New Yorkers may have the chance to sue big oil companies and other fossil fuel producers under new climate change legislation proposed by a Brooklyn Democrat, which emulates a Texas law against abortion providers.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) introduced the legislation last week that would target fossil fuel companies with annual revenues over $1 billion demonstrating “negligence” while “storing, transporting, refining, importing, exporting, producing, manufacturing” products such as petroleum and natural gas.

“The effects of climate change in New York — especially in communities like mine — are undeniable,” Myrie told local media. “We are quickly running out of time to reverse this climate emergency, and my legislation gives ordinary New Yorkers a chance to hold bad actors in the fossil fuel industry accountable for decades of negligence and denial.”

Noted in the legislation, as reported by the New York Post, U.S.-based companies like ExxonMobile, Chevron, and 90 other foreign and domestic enterprises allegedly produce 63% of carbon dioxide and methane emissions into the atmosphere.

“The costs of inaction are so high — more homes destroyed by worsening floods, more lives ruined by chronic asthma and extreme heat that threatens us all. It’s time for regular New Yorkers to say enough is enough,” Myrie told the Post.

Myrie proposed the bill after a 2021 Texas law, which local media reported allows any person to make civil claims for damages against abortion providers or anyone who assists with a woman obtaining an abortion after a pregnancy enters its sixth week.

He said the concept could “save our planet and protect our lives.”

However, Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the Business Council of New York, told the Post the law would benefit lawyers as it’s “designed for class action suits.”

Pokalsky said it would unfairly punish companies despite a state climate law that requires the state to reduce 85% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while New York adopts more renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

“We’re not going to eliminate the use [of fossil fuel] anytime in the immediate future. We’re dependent on it — but you’re gonna say the person who provides this essential product is going to be financially liable for it?” Pokalsky said. “What’s the logic of that?”

Ryan McCall of Tully Rinckey, a national law firm, told the New York Post that the law could put courts in a vulnerable position when personal problems are caused by pollution with alleged negligence of the fossil fuel companies.

“It’s going to be similar, in my opinion, to any other personal injury action, where we’re gonna need to get medical experts that are going to be able to say, as a result of this specific emission, that this type of injury happened to you,” McCall said. “You would begin to see a flood of litigation when it comes to these types of environmental cases like we haven’t seen before.”

McCall added the bill could face formidable challenges from companies that object to state lawmakers dictating what they do within their company despite “plausible ways to make polluters pay for demonstrable damage caused by their use of fossil fuels.”

“I definitely think you’re going to see federal challenges come into this bill. I think that’s going to be highly likely, but I do definitely think this bill has a lot of merit when it comes to allowing private actors to bring litigation,” he said.

Myrie, however, told local media that the fossil fuel industry “will be held accountable for the damage” caused to New York’s environment.

If lawmakers pass the legislation, the bill will advance to the desk of Governor Kathy Hochul, who supports the state’s move toward a so-called green economy.

Higher amounts of screen time might be connected to an increased risk of developing obsessive-compulsive disorder, according to a new study.

The study, published on Monday in the Journal of Adolescent Health, included around 9,200 children between the ages of nine and ten who reported how long they use screens. The different uses involved video game playing, watching videos, watching movies or shows, texting, chatting with people over video, and using social media sites.

Two years after they discussed the time they spend on each activity, scientists asked their parents about diagnoses of OCD, as well as symptoms of OCD. The researchers found that every additional hour of watching videos and playing video games was connected “with a subsequent OCD diagnosis.”

The study reported that every additional hour of playing video games was connected with a 13% higher risk of future OCD, and every additional hour of watching videos was connected with 11% more risk. When they followed up after two years, the researchers found that 4.4% of the cohort had developed new-onset OCD from baseline. In addition, 6.6% “met diagnostic criteria for OCD.”

OCD is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as “a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder” where someone “has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts” “and/or behaviors” that someone “feels the urge to repeat over and over.”

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, OCD typically starts in late teen years and when someone is in their early adult years. It occurs in 1 in 200 kids and teens. Between 1% and 3% of kids and teens have OCD, according to Evolve Treatment Centers.

“Although screen time can have important benefits such as education and increased socialization, parents should be aware of the potential risks, especially to mental health,” Dr. Jason Nagata, who led the study, said. “Children who spend excessive time playing video games report feeling the need to play more and more and being unable to stop despite trying.”

“Intrusive thoughts about video game content could develop into obsessions or compulsions,” Nagata added. “Screen addictions are associated with compulsivity and loss of behavioral control, which are core symptoms of OCD.”

The algorithmic model and ads on sites like YouTube could create an environment “for compulsive viewing of homogenous content,” the study noted.

Video chat, social media use, and texting were not as commonly used in the group of children who were in the study.

While the research does not necessarily show a causal link, the association is one that could provide further insight into the effects of screen time. The purpose of the study was “to determine the prospective associations between baseline screen time and obsessive-compulsive disorder” after two years in a national group of kids ages nine to ten. Family history was incorporated as a covariate.

In the study, scientists noted that research done in the future should look at what connects video game playing and video watching to the development of OCD.

“Families can develop a media use plan which could include screen-free times including before bedtime,” Nagata said.

The study noted that mental health issues and the use of screens among teens have gone up in the past few years, brought on by the pandemic.

According to Physician’s Weekly, 89% of participants in a self-reporting study said they were in front of screens more often when the lockdown happened. Younger people said they had more “symptoms of digital eye strain,” and eyestrain and headaches were the most frequent types of strain, according to the publication.

Another study published in JAMA Pediatrics last year showed that adolescent use of screens in the early days of the pandemic was around twice as much than it was before the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, the estimates “from the same cohort at baseline” were 3.8 hours per day, but some variables could explain the differences, the study noted. It found that adolescent screen time was 7.7 hours per day early in the COVID pandemic.