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Warning Issued About a Dam in California; Researchers Link Body Odor to Mosquito Bites; French Swimmer Sets his Sights on the 2020 Paralympic Games
Aired November 06, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to your midweek edition of CNN 10. My name is Carl Azuz. It`s great to see you. We`ve done some reporting
lately on the destructive wildfires in California. The state`s still in the midst of its fire season when blazes are more likely to flare up but
the major wildfires we`ve told you about have been contained for the most part. Now though, some people in Southern California are in danger of
another potential disaster, flooding. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which operates and maintains about 700 dams in America recently issued a
new warning about the Mojave River Dam. It`s located at the northern side of the San Bernardino Mountains and last year the Corps ran a risk
assessment of it and concluded that if water flows over the top of the dam during an extreme flood event, the dam could fail.
To be clear, the Corps says the kind of flooding that could cause that is unlikely and it`s never happened before but it`s drawing attention to the
issue because the area expects more rain this winter. And if the dam were to fail, flooding could effect more than 315,000 people who live in nearby
communities about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The Mojave River Dam was built in 1971. That makes it younger than most of the dams across the
U.S. There are more than 90,000 of them and most are more than 50 years old. They help provide irrigation and hydropower and protect communities
from flooding.
But many across the country are under review and the importance of assessing them became clear in 2017 when the Oroville Dam in northern
California was damaged after heavy rainfall. That led to the evacuation of 180,000 people before water levels at the dam dropped. Four years ago the
Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would need $24 billion to fix all the dams that needed repairs.
10 Second Trivia. Which of these animals hibernates in winter? Tree squirrel, mosquito, monarch butterfly or silverfish. Mosquitoes are the
only animals on this list that enter diapause , a hibernation like period of shutting down for the cold winter months.
So that explains why the pesky pests always come back in the summer and when they do why do they always seem to bite some people more often than
others? Scientists say there are a number of things mosquitoes are attracted to, strongly scented soaps are believed to get their attention
along with certain deodorants and perfume. The increased carbon dioxide we give off when we`re exercising can create a buzz among the insects as well
as our sweat. As far as clothing goes, researchers are divided over whether its bright or dark clothes that make us easier for mosquitoes to
spot but a recent study has found that different types of body odor could make some people more prone to mosquito bites than others.
Is there anything that could be done about that? Maybe one day if a drug is designed that can change those odors. Could that have side effects of
its own? Yes, but because of the diseases they carry mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal. There`s a lot of
international interest in keeping them away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s not all in your head. Some people really are more attractive to mosquitoes than others. Research has determined that it
has to do with how each of us smells which is individual to everyone and partly determined by our DNA. Fraternal twins are much less similar to
each other than identical twins are in terms of DNA and odor. So experts in London conducted a study between fraternal twins and identical twins to
see if there was a difference between the two. When they exposed the twins to mosquitoes they found that identical twins were bitten in similar
amounts but fraternal twins were bitten in differing amounts.
Meaning that mosquitoes really do bite some individuals more than others and that`s at least partially because of body odor. Scientists already
have a sense of which compounds in human odors attract mosquitoes. They`re hoping to develop a drug that changes human body odors to make them less
attractive to mosquitoes. That could have major public health benefits especially in areas where mosquitoes transmit diseases like malaria, Dengue
fever and West Nile virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: We are about eight and a half months away from the next Olympics. The 2020 games will be held in Tokyo, Japan. They`ll run from late July
through early August and about a month after the Olympics begin the Paralympic Games get started running from late August through early
September. The Tokyo organizing committee says they`ll be the biggest and most exciting Paralymic Games ever held and a young man who hopes to be
there is busy training in the pool when he`s not studying, acting or modeling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEO CURIN: (UNTRANSLATED FRENCH)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNTRANSLATED)
CURIN: (UNTRANSLATED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNTRANSLATED)
CURIN: (UNTRANSLATED)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Back in college I once talked my way out of a parking ticket. I was leaving for the summer and told the attendant that if she let me go she
wouldn`t have to ticket me for at least three months. Well that worked for me but what`s working for some students at the University of Alaska is
paying their parking tickets with peanut butter and jelly. What?
It`s a program called "Food for Fines". It`s part of an annual food drive for hungry students. For people with unpaid fines, the more food they
donate the less they have to pay. For one week the program includes p, b, and j for the next it`s canned soup. Might make those who chose to pay in
cash a little "jelly". But it`s easy to see "sandwich" option to choose here. Sure you can reach in your wallet for 50 "Smuckers" or you can
"Skippy" on over to the grocery store, by some food in a "Jiffy" and things "Peter Pan" out for the better just in time. For CNN 10, I`m hungry and
Carl Azuz.
END
