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WEDNESDAY September 18, 2019
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Local vaping store sees an industry under fire
Nearrecord ocean temps By Jessica Goddard Staff Writer
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David Gearhart, owner of High Tides Vapes in Crescent City, is surrounded by flavored nicotine bottles as he shows a CBD oil made from the hemp plant often counterfeited on the black market, causing it to be labeled an unsafe product. Photo by David Hayes. By David Hayes Staff Writer
osters on the walls P of David Gearhart’s store High Tide Vapes at
1329 Northcrest Dr. clearly prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under age 21. But Gearheart sees the handwriting on the wall for the entire vaping industry, as public health concerns grow at all levels of government. “In the last four days, I’ve had a drop in business of 40%,” Gearheart said last week. “I could be out of business in three weeks after the feds implement a ban.” Gearheart, who said he brought the only vaping store to Crescent City five and a half years ago, fears a Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) plan to clear the mar-
ket of unauthorized, non-tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products. “Getting rid of the vaping business is the wrong attitude. They need to control it better,” Gearheart said. Just Monday, California
Gov. Gavin Newsom joined a growing number of government executives taking what actions they can via the pen. He signed an executive order directing the state Department of Public Health to launch a $20-million
public-awareness campaign about the health risks of vaping nicotine and cannabis products. Said Newsom in a press release, “As a parent, I understand the anxiety caused by the deceptive marketing tactics and flavored options designed to target our kids. With mysterious lung illnesses and deaths on the rise, we have to educate our kids and do everything we can to tackle this crisis.” Calls for governmental intervention began earlier this summer, spurred by a growing number of potential cases of lung disease among people, especially youths, with a recent history of e-cigarette use. The County of Del Norte Department of Health and More Vaping on Page A5
Del Norte girls soccer players say they’re wounded Warriors because of poor field T
By David Hayes Staff Writer
he Del Norte High School girls varsity soccer program has just 16 athletes suited up to play this season. And there’s no junior varsity squad. The players say the reason is an unsafe high school soccer field that has caused numerous injuries and prompted parents to pull their daughters from the program. The team spoke with one voice during a Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting Sept. 12, pleading that something must be done to improve the soccer field’s conditions. They pointed out the many potholes across the playing surface, and goalie boxes that are nothing more than hardpacked dirt on hot days, mud puddles when it rains. More Soccer on Page A2
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Senior Lanaeya Botelho (left) and junior Payton Machado point out potholes on Del Norte High School’s upper soccer field. Photo by David Hayes.
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esearchers say the Pacific Ocean is seeing the second-largest marine heatwave tracked since the 1980s, touching from the Alaskan coast to Hawaii. Having developed early in June, the heatwave is 50 to 100 feet thick. It stretches for hundreds of miles along the coast, about twothirds of the distance of the U.S., said Nate Mantua, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center. For that matter, said NOAA, the summer of 2019 was the hottest on record for the Northern Hemisphere. And last month was the second-hottest August worldwide. Because of the coastal upwelling of deep, cold water, the heatwave has stayed mostly offshore. But along the northern Pacific Coast - including northern California - its edge reaches within 10 to 20 miles of the coastline. Its temperature is 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit - higher than the usual ocean temperatures. Scientists haven’t seen a heatwave like this since its predecessor, nicknamed “the blob,” in 2014. “The warming that we’re seeing is similar to the amount of warming that we saw at the surface during ‘the blob’ years, but the difference is that this heat wave we’re seeing develop right now, it’s still pretty young,” said Stephanie Moore, a research oceanographer with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. That “blob,” the largest marine heatwave scientists have tracked since the 1980s, lasted for three years and caused havoc in marine ecology. It covered some 7.8 million kilometers. The current heatwave covers about 6.5 million kilometers and is only about 50 meters deep, said Moore. “As ‘the blob’ continued, because it did last for so long, we saw warming get down to about 200 meters,” Moore said. “But (the current heatwave) is still covering a very extensive area in the Pacific Ocean.” The cause of the heatwave is attributed to a ridge of high pressure that weakened the wind patterns above the Pacific Ocean. Weak winds reduce the ocean mixing, which normally releases heat from the ocean surface and allows the ocean to mix with cooler waters. Although early in the heatwave’s existence, More Warming on Page A5
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