New Mexico health officials warn of botulism outbreak linked to baby formula - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexicans should be on the lookout for containers of ByHeart organic baby formula after it was linked to an infant botulism outbreak across the country, state health officials said Thursday.
There are no confirmed reports of infant botulism in New Mexico, the state Department of Health said, though the product has been linked to 15 cases in 12 states.
Botulism is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition caused by a type of bacteria in food or contaminated wounds, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In infants, signs of botulism typically begin 18 to 36 hours after the toxin enters the baby’s body. Symptoms include constipation, floppy movements due to muscle weakness, poor feeding, weak sucking, a weak or altered cry, lethargy, difficulty breathing, droopy eyelids and sluggish pupils.
If untreated, symptoms may cause paralysis and death. Parents should seek medical attention if they believe their infant has botulism and dispose of any ByHeart Whole Nutrition infant formula.
The outbreak began in August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affecting infants less than a year old in Arizona, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. No deaths have been reported.
Since August, 84 babies nationwide have been treated for botulism, according to the CDC, and 36 of them consumed powdered formula. More than 40% of the babies with botulism who consumed powdered formula had ingested ByHeart products, the agency reported.
ByHeart co-founders Mia Funt and Ron Belldegrun announced a voluntary recall of all of their products on Monday in a statement posted to the company’s website.
“We are so sorry for the immense anxiety and fear that we have been causing you these past few days,” the co-founders wrote. “As parents and as founders, that is the absolute last thing we would ever want to do.”
New Mexico research universities facing $95 million in lost federal funding - Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
The Trump administration’s cuts to federal research funding have left projects at New Mexico’s institutions of higher education in limbo and have impacted innovation; economic development; workforce growth; and rural and tribal communities, according to a university research expert.
Members of the New Mexico Legislature’s interim Science, Technology and Telecommunications Committee met in Santa Fe Wednesday where they heard from Lique Coolen, vice president for research for New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Coolen’s presentation highlighted the uncertainty ongoing cancellations of funding awards to research institutions have created, and the possibility of fewer future funding opportunities.
Coolen said that based on recent New Mexico Higher Education Department data, the state faces a loss of $95 million in federal funding for research alone. Key areas of research in the state include agriculture; defense and national security; public health; water resource and technology; energy initiatives; and others, Coolen noted.
One recent example of funding cuts, according to Coolen’s presentation, includes about $41.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to New Mexico Tech for the Four Corners Carbon Storage Hub. The project involved long-term carbon storage options for the Navajo Nation Four Corners power plant. A funding award of $10 million to New Mexico State University from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier in 2025 halted the South Central Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center. The program involves five states, including New Mexico, and supports rural, tribal and underserved communities in competing for federal and state funding for quality of life and infrastructure needs.
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center lost nearly $1 million in federal funding from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to support research on the “rapid identification of virus particles” by using artificial intelligence.
“This causes a huge amount of uncertainty for us universities,” Coolen said during the meeting. “Not only do we need to find other sources of funding to make sure that we do not have to lay off people, that we retain our workforce and most importantly, that we can continue to support the students that are supported by those federal funding sources. But this is not where it ends.”
Coolen described initial cuts to funding as the “first wave,” with the ripple effect leading to larger impacts in the future. She said grants that were once awarded could be canceled or not renewed; specific funding opportunities may become unavailable altogether; and universities may need to make cuts to lower facility and administration costs. She said this all has a negative impact on the state’s workforce pipeline, which relies on keeping New Mexico students in New Mexico once they complete their education.
“It’s also having an impact on students that are considering entering PhD programs where they may be dependent on federal funding for their research projects,” Coolen said. “I just had a conversation just this week with a student who is completing their master’s program, is really considering moving into a PhD program based on the research that they were doing in their laboratory, but now the federal funding has been cut. They do not know yet where to move next.”
She added that New Mexico Tech decreased the number of proposals submitted to various agencies to 60% or 65% of previous proposals for federal funding because the opportunities are not available.
Coolen said universities are also seeing federal funding agencies changing their priorities to narrower “mission areas” with which the universities are not fully aligned or prepared to apply for. Large funding cuts to the U.S. National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health U.S. Department of Energy and others are expected, Coolen said, and range within 20% to 40% reductions in research funding.
“Universities are seeking ways to protect their programs that are critical to New Mexico, and are exploring mechanisms to enhance alignment with the federal priorities to remain competitive,” she said.
Coolen told lawmakers that New Mexico research institutions need to align research with federal priorities while still serving the state, diversify research funding sources, increase collaborations with national laboratories and modernize infrastructure to maintain “top-level” research and retain talent. She encouraged lawmakers to consider where they might increase state investments to support the needs of the various research institutions.
Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque) pointed to larger research universities around the country that have been pressured by the Trump Administration to “conform” to executive mandates and threats of withholding federal funding, and questioned whether New Mexico universities have received similar pressure.
“Cornell, University of Virginia, Brown, Columbia – they’re all giving in to demands and paying millions of dollars,” Garratt said during the meeting. Coolen said the universities in New Mexico have not received such direct communication, but are reviewing the actions taken by other higher education institutions.
Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) said he was not necessarily worried about New Mexico universities becoming at-risk of losing federal funds due to demands by the Trump Administration, but called for cutting the “nonsense of fighting against the president.”
“I just don’t see the wisdom in wasting time fighting against the president instead of fighting for the State of New Mexico,” Martinez said.
LANL chromium plume spreads onto San Ildefonso Pueblo land, NMED says - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
An underground plume of toxic chromium has spread from Los Alamos National Laboratory to Pueblo de San Ildefonso land, state Environment Department officials announced Thursday.
The discovery marks the first time the plume has been detected within the pueblo boundaries, officials said in a news release, though they added the plume’s spread does not pose imminent threats to drinking water in the pueblo or in Los Alamos County. That’s because the plume is not near any known private or public wells, officials said.
Long-term ingestion of hexavalant chromium can cause serious health problems or increase risk of certain cancers.
State and LANL officials recently completed groundwater sampling and detected chromium levels between 53 and 72.9 micrograms per liter, depending on the depth, according to the news release. The ground water standard is 50 micrograms per liter.
Lab workers historically used chromium as a way to prevent pipes from rusting in a power plant’s cooling towers and then periodically flushed chromium-contaminated water down Sandia Canyon between 1956 and 1972. The plume was discovered in the groundwater supply in 2005.
Since then, how to mitigate the plume has been the subject of ongoing and sometimes contentious debate between state and federal officials, namely the Environment Department and the U.S. Department of Energy. In the meantime, the plume has continued to spread.
“These new results are conclusive evidence that the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to contain the chromium plume have been inadequate,” said Bruce Baizel, the Environment Department’s director of compliance, in a statement. “While drinking water supplies are safe for now, the U.S. Department of Energy must take immediate and definitive actions to protect drinking water.”
Stephanie Gallager, spokesperson for the DOE’s Los Alamos field office, told Source New Mexico on Thursday said her office had no immediate comment on the development.
LANL officials declined to comment, and a receptionist for the San Ildefonso Pueblo told Source that the pueblo had informed members of the latest development but referred additional comment to the pueblo’s governor, who did not immediately return a request for comment.
Between 2018 and 2023, the DOE’s remediation plan entailed pumping, treating and then re-injecting water back into the plume. But state officials ordered a stop to that process in March 2023, when unanticipated increases in chromium concentrations were discovered in monitoring wells.
A 15-member independent review team in December issued a 980-page report recommending the DOE resume that treatment.
In the meantime, state agencies and the pueblo are working together on next steps, according to the Environment Department, including adding monitoring wells. The Environment Department is also pursuing “civil enforcement actions” against the DOE, as well.