Hole Health 2023

HOLE

Health

February 22, 2023

A special supplement to the

RISKY RADIATION

When it comes to wireless radiation, our favorite devices might be causing damage, especially in children. See page 10.

More inside:

Mold matters Fungal growths in the home are unpleasant enough, but for some people they are a real health hazard. See page 8.

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Zooming in on a lifetime of health

As the COVID-19 pandemic decelerates, preventive health is in vogue. Prioritizing wellness at a young age is critical to a lifetime of strength and immunity, so this year’s Hole Health special section takes youth health as its focus.

Nestled between mountains and spangled with creeks and rivers, Jackson Hole holds a culture of athletic excellence, and at times extremism. A look at concussions in the valley underscores the regularity of these injuries and their life-altering effects on young Jacksonites, along with efforts to reduce and treat concussions.

Kids are into AirPods, smartphones, iPads, laptops and other wireless devices ... we know. The socio-psychological factors involved with gaming and TikTok are no secret either. But what about the devices themselves, which emit radio frequency radiation? Researchers say the effects of wireless radiation from cord-free technology are especially potent for young people.

In light of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the past year, many misconceptions surround contraception and its legality in Wyoming. Facts about Plan B One-Step, the emergency, overthe-counter birth control, might drop some jaws. Along the lines of sexual health, a look at HPV — an extremely common sexually-transmitted infection that can cause genital warts and cancers — its vaccination availability and its prominence seems like some much-needed sex ed.

Mold. It’s everywhere, especially in Jackson. Young immune systems are particularly susceptible to the harm of this stubborn and pervasive fungus. How bad is it, really, and what can be done to fight the fungus?

This section will explore those topics, along with a look at another inflammatory agent, sugar, as well as the value of diagnostic testing during child development. We hope these stories inspire healthier habits for kids, and really all of us who hail from the Hole.

— Miranda de Moraes

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PUBLISHER: Adam Meyer

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Johanna Love

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HOLE HEALTH SECTION EDITOR: Miranda de Moraes

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Head games: Seeking consensus on concussion

Resurrecting a community game plan on baseline testing and head injury protocol could improve treatment, therapists say.

Four days completely gone.

“I didn’t know what happened to me,” Ethan McLeod said. “I thought I had COVID.”

Nope. Just a broken face — and a traumatic brain injury.

After he crashed while downhill skiing at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta on Jan. 9, 2022, McLeod, 27, was lifeflighted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. But no one knew who he was. He’d been skiing alone and left his ID in his car.

Friends finally tracked him down and alerted his parents in Boise, Idaho. A doctor offered to do the facial reconstruction surgery that McLeod needed, but he’d never done it before, McLeod said.

So McLeod was flown to the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. That’s where he regained consciousness — a tube doing his breathing for him, his jaw wired shut — on Jan. 13, 2022. And that’s where he had the surgery to put his face back together.

The best he can figure more than a year later is that he hit a tree after skiing somewhat recklessly that day. Someone found him there, at the base of a tree. He thinks he’d been there for at least 15 minutes.

McLeod is one of the lucky ones.

According to the Centers for Dis-

By Mark Baker

ease Control and Prevention, about 1.5 million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries annually and about 230,000 of them are hospitalized. Of those, about 50,000 people die each year from their injuries.

But not everyone who hits their head skiing or playing hockey or just falling down the stairs at home gets medical care. Many are not even sure what happened. They’ve simply sustained a concussion, which is a type of traumatic brain inury that happens when the head and brain move rapidly back and forth.

About 1.6 million to 3.8 million Americans sustain a sports- and recreation-related concussion annually, according to the CDC.

And when it comes to contact sports, dealing with concussions and concussion protocol and managing symptoms and treatment is an inexact science that continues to evolve, especially in a place as active as Jackson Hole.

From downhill skiing to ice hockey to mountain biking, not to mention youth and high school sports such as football and soccer, there’s no shortage of opportunities for the human skull to come in contact with the ground, the ice or another athlete.

But how do you lower the risk? Should kids not play contact sports?

Should a concussion signal an automatic end to a player’s season?

“The sport isn’t the problem,” said Hayden Hilke, owner of Peak Physical Therapy in Wilson. “It’s how we manage these incidents and these injuries.”

Hilke also runs Watershed Jackson, a nonprofit organization that aims to raise awareness regarding area athletes who have sustained spinal cord or traumatic brain injuries. He and other stakeholders thought they had a solution back in 2019 to lower the concussion rate and generally improve outcomes, by providing annual concussion baseline-testing and introducing a concussion management plan via medical providers, St. John’s Health, physical therapists and the Teton County School District, among others.

But then came the pandemic.

“We were just gaining momentum, and then the bottom fell out,” Hilke said.

In November 2019, Hilke spearheaded a concussion baseline screening night at Snow King Sports and Events Center, uniting medical providers, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists and St. John’s Health to build a community plan around concussion protocol.

Youth athletes from Jackson Youth Hockey and the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club, among others,

received baseline tests that measure brain function, which can later help diagnose concussions through comparative testing.

A few months before that evening at Snow King a newly formed concussion support group met in a common area of St. John’s Health. Chris Smithwick, a speech-language pathologist with Teton Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation who would later choose the tests for that baseline screening night, and Oliver Goss, a St. John’s social worker, organized the group.

About eight people showed for that first monthly group in the spring of 2019, Smithwick said. But it lasted only around five months, he said, as attendance tapered.

“I’ve been asking myself, ‘Why did that happen?’” Smithwick said earlier this month.

Summer came and people got busy. It’s hard to push through summertime traffic to get to a late-afternoon meeting on the east side of Jackson. Maybe the meetings needed to be held more often?

Whatever it was, Smithwick and fellow Teton Physical Therapy therapist Margaret Blair put in countless volunteer hours developing the baseline testing program, said Lindsay Love, director of rehabilitation at

Ethan McLeod lies in a hospital bed at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in January 2022 after suffering a severe traumatic brain injury and breaking almost every bone in his face in a skiing accident at Grand Targhee Resort. Now the executive director of the Jackson Hole Kayak Club, McLeod is hoping to start a local concussion support group.

Contraception misconceptions

By Kate Ready

In an era of patchwork state laws that make abortion rights confusing for women, the same rings true for birth control options. A new poll found that many don’t know whether it’s legal to buy or use emergency contraceptives such as Plan B.

“In our office experience, most of the confusion with regards to Plan B has to do with the fact that it’s available without a prescription,” said Dr. Giovannina Anthony, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist in Jackson. “There are also a lot of patients who think it’s an abortion.”

It is not.

Plan B One-Step is an emergency contraceptive, a backup method of birth control that’s used to reduce the chance of pregnancy when taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex. It is not for routine contraceptive use, and according to the Food and Drug Administration it does not harm the fetus for women who are already pregnant.

In June 2013 the FDA approved Plan B for use without a prescription and without age restrictions. The pill contains levonorgestrel, one type of the hormone called progestin that is commonly found at lower doses in birth control pills and intrauterine devices.

Although for now Plan B is 100% legal in all 50 states, a third of adults, 32%, said in a poll conducted by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation that they’re unsure if Plan B is legal in their state, and 5% said they think emergency contraceptive pills are illegal in their state.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on national health issues, said in the poll that “confusion is more widespread in states where abortions are currently banned.”

More than half of people living in those states, including half of women, are unaware that Plan B is still legal. And while Plan B is available over the counter in many places, in Wyoming it’s often located behind the counter of a pharmacy.

The Albertsons pharmacy in Jackson confirmed that an ID isn’t needed to purchase Plan B, which retails for around $55, but the purchaser will need to ask a pharmacist for it.

Jodie Pond, the director of health at the Teton County Health Department, and Dr. Anthony said this may deter teens from buying it if they feel they’ll need to speak to a pharmacist.

Valerie Peprovich, a pharmacist at Albertsons for 16 years, told the News&Guide the pharmacy doesn’t sell much Plan B.

“In fact, I can’t think of the last time I’ve sold one,” Peprovich said.

Scientifically false FDA labeling contributed to the widespread belief that Plan B ends pregnancies.

Data from Kaiser found that 73% of U.S. adults incorrectly think that emergency contraceptive pills can end a pregnancy in its early stages. That includes two-thirds of women of childbearing age, 18-49.

The FDA changed the wording on Plan B on Dec. 22 to clarify that the pill does not prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.

The New York Times reported that scientific evidence has never shown that Plan B affects a fertilized egg’s ability to attach to the uterus and the FDA explained in an accompanying document that the products cannot be described as abortion pills.

“We used to use oral contraceptives in high doses for 48 hours to prevent ovulation, which is essentially what Plan B does,” Dr. Anthony said. “With a high dose of standard birth control for 48 hours you could potentially stop ovaries from ovulating — but it doesn’t cause an implanted or fertilized egg to abort.”

Leaflets inserted in Plan B packages say that the medication “works before release of an egg from the ovary,” meaning that it acts before fertilization, not after.

The FDA told The Times it made the

change now because it had “completed a review of a 2018 application to alter the label that was submitted by Foundation Consumer Healthcare,” a company that in 2017 bought the Plan B brand from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

FDA officials said the political climate was not a motivation for updating the labeling and cited the pandemic as a delay in the review process.

Why were false claims about implantation placed on the label to begin with?

Experts said it was likely because daily birth control pills, some of which contain Plan B’s active ingredient, appear to alter the endometrium, the lining of the uterus into which fertilized eggs implant.

First, altering the endometrium has not been proven to interfere with implantation and, second, scientists have said that while daily doses of birth control pills accumulate levonorgestrel, morning-after pills do not have time to affect the uterine lining.

Dr. Anthony said she’s seen women in her Jackson women’s health clinic who believed all contraceptives were outlawed.

“I’ve had patients from conservative communities in Idaho come to me for gynecological care, who were ... under the perception that contraception in general was illegal,” Dr. Anthony said. “Plan B is a great option where contraception access is restricted.”

Even if abortion were ultimately banned in Wyoming, which might be the case by the end of the year, Plan B would remain legal.

Dr. Anthony recommended a website as a source of information for women with questions about abortion access.

“We try to direct women who call to the Chelsea’s Fund website to get accurate, upto-date information in Wyoming,” Dr. Anthony said. “I think it’s important to have a central source of information.”

Contact Kate Ready at 732-7076 or kready@jhnewsandguide.com.

In wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturn, some are uncertain whether Plan B and other contraceptives are legal.

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE

Plan B One-Step is an emergency contraceptive that can help prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or after another birth control method fails.

We have ‘room’ to vax kids against cancer

Merck-manufactured vaccine. Now the jab is capable of fighting nine strains of HPV and the cancers they cause, up from four when it was first approved.

By Billy Arnold

When it comes to vaccinating kids against cancer, Wyoming is underperforming.

And while Teton County’s vaccination rates are above the state’s, health professionals here would like to see those numbers jump in Jackson Hole. While 36% of 13- to 17-year-olds in Wyoming were vaccinated against human papillomavirus in 2021, Teton County isn’t far ahead; only 43% of teens had been inoculated.

“There’s room for vaccinating more people in that younger population,” said Jhala French, a nurse with the Teton County Health Department who coor dinates the county’s vaccination efforts.

When it comes to protecting people against HPV, health experts say getting vaccinated when you’re younger is better, particularly because the cancercausing virus is transmitted through sexual fluids.

“The most important demographic that should be getting this vaccine is our 9- to 12-year-olds,” said Deanna Lee Kepka, the founder and director of the Intermountain West HPV Vaccination Coalition. Kepka is also a scientist at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“You want to do it before any sexual experience at all,” Kepka said.

Preventing cancer

The HPV vaccine, Gardasil 9, is one of only two vaccines that can combat cancer.

The other is the hepatitis B vaccine, which can help prevent certain types of

liver cancer.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, estimated to infect some 43 million Americans annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine times out of 10, the virus will go away on its own within two years. When it doesn’t it can cause a range of health problems. Genital warts, yes. But also some deadly cancers that affect both men and women.

Most people are exposed to HPV when they’re in their teens or early 20s. But it can take 10 or 15 years for the

virus to develop into cancer, and detecting HPV is difficult.

The virus is typically found only when people develop genital warts, women get an abnormal Pap test result during cervical cancer screening — or when someone develops cancer later in life.

Health officials say the best way to combat HPV is to prevent it, which is where the vaccine comes in.

Gardasil was first approved in 2006 for women and girls, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has spent years approving a new version of the

Over 100 million doses have been administered safely, the CDC says. Clinical trials also showed that the most recent version of the vaccine was nearly 100% effective in preventing cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and precancers caused by HPV, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“In the U.S. we have about 37,000 cancers that occur each year that could be prevented with vaccination,” Kepka said.

Low vaccination rates

But uptake is still slower than health officials would like, particularly in the Mountain West.

HPV vaccination rates in Wyoming’s teens, for example, are the second lowest in the country, behind only Mississippi. Teton County ranks seventh out of 23 counties in the state.

“That is incredibly low,” Kepka said of Wyoming’s vaccination rate. “There’s so much need.”

Part of the problem, Kepka said, is that the state’s medical providers aren’t all “on board.”

“If you don’t have providers strongly recommending this vaccine, parents aren’t just going to like volunteer to be like, ‘Oh, I want to get it,’” Kepka said.

She said it’s not clear why, exactly, Wyoming providers aren’t on board. Some more convincing may be needed that the vaccine is a safe and effective way to prevent cancer, she said.

But Wyoming’s low vaccination rates could also be due to how rural the Equality State is.

“Many clinics say that it’s not cost effective for them to stock the HPV vaccine,” Kepka said. “So then they’re

HPV vaccine prevents cancer, particularly if it’s given before kids become sexually active.

Wyoming lags U.S. in HPV vaccinations for teens

Only 48% of 13- to 17-year-olds in Wyoming were vaccinated against HPV in 2021. That’s the 49th lowest rate of vaccination in the nation. Mississippi is the only state below Wyoming, with 32.7% of its 13- to 17-year-olds vaccinated as of 2021.

HPV

Continued from 6E

asking parents to go to county health departments, and that’s another trip to get it.”

Get jabbed early

One misperception working against vaccination efforts is the association some parents make between the HPV vaccine and sexual activity. There’s a mistaken belief that one leads to the other. Studies, however, indicate that people who are vaccinated are no more likely to be sexually active than people who don’t, Kepka said.

“Giving it at the youngest age is really most helpful because it’s so far from puberty, parents tend to be more

accepting of it,” Kepka said.

Kepka said the highest incidence of HPV in the U.S. is among teenagers, and people are most often exposed to HPV around the time of their first sexual experience, which can precede sex itself.

The virus isn’t just transmitted through intercourse, Kepka said.

“It could just be the exchange of bodily fluids,” she said. What if you’re older?

The vaccine is approved for anyone 9 to 45 years old.

But it’s recommended only for people who are between 11 and 26 years old.

“Through age 26, still get it,” Kepka said. “No questions asked.”

People younger than 11 and older

How bad is mold, really?

It’s an annoyance for many and a health risk for some.

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel

Melissa Lyn moved into a brandnew unit in the Sagebrush Apartments in 2021.

Despite a rent cost that made her brow furrow every month, $2,050, the workforce deed-restricted studio apartment allowed for her dog and was conveniently located near downtown Jackson.

The apartment was good enough for Lyn — until January 2022, when her unit flooded.

A sprinkler broke, inundating her apartment and a few others with water. The worst of the damage was fixed by a

restoration service, but soon after, Lyn started to notice puddles on her floor.

After contacting management, Lyn said, she got a humidity monitor. Problem was, there was no process for collecting data. Fortunately, the puddles didn’t reappear. ... until the next winter.

In December 2022, Lyn pulled back her couch and found a generous amount of mold growing along her wall.

She immediately contacted management with frustration, as this was her sixth Jackson apartment in eight years. She was determined to find a fix.

Management gave Lyn a dehumidi-

Dr. Lisa Brady Grant

fier to help with the mold, which they said should have arrived 11 months earlier. Regardless, she would go on to have to pay $11 extra dollars a month for the dehumidifier’s electricity cost, as well as new bathroom fans to help with condensation, another $2 a month.

She was also encouraged to clean her walls with bleach.

Sitting in her apartment in January, Lyn said she wasn’t sure the mold was gone.

“This isn’t a fix,” Lyn said, “this is a Band-Aid.” Mold is common across Jackson

Hole, even in new construction.

Another tenant in the same apartment complex as Lyn said that after reporting that mold had grown onto her pillows on her bed, she was told she would be getting new bathroom fans and was to clean up with a chlorine-based cleaner.

Three other renters who spoke with the News&Guide and did not live in Sagebrush said their landlords were unwilling to pay for professional mold remediation, even in much more extreme circumstances with mold that

Melissa Lyn looks through photos she took of mold that had formed on the baseboards of her unit in the Sagebrush Apartments late last year.

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Wireless radiation: Hide your kids, hide your wildlife

By Miranda de Moraes

Dozens, if not hundreds, of satellite antennas and towers loom across Teton County.

When asked if there are any health problems with the wireless radiation emitted by those facilities, many local officials were silent.

“We don’t have anything really to say on that subject,” said Jodie Pond, the director of the Teton County Health Department.

“This would not fall under the DEQ’s authority or expertise,” said Keith Guille, outreach officer of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

“I haven’t given this much thought,” said Carl Pelletier, the former public information officer for the town of Jackson.

There’s a reason for this. The federal government bars local governments from denying applications for wireless communications facilities “based on health considerations.”

The Federal Communications Commission — an independent government agency that regulates TV, cable, radio, satellite and wire communications — holds all of the power when it comes to determining the safety and distribution of consumer media devices.

“As a town and county we have very restricted lanes in which we need to stay when we review [cell tower proposals],” Jackson Town Councilor Arne Jorgenson said. “Otherwise, we would be in violation with federal law.”

The problem is that the FCC is

concerned with “promoting competition,” “supporting the nation’s economy” and encouraging the “highest and best use of spectrum.” Consumer health is not highlighted as a priority on the commission’s site. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 hasn’t been updated since the days of 2G and flip phones, and that act is what governs the FCC’s current radio frequency regulations.

But in the past few decades scientists have found that over-the-counter wireless devices may be far more dangerous than the FCC says, especially for children.

One of the loudest voices of caution about wireless radiation is a resident of Teton Village: Devra Davis.

Davis is a founder of the National Toxicology Program and formerly an advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a com-

mittee member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a team member of a climate change panel that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Davis is a big name in the scientific community. She’s also hard to reach, as she’s an advocate for stationary computers, landlines and Luddite means of communicating.

“Phones are not tested in the way they’re used,” Davis said. “They’re tested 5 millimeters from the body.”

She cited studies that demonstrate the dangers of unrepresentative testing, such as how the director of research at the Cleveland Clinic’s American Center for Reproductive Medicine, Ashok Agarwal, and his team found that men who keep their phone in their back pocket had lower sperm count and poorer sperm quality.

Davis has devoted the past 16

years to investigating and broadcasting the risks of wireless radiation on consumers and fighting the federal government. She founded the Environmental Health Trust over a decade ago, a nonprofit think tank that believes mobile devices, Wi-Fi, 5G and other radio-frequency systems are a risk to the health of humans and the environment.

The trust sued the FCC in 2021 for failing to update its health and safety radio frequency radiation guidelines from 1996 — and won.

The U.S. Court of Appeals of Washington, D.C. called the FCC’s policies “arbitrary and capricious” in regard to the commission’s testing procedures, “particularly as they relate to children,” its conclusions about “longterm exposure” and its “complete failure” to respond to the environmental damages of radio frequency.

The court ordered the FCC to make “a reasoned determination” as to whether the 447 exhibits in 27 volumes that the Environmental Health Trust submitted to the court suggesting biological effects — brain damage, headaches, memory problems, reproduction damage, synergistic effects, nervous system impacts, brain cancer, genetic damage, as well as harm to trees, birds, bees, and other wildlife — warrant a change to its decades-old regulatory guidelines.

Critics say the order is unspecific and lacks a deadline.

Since that ruling, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon wrote a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, urging “immediate action” be taken to review current research and update policies on “wireless radio frequency radiation.” He worried about the “well-being of all citizens, including the most vulnerable, our children.”

Researchers say that babies and children are the most at risk to the

BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE

A cell tower disguised as a Gothic bell tower stands tall behind Redeemer Lutheran Church on Willow Street. The tower is just a few hundred feet from Davey Jackson Elementary School. Health advocates and others want the Federal Communications Commission to recognize the risks to people and the environment from wireless radiation.

BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE

Researchers say babies and children are the most at-risk to the health risks of electromagnetic radiation from wireless devices and cellular towers.

health effects of electromagnetic radiation. Here’s why:

Young brains contain more fluid, and young skulls are thinner.

Neurons in the brains of kids under 6 are not fully myelinated, meaning the fatty, protective sheath that insulates nerves from damage is not yet developed.

Babies have more fat, which facilitates the penetration of toxic agents.

Kids have faster-growing tissues, which can sustain lifelong damage.

Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, is at the forefront of research on the adverse health effects of wireless radiation. He has found that the frequencies of microwaves, which wireless communication devices radiate, interfere with normal cell functioning.

“The brain largely functions on electric signals,” Moskowitz said, “so when people hold phones directly to their head, they’re exposed to a lot of radiation.”

Microwaves can break open ion channels and prompt the production of stress proteins. If a cell can’t eliminate the stress, DNA damage can occur, which skyrockets the risk of cancer. Microwaves can also penetrate deep into organs — like the liver, lungs, brain and bladder — which is where the real trouble can start.

“Energy fields can further diminish organs’ abilities to fight off other chemical toxins,” Moskowitz said. “Any chemical toxins in the circulatory system then have an easier time penetrating brain tissue.”

The youngest members of our population remain especially at risk, with lab research finding that even fetuses exposed to cellphone radiation can suffer.

“The evidence is really, really strong now that there is a causal relationship between cellphone radiation exposure and behavior issues in children,” said Dr. Hugh Taylor, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine, in a similar article on wireless radiation that was published by ProPublica in November.

A peril for pollinators

Harm to wildlife is also a worry, especially for pollinators and airborne animals.

Davis cited a study of six colonies of honeybees. A phone was placed inside three colonies’ hives, and the other three were left alone. After 10 days the bees in the hives with the phone did not return, and the queens in these hives produced substantially fewer eggs. The bees in the phonefree hives continued with business as usual.

Pollinators are essential to the functioning of ecosystems and human food systems. Bees in particular are responsible for pollinating around 90 commercially produced crops, according to the Food and Drug Administration. They are also a rapidly declining population: U.S. beekeepers lost over 45% of their honey bee colonies from April 2020 to 2021, according to the Bee Informed Partnership’s national survey.

“A fair number of studies suggest that bees are at risk of suffering problems of fertility and death,” Moskowitz said, “which are contributing to the demise of the bee population.”

Nonetheless, Grand Teton National Park is at the mercy of the FCC as well.

“We followed FCC regulations when we installed cell towers,” said Valerie Gohlke, public affairs specialist for the park. “We have not done studies on wireless radiation and animals.”

Despite the federal government’s preemption of local governments in the regulation of cell towers, people have the power to limit their own ra-

Dark skies forum coming up

The Environmental Health Trust and Wyoming Stargazing will host a public forum next month, “Why Dark Skies are Good for You and the Planet.”

Sleeping habits, cyptochromes and wireless device radiation will be among the discussions at the event. Email Dr. Devra Davis at info@ehtrust.org for information.

When: 5:30-7 p.m. March 6

Where: St. John’s Episcopal Church, 170 Glenwood St.

dio frequency radiation exposure.

While the FCC states on its website that “no scientific evidence currently establishes a definitive link between wireless device use and cancer or other illnesses,” the commission also concedes information on steps “to reduce your exposure to RF energy from cellphones.”

Protect yourself

Some recommendations, noted by the FCC and wireless radiation researchers, include:

– Use phones only when the signal is strong.

– Turn off phones or set them to airplane-mode while sleeping.

– Avoid holding a cellphone to ears. Instead, use wired headphones or the

speakerphone.

– Stay away from Bluetooth devices, including AirPods.

– Keep phones and laptops away from vital organs, by storing phones in bags or distant pockets and using laptops on tables.

– Text instead of cellphone call whenever possible and avoid consuming videos. Yes, that means TikTok.

– Use wired-connection computers and landlines.

– Simply limit the amount of time on wireless devices. Try setting app timers.

Population density is directly correlated with radio frequency radiation exposure. Lucky for Jacksonites, exposure in Teton County is far lower than in, say, New York City.

Nonetheless, exposure from personal devices can be the most dangerous, as they are used close to the body. Following the above recommendations can reduce risk for a number of radiation-associated illnesses.

“It’s unrealistic to give up devices,” Moskowitz said, “but the technology could be made a lot safer.”

He named a few simple design changes phone manufacturers should consider — like placing an iron bead on the cord of a wired headset to limit the transfer of electromagnetic waves and orienting internal satellite connections in cellphones away from the body, rather than keeping their design omnidirectional.

Really, regulation rests in research and research relies on funding.

The FCC, on its website, states that “more and longer-term studies” are important for determining whether there is a “better basis for RF safety standards than is currently used.”

“There’s hardly any research on 4G and essentially no studies on 5G,” said Moskowitz, of the Center for Family and Community Health. “Health research lags way behind technology, but that’s how the industry and government wants it to be.”

Contact Miranda de Moraes at 732-7063 or mdm@jhnewsandguide.com.

BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE FILE

Pollinators are essential to the functioning of ecosystems and human food systems. Bees are responsible for pollinating around 90 commercially produced crops, but some studies suggest that wireless radiofrequency radiation may be contributing to the decline of the global bee population.

HEAD GAMES

Teton Physical Therapy.

“The hours that those two spent developing this program and pouring into this was remarkable,” Love said, sitting in her office at Teton Physical Therapy in East Jackson.

Love and Hilke did a lot of work together, too, trying to get a communitybased concussion plan off the ground.

“Our real goal was to have everybody have these baseline screens, everybody who was involved in club or any organized sports in town, so they had just something to give us a measure to look back at. We did a lot of research.”

The thinking was, “Let’s get in on this at the forefront, and let’s be one of these models for a community-based concussion program,” Love said. “And I am 90% sure that we would have gotten to a place that was really good and useful and well received with some tweaking and changes and we were on that path if we hadn’t had that [pandemic] shutdown.”

The shutdown, of course, affected staffing and resources.

“It was all professional staff volunteering time to provide these [baseline] screens, which is difficult to sustain,” Love said. “We needed a lot of volunteers for each team.”

As they began running out of volunteers to staff the effort, the goal shifted to organizing a baseline testing day for the Teton County School District student-athletes.

“And we had it pretty dialed at that point, how it worked,” Love said. But, again, then came COVID in 2020. And then came the staffing shortages.

“Even if we reinvented how we were going to do things, health care was in a different place, so we were dealing with COVID and not dealing with concus-

sion or a lot of other things. ... at that time,” she said.

But a lot of parents still want their children baseline-tested before playing contact sports, Love said. So Teton Physical Therapy still provides that, but it’s not free.

Cumulative impact

Hilke said the No. 1 sport she receives calls about is hockey.

“I get four or five calls a season,” she said, from parents whose children sustained a concussion or are suspected of sustaining one.

But not all youth hockey teams baseline-test, she said. It depends on the team and the parents, Hilke said.

“I definitely see it vary from program to program,” said Dr. Travis Riddell, a Jackson pediatrician and Teton County’s health officer. “It seems like the schools are more on top of it than the club sports, and definitely more driven by parents.”

Riddell doesn’t see a need to mandate public baseline scoring for student-athletes because it’s “not a public health threat.” But if baseline testing allows for a better diagnosis of concussions and for better management of head injuries, “then why not do it, from a parent perspective?” he said.

“I worry about the cumulative impacts of these [concussions],” Riddell said. “Even sub-concussive,” a bump or blow to head that doesn’t cause symptoms, “blows can have an effect over time.”

That’s why baseline testing is so important, experts say.

“I think that’s sort of what we would like to see happen, where it’s just normal to see the kid’s base-lined,” Hilke said. “But I don’t know of any community that’s been able to sustain it.”

A sustaining concussion management program — where student-ath-

letes are regularly given baseline tests, where coaches and trainers regularly give sideline tests that compare scores to those baseline tests, where there is a flow chart of treatment protocol around head injuries — St. John’s Health needs to be a major player, Hilke said.

“I’d love to see it be in place again,” Dr. Jim Little Jr., chief of staff at St. John’s Health, of the concussion program that was gaining momentum. “But we can’t do it by ourselves. We can’t take care of all the baseline testing.” The hospital would need volunteers in the form of therapists, trainers, parents, etc., Little said.

‘I have a story’

Whatever happens, McLeod, who endured a face-shattering concussion on the slopes of Targhee, wants to be involved.

“Just so people can have support,” said McLeod, who today has only a small scar on his chin to remind him of what happened.

But the head injury you don’t see. The damage to the frontal lobe of his brain, you don’t see.

He had trouble with multitasking and impulsivity for months, he said. He did physical therapy and occupational therapy and speech therapy at a neuro outpatient program in Idaho. He was eventually OK’d to drive a car again. He has three metal plates in his face from the surgery.

“I learned a lot,” said McLeod, who was able to go stay with his parents in Boise for months and slowly recover and who recently returned to the slopes. “And I have a story, and I think there’s value in that story.”

McLeod said he was able to recover and is doing well today “because I had the tools and resources, but I realize that a lot of people who get brain injuries don’t have that.”

He was insured under the Affordable Care Act and he was able to sleep whenever he needed to at his parents’ home in Boise.

“It has changed my life in general,” McLeod said.

He recently reached out to both Hilke and Smithwick and is taking the lead on reestablishing a concussion/TBI support group.

“There’s definitely interest in it,” Smithwick said.

Smithwick and Riddell both mentioned research in the last decade that disputes the ages-old theory that all concussion sufferers need to sit in a dark room and remain inactive for weeks.

“One of the hardest things that people experience with concussion is that it can be really confusing, the balance between doing too little or too much,” Smithwick said. “What is the balance?”

Do too much too soon and it can be overwhelming, he said. But do too little and then symptoms might not improve.

“Graded exposure” is the answer, Smithwick said. That means a gradual return to school or work or athletics.

It’s a “big myth” that all concussion sufferers should retreat and avoid activity, he said.“If you can tolerate mild symptoms, that’s a good sign.”

Hilke is hoping momentum to the concussion debate in Jackson can be restored before a real tragedy happens.

“I think it’s the best community in the entire universe, and we could do anything together,” Hilke said. “It just takes a lot of factors to get the ball back rolling. We lost a lot of momentum.”

“Unfortunately, it takes something happening before everyone says, ‘Oh wait a minute, did we have a plan?’”

Contact Mark Baker at 732-7065 or sports@jhnewsandguide.com

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE FILE

Jack Conroy, 12, performs the Vestibular Ocular Motor Screen test administered by Jacob Munger, a physical therapy student at Four Pines in Alpine, during the concussion testing in November 2019 at Snow King Sports and Events Center. Jack now plays for the Jackson Youth Hockey varsity boys U18 team.

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE FILE

Sami Stasi, a speech pathologist at Teton Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, administers a cognitive test in 2019 to Joseph Ornowski, 12, a hockey player. As the effects of traumatic brain injuries become more apparent, concussions have been a focus of coaches and medical providers. Ornowski sustained severe head trauma in a bicycle crash in Jackson last spring.

Too much sweet stuff can sour kids’ health

“I think adults can tell when they feel inflamed,” she said. “They can articulate it, but kiddos can’t figure out why they’re in a bad mood necessarily.”

By Tibby Plasse

Inflammation, chronic pain, poor sleep habits and general morale imbalances have been connected with diet for adults. But what about children?

The body’s response to a problem is inflammation. When you are sick and run a fever, that’s inflammation. When you eat something and it disagrees with you, that too is inflammation. Nutrition is an easy and controllable first step in trying to dissect the messages that both the body’s immune and nervous systems are sending.

Martha Lewis, the founder and CEO of The Complete Sleep Solution and a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, is also a mom who is sensitive to the inflammation response.

Lewis is devoted to addressing youth diets, which she has found are fundamental to health.

Growing up in a super sugarstrict household, where sodas, chips and processed treats were off the table, Lewis recalls raiding her friends’ fridges and bingeing on blacklisted eats whenever she could.

“We can’t be so restrictive that they develop an unhealthy relationship with food,” she said. “It’s a tricky line.”

If a child’s behavior or health seems out of whack, skim through the nutritional facts of pantry products, taking note of sodium, sugar and food dyes.

“Fruit juices too, there is so much sugar in them, and that’s a big deal, managing blood sugar and spiking cycles,” Lewis explained.

The reason Lewis said sugar should be avoided is it spikes

A balanced diet can do wonders for children’s behavior, sleep patterns and overall well-being.

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE

Birthday cake, Halloween candy and classroom treats are among the sugary sweets in the orbit of children throughout the year. As tantalizing as sweets might be, sugar is more of a punishment to a young person’s body than a reward.

blood sugar. The body then releases insulin, which lowers blood sugar.

Eventually blood sugar will fall so low that the body craves quickenergy foods to return to that prior energy level. Blood sugar jumps again, as cortisol releases into the body to keep energy pumping.

“It’s like they are on a blood sugar roller coaster,” Lewis said of kids who consume sugar.

Without stable blood sugar levels, children are more likely to be emotionally volatile, with impulsive reactions triggered by hungry and impaired decision-making.

Creating meals that have healthy doses of fats is one way to mitigate the sugar-crash-cycle, Lewis suggested.

“We do a lot of smoothies after school, but they are not just fruit,” she said. “When I make a smoothie for my son I add protein and greens powders, with healthy oils like coco nut or avocado oil.”

After school is a tricky time for adolescents, as energy wanes and the temptation to eat easy-access food is high. Lewis encourages parents and caretakers to bring nutritious, whole foods to the child’s plate, especially after school, since decisions at this time can impact success in homework, household chores and how much sleep the child gets.

Elimination diets can be helpful, such as the Gut and Physiology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, for which Lewis is a certified consultant.

Overall, any efforts to limit refined sugar and trans fat intake for children is a step in the right direction, the way the nutritionist sees it.

“It’s not realistic to say there isn’t going to be sugar everywhere,” Lewis said, reflecting on the regular exposure her son has to sugar, from birthday parties to classroom rewards. “I know that now being a mom, but the key is balance.”

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grew to cover carpets and clothing.

The News&Guide agreed to not print Melissa Lyn’s last name — Lyn is her middle name — or the other renters’ names at all because of their fear of eviction in a tight housing market.

Whether a renter, homeowner or landlord, Jacksonites will likely find mold at home eventually.

Mold, a fungal growth of many strains, is prevalent everywhere on earth, according to Ben Shaw, mitigation manager at Blue Sky Restoration, a local company that cleans up mold.

Average relative humidity in Jackson Hole ranges from 50% in August to as high as 93% in January. Microbial growth starts above 16% moisture content and above 60% relative humidity.

Mold is nature’s way of breaking down organic matter. If we didn’t have mold, our forests would be full of dead trees with no room for new life to grow, Shaw said. Since all buildings are built with materials composed of dead organic matter, like lumber, our homes don’t look like forests but are just as susceptible.

“You can find mold on Antarctica,” Shaw said.

Mold might be a miracle for forest regrowth but it becomes a problem when it proliferates near humans, especially in the home. Not all mold is treated equally, however.

As far as home remedies, bleach is more harmful to the homeowner than mold is, Shaw said.

That’s because bleach does not kill all mold but mostly removes the color so mold will be colorless and in a dormant state for a short time: “It will recover its color and will start growing like nothing happened,” Shaw said.

Professional mold mitigation means cleaning the substrate — or the building material itself, not just the outwardly visible growth — with a “high efficiency particulate air [filter]” vacuum and microbial cleaners like commercial-grade peroxide.

That work is expensive, ranging from $10,000 for a small job up to six figures for a “whole house mitigation,” Shaw said. Then there is the cost of building back, which can also be up in the tens of thousands, and most homeowners insurance does not cover mold.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there is no “set standard” for what is and is not an acceptable quantity of different kinds of mold. Depending on people’s sensitivities and allergies, mold can be damaging, irritating or not bothersome at all.

As the CDC states, “There is always a little mold everywhere.”

Inhaling tiny mold particles called nanoparticles can trigger an immune response, or the body’s mounting defense against what it sees as a foreign invader. Generally, the more mold, the more likely this allergy reaction is, including symptoms like coughing, sneezing, tight chest, congestion or head-

aches. People with asthma could have an attack.

Recent studies have shown children are especially susceptible, the CDC states, with a potential link between early mold exposure and development of asthma in some children, particularly those who may be genetically susceptible to developing asthma.

Though you may have grown up with fear of “black mold” or “toxic black mold,” which includes several species in the stachybotrus strain (not all of which are actually black in color), the danger is somewhat misunderstood.

In 1997 the CDC released a report on sudden infant deaths, studied over two years. The “prime suspect” of acute pulmonary hemorrhage in infants was stachybotrus, or black mold.

In 2000 the CDC corrected itself. There was no proven correlation between black mold and infant deaths —

the investigation had been faulty.

But fear of black mold remains, along with the misunderstanding that mold color is an indicator of how dangerous any one kind of mold is.

But just because there is no definitive evidence that black mold is dangerous doesn’t mean one should live with it.

The most common mold types in Jackson Hole are toxigenic, meaning they produce toxins, Shaw said. The health effects from those toxins have been shown to range from respiratory problems, like asthma and emphysema, to cognitive issues and, in one 2020 study, emotional dysfunction, though subjects in that study were exposed to “substantially higher than reported human exposures.”

Getting rid of mold dovetails with existing issues in Teton County’s tight housing market.

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With high supply and low demand, some renters might not feel comfortable approaching their landlord about mold remediation. Homeowners might not have the spare money to remove the mold and fix the moisture problem at the source.

Clare Stumpf, an organizer for housing advocacy group Shelter Jackson Hole, said many tenants who are living in unsafe conditions do not submit complaints that may jeopardize their housing.

At the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, the builder, manager and landlord are all under the same roof for renters.

Executive Director Anne Cresswell said she receives lots of calls about mold from homeowners and tenants alike. The Housing Trust contracts with mold mitigators and makes sure itself that the project is done in rentals, Cresswell said.

The Housing Trust has also constructed homes with heat recovery ventilators to increase circulation in homes and apartments, before they were a requirement in the building code. That cuts back on moisture problems, Cresswell said, but there are still issues with old construction, mishaps with water, and “operator error,” like people not properly using a shower curtain.

“Even the highest-end homes have mold,” Cresswell said.

To help mediate disputes between landlord and tenant, Shelter JH helped create the Town Housing Ombudsman program.

In the long term, Stumpf said, she hopes to help the region adopt livability requirements beyond building codes that cover all units — deed restricted and market rate — to help with mold, among other standards.

In southeast Wyoming, Laramie recently adopted a new rental housing habitability checklist as part of its rental housing code.

The last of 19 boxes to check is that “there are no visible signs of dangerous concentrations of mold.”

But adopting any stricter standards would be tricky, Stumpf said, since the goal would be to avoid price increases or the risk that a landlord would kick someone out to make improvements.

After all, flawed housing is usually better than no housing.

In the short term, Shaw with Blue Sky Restoration said he recommended people keep an eye on problem areas: leaks, busted pipes and faulty roofs.

“We never know when a pipe behind a wall will develop a leak or when a roof shingle is going to fail,” Shaw said.

Roof inspections and using heat strips on roofs to prevent ice damming can also help, as can humidity detectors and electronic leak detectors placed near water sources and around hot water heaters and under sinks. Contact Sophia Boyd-Fliegel at county@ jhnewsandguide or 307-732-7063.

BRADLY J. BONER / NEWS&GUIDE

Melissa Lyn said she’s observed the formation of mold in her unit at Sagebrush Apartments since the complex was flooded after a pipe burst during a cold snap early last year. She now has a dehumidifier and new bathroom fans but says they’re a “Band-Aid,” not a fix.

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Hitting developmental milestones

Children’s Learning Center screens 800 a year for hearing, vision, motor skills.

By Tibby Plasse

There are hundreds of developmental milestones that your child should be achieving from birth to age 5.

From muscle tone to eye contact t o motor skills, a lot is expected of a growing child. Luckily for Teton and Sublette counties the Children’s Learning Center has been an ally for nearly 50 years for families who need more sup port on the way to meeting those milestones.

“I talk about it like it’s magic,” said Cyndi Fischer, who is the head of the special education program at CLC and whos e own son participated in the program.

“The impact that you can have when their brain is still in such a plastic stage is pretty profound,” she said.

Children’s Learning Center staff pr ovides routine screenings in day cares and preschools. Not everything is diagnosable in those quick checks, but CLC’s relationship with the local programs ensures that if there is a way to support a child to learn and explore better, it will be found.

The rule is three screen -

ings before 5 years old, if not yearly.

“But I would recommend for any kid that they have

their vision and their hearing screening done annually,” Fischer said. “At least no longer than every year-and-

a-half, when they’re zero to 5 years old, before they go to kindergarten.”

Often children seem bor-

derline, according to Fischer, so the CLC will assign daily activities and focus points

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE

A classroom at the Children’s Learning Center in Rafter J is papered with children’s art and colorful decorations. Learning Center staffers visit preschools and day cares throughout the community to test kids for developmental delays.

for the child. If it’s fine motor skills that children are struggling with, they will be given scissors and cutting activities to practice.

“If they’re not hitting their developmental milestones, and if they’re borderline, there are a lot of simple interventions for parents to do at home,” Fischer said.

After six months, if the growth goals haven’t been met, “then [the CLC] would evaluate them and provide service.”

The center does not work with the public school district, except when students are transitioning, and usually that’s in kindergarten. In the state of Wyoming programs for 5 and under are directed by the Wyoming Department of Health.

According to Fischer, developmental milestones can look completely different depending on the child.

Children could be meeting every milestone, except for something as subtle as holding a pencil with the wrong grip, and be recommended for a CLC screening. Tools include a vision camera, hearing screenings and an overall developmental evaluation with a therapist.

“If this is a child we’re really worried about, we make the call to do a full-on eval and see if they qualify,” Fischer said.

Fischer is confident that in Teton County the Children’s Learning Center is catching most of the students who need support. The organization works with pediatricians, too.

“We saw close to 800 students last year between [Teton and Sublette] counties,” Fischer said. “For students that are not in a preschool, we usually connect with that family through pediatricians and doctors. And outside of that, the second a parent starts speaking with other families, we come up as the first resource.”

Early intervention in addressing the developmental needs of children has been effective in preventing an exacerbation of learning challenges, according to Fischer, who is backed by stacks of academic journals.

“If children get the support they need ... and they are borderline, they will then catch up,” Fischer said. “They will likely meet their milestone, because after all, they are developing so fast.”

Contact Miranda de Moraes at 7327063 or mdm@jhnewsandguide.com.

“There are a lot of simple interventions for parents to do at home.”

— Cyndi Fischer CHILDREN’S LEARNING CENTER

than 26 can still get the vaccine, however. Vaccines can be administered for kids as young as 9. Over 26? You can still get the shot, but you’ll need to talk with your doctor first.

That’s because the older you are, the more likely you are to have been sexually active for longer — and more likely to have been exposed to HPV. That diminishes how effective the vaccine is, Kepka said.

People’s sexual histories can help determine whether getting the shot later on is worth it.

In states like Utah, where people are conservative and tend to have fewer sexual partners, Kepka said it may be more beneficial to get the HPV vaccine at an older age. The same may be true for people who have been married for years, have had only a few partners throughout their life and get divorced.

“Maybe they were too old when the vaccine came out, but now at this new stage in their life they think it might benefit them,” Kepka said.

Whatever the situation, Kepka said that people who are between 26 and 45 years old should talk with their doctors about whether the shot is worth getting. The conversation, she said, “is worth having.”

Where can you get the shot?

French, the Teton County Health Department nurse, said her employer offers free vaccines for kids who are uninsured and up to 18 years old.

The department can vaccinate children as young as 9 years old but typically waits until kids turn 11.

“We give a ton of HPV vaccine between that age of 11 and 18,” French said.

For people who are uninsured the Health Department offers a few ways to get the vaccination.

Generally, assistance is available

Dispelling myths about the HPV vaccine

Myth: Getting vaccinated promotes sexual activity

Studies of thousands of people have shown that people vaccinated against HPV aren’t any more likely to be exposed to sexually transmitted infections than other people, said Deanna Lee Kepka, director of the Intermountain West HPV Prevention Coalition.

“Those with a vaccine don’t have more cases of chlamydia than those without the vaccine, which is telling us that their sexual behaviors are not any different.”

Myth: Getting vaccinated against HPV primarily protects women

About 47,000 new HPV-associated cancers occur in the United States every year, with about 26,000 in women and 21,000 in men, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Oropharyngeal cancer (cancer in the back of the throat) is one of the most common types of those cancers.

“The incidence of that cancer is like 85% in men to 15% women,” Kepka said. “It’s a cancer that men have.”

The CDC estimates that 70% of oropharyngeal cancers diagnosed in the U.S. are “probably” caused by a strain of HPV, which can also cause anal and penile cancer and genital warts.

for uninsured patients through Merck, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the vaccine. Getting that assistance if you’re between 19 and 26 years old is “pretty straightforward,” French said. But when you’re 27 or older, things get a little more complicated.

At that point getting the vaccine at all typically requires a visit with both a nurse practitioner and a midlevel health care provider who can recommend the patient get the vaccine, French said.

If someone who’s uninsured and between 27 and 45 years old sees a

Men should want the vaccine “for their own benefit too,” Kepka said.

Myth: It’s better to wait to get your kids vaccinated against HPV until they’re engaged in sexual behavior Kepka said getting vaccinated early is key to preventing kids from getting HPV — and especially effective before any kind of sexual activity begins. That’s because the virus is transmitted through sexual activity.

A 2017 report from the CDC estimated that 55% of male and female teens had sex before they turned 18</a>.

“You want it long before sexual activity,” Kepka said. “You want it to be protective.” But there’s another benefit to getting vaccinated early: If people are vaccinated against before they’re 15, they have to get only two doses of the vaccine for it to be effective. Afterward, that goes up to three.

Myth: The HPV vaccine is ‘new’

An HPV vaccine has been approved for women and girls since 2006 and men and boys since 2009. The original vaccine, however, protected against only four strains of HPV. A newer version of the vaccine that’s called Gardasil 9 and manufactured by Merck protects against nine strains of the virus and

provider, and gets a recommendation, Merck’s assistance program is typically available. It just requires more paperwork.

With insurance it’s a similar story, French said: The vaccine is typically covered until someone turns 26. From 27 to 45, getting coverage typically requires a visit with a health care provider.

The Health Department doesn’t take all forms of insurance, so if patients’ providers don’t cover the jab, nurses will typically send them elsewhere in the county to get vaccinated.

French, like Kepka, recommended

the cancers and diseases it causes. Guardasil 9 was first approved in 2014 for men age 9 to 15 and women age 9 through 26.

A year later the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded its approval to include men up to 26 years old. In 2018 it expanded its approval to cover men and women from 9 to 45 years old.

Myth: The HPV vaccine is ‘not safe’ Kepka said the HPV vaccine has a “really strong safety profile.”

“We have hundreds of millions of doses that have been given and monitored by the CDC,” Kepka said.

“More than 135 million doses of HPV vaccines have been distributed since they were licensed,” the CDC says on its website. “Data continue to show the vaccines are safe and effective.”

Myth: The HPV vaccine causes fertility problems

To the contrary, the CDC says that contracting an HPV-related cancer can require women to get treatments — hysterectomies, chemotherapy, or radiation — that can limit their ability to have children.

Treating precancerous lesions in the cervix can lead to complications that can cause preterm delivery, the CDC says.

people get the shot early.

“Get in here and get it before you turn 19 because it is free at that point and more effective,” she said.

Kepka said the best way to ensure you or your kid gets the vaccine is to ask for it.

Given the county’s vaccination statistics, French said she knows more people are eligible for it.

“We’re slightly higher than average,” she said. “But certainly lots of room for improvement.”

Contact Billy Arnold at 732-7063 or barnold@jhnewsandguide.com.