According to a new study, the state of Michigan has seen the greatest decrease in prescribed opioids to workers benefiting from workers compensation over a course of six years.

The study, conducted by Dongchun Wang and others, examined trends of opioid prescriptions in workers’ compensation systems across 26 states between 2009 and 2015. The states included in the study represent two-thirds of workers’ compensation benefits paid to injured workers throughout the United States.

State and federal workers’ compensation laws covered approximately 125.8 million injured workers in 2011. This number may seem dangerous when held in relation to the popular prescription of opioids by medical practitioners who, until recently, had been unaware of the drugs’ addictive qualities.

The quiet epidemic of opioid addiction through prescription drugs has increased the risk of accidental overdose in patients. In 2015, there were 52,404 lethal overdoses in the United States, making drug overdose the leading cause of accidental death.

However, for Michigan, the risk of overdose for those hurt on the job has fortunately decreased by 37%. The Workers’ Compensation Agency’s changes to the Workers’ Compensation Health Care Services rules, according to the WCRI, is the cause for the decrease.

“The amended rules began in 2014 and prevented reimbursements for opioid treatment beyond 90 days for non-cancer related chronic pain,” reports the Upper Michigans Source, “unless detailed physician reporting requirements and other processes were met.”

The amendments were certainly well-chosen as the risk of opioid addiction increases when the drug is used over an extended period of time. Opioids work as pain-relievers by blocking the pain receptors of the brain. However, they also produce artificial endorphins, which can cause the body to reduce or altogether stop production of its own natural endorphins. This can lead to patients relying on opioids to maintain a hormone balance in their body and to keep the painful symptoms of the withdrawal period at bay.

“Opioid abuse is a major concern in our state, especially for those who are hurt on the job,” said Mark Long, Director of the WCA, to Upper Michigans Source. “The WCA is focused on keeping injured Michigan workers healthy by reducing potential addiction problems.”

However, the WCA can’t take all the credit for Michigan’s significant drop in opioid addiction. The Snyder Administration, too, had made an effort in fighting the addiction epidemic

The Michigan Automated Prescription Drug System was passed by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs in April and, in May, Governor Snyder himself ordered the legalization of pharmaceutical dispensary of naloxone, a drug which blocks and helps to reverse the effects of opioid addiction.

The goal of the Snyder Administration, as well as the WCA, is to reduce Michigan’s opioid epidemic further than 37%. And with the new $16.37 million grant to combat the epidemic, hopefully the Administration will be successful.

Pet owners around the world go to great lengths to ensure their four-legged friends are happy and healthy. The Farmer’s Dog, a customized pet food startup that’s quickly gaining attention, knows that and is cashing in. The unique company has raised an impressive $8 million in a Series A round led by Shasta Ventures.

Considering that almost half of all households in the U.S. own a dog, pet food is a big industry. In fact, global pet food sales totaled at almost $70 billion in 2015 alone. The New York City-based company, founded in the same year by Brett Podolsky and Jonathan Regev, aims to deliver fresh, custom-made food to pet owners everywhere. The pair of founders claims to have delivered over 1 million customized meals already.

This is just the latest in a growing trend of subscription-based services. In fact, it’s expected to be the next successful subscription service backed by Shasta Ventures, whose accomplishments include Dollar Shave Club and Warby Parker.

Founder Brett Podolsky says the idea for the company came to him after he began cooking customized meals for his dog on the recommendation of a veterinarian. Podolsky’s dog, a Rottweiler named Jada, had suffered from stomach issues and didn’t experience any improvement in her condition until he began cooking for her.

“It got us looking into the pet food industry. We noticed that while all of the marketing revolved around healthy buzzwords like ‘real’ and ‘natural,’ the products inside the bag were generally the same highly processed mystery food left on the shelf for a year or two,” Podolsky and Regev told TechCrunch in an email.

Just as humans have become more aware of what goes into their food, pet owners are becoming more concerned about what their furry friends are eating. For example, farmed salmon has more than three times the amount of saturated fat that wild salmon does. Podolsky and Regev are taking this knowledge and using it to cater to a more health-conscious pet food market.

“We simply made a product that we wished existed for our own dogs,” Regev told Forbes.

Last year, the $143 million Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant opened with the intention of converting human waste into usable fertilizer with “environmentally sound, proven technology,” according to the Great Lakes Water Authority. Instead, an analysis found that the facility exceeded the one-hour emission standards for sulfur dioxide more than 2,500 times between April of 2016 and February of 2017. In so doing, the plant has added harmful pollutants into an area that already has the dirtiest air in the Detroit area.

Throughout the nation, approximately 16,000 municipal wastewater treatment facilities work to turn waste into usable or non-harmful materials. But while the plant’s operations tried to address an important pollution issue, it ended up creating an even more severe one.

The problem is made worse by the fact that the surrounding neighborhoods are already considered to be in “non-attainment” of the Federal Clean Air Act’s air quality standards for sulfur dioxide by the EPA. And in lieu of an immediate shutdown by the state Department of Environmental Quality, the agency and facility operators have until January 1, 2018 to resolve the issues that led to its noncompliance. Until that time, Detroit residents have no choice but to breathe in these toxic fumes.

Elizabeth Milton, an advocate for Detroit Alliance for Asthma Awareness, told The Detroit Free Press that a two-year wait for resolution is unacceptable.

“They are taking the risk with our lives, and that I cannot bear — especially in a community that is overburdened with toxic pollutants,” said Milton. “The residents of this area cannot bear one more excessive polluter.”

But not everyone shares Milton’s general panic. Suzanne Coffey, the interim chief operating officer for wastewater with the Great Lakes Water Authority, referred to the high emission levels and their efforts to get them where they should be a “natural part” of ironing out the kinks with any large facility.

“We are going through a typical performance testing period,” she explained to The Detroit Free Press, adding, “We are not the only discharger of SO2 in the area … We’re not feeling like this is a significant environmental impact.”

But in its analysis of monitoring data for the plant, The Detroit Free Press noted:

“Residents in the area face a polluting gauntlet of steel mills, coal-fired power plants, a major garbage incinerator and factories — and it shows in their respiratory health. Detroit’s hospitalization rate for asthma is more than three times the rate for Michigan as a whole, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Short-term exposures to sulfur dioxide can harm the human respiratory system and make breathing difficult, according to the [U.S.] EPA.”

Adding insult to injury is the fact that the facility is privately owned. In other words, the company is turning a profit off of waste products obtained by a publicly funded treatment plant.

“Why MDEQ and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services are not doing all that they can to protect these vulnerable communities, these disenfranchised communities, these African-American communities, I’m not sure,” says Milton.

According to Coffey, the New England Fertilizer Company is currently working on bringing the plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions down to acceptable levels. If Ativan https://www.sdarcwellness.com/ativan-lorazepam-online-1-mg/ does not help with nausea and vomiting, your doctor may change the dosage or prescribe another drug for nausea. But since the consent order allows them to take their time with a fix, Detroit residents may have to take their own protective measures — or get used to living the life of an asthmatic.

Cass Community Social Services is in the midst of building tiny homes as a way to help formerly homeless men and women get back on their feet. Their goal is to build 25 of these tiny homes, which will be anywhere between 250 and 400 square feet.

But even though these homes are all small, they are not all the same. They’ll all have different styles — there are plans to build a Victorian, a Cape Cod, a Colonial, and a Tutor to name a few. The idea behind all these different home styles is to give each homeowner a sense of pride in their completely unique mini home.

The homes will go to formerly homeless men and women, along with children who have aged out of the foster care system. They will be built by professional tradespeople and construction workers, but volunteers will manage all the finishing cosmetic jobs such as landscaping, painting, building decks, and fencing. This includes different types of fences for different homes, including vinyl. Vinyl fencing is a non-toxic option as it is not treated with harmful chemicals, making it a great option for families with younger children.

According to Reverend Faith Fowler, who is partly in charge of the project, the best part of these tiny homes is that they don’t come with any mortgage payments. Considering that a whopping 59% of all homeowners wished they understood the terms of their mortgage better, living for free will give these homeowners a little breathing room and the ability to get back on their feet without having to be bogged down by debt and confusion.

“There is no mortgage,” explains Fowler, to CBS Detroit. “So it gives a chance for really low-income people — people who make $10,000 a year or $12,000 a year to become a homeowner – with all the dignity and pride that implies, but also the asset it is – that most poor people get locked out of.”

Rather, the homes will be rent-to-own with a rate of a dollar per square foot. If the homeowners can pay both their rent and utilities on time for seven consecutive years, they will be able to become the official homeowner.

A steel plant in the Detroit area that used to employ thousands of residents has been seized by Wayne County officials after failing to pay over $3 million in taxes.

McLouth Steel sits on 180 acres of land in Trenton, Michigan, but it hasn’t been operational for several years now. The tax debt on the riverside steel site stretches back almost 10 years. Bruce Babiarz, a spokesman for the county treasurer, reported that aside from one Bay City sugar company using the grounds to store product, the property is an eyesore that hasn’t been used for quite some time.

According to Babiarz, the property is now in the custody of the office of Treasurer Eric Sabree after foreclosure on March 31, 2017. After evading tax payments for so long, the former owner, DSC LLC Trenton Land Holdings, no longer has an opportunity to redeem the property by paying the tax debt off.

Instead, the state, city, and county will each have an opportunity to purchase the property. If each party declines, the property will go up for auction. Babiarz hopes that the property sells quickly.

“It’s such a large parcel. Hopefully, it will be returned to the tax rolls soon,” Babiarz told the Detroit Free Press.

Trenton Mayor Kyle Stack has high hopes for the property. She explained that she hopes the prime location will sell quickly and be developed in a way that brings economic opportunities to the city and its residents.

“I would like to see a viable place where there’s jobs, and we can get some taxes out of it for the community,” she said.

It makes sense that the county wants the property recycled. The now-abandoned plant used to be a huge source of economic prosperity for the area, providing jobs in the steel industry to residents in and around the city. After all, steel is an incredibly versatile material. Stainless Steel 316 is commonly used in laboratory equipment, chemical containers, food and pharmaceutical processing equipment, jet engine parts, and boat fittings. But buildings may not be as easily recyclable as steel itself, 88% of which is recycled annually.

Despite the steel plant’s former success and title as the 17th largest steel mill in the U.S., county records reveal a history of forfeitures and other issues with the property.

The company, founded in 1934, filed for bankruptcy twice. The first petition was filed in 1981 and the second in 1995. After several proposals to transform the property failed in the mid-2000s, it sat abandoned.

The future of the property is uncertain, but it’s clear that county officials have high hopes.