your body’s immune system thinking that it’s doing the right thing,” says Emily Weis, an allergist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “The immune system is always trying to differentiate between self and not self. That’s what has kept us alive.”

That’s cold comfort for allergy sufferers, of course. “We really recognize that seasonal allergies take a big toll on our quality of life for those of us who suffer with them,” Kanuga says. She, Weis and Jerath offer a three-pronged approach to living with allergies.

First, reduce exposure to known allergens when possible. This can include monitoring local pollen levels to determine when to spend time outside and leaving your windows closed to keep your house pollen-free. When you do have symptoms, antihistamines and other over-the-counter medicines can help manage itching, sneezing and watery eyes.

If these approaches aren’t sufficient, consider talking to an allergist about immunotherapy, which most commonly means allergy shots. These shots contain a personalized mixture of your allergens at low doses and act to desensitize your immune system, teaching it to tolerate these materials rather than unleash mast cells in their presence. In the U.S., immunotherapy is also available in tablet form for grass and ragweed pollens, as well as dust mites.

It does take time to see results: treatment with allergy shots can take about six months to improve symptoms and five years to complete, Jerath says. Still, she says, this approach is an impressive way to actually diminish allergies instead of just treating their symptoms. “It’s a little bit mind-blowing,” she adds, “to think about the fact that you can actually retrain the immune system.”

Read the full story here.
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L.A. fire cleanups reports describe repeated violations, illegal dumping allegation

We reviewed thousands of pages of Army Corps of Engineering quality assurance reports for the January fire soil cleanup. The results were startling.

The primary federal contractor entrusted with purging fire debris from the Eaton and Palisades fires may have illegally dumped toxic ash and misused contaminated soil in breach of state policy, according to federal government reports recently obtained by The Times.The records depict harried disaster workers appearing to take dangerous shortcuts that could leave hazardous pollution and endanger thousands of survivors poised to return to these communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocated $60 million to hire personnel to monitor daily cleanup operations and document any health and safety risks. The Times obtained thousands of government oversight reports that detail these federal efforts to rid fire-destroyed homes of toxic debris between February and mid-May. The records, which were obtained on a rolling basis over several months, include dozens of instances in which oversight personnel flagged workers for disregarding cleanup procedures in a way that likely spread toxic substances. The latest batch of reports — turned over to The Times on Dec. 1 — contained allegations of improper actions involving Environmental Chemical Corp., the primary federal contractor, and the dozens of debris-removal crews it supervised. For example, on April 30, federally hired workers were clearing fire debris from a burned-down home in the Palisades burn scar. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, after the last dump truck left, an official with Environmental Chemical Corp., a Burlingame, Calif., company hired to carry out the federal debris removal mission, ordered workers to move the remaining ash and debris to a neighboring property.The crew used construction equipment to move four or five “buckets” worth of fire debris onto the neighboring property. It’s unclear if that property was also destroyed in the Palisades fire, and, if so, whether it had been already remediated.“I questioned if this was allowable and then the crew dumped material into the excavator bucket and planned to move it on the lowboy with material in bucket,” a federal supervisor wrote in a report intended to track performance of contractors. “Don’t think this is allowed.” According to the report, the workers also left glass, ash and other fire debris on the property the crew had been clearing, because they “were in a rush to get to the next site.” Experts who reviewed the reports said the behavior described may amount to illegal dumping under California law. Other reports obtained by The Times describe federal cleanup workers, on multiple occasions, using ash-contaminated soil to backfill holes and smooth out uneven portions of fire-destroyed properties in the Palisades burn scar. If that were true, it would be a breach of state policy that says contaminated soil from areas undergoing environmental cleanup cannot be used in this way. The reports also cite multiple occasions where workers walked through already cleared properties with dirty boot covers, possibly re-contaminating them. The inspectors also reported crews spraying contaminated pool water onto neighboring properties and into storm drains, and excavator operators using toothed buckets that caused clean and contaminated soil to be commingled.“Obviously, there was some really good work done,” state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Pacific Palisades) said about the federal cleanup. “But it appears that we’ve got some folks who are knowingly breaking the law and cutting corners in their cleanup protocol. “We’ve got to figure out how widespread this was, and anybody who was responsible for having broken a law in this area needs to be held accountable.” The Army Corps did not respond to requests for comment. An ECC executive said that without information such as the properties’ addresses or parcel numbers, he could not verify whether the accusations made in the oversight reports were substantiated by the companies’ own investigations or if any issues raised by the inspectors were resolved. Such specifics were redacted in the version of the reports sent to The Times. “At a high level, ECC does not authorize the placement of wildfire debris or ash on neighboring properties, does not permit the use of contaminated material as fill, and operates under continuous [Army Corps] oversight,” said Glenn Sweatt, ECC’s vice president of contracts and compliance.Between February and September, the Army Corps responded to nearly 1,100 public complaints or other inquiries related to the federal fire cleanup. Over 20% of grievances were related to quality of work, according to the Army Corps assessment of complaints. Some of these complaints point to the same concerns raised by the inspectors. For example, a resident in the Eaton burn scar filed a complaint on June 19 that “crews working on adjacent properties moved fire debris and ash onto his property after he specifically asked them not to.” Other property owners in Altadena filed complaints that crews had left all sorts of fire debris on their property — in some cases, buried in the ground. The Army Corps or ECC ordered crews to go back and finish up the debris removal for some properties. Other times, the officials left the work and costs to disaster victims. A Palisades property owner complained on May 7 that after the Army Corps supposedly completed cleaning his property, he found “parts of broken foundation [that] were buried to avoid full removal.” He said it cost him $40,000 to hire a private contractor to gather up and dispose of several dumpsters of busted-up concrete. James Mayfield, a hazardous materials specialist and owner of Mayfield Environmental Engineering, was hired by more than 200 homeowners affected by the fires to remove debris and contaminated soil — including, in some cases, from properties already cleared by Army Corps contractors. When Mayfield and his workers excavated additional soil from Army Corps-cleared properties, he said they occasionally uncovered ash, slabs of burned stucco, and other debris. “All you have to do is scoop and you can see the rest of the house underneath the ground,” Mayfield said. “It was never cleared at all.” After January’s wildfires, local health authorities warned the soil could be riddled with harmful pollutants from burned-down homes and cars, including lead, a heavy metal that can cause irreversible brain damage when inhaled or ingested by young children.Soil testing has been standard practice after major wildfires in California since 2007. Typically, after work crews clear away fire debris and several inches of topsoil from burned-down homes, federal or state disaster officials arrange for the same contractors to test the soil for lingering contamination. If they find contamination above state benchmarks, they are required to excavate another layer of that soil and conduct additional rounds of testing.But the aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades fires has been different. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has repeatedly refused to pay for soil testing in California, insisting the practice is not necessary to remove any immediate threats after the fires. The Newsom administration unsuccessfully petitioned FEMA to reconsider conducting soil testing to protect returning residents and workers. But as pressure mounted on the state to fund soil testing, the California Environmental Protection Agency secretary downplayed public health risks from fire contamination.Indeed, the vast majority of wildfire cleanups in California are managed by state agencies. Since the January wildfires, California officials have been noticeably guarded when questioned about how the state will respond when the next major wildfire inevitably strikes.Asked whether the state will continue to adhere to its long-standing post-fire soil sampling protocols, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services wouldn’t directly answer whether it would pay for soil testing after future wildfires. Its director, Nancy Ward, declined to be interviewed.“California has the most advanced testing systems in the nation, and we remain committed to advocating for the safe, timely removal of debris after a wildfire,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement. “Protecting public health and the well-being of impacted communities remains the state’s foremost priority.”Some environmental experts and lawmakers worry that abandoning long-established wildfire protocols, like soil testing, may set a precedent where disaster victims will assume more costs and work to ensure that their properties are safe to return to and rebuild upon.U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D–Los Angeles) called for the Army Corps to review the results of large-scale soil testing initiatives, including data from USC, to determine which contractors were assigned to clean properties where heavy contamination persists. Such an analysis, he said, might help the federal government figure out which contractors performed poor work, so that they they aren’t hired in future disasters. “I’m going to press the Army Corps to look at where the testing indicates there was still contaminants and who is the contractor for that, to see whether there are certain contractors that had a high failure rate,” Sherman said.“I want to make sure they’re ... evaluating these contractors vis-à-vis the next disaster,” he added. “And, ultimately it’s in the testing.”Throughout much of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, thousands of empty lots are awaiting permits to rebuild. But many property owners fear the possibility of contamination. The Department of Angels, a community-led nonprofit formed after the January wildfires, surveyed 2,300 residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades blazes. About one-third of respondents said they wanted testing but had not received it.“The government abandoned testing and left us on our own,” one victim wrote. “We have each had to find out what is the best route to test and remediate, but without standardization and consistency, we are a giant experiment.”

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These 10 Wellness Items Solve Real Problems And Won Our HuffPicks Award

After much deliberation, a famous foot stretcher, one cane-shaped massager and others have earned this shopping honor.

With each passing allergy season, major wildfire, and the latest EPA report on pollution, concern for air quality has and will continue to be a major factor in our health and wellness reporting. Based on former in-depth conversations with associate professor of otolaryngology at Stanford University Zara M. Patel and a respiratory therapist and member of the American Association for Respiratory Care Joyce Baker, air purifiers (and most importantly, the right air purifier) are one of the greatest defenses we have against poor indoor air quality, which “can be two to five times more polluted than outdoors because of the lack of fresh air, circulation and ventilation,” according to Baker (who cited an assessment from the Environmental Protection Agency).The decision to award BlueAir's blissfully quiet and top-performing 411i Max air purifier a HuffPick was the result of combined guidance from Baker and Patel and our very own personal experience. “[The] BlueAir 411 is remarkable because it just works — as soon as it’s on, you can feel the difference in the air, leaving air crisper and fresher," former HuffPost shopping writer Haley Zovickian previously said. It should be worth mentioning that, like myself, Zovickian lives in smog-filled Los Angeles, a city that was recently ravaged by one of the worst wildfires in recent history.“I no longer sneeze and itch from dust, pollen and who knows what, and my close friends with cat allergies are able to comfortably relax in my cat hair-filled room as long as the air purifier is on,” Zovickian said.Aside from its sleek Scandinavian-inspired design, Zovickian points to BlueAir's excellent filtration system that uses a dual HEPA filter, a washable fabric pre-filter and an active carbon filter to trap both large and tiny airborne particles like bacteria, viruses, dust, potentially harmful chemicals, and those responsible for odor.The purifier featured here is offers a slight upgrade from Zovickian's preferred model with its Wifi capability, which makes it easier to keep track of air quality and trends over time using the accompanying app, plus do things like schedule run times remotely and use voice commands. It also comes in three sizes, depending on the square footage of the space.

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Indigenous groups fight to save rediscovered settlement site on Texas coast

Flanked by a chemical plant and an oil rig construction yard, the site on Corpus Christi Bay may be the last of its kind on this stretch of coastline, now occupied by petrochemical facilities.

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give us feedback. This story is published in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. INGLESIDE — The rediscovery of an ancient settlement site, sandwiched between industrial complexes on Corpus Christi Bay, has spurred a campaign for its preservation by Native American groups in South Texas. Hundreds of such sites were once documented around nearby bays but virtually all have been destroyed as cities, refineries and petrochemical plants spread along the waterfront at one of Texas’ commercial ports. In a letter last month, nonprofit lawyers representing the Karankawa and Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke an unused permit that would authorize construction of an oil terminal at the site, called Donnel Point, among the last undisturbed tracts of land on almost 70 miles of shoreline. “We’re not just talking about a geographical point on the map,” said Love Sanchez, a 43-year-old mother of two and a Karankawa descendent in Corpus Christi. “We’re talking about a place that holds memory.” The site sits on several hundred acres of undeveloped scrubland, criss-crossed by wildlife trails with almost a half mile of waterfront. It was documented by Texas archaeologists in the 1930s but thought to be lost to dredging of an industrial ship canal in the 1950s. Last year a local geologist stumbled upon the site while boating on the bay and worked with a local professor of history to identify it in academic records. For Sanchez, a former office worker at the Corpus Christi Independent School District, Donnel Point represents a precious, physical connection to a past that’s been largely covered up. She formed a group called Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend in 2018 to raise awareness about the unacknowledged Indigenous heritage of this region on the middle Texas coast. The names and tales of her ancestors here were lost to genocide in Texas. Monuments now say her people went extinct. But the family lore, earthy skin tones and black, waxy hair of many South Texas families attest that Indigenous bloodlines survived. For their descendents, few sites like Donnel Point remain as evidence of how deep their roots here run. “Even if the stories were taken or burned or scattered, the land still remembers,” Sanchez said. The land tells a story at odds with the narrative taught in Texas schools, that only sparse bands of people lived here when American settlers arrived. Instead, the number and ages of settlement sites documented around the bay suggest that its bounty of fish and crustaceans supported thriving populations. “This place was like a magnet for humans,” said Peter Moore, a professor of early American history at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi who identified the site at Donnel Point. “Clearly, this was a densely settled place.” There’s no telling how many sites have been lost, he said, especially to the growth of the petrochemical industry. The state’s detailed archaeological records are only available to licensed archaeologists, who are contracted primarily by developers. A few sites were excavated and cataloged before they were destroyed. Many others disappeared anonymously. Their remains now lie beneath urban sprawl on the south shore of Corpus Christi Bay and an industrial corridor on its north. “Along a coastline that had dense settlements, they’re all gone,” Moore said. The last shell midden Rediscovery of the site at Donnel Point began last summer when Patrick Nye, a local geologist and retired oilman, noticed something odd while boating near the edge of the bay: a pile of bright white oyster, conch and scallop shells spilling from the brush some 15 feet above the water and cascading down the steep, clay bank. Nye, 71, knew something about local archaeology. Growing up on this coastline he amassed a collection of thousands of pot shards and arrowheads (later donated to a local Indigenous group) from a patch of woods near his home just a few miles up the shore, a place called McGloins Bluff. Nye’s father, chief justice of the local court of civil appeals, helped save the site from plans by an oil company to dump dredging waste there in 1980. Later, in 2004, the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, which owned the tract, commissioned the excavation and removal of about 40,000 artifacts so it could sell the land to a different oil company for development, against the recommendations of archaeological consultants and state historical authorities. Patrick Nye pilots his boat on Corpus Christi Bay at daybreak on Dec. 7, 2025. Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News“We’re not going to let that happen here,” Nye said on a foggy morning in December as he steered his twin engine bay boat up to Donnel Point, situated between a chemical plant and a construction yard for offshore oil rigs on land owned by the Port of Corpus Christi Authority. Nye returned to the site with Moore, who taught a class at Texas A&M University about the discovery in 1996 and subsequent destruction of a large cemetery near campus called Cayo del Oso, where construction crews found hundreds of burials dating from 2,800 years ago until the 18th century. It now sits beneath roads and houses of Corpus Christi’s Bay Area. Moore consulted the research of two local archaeologists, a father and son-in-law duo named Harold Pape and John Tunnell who documented hundreds of Indigenous cultural sites around nearby bays in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s, including a string of particularly dense settlements on the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay. Their work was only published in 2015 by their descendents, John Tunnell Jr. and his son Jace Tunnell, both professors at A&M. Moore looked up the location that Nye had described, and there he found it — a hand-drawn map of a place called Donnel Point, with six small Xs denoting “minor sites” and two circles for “major sites.” A map produced by Pape and Tunnell showing Donnel Point, then called Boyd’s Point, in 1940, with several major and minor archaeological sites marked. Used with permission. Tunnell, J. W., & Tunnell, J. (2015). Pioneering archaeology in the Texas coastal bend : The Pape-Tunnell collection. Texas A&M University Press.The map also showed a wide, sandy point jutting 1,000 feet into Corpus Christi Bay, which no longer exists. It was demolished by dredging for La Quinta Ship Channel in the 1950s. Moore’s research found a later archaeological survey of the area ordered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s concluded the sites on Donnel Point were lost. “Subsequent archeological reports repeated this assumption,” said an eight-page report Moore produced last year on the rediscovery of the sites. The artifacts at Donnel Point are probably no different than those collected from similar sites that have been paved over. The sites’ largest features are likely the large heaps of seashells, called middens, left by generations of fishermen eating oysters, scallops and conchs. “Even if it’s just a shell midden, in some ways it’s the last shell midden,” Moore said at a coffee shop in Corpus Christi. “It deserves special protection.” Nye and Moore took their findings to local Indigenous groups, who quietly began planning a campaign for preservation. Seashells spilling down the edge of a tall, clay bank, 15 feet above the water, on Dec. 7, 2025. Dredging for an industrial ship channel and subsequent erosion cut into these shell middens left by generations of indigenous fishermen. Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate NewsA mistaken extinction Under the law, preservation often means excavating artifacts before sites are paved over. But the descendents of these coastal cultures are less concerned about the scraps and trinkets their ancestors left behind as they are about the place itself. In most cases they can only guess where the old villages stood before they were erased. In this rare case they know. Now they would like to visit. “Not only are we fighting to maintain a sacred place, we’re trying to maintain a connection that we’ve had over thousands and thousands of years,” said Juan Mancias, chair of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, during a webinar in November to raise awareness about the site. The destruction of these sites furthers the erasure of Indigenous people from Texas, he said. He has fought for years against the planned destruction of another village site called Garcia Pasture, which is slated to become an LNG terminal at the Port of Brownsville, south of Corpus Christi. North of Corpus Christi, near Victoria, a large, 7,000-year-old cemetery was exhumed in 2006 for a canal expansion at a plastics plant. “The petrochemical industry has to understand that we’re going to stand in the way of their so-called progress,” Mancias, a 71-year-old former youth social worker, said during the webinar. “They have total disregard for the land because they have no connection. They’re immigrants.” He grew up picking cotton with other Mexican laborers in the Texas Panhandle. But his grandparents told him stories about the ancient forests and villages of the lower Rio Grande that they’d been forced to flee. His schooling and history books told him the stories couldn’t be true. They said the Indigenous people of South Texas vanished long ago and offered little interest or insight into how they lived. It was through archaeological sites that Mancias later confirmed the places in his grandparents’ stories existed. There is no easy pathway for Mancias to protect these sites. Neither the Carrizo/Comecrudo or the Karankawa, who inhabited the coastal plains of Texas and Tamaulipas, are among the federally recognized tribes that were resettled by the U.S. government onto reservations. Only federally recognized tribes have legal rights to archaeological sites in their ancestral territory. As far as U.S. law is concerned, the native peoples of South Texas no longer exist, leaving the lands they once occupied ripe for economic development. “Now it’s the invaders who decide who and what we are,” said Mancias in an interview. “That’s why we struggle with our own identities.” Juan Mancias, chair of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, at an H-E-B grocery store in Port Isabel in 2022. Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate NewsIn Corpus Christi, the story of Indigenous extinction appears on a historical marker placed prominently at a bayside park in commemoration of the Karankawa peoples. “Many of the Indians were killed in warfare,” it says. “Remaining members of the tribe fled to Mexico about 1843. Annihilation of that remnant about 1858 marked the disappearance of the Karankawa Indians.” That isn’t true, according to Tim Seiter, an assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at Tyler who studies Karankawa history. While Indigenous communities ceased to exist openly, not every last family was killed. Asserting extinction, he said, is another means of conquest. “This is very much purposefully done,” he said. “If the Karakawas go extinct, they can’t come back and reclaim the land.” Stories of survival Almost a century before the English pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca lived with and wrote about the Karankawas — a diverse collection of bands and clans that shared a common language along the Gulf Coast. By the time Anglo-American settlers began to arrive in Texas, the Karankawas were 300 years acquainted with Spanish language and culture. Some of them settled in or around Spanish missions as far inland as San Antonio. Many had married into the new population of colonial Texas. Many of their descendants still exist today. “We just call those people Tejanos, or Mexicans,” said Seiter, who grew up near the Gulf coast outside Houston. Love Sanchez with her mother and two sons at a park in Corpus Christi in 2022. Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate NewsHe made those connections through Spanish records at archives in San Antonio. In Texas’ Anglo-American era, Seiter said, most available information about the Karankawas comes from the diaries of settlers who are trying to exterminate them. Some of the last stories of the Karankawas written into history involve settler militias launching surprise attacks on Karankawa settlements and gunning down men, women and children as they fled across a river. “The documents are coming from the colonists and they’re not keeping tabs of who they are killing in these genocidal campaigns,” Seiter said. “It makes it really hard to do ancestry.” All the accounts tell of Karankawa deaths and expulsion. Stories of survivors and escapees never made it into the record. But Seiter said he’s identified individuals through documents who survived massacres. Moreover, oral histories of Hispanic families say many others escaped, hid their identities and fled to Mexico or integrated into Anglo society. That’s one reason why archaeological sites like Donnel Point are so important, Seiter said: They are a record that was left by the people themselves, rather than by immigrant writers. The lack of information leaves a lot of mystery in the backgrounds of people like Sanchez, founder of Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi. She was born in Corpus Christi to parents from South Texas and grandparents from Mexico. Almost 20 years ago her cousin shared the results of a DNA test showing their mixed Indigenous ancestry from the Gulf Coast region. Curious to learn more, she sought out a local elder named Larry Running Turtle Salazar who she had seen at craft markets. Salazar gained prominence and solidified a small community around a campaign to protect the Cayo del Oso burial ground. Through Salazar, Sanchez learned about local Indigenous culture and history. Then she was jolted to action after 2016, when she followed online as Native American protesters gathered on the Standing Rock Lakota Reservation to block an oil company from laying its pipeline across their territory. The images of Indigenous solidarity, and of protesters pepper sprayed by oil company security, inflamed Sanchez’s emotions. She began attending small protests in Corpus Christi. When Salazar announced his retirement from posting on social media, exhausted by all the hate, Sanchez said she would take up the task fighting for awareness of Indigenous heritage. “People don’t want us to exist,” she said beneath mesquite trees at a park in Corpus Christi. “Sometimes they are really mean.” In 2018 she formed her group, Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend, which she now operates full time, visiting schools and youth groups to tell about the Karankawa and help kids learn to love their local ecosystems. Over time the group has become increasingly focused on environmental protection from expansion of the fossil fuel industry. Salazar died in March at 68. Chemours Chemical plant on La Quinta Ship Channel, adjacent to the site of Donnel Point in 2022. Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate NewsProtecting Donnel Point When Nye and Moore shared their discovery with Sanchez, who has always dreamed of becoming a lawyer, she knew it had to be kept secret while a legal strategy was devised, lest the site’s developers rush to beat them. The groups brought their case to nonprofit lawyers at Earthjustice and the University of Texas School of Law Environmental Clinic, who filed records requests to turn up available information on the property. “We discovered that they had this old permit that had been extended and transferred,” said Erin Gaines, clinical professor at the clinic. “Then we started digging in on that.” The permit was issued in 2016 by USACE to the site’s previous owner, Cheniere, to build an oil condensate terminal, then transferred to the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, administrator of the nation’s top port for oil exports, when it bought the land in 2021. Since then, the Port has sought developers to build and operate a terminal in the space, the lawyers found, even though proposed layouts and environmental conditions differ greatly from the project plans reviewed for the 2016 permit. In November, Sanchez and the other groups announced their campaign publicly when their lawyers filed official comments with USACE, requesting that the permit for the site be revoked or subject to new reviews. The Port of Corpus Christi Authority did not respond to a request for comment. “Cultural information and environmental conditions at the site have changed, necessitating new federal reviews and a new permit application,” the comments said. “Local residents and researchers have re-discovered an archaeological site in the project area, consisting of a former settlement that was thought to be lost and is of great importance to the Karankawa and Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribes.” Still, the site faces a slim shot at preservation. First it would need to be flagged by the Texas Historical Commission. But the commissioners there are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has received $40 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry since taking office. Even then, preservation under the law means digging up artifacts and putting them in storage so the site can be cleared for development. Only under exceptional circumstances could it be protected in an undisturbed state. Neither Abbott’s office nor the Texas Historical Commission responded to a request for comment. Despite the odds, Sanchez dreams of making Donnel Point a place that people could visit to feel their ancestors’ presence and imagine the thousands of years that they fished from the bay. The fossil fuel industry is a towering opponent, but she’s used to it here. She plans to never give up. “In this type of organizing you can lose hope really fast,” she said. “No one here has lost hope.” Disclosure: H-E-B, Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University Press and Texas Historical Commission have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Chemicals
Indigenous
Culture

MIT community in 2025: A year in review

Top stories highlighted the Institute’s leading positions in world and national rankings; new collaboratives tackling manufacturing, generative AI, and quantum; how one professor influenced hundreds of thousands of students around the world; and more.

In 2025, MIT maintained its standard of community and research excellence amidst a shift in national priorities regarding the federal funding of higher education. Notably, QS ranked MIT No. 1 in the world for the 14th straight year, while U.S. News ranked MIT No. 2 in the nation for the 5th straight year.This year, President Sally Kornbluth also added to the Institute’s slate of community-wide strategic initiatives, with new collaborative efforts focused on manufacturing, generative artificial intelligence, and quantum science and engineering. In addition, MIT opened several new buildings and spaces, hosted a campuswide art festival, and continued its tradition of bringing the latest in science and technology to the local community and to the world. Here are some of the top stories from around MIT over the past 12 months.MIT collaborativesPresident Kornbluth announced three new Institute-wide collaborative efforts designed to foster and support alliances that will take on global problems. The Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM) will work toward bolstering industry and creating jobs by driving innovation across vital manufacturing sectors. The MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC), a group of industry leaders and MIT researchers, aims to harness the power of generative artificial intelligence for the good of society. And the MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT) will leverage quantum breakthroughs to drive the future of scientific and technological progress.These missions join three announced last year — the Climate Project at MIT, the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC), and the MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS).Sharing the wonders of science and technologyThis year saw the launch of MIT Learn, a dynamic AI-enabled website that hosts nearly 13,000 non-degree learning opportunities, making it easier for learners around the world to discover the courses and resources available on MIT’s various learning platforms.The Institute also hosted the Cambridge Science Carnival, a hands-on event managed by the MIT Museum that drew approximately 20,000 attendees and featured more than 140 activities, demonstrations, and installations tied to the topics of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM).CommencementAt Commencement, Hank Green urged MIT’s newest graduates to focus their work on the “everyday solvable problems of normal people,” even if it is not always the easiest or most obvious course of action. Green is a popular content creator and YouTuber whose work often focuses on science and STEAM issues, and who co-created the educational media company Complexly.President Kornbluth challenged graduates to be “ambassadors” for the open-minded inquiry and collaborative work that marks everyday life at MIT.Top accoladesIn January, the White House bestowed national medals of science and technology — the country’s highest awards for scientists and engineers — on four MIT professors and an additional alumnus. Moderna, with deep MIT roots, was also recognized.As in past years, MIT faculty, staff, and alumni were honored with election to the various national academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.Faculty member Carlo Ratti served as curator of the Venice Biennale’s 19th International Architecture Exhibition.Members of MIT Video Productions won a New England Emmy Award for their short film on the art and science of hand-forged knives with master bladesmith Bob Kramer.And at MIT, Dimitris Bertsimas, vice provost for open learning and a professor of operations research, won this year’s Killian Award, the Institute’s highest faculty honor.New and refreshed spacesIn the heart of campus, the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building became fully operational to start off the year. In celebration, the Institute hosted Artfinity, a vibrant multiweek exploration of art and ideas, with more than 80 free performing and visual arts events including a film festival, interactive augmented-reality art installations, a simulated lunar landing, and concerts by both student groups and internationally renowned musicians.Over the summer, the “Outfinite” — the open space connecting Hockfield Court with Massachusetts Avenue — was officially named the L. Rafael Reif Innovation Corridor in honor of President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif, MIT’s 17th president.And in October, the Undergraduate Advising Center’s bright new home opened in Building 11 along the Infinite Corridor, bringing a welcoming and functional destination for MIT undergraduate students within the Institute’s Main Group.Student honors and awardsMIT undergraduates earned an impressive number of prestigious awards in 2025. Exceptional students were honored with Rhodes, Gates Cambridge, and Schwarzman scholarships, among others.A number of MIT student-athletes also helped to secure their team’s first NCAA national championship in Institute history: Women’s track and field won both the indoor national championship and outdoor national championship, while women’s swimming and diving won their national title as well.Also for the fifth year in a row, MIT students earned all five top spots at the Putnam Mathematical Competition.Leadership transitionsSeveral senior administrative leaders took on new roles in 2025. Anantha Chandrakasan was named provost; Paula Hammond was named dean of the School of Engineering; Richard Locke was named dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management; Gaspare LoDuca was named vice president for information systems and technology and CIO; Evelyn Wang was named vice president for energy and climate; and David Darmofal was named vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate education.Additional new leadership transitions include: Ana Bakshi was named executive director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship; Fikile Brushett was named director of the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice; Laurent Demanet was named co-director of the Center for Computational Science and Engineering; Rohit Karnik was named director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab; Usha Lee McFarling was named director of the Knight Science Journalism Program; C. Cem Tasan was named director of the Materials Research Laboratory; and Jessika Trancik was named director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center.Remembering those we lostAmong MIT community members who died this year were David Baltimore, Juanita Battle, Harvey Kent Bowen, Stanley Fischer, Frederick Greene, Lee Grodzins, John Joannopoulos, Keith Johnson, Daniel Kleppner, Earle Lomon, Nuno Loureiro, Victor K. McElheny, David Schmittlein, Anthony Sinskey, Peter Temin, Barry Vercoe, Rainer Weiss, Alan Whitney, and Ioannis Yannas.In case you missed it…Additional top stories from around the Institute in 2025 include a description of the environmental and sustainability implications of generative AI tech and applications; the story of how an MIT professor introduced hundreds of thousands of students to neuroscience with his classic textbook; a look at how MIT entrepreneurs are using AI; a roundup of new books by MIT faculty and staff; and behind the scenes with MIT students who cracked a longstanding egg dilemma. 

Chemicals
Climate
Education

Study Finds Cancer-Linked Chemicals in Some Firefighter Gear

By I. Edwards HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Some protective gear worn by firefighters may contain chemicals linked to...

FRIDAY, Dec. 19, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Some protective gear worn by firefighters may contain chemicals linked to serious health risks, according to a new study.The research — published Dec. 16 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters — found that certain firefighter turnout gear contains brominated flame retardants, or chemicals added to materials to slow flames, but also tied to cancer and hormone problems.This is one of the first in-depth studies to closely examine whether these chemicals are present in firefighter gear and how much could be released during use.Firefighters wear turnout gear made of three layers: An outer shell that resists flames, a middle moisture barrier that blocks germs and an inner lining that helps control body heat. To meet safety rules set by the National Fire Protection Association, manufacturers treat these layers with chemicals to reduce fire risk.For years, firefighters have raised concerns about PFAS, a group of chemicals once commonly used in turnout gear to repel water and oil. PFAS exposure has been linked to cancer and other health problems.Although PFAS-treated gear has not been directly tied to illness in firefighters, many states have passed laws banning the purchase of PFAS-treated gear starting in 2027. As a result, manufacturers have begun phasing those chemicals out.That raised a new question: What chemicals are being used instead?"There was a rumor that one of the turnout gear manufacturers might be using brominated flame retardants in the non-PFAS treated textiles," study leader Heather Stapleton, a professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in Durham, N.C., said in a news release."Because some brominated flame retardants have known toxicity, I requested a sample of the gear in question to test," she added.Stapleton and her colleagues tested 12 sets of turnout gear, nine made between 2013 and 2020, and three made in 2024 that were marketed as PFAS-free.They tested each layer of the gear to see:PFAS showed up in all older gear, but 2024 gear had little to no extractable PFAS, supporting claims that newer gear avoids those chemicals.However, every single set of gear tested contained brominated flame retardants, and in many cases, levels were higher than PFAS.The highest levels of brominated flame retardants were found in gear labeled as non-PFAS, especially in the moisture barrier layer.This suggests that manufacturers may be intentionally adding brominated flame retardants to replace PFAS and still meet fire safety standards.One chemical, decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), appeared most often. While it hasn’t been studied much in the U.S., a 2019 study in China linked DBDPE exposure to thyroid problems in manufacturing workers."I was really surprised that the manufacturers used DBDPE in turnout gear," Stapleton said. "It has similar properties as a toxic chemical called decaBDE that has been largely phased out globally, raising questions about its safety."In older gear, the outer shell had the highest chemical levels, most likely from smoke and soot during fires."When building materials burn, they can release brominated flame retardants into the air that stick to gear and don't wash out very well," Stapleton explained.But the presence of these chemicals inside the gear shows that manufacturing choices, and not just fire exposure, play a role.Researchers said they don’t know just yet how much of these chemicals firefighters absorb or what the long-term health effects may be.But the findings matter because turnout gear is expensive and often used for many years."Fire departments must consider both the financial and personal safety costs of keeping or replacing gear," said study co-author R. Bryan Ormond, an associate professor at N.C. State University’s Wilson College of Textiles in Raleigh, N.C.Stapleton said some companies now offer gear made without PFAS or brominated flame retardants, and she urged departments to demand more transparency in the equipment they use."We know firefighters receive higher exposure to multiple chemicals from all the hazards they face during their duty, and they shouldn't have to worry about receiving additional chemical exposures from their gear," Stapleton said.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has more on PFAS.SOURCE: Duke University, news release, Dec. 18, 2025 Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Chemicals
Health
Technology

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Lead in the Land

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Since the 1950s deadly nuclear fallout has threatened millions of Americans from nuclear fallout carried east in the atmosphere across the United States, from the Nevada Test Site. “928 The Threat Continues...” tells the story of massive contamination from concentrated nuclear fallout that rained down during heavy storms, on communities and major cities for 40 years. Hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and deaths were the result. The Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy knew the truth, but covered it up. Multiple generations may still face the long-term affects. Through current interviews with scientific experts and surviving victims across the country, plus footage from historic interviews with victims, whistle-blower scientists and journalists, we tell the devastating story of those affected by the deadly radioactive fallout. In Act 3, obscure government videos from US government websites reveal that the threat of cancer death to Americans from Nevada Test Site contamination continues even today! NTS has been renamed, the Nevada National Security Site or NNSS. Presidential administrations from Harry Truman to the present day have kept the highly contaminated former Nevada Test Site operating. Donald Trump while in office ordered the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to start testing newly designed battlefield nuclear weapons at the NNSS despite the existence of The Non-Proliferation Treaty – 1970. Not withstanding the treaty, the extremely reckless aboveground testing area at the NNSS called Big Explosives Experimental Facility or B.E.E.F. tests non-nuclear bombs that send tons of highly contaminated nuclear dirt 10,000 feet into the atmosphere where the winds carry it east. It needs to be stopped now! The film asks viewers to inform their congressman and vote.

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Bag It

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We Trees

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Forests
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