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Tweed Shire Council is urging residents with rat problems to opt for first-generation rodenticides over their second-generation counterparts to help protect native wildlife across the Shire.

Theres no denying rodents pose a challenge for many households and businesses across the Tweed, leading many to resort to using rodenticides (pesticides), a group of commonly available chemicals used for effective pest management. However, the unintended effects of newer, second-generation products on native wildlife cannot be overlooked.

Council is launching a campaign asking residents to Give a rats! about the environment and specifically the use of first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides following a successful Notice of Motion put forward by Councillor Nola Firth at the Council meeting in March.

The motion called on Council to advise the community of the benefits of using these first-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, to give guidance on how to identify such pesticides and to promote non-poisoning methods of rodent management.

Councils Give a rats! campaign is about educating our community about which rodent control measures are better than others in terms of their effect on our natural environment, Cr Firth said.

By giving a rats about which products you choose, residents are helping keep our local native animals safe.

Its vital we shed light on the significant benefits of using certain pesticides over others to help the community feel empowered to make better choices when considering rodent management, so we are better able to safeguard our native animals and the future of our environment.

Although it may seem like a small thing, we can all do our bit when choosing a product like this and its crucial to consider the potential harm we might cause to non-target animals, especially native species. In this special place where we live, its our job to look after our already endangered native creatures who eat rats such as our beautiful owls.

Cr Firths motion came after Local Government NSW adopted a motion at its 2022 conference calling on the NSW Government to legislate to ban second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) in NSW and to advocate for a national ban on the retail sale of SGARs.

First-generation rodenticides work more slowly and break down more quickly, meaning owls and other wildlife are unlikely to die from secondary exposure to the poison. By contrast, SGARs tend to remain in animal tissues longer than first-generation ones endangering animals that feed on rodents.

The benefits of first-generation rodenticides

Proven effectiveness: first-generation rodenticides have a well-established track record for managing rodent problems and have been successfully used for decades. They offer reliable control of rat infestations with little risks to non-target animals such as native wildlife or pets.

Less harmful to native wildlife and pets: first-generation rodenticides are less likely to be fatal if ingested by other animals while second-generation rodenticides pose significant risk to local wildlife and pets.

Better for the environment: first-generation rodenticides have a shorter half-life than second-generation products meaning they dont take as long to break down in the natural environment. This trait reduces the risk of residual poisoning of both native animals and local eco-systems, making them a more environmentally-friendly choice.

What to look out for

The active ingredients used in first-generation rodenticides are:

coumatetralyl

warfarin

diphacinone.

The active ingredients used in second-generation products are:

brodifacoum

bromadiolone

difethialone

difenacoum

flocoumafen.

These ingredients will be listed on the product label.

There are also other non-chemical measures that can be effective in rodent control, such as sealing up entry points, maintaining cleanliness around a property, disposing of garbage properly and regularly cleaning garbage areas, trapping and encouraging natural predators such as owls to inhabit your property.

Council has been using first-generation rodenticides across its services for many years, apart from in its sewer network. Councils pest management team is currently investigating alternatives to using second-generation pesticides inside Councils sewer pump station wells, with a report due to be brought back to Council soon.

Informing the community on issues associated with second generation rodenticides is just one way we can work together to reduce our impact on the natural environment and make sure the places we live work and play are safe.

For more information on rodent management visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/managing-rodents.

To find out more about rodenticides, visit the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) at apvma.gov.au/node/87226.

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Give a rats about which pesticide you choose! - Tweed Shire Council

The World Health Organization has expanded the list of NCD best buys. The updated list was approved at the 76th World Health Assembly, a move that will support governments to select lifesaving interventions and policies for the worlds biggest killers, noncommunicable diseases. This gives countries of every income level support to improve the health of their citizens.

Interventions offered include taxes and bans on advertising for tobacco and alcohol, reformulation policies for healthier food and drinks and the promotion and support of optimal breastfeeding practices.

The new list also includes secondary prevention for rheumatic fever, acute and long-term management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as several cancer control interventions related to cervical, breast, colorectal, liver and childhood cancer, and the comprehensive treatment of cancer for those living with HIV.

The updated best buys come with a whole menu of policy options and cost-effective interventions that will help governments prioritise investments according to their specific country context. Investing in evidence-based policies is an investment in a healthy future.

Dr Bente Mikkelsen. Director NCD Department, World Health Organization

The latest revision was updated to reflect WHOs recommendations and guidance and the latest scientific evidence on impact. The report is part of the NCDs Global Action Plan 2023-2030 and is an update from 2017 and is core to the Implementation Roadmap on NCDs. Each revision is based on new WHO normative and standard-setting products, new evidence and data to expand and update the interventions.

The updated list continues to support that NCD prevention and control is a remarkable bargain that can save millions of lives and add millions of healthy life-years.

These interventions can help support countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing by one third, premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and the promotion mental health and well-being worldwide by 2030.

They also provide an opportunity to accelerate national action to prevent and control NCDs to reduce suffering and prevent deaths and pave the way for political commitment at the fourth High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of NCDs in 2025.

The World Health Assembly resolution mandates that the intervention list be continuously updated, when data are available.

List of Expanded NCD Best Buys

Tobacco

Alcohol

Unhealthy Diet

Physical Inactivity

Cardiovascular Diseases

Chronic Respiratory Diseases

Cancer

Continued here:
More ways, to save more lives, for less money: World Health ... - World Health Organization

First author, Joy Lu, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellons Tepper School of Business.

Viewing platforms could launch consumer surveys to get a sense for how likely a viewer would be to plan their schedule around binging a certain show, she said. This is important because streaming media companies dont necessarily only want you to binge-watch on their platform. If you log back in at different times, you might see different ads, you may build loyalty to brand, and perhaps you keep your subscription longer. It could be beneficial for companies to want some of their content to be more bingeable and other content to be more spread out.

Robust findings also have important implications for online education consumption

The paper included multiple studies involving hundreds of participants that replicated results and also revealed new findings. The papers first experiment showed that people can and do actually plan their binging. The authors surveyed people online, asking them to think about how they would plan to watch a show they wanted to stream. Participants were asked to then create a calendar over the next six days, which let the authors see whether they would stack episodes together or spread them out. Most people created clumpy viewing plans, involving binging multiple episodes at a time. But they didnt stack all the episodes on one day, offering a different view of binging than the one predicted by a lack of self-control.

Another study gave participants a list of the top 100 television streaming series and asked half of them to classify the shows as more or less bingeable and the other half to classify the shows as independent vs. sequential. Not surprisingly, combining this data found that shows rated as highly bingeable were also rated as more sequential.

But the differences in plans to binge independent and sequential media were also replicated in how people approach streaming media in the form of online education courses. A separate experiment revealed that people are more likely to plan to binge a Coursera class if it is perceived to be more sequential. Taking this one step further, the authors analyzed real-world data from the Coursera platform and found that these plans to binge-learn accurately predicted viewing behavior in enrolled students.

The findings also resolve an apparent conflict with previous literature that finds that people often prefer to savor good experiences by delaying them and deriving additional pleasure from anticipation or spreading them out over time. The authors suggest that the prior work on this issue mostly involved independent experiences, such as going out to eat or going on vacations, which their theory also predicts would be less bingeable.

For a copy of the full Planning-to-Binge: Time Allocation for Future Media Consumption paper, please email Christine Clark at ceclark@ucsd.edu.

See more here:
Viewers Actually 'Binge-Watch' TV with a lot of Self-Control - University of California San Diego

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The fall of Vice: private equity's ill-fated bet on media's future - Financial Times

Estimated annual new HIV infections were 12% lower in 2021 compared to 2017dropping from about 36,500 infections to about 32,100according to new CDC data published today. The decline was driven by a 34% decrease in new infections among 13- to 24-year-olds, mostly among gay and bisexual males. HIV prevention efforts must go further and progress must be faster, however, for gains to reach populations equitably and for national goals to end the HIV epidemic to be reached.

According to CDCs latest estimates, annual HIV infections dropped from 9,300 in 2017 to 6,100 in 2021 among 13- to 24-year-olds. Declines among young gay and bisexual males (who account for roughly 80% of new infections in this age group) drove the trend, falling from an estimated 7,400 infections to about 4,900 during the timeframe.

Our nations HIV prevention efforts continue to move in the right direction, said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H. Longstanding factors, such as systemic inequities, social and economic marginalization and residential segregation, however, stand between highly effective HIV treatment and prevention and people who could benefit from them. Efforts must be accelerated and strengthened for progress to reach all groups faster and equitably.

Data suggest that improved reach of HIV testing, treatment, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has contributed to progress in HIV prevention among young gay and bisexual males.

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HIV Declines Among Young People and Drives Overall Decrease in ... - CDC