Identifying overlaps and disconnects between media reports and official records of nonfatal firearm injuries in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2021-2022.

OBJECTIVE: Open-source data systems, largely drawn from media sources, are commonly used by scholars due to the lack of a comprehensive national data system. It is unclear if these data provide an accurate and complete representation of firearm injuries and their context. The study objectives were to compare firearm injuries in official police records with media reports to better identify the characteristics associated with media reporting. METHODS: Firearm injuries were identified in open-source media reports and compared to nonfatal firearm injury (n = 1642) data from official police records between January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Events were matched on date, location, and event circumstances. Four multivariate, multi-level mixed effects logistic regression models were conducted to assess which survivor, event, and community characteristics were associated with media reporting. Data were analyzed 2023 - January 2024. RESULTS: Media reported 41% of nonfatal shootings in 2021 and 45% in 2022(p < 0.05), which is approximately two out of every five shootings. Shootings involving multiple survivors, children, and self-defense were more likely to be reported, whereas unintentional shootings and shootings that occurred in structurally disadvantaged communities were less likely to be reported. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that relying on media reports of firearm injuries alone may misrepresent the numbers and contexts of shootings. Public health interventions that educate journalists about these important issues may be an impactful firearm violence prevention strategy. Also, it is critical to link data systems at the local level to ensure interventions are designed and evaluated using accurate data.

Species- and element-specific patterns of metal flux from contaminated wetlands versus metals shed with exuviae in emerging dragonflies.

Dragonfly adults and their aquatic immature stages are important parts of food webs and provide a link between aquatic and terrestrial components. During emergence, contaminants can be exported into terrestrial food webs as immature adults fly away or be shed with their exuviae and remain in the wetland. Our previous work established metals accumulating in dragonfly nymphs throughout a contaminated constructed wetland designed to regulate pH and sequester trace metals from an industrial effluent line. Here, we evaluated the concentration and mass of metals leaving the wetland in flying emergents versus remaining in the wetland with the shed exuviae in 10 species of dragonflies belonging to 8 genera. Nine elements (Cu, Zn, Cd, Mn, V, Mg, Fe, Al, Pb) were evaluated that include essential and nonessential elements as well as trace and major metals. Metal concentrations in the emergent body and exuviae can differ by orders of magnitude. Aluminum, Fe, Mn, and Pb were largely shed in the exuviae. Vanadium and Cd were more variable among species but also tended to be shed with the exuviae. In contrast, Cu, Zn, and Mg showed a higher tendency to leave the wetland with an emerging dragonfly. Metals shed in dragonfly exuviae can moderate the transport of metals from contaminated wetlands. Taxonomic- and metal-specific variability in daily metal flux from the wetland depended upon concentration accumulated, individual body mass, and number of individuals emerging, with each factor's relative importance often differing among species. This illustrates the importance of evaluating the mass of metals in an individual and not only concentrations. Furthermore, differences in numbers of each species emerging will magnify differences in individual metal flux when calculating community metal flux. A better understanding of the variability of metal accumulation in nymphs/larvae and metal shedding during metamorphosis among both metals and species is needed.