Fast fashion is our generation’s nuclear bomb

September 11, 2023

Fast fashion is our generation’s nuclear bomb

When it comes to fashion, we need to stop the radioactive fallout caused by our own ingenuity before it’s too late, Shelley Rogers writes.

This summer people rushed to see the movie Oppenheimer, a portrait of the inventor of the atomic bomb.

On the one hand, it reminded the viewers of the fact that humankind’s genius is to continually advance the boundaries of science and technology and invent new ways to defend ourselves, lengthen lives, and improve communication and convenience — in short, change things for the better.

The atomic bomb ended World War II and, the usual argument goes, many lives were saved as a result.

At the same time, the device was used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, horrifically killing and injuring many thousands of people. It also ushered in the nuclear age, the existential threat we see ever looming on the horizon.

But the ultimate question is: how often have we invented things without really considering the future and how lethal they might ultimately prove to be? Even those that seem quite harmless — at first.

Every time we wash our clothes, we are dumping tonnes of fibres into our oceans

For example, clothes made of plastic. Introduced to the public in 1951, one of the selling points of polyester clothes was that they could be worn for 68 days straight without any care at all and still look fresh.

No one foresaw that it would prove so inexpensive to make that it would one day be drastically overproduced or what the consequences of the material itself would be.

Today, 69% of the fabrics we wear are made of oil-based plastics: polyester’s chemical name is polyethylene terephthalate, acrylics are polyurethane, nylon is polyhexamethylene adipamide, and spandex is a polyether-polyurea copolymer.

But with the explosive growth and ever-enlarging volume of clothing manufactured since the early 2000s — 100 billion garments annually, with the production of polyester fibre projected to exceed 92 million tonnes in the next 10 years, an increase of 47% — it’s actually clothing’s tiniest fractions that are the most insidious.

Every time we wash our clothes, thousands of tiny particles of fabric (5 mm or less in length) are discharged into the water.

Globally, 500,000 tonnes of these microfibres are deposited in oceans every year from our washing machines. Of the 171 trillion microplastics floating in oceans, the microfibers from clothing are responsible for 35%.

If the bottom of the food chain suffers, we suffer too

While we are familiar with the image of a sea turtle choking on plastic bags or dead fish snared in nylon drift nets, we are less familiar with the role microfibers play in the rest of the marine world.

Once in oceans and seas, they get trapped in the guts of zooplankton, bivalves, crustaceans, and coral polyps — the myriad essential aquatic life forms at the bottom of the food pyramid that affect the entire chain.

Studies point to the accumulation of these fibres in marine life affecting feeding and growth, causing genetic damage, oxidative stress, impacts on behaviour, reducing fertility and reproduction and mortality.

Added to the dilemma are the toxic chemicals microfibres are coated with: the azo dyes and the formulations to make clothes wrinkle-free, stain-resistant, and water-repellant such as toxic fluorinated compounds (PFCs), BPA, and phthalates.

It only gets worse

Worse, microfibres are also vectors for free-floating toxic chemicals in the ocean that readily attach to microfibres such as POPs, persistent organic pollutants, including DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — as well as heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium.

Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) trap many microfibres in “bio-solid” sludge and these solids are transferred to agricultural lands where they are used as fertiliser.

There, evidence shows that microfibres and the toxic chemicals they carry can adversely impact terrestrial ecosystems, drawing water away from plants, harming soil biota, rooting ability, soil nutrient cycling — and on and on.

In March 2022, scientists at the Free University in Amsterdam discovered that the microfibres known to exist in our body (deep in our lungs, our intestines where they appear to cause inflammation, in our hearts, in placentas and breast milk), are also in our bloodstreams.

What kind of damage are we doing to ourselves?

Now we’re scrambling. Although relatively few scientific papers were written following the first study on microplastics and health in 2009 — in the last few years there have been hundreds.

Hopefully, they will answer the questions: do microfibres pass the brain barrier in babies? Do white blood cells attack them and cause chronic inflammation? Do they contribute to cardiovascular disease by attaching to red blood cells, or affect fertility? What is it exactly that they do?

The microplastics shed from our clothes and the “forever chemicals” they carry cannot be reclaimed, but there is hope.

In France, a law passed in 2020 has made it mandatory that all new washing machines have a microfiltration device installed by 2025.

If AB 1628 is passed, California will follow suit and all washing machines will have microfilters installed by 2029. The idea is in development in other states.

Gargantuan fallout of our own ingenuity must be stopped

There is no question that all domestic and industrial washing machines must have microfibre filters installed.

These filters have been estimated to capture upward of 90% of microfibres from our clothing, thereby dramatically reducing microfibres sent to WWTP and thence the world.

Filters are not the only answer — the industry must redesign clothes to prevent fibre shedding in the first place; we need to label garments to reflect how much they shed and how to prevent that, educating the consumer.

We also need to pass laws such as The Fashion Act in New York that seek to regulate fast fashion’s vast overproduction and consumption and its gargantuan waste.

But before it’s too late, when it comes to fashion, we need to stop the radioactive fallout caused by our own ingenuity.

Shelley Rogers is Fashion Director at EARTHDAY.ORG, the global organiser of Earth Day and the largest recruiter of the environmental movement worldwide.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

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September 4, 2023

Oil giant led by COP28 boss to spend an ‘eyewatering’ $1 billion a month on fossil fuels this decade, Global Witness says

Post By zittrexstore Oil and Gas Asia Economy, business news, Climate, Energy, Environment, Oil and Gas, Paris, Pollution No Comments

Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and president of this year’s COP28 climate summit gestures during an interview as part of the 7th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.

Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images

UAE oil giant ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 climate conference — is expected to spend more than $1 billion every month this decade on fossil fuels, according to new analysis by international NGO Global Witness.

This is nearly seven times higher than its commitment to decarbonization projects over the same timeframe, the research says.

ADNOC, which recently became the first among its peers to bring forward its net-zero ambition to 2045, disputes Global Witness’ analysis and says the assumptions made are inaccurate.

It comes ahead of the COP28 climate summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.’s annual conference from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. Viewed as one of the most significant climate conferences since 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement, COP28 will see global leaders gather to discuss how to progress in the fight against the climate crisis.

The person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief executive of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) — one of the world’s largest oil and gas firms. His position as both COP28 president and ADNOC CEO caused dismay among civil society groups and U.S. and EU lawmakers, although several government ministers have since defended his appointment.

Global Witness’ analysis, provided exclusively to CNBC, found that ADNOC is planning to spend an average of $1.14 billion a month on oil and gas production alone between now and 2030 — the same year in which the U.N. says the world must cut emissions by 45% to avoid global catastrophe.

It means that ADNOC is forecast to spend nearly seven times more on fossil fuels through to 2030 than it does on “low-carbon solution” projects.

By 2050, the year in which the U.N. says the entire world economy must achieve net-zero emissions, ADNOC is projected to have invested $387 billion in oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the climate emergency.

A spokesperson at ADNOC told CNBC via email: “The analysis of, and assumptions made, regarding ADNOC’s capital expenditure program beyond the company’s current five-year business plan (2023 to 2027) are speculative and therefore incorrect.”

The Abu Dhabi energy group announced in January this year that it would allocate $15 billion for investment in “low-carbon solutions” by 2030, including investments in clean power, carbon capture and storage and electrification projects.

High-rise tower buildings along the central Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on July 3, 2023.

Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Images

Global Witness arrived at its projections by analyzing ADNOC’s forecasted oil and gas capital expenditure, exploratory capital expenditure and operational expenditure for the period from 2023 to 2050. The data was sourced from Rystad Energy’s UCube database.

Rystad’s data is not available to the public, but is widely used and referenced by major oil and gas companies and international bodies.

“Fossil fuels companies like to burnish their green credentials, yet they rarely say the quiet part out loud: that they continue to throw eyewatering amounts at the same old polluting oil and gas that is accelerating the climate crisis,” said Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness.

“How [al-Jaber] can expect to lecture other nations on the need to decarbonise and be taken seriously is anyone’s guess, while he continues to provide vastly more funding to oil and gas than to renewable alternatives,” he added.

“He is a fossil fuel boss, plain and simple, saying one thing while his company does the other,” Galey said.

Established 30 years ago, Global Witness is a campaign group that receives funding from donors that include The Foundation to Promote Open Society, which is backed by liberal financier and billionaire George Soros, the European Climate Foundation, and the Quadrature Climate Foundation.

Among six campaign promises published last year, Global Witness says it seeks to “stop the oil and gas industry escalating global warming by making us dependent on gas” and to “ensure that the current energy transition is fair and responsible, serving people and the planet.”

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the analysis conducted by Global Witness. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.

said the main priority for the COP28 summit will be to keep alive the fight to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond the critical temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, it becomes more likely that small changes can trigger dramatic shifts in Earth’s entire life support system.

The International Energy Agency says no new oil, gas or coal development is compatible with the goal of curbing global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In response to a request for comment from CNBC, an ADNOC spokesperson said that energy demand is increasing as the world’s population is expanding. “All of the current energy transition scenarios, including by the IEA, show that some level of oil and gas will be needed into the future,” the spokesperson said.

“As such, it is important that, in addition to accelerating investments in renewables and lower carbon energy solutions, we consider the least carbon intensive sources of oil and gas and further reduce their intensity to enable a fair, equitable, orderly, and responsible energy transition. This is the approach ADNOC is taking,” they added.

The spokesperson said its 2022 upstream emissions data confirmed the energy group as one of the least carbon-intensive producers worldwide. The company will seek to further reduce its carbon intensity by 25% and target near zero methane emissions by 2030, they added.

“As we reduce our emissions, we are also ramping up investments in renewables and zero carbon energies like hydrogen for our customers,” the spokesperson said.

A separate report published in April last year by Global Witness and Oil Change International found that 20 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies were projected to spend $932 billion by the end of the decade to develop new oil and gas fields.

At that time, Russian state company Gazprom was estimated to spend the most on fossil fuel development and exploration projects through to 2030 ($139 billion), followed by U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil ($84 billion) and Chevron ($67 billion).

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August 30, 2023

London’s plan to charge drivers of polluting cars sparks protests

Post By zittrexstore World cars, Pollution, Sustainable city, Taxes No Comments

London’s traffic cameras are under attack. Police say hundreds of license plate-reading cameras have been damaged, disconnected or stolen by opponents of an anti-pollution charge on older vehicles that came into force across the metropolis on Tuesday.

The vandalism by vigilantes calling themselves the Blade Runners shows that emotions are running high over the city’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.

London’s mayor says the measure will cut air pollution that is linked to about 4,000 deaths a year in the British capital. Critics say it’s a cash grab that will penalize suburban residents who depend on their cars for work and essential travel.

“The cameras are going to keep coming down,” predicted Nick Arlett, who has organized protests against the clean-air charge and says he neither condones nor condemns the sabotage “People are angry.”

Moves in the UK to cut air pollution and reduce car use have become a political flashpoint. Supporters say cynical politicians and conspiracy theorists are exploiting opposition to the plans. The Conservative government has attacked London’s vehicle levy, leading to allegations it is backing down on green pledges.

London’s plan, known as the ULEZ, levies a £12.50 daily charge on most gas cars and vans built before 2006 and on pre-2015 diesel vehicles. Introduced in central London in 2019, it was expanded in 2021 to the city’s inner suburbs. From Tuesday it covers all of Greater London, including the sprawling outer suburbs where more than half the city’s 9 million people live.

Mayor Sadiq Khan says the expansion means “5 million more Londoners being able to breathe cleaner air.”

“It was a difficult decision, but it’s a vital one and a right one,” he said Tuesday.

But some suburbanites say it will be an unbearable new expense, amid a cost-of-living squeeze that saw inflation top 11 per cent late last year. Outer London has higher levels of car ownership and less public transit than the city centre.

“It’s going to make poor people poorer,” said Anna Austen, who says she relies on her 15-year-old diesel car to get to work and take her children to school.

“I have no money to pay the fines, I have no money to replace my car,” said Austen, who joined a recent protest by several dozen ULEZ opponents beside a busy road in south London. Some passing drivers honked loudly when encouraged to “beep for freedom.”

The issue shot up the national political agenda in July when the governing Conservatives unexpectedly won a special election in the outer London district of Uxbridge by campaigning against the levy introduced by Mayor Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party.

Since then, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has asked for a review of Low Traffic Neighborhoods – often locally controversial zones where cars are banned from some residential streets – and slammed Labour as hostile to motorists. He has also approved new North Sea oil and gas drilling, sparking accusations the U.K. is backsliding on its climate commitments.

Sunak’s government says it remains committed to banning the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2030 and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Sunak said Tuesday that the new car charge “is going to hit working families. I don’t think that’s the right priority.”

Labour points out that the ULEZ was originally announced in 2015 by then-Mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative. But Labour was rattled by the Uxbridge result, despite its big lead in opinion polls nationwide. Leader Keir Starmer urged London’s mayor to “reflect” on the ULEZ expansion. Khan refused to delay but expanded a scrappage program that offers London residents up to £2,000 to replace old vehicles. Opponents say the money is nowhere near enough.

The air in London, a city once nicknamed the Big Smoke, is getting cleaner¸ though the impact of the ULEZ is debated. A 2021 study by Imperial College London suggested the zone had a relatively small effect on air pollution in the 12 weeks after its central London launch. But research published by the mayor’s office in February found that emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides were 26 per cent lower in the ULEZ area since 2019 than they would have been without it, and emissions of particulate matter were 19 per cent lower.

“We know that low emission zones work,” said Simon Birkett, director of the campaigning group Clean Air in London, arguing that “big problems need big solutions.”

ULEZ opponents include trade unions and ordinary Londoners, but backers of the plan claim the issue is also being exploited by extremists. Khan told radio station LBC last week that opposition had been “weaponized” by “people who believed in conspiracy theories.”

At a recent demonstration, protesters chanted “Get Khan out,” and many placards attacked the city’s first Muslim mayor personally, sometimes in crude terms. Several protesters referred to Khan as a puppet of larger forces, including the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, that they alleged sought to control society. Some also expressed doubt about the extent of human-caused climate change.

One group involved in the protests¸ Together, was created in 2021 to campaign against coronavirus lockdowns and vaccine mandates. It has since turned its attention to low-traffic neighbourhoods, clean-air schemes and plans for central bank digital currencies.

Co-founder Alan Miller says he’s no conspiracy theorist but that over all those issues the public feels “ignored and treated with contempt” by politicians and bureaucrats.

Other European cities have had varied results with plans to tackle air pollution. Madrid has a similar low-emission zone to London, while Paris’s plan to ban all diesel and older petrol cars has faced delays.

Supporters of the London plan hope the opposition will fade over time. But Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said he expects to see politicians exploit this “classic political wedge issue” in next year’s national election.

“The use of cars and freedom to use them and where people can drive have great cut-through, in a way that many other issues don’t,” Travers said. “Could pro- and anti-motorists be turned into a theme for the general election? I think it will be.”

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August 19, 2023

Japan’s Fukushima water release plan fuels fear despite IAEA backing

Post By zittrexstore World Asia / Pacific, Environment, Features, fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Energy, pacific ocean, Pollution No Comments

Japan plans to release more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean by the end of August. After years of debate, and despite a green light from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the plan continues to stoke fears among the local population and in nearby countries.

Twelve years after the triple catastrophe – earthquake, tsunami, reactor meltdown – that struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in 2011, Japan is preparing to release part of the treated wastewater from the stricken plant into the Pacific Ocean this month. A recent article from the daily Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun revealed the upcoming release without specifying a date.

The release of contaminated water by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has been on the cards since 2018 but it was repeatedly postponed until it finally received endorsement from the International Atomic Energy Agency in early July. After a two-year review, five review missions to Japan, six technical reports and five missions on the ground, the international nuclear watchdog said the discharges of the treated water were consistent with the agency’s safety standards, with “negligible radiological impact to people and the environment”. The green light, which cleared the path for the completion of the project, was greeted with scepticism by some members of the scientific community and with animosity by many local fishermen who fear that consumers will shun their products.

Storage capacities reaching their limit

On March 11, 2011, the three reactor cores of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a meltdown, leaving northeast Japan devastated and adding a nuclear emergency to the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Since then, massive quantities of water have been used to cool down the nuclear reactors’ fuel rods every day, while hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater or groundwater have entered the site.

Japanese authorities initially decided to store the contaminated water in huge tanks, but are now running out of space. Some 1,000 tanks were built to contain what is now 1.3 million tonnes of wastewater. Japanese authorities have warned that storage capacities are nearing their limit and will reach saturation by 2024. The power plant is also located in a region with a high earthquake risk – meaning that a new tremor could cause the tanks to leak.

Filtering the contaminated water

To avoid such an accident, the Japanese government has decided to gradually discharge millions of tonnes of water into the Pacific Ocean over the next 30 years. The process is simple: the water is set to be released one kilometre away from the coast of Fukushima Prefecture via underwater tunnel.

Releasing treated wastewater into the ocean is a routine practice for nuclear plants all over the world. Water is usually made to circulate around a nuclear reactor to absorb heat, making it possible to trigger turbines and produce electricity. In the process, the water becomes loaded with radioactive compounds, but it is then treated before being released into the sea or rivers.

“In Fukushima, however, the situation is very different since it is a damaged plant,” said Jean-Christophe Gariel, deputy director in charge of health and the environment at France’s Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

“This time, part of the stored water was poured directly onto the reactors in order to cool them,” Gariel added. “Unlike the water from our [French] nuclear plants, [theirs] became loaded with many radioactive compounds, known as radionuclides.”

Before discharging the water into the sea, the challenge is therefore to remove most of the radioactive materials. To do this, Fukushima’s operator, Tepco, uses a powerful filtration system called ALPS (Advanced Liquid Processing System). “This makes it possible to eliminate a large part of these radioactive substances, which are only present as traces,” said Gariel.

“On the other hand, as in our own power plants, one component remains: tritium, which cannot be eliminated,” he added. This substance is routinely produced by nuclear reactors and released by power plants around the world. While it is considered relatively harmless, it is often blamed for increasing the risk of cancer. “To limit the risks even further, the water will be diluted in a large quantity of seawater to lower the concentration of tritium as much as possible,” Gariel explained.

During the most recent test of the water tanks in March, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency detected 40 radionuclides. After treatment, the concentration in the water was lower than accepted standards for 39 – all of them, except for tritium. The level of the latter reached 140,000 becquerels per litre (Bq/L) – while the regulatory concentration limit for release into the sea is set at 60,000 Bq/L in Japan. After the final dilution step, however, the tritium level was reduced to 1,500 Bq/L.

“To put it simply, while the water from the Fukushima reservoirs is more contaminated than the water from [French] power stations, after treatment and dilution, it is the same as anywhere else,” said Jean-Christophe Gariel.

‘It’s like diluting whiskey in Coke’

Yet these standards and figures must be nuanced and taken with caution, with set thresholds varying greatly from one country to another. For example, France sets its tritium limit at 100 Bq/L, while the WHO sets it at 10,000 Bq/L.

When it comes to diluting tritium, some environmentalists argue that it is like “diluting whiskey in coke”: the presence of coke does not mean there is less alcohol. Similarly, the quantity of tritium in the ocean remains the same; it is simply distributed in a greater quantity of water.

Within the scientific community, the validity of the safety of Japan’s planned water release is thus widely debated. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), based in the United States, has regularly voiced concerns about the project’s impact on the environment. The Institute expressed its opposition once again to Japan’s project in December 2022, lamenting the failure to measure concentration rates in all the the reservoirs of the plant.

Yet for Jim Smith, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, releasing the wastewater into the ocean “is the best option”. The professor, who studies the consequences of radioactive pollutants, argued in an article published on The Conversation that “on the grand scale of the environmental problems we face, the release of wastewater from Fukushima is a relatively minor one.”

An eminently political subject

“This subject is eminently political. It reflects the desire of the Japanese government to make the Fukushima region an example of resilience after a nuclear accident,” said Cécile Asanuma-Brice, a researcher at the CNRS in France and co-director of the MITATE Lab, which studies the consequences of the Fukushima disaster.

“This is the background of the Japanese government’s reconstruction policy, which includes dismantling the plant and reopening the area to housing,” Asanuma-Brice explained. “The plant can only be dismantled once they have got rid of these contaminated waters, according to the latest statements by the Minister of Economy and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura.”

To carry out the project, the government must also deal with persistent opposition from the local population, especially that of the fishermen’s unions. “For [the fishermen’s unions], who represent an important part of the country’s economy, the question is not so much whether their concerns are justified or not,” said Asanuma-Brice. “After the accident, they suffered from a negative image for years, both in the region and internationally. They had just started recovering and regaining a dynamic economic activity. With the project to release the contaminated water, they fear their image will be damaged again and their products shunned by consumers.”

Over the years, several alternative solutions have been examined with varying degrees of attention by the authorities. “One of them seems to have gained approval from the local population – that of building new reservoirs or even installing them underground and continuing to store contaminated water until it loses radioactivity in the coming years,” said Asanuma-Brice. The idea was rapidly dismissed by the government, which deemed it too expensive.

In addition to the local opposition, the Japanese government will also have to deal with mistrust from other Pacific countries, particularly from China. Following the green light granted by the IAEA in early July, Beijing announced a forthcoming ban on the import of food products from certain Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, for “security reasons”.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

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July 11, 2023

With oil production in freefall, Alaska, America’s worst state for business, chases a new carbon boom

Post By zittrexstore Oil and Gas alaska, Alaska Hydro Corp, business news, Climate, Corporate management, Economy, Energy, Environment, Local governments, Oil and Gas, Pollution, State governments, U.S. Economy, United States government No Comments

An oil pipeline stretches across the landscape outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope Borough, Alaska, May 25, 2019.

The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Alaska can be a rugged and unforgiving place, and that’s not just its landscape. Its economy is prone to big booms and wrenching busts. Lately, it has seen more busts.

More than any other state, Alaska is dependent on oil. As much as 85% of the state’s unrestricted general fund revenue comes from oil production, according to state estimates. In some years, it has been well over 90%. But oil production has been in long-term decline in the state, which was once America’s No. 1 producer of crude but has been surpassed by several shale oil boom states, including Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. Alaska’s crude production in 2022 was roughly equal to that of Oklahoma, and it hit the lowest level since 1976, according to Energy Department data.

This trend helps explain why Alaska‘s economy performed worse than any other state last year, according to the Commerce Department, shrinking by 2.4%. And it explains why the Last Frontier finished dead last in CNBC’s 2023 America’s Top States for Business rankings.

In addition to a last-place finish in the Economy category, Alaska ranks 49th in the Infrastructure, Education, and Access to Capital categories. It finished 48th in Cost of Doing Business. This is the seventh time since 2007 that Alaska has finished at the bottom, and the third time in the last five studies.

Alaska’s carbon turnaround plan for the future

Alaska isn’t giving up on crude. Recent approvals such as the controversial Willow Project have led state officials to forecast an increase in production in the years ahead. But Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state legislature have a plan that they hope will reverse Alaska’s fortunes once and for all, by making the state less susceptible to gyrations in the oil market.

“Alaska was built on a promise that we would be north of the future. That we would be visionary,” Dunleavy, a Republican, said at a news conference May 23.

Dunleavy was marking the signing of SB 48, legislation that officially puts the state in the carbon business.

“Just like oil, just like gas, just like our timber, this is a commodity that can be monetized now,” he said.

The Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, July 2, 2021.

The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Under the new law, Alaska will be able to sell so-called “carbon offset credits,” capitalizing on the state’s vast public forest lands. Companies that emit carbon will be able to buy the credits, effectively paying the state to preserve and protect its forests, thereby canceling out, or offsetting, those emissions.

What the state doesn’t spend on maintaining its forests, it can keep as revenue.

Alaska Natural Resources Commissioner John Boyle, who is working on the rules to implement the program, said in an interview with CNBC that the market for the new credits could be huge as companies discover the limits of carbon reduction technology.

“Across America, and in the rest of the world, you see a number of companies that have set very aggressive net zero (emission) targets for themselves,” he said. “Ultimately, in order for a lot of these companies to be able to hit the targets that they’ve set for themselves, they’re going to need to look for other options for offsets.”

The emissions offset market is growing

Carbon offset programs are already gaining popularity around the world. The California Air Resources Board operates an extensive offset program that the state says is an essential part of its program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

When Dunleavy unveiled the legislation in January, he noted that Alaska’s Native Corporations have generated $370 million in revenue selling offset credits since 2019.

The state has not offered any estimates of how much revenue its program could generate, but Boyle said it could begin making money soon.

“I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the state fully anticipates seeing revenue within a relatively short period of time, likely within the next 12 to 18 months,” Boyle said. “We fully expect to see some new revenues coming in as companies acquire our leases and do other things to prepare themselves to develop carbon offset projects.”

More coverage of the 2023 America’s Top States for Business

Carbon credits are controversial

Alaska is all in on the plan. The bill passed the state Senate unanimously; only two members of the House voted against it.

But outside Alaska, there is no shortage of skepticism.

“Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Alaska’s forest carbon offsets program could produce carbon credits that don’t represent real climate benefits,” wrote Freya Chay and Grayson Badgley of the climate research group CarbonPlan in a commentary published in May.

They note that while the program promises to protect Alaska’s forests and the climate benefits they provide, it also promises not to reduce timber harvests. The researchers said the credits appear to be structured to “simply reward a landowner for doing what they already planned on doing.”

“Although this could be a win for the State budget, it would be a loss for the climate — and for the credibility of the voluntary carbon market,” they wrote.

Boyle argues that the funding from the offset credits will allow the state to manage its forests more effectively and efficiently. That way, he said, the state will eventually have larger forests — with more trees to capture carbon, and more timber left over to harvest.

“That gives you a margin by which, if you choose, you can do some selective timber harvesting, as long as you maintain a level that is appropriate with the baseline that’s been established,” he said.

Carbon credits are just the beginning of Alaska’s plan to transform its economy. Dunleavy has also proposed creating a “carbon sequestration” program, where the state would capture its carbon emissions — or accept shipments of carbon captured elsewhere — and inject them into underground storage beneath Alaska’s huge expanses of open land.

“There’s a real ability here to move the needle in managing the world’s carbon and storing it for geologically significant periods of time,” Boyle said.

They believe that there is also an ability to diversify Alaska’s economy and make it competitive again, while helping the planet at the same time.

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April 25, 2023

Covid-sniffing dogs can help detect infections in K-12 schools, new study suggests | CNN

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CNN
—

Elementary students lined up behind a white curtain in the middle of a grand gymnasium at their school in northern California. They stood still as a dog handler walked a yellow Labrador along the other side of the curtain.

Hidden from the children’s view, the 2-year-old female pup sniffed each child’s shoes from beneath that curtain barrier. After each sniff, the dog looked back up at the handler. Then the handler brought the dog to the next tiny pair of feet beneath the curtain, and the dog curiously brought her snout close to those toes, then a young girl’s lavender tennis shoes and then another child’s white high-tops.

The dog was smelling for what are called volatile organic compounds that are known to be associated with Covid-19 infections.

While watching the Covid-sniffing dog in action, Dr. Carol Glaser saw her vision come to life.

Months prior, Glaser and her team were implementing the school’s Covid-19 testing program, using antigen nasal swab tests. Around that same time, Glaser heard about reports of dogs being used to screen for Covid-19 infections in sports venues, airports and other public settings.

That’s when Glaser had her “aha” moment – incorporating canines into Covid-19 testing programs at schools, nursing homes or other public facilities could help save time, personnel, possibly even costs, and “would be a lot more fun,” she said.

“I thought if we had dogs in schools to screen the students it would be so much faster and less burdensome for schools,” said Glaser, assistant deputy director in Central Laboratory Services and medical officer for infectious disease laboratories at the California Department of Public Health.

“Remember when an antigen test is done at school, as opposed to home, there’s a whole bunch of rules and regulations that run under that. It’s not as simple as just handing those things out at school and having the kids do them,” said Glaser, who oversaw antigen testing programs at some California public schools.

For now, Glaser and her colleagues described in a new study the lessons they learned from the Covid-19 dog screening pilot program that they launched in some California K-12 public schools.

In their research, published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, they wrote that the goal was to use dogs for screening and only use antigen tests on people whom the dogs screened as positive – ultimately reducing the volume of antigen tests performed by about 85%.

They wrote that their study supports the “use of dogs for efficient and noninvasive” Covid-19 screening and “could be used for other pathogens.”

The dogs used in the pilot program – two yellow Labradors named Rizzo and Scarlett – trained for a couple of months in a laboratory, sniffing donated socks that were worn by people who either had Covid-19 or didn’t. The dogs alerted their handlers when they detected socks that had traces of the disease – and received a reward of either Cheerios or liver treats.

“The one thing we do know for sure is when you’re collecting a sample off of a human being, you want to go where the most scent is produced. That is the head, the pits, the groin and the feet. Given those options, I went with feet,” said Carol Edwards, an author of the study and executive director of the nonprofit Early Alert Canines, which trains medical alert service dogs, including Rizzo and Scarlett.

“We collected some socks from people willing to donate socks, and we taught the dogs, by smelling the socks, which ones were the Covid socks and they picked it up very quickly,” Edwards said. “Then we moved into the schools and started sniffing the kids at the ankles.”

Last year, from April to May, the dogs visited 27 schools across California to screen for Covid-19 in the real world. They completed more than 3,500 screenings.

Rizzo acted as an energized worker, performing tasks with eagerness, Edwards said, while Scarlett tended to have more of a mellow and easygoing personality.

The screening process involves people – who voluntarily opted in to participate – standing 6 feet apart while the dogs, led by handlers, sniff each person’s ankles and feet. The dogs are trained to sit as a way of alerting their handlers that they detect a potential Covid-19 infection.

To protect each person’s privacy, sometimes the people face away from the dogs and toward a wall or behind a curtain, so that they can’t see the dogs or when a dog sits. If the dog sits in between two people, the handler will verbally ask the dog, “Show me?” And the dog will move its snout to point toward the correct person.

“Our dogs can come in, they can screen 100 kids in a half hour, and then only the ones the dog alerts on have to actually do a test,” Edwards said. “There’s no invasive nasal swab unless the dog happens to indicate on you.”

The researchers found that the dogs accurately alerted their handlers to 85 infections and ruled out 3,411 infections, resulting in an overall accuracy of 90%.

However, the dogs inaccurately alerted their handlers to infections in 383 instances and missed 18 infections, which means the dogs demonstrated 83% sensitivity and 90% specificity when it came to detecting Covid-19 infections in the study.

“Once we stepped into the schools, we saw a drop in their specificity and sensitivity due to the change,” Edwards said, referring to the distractions that children in a school setting can bring. However, Edward said, accuracy improved as the dogs spent more times in schools.

In comparison, Covid-19 BinaxNOW antigen tests have been shown in one real-world study to demonstrate 93.3% sensitivity and 99.9% specificity. That study was conducted in San Francisco and published in 2021 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

“We never said the dogs will replace the antigen. This was a time for us to learn how they compared,” Glaser said. “We will always plan on doing some amount of backup testing, but the idea would be that the actual antigen testing would be a fraction of what it would currently be because of the dogs.”

“To run these antigen testing programs at school, it’s taking a lot of school personnel resources, test cards as well as biohazard waste. So, I have no doubt in the long-run once it can be perfected, dogs will be cheaper, but I don’t have a great cost comparison,” she said.

This isn’t the first time that dogs’ abilities to detect traces of Covid-19 infections in real-time have been studied in the scientific literature.

“What we have learned in this work is that the dogs in general are capable of discriminating samples from individuals testing,” said Dr. Cindy Otto, professor and director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the new study.

Regarding the new research, Otto said, “On the surface their results are encouraging and with the appropriate selection of dogs, rigorous training and impeccable quality control, there is the potential for dogs to be incorporated in threat monitoring.”

Now that Glaser and her colleagues have published research about their Covid-19 dog screening pilot program, she is eager to implement the approach in nursing home settings.

“Honestly, schools aren’t that interested in testing anymore. The outbreaks just aren’t what they used to be, but what we have done is we’ve transitioned to nursing homes, because there is a tremendous need in nursing homes,” Glaser said, adding that many residents may prefer to undergo screening with a dog than with uncomfortable nasal swabs. “What would you rather have: A swab in your nose or something that just maybe tickles your ankle at most for testing?”

Covid-sniffing dogs Scarlett and Rizzo at a skilled nursing home in California.

In skilled nursing homes, the dogs visit each resident’s room to sniff their feet, calmly smelling for Covid-19 volatile organic compounds as the resident lies in bed or sits in a chair.

“Thinking about where dogs would be deployed, I do really think nursing homes and residential care facilities and even schools – if they were ever to have a big outbreak – would be the natural next fit for this,” Glaser said.

“We think we’ll probably end up primarily using them in nursing homes,” she said. “But we’re still doing a little bit of both – there was a school that asked us to come back last week.”

The pilot program within California public schools also has left Edwards with hope for future opportunities in which canines can help detect disease in humans.

“I really do think it’s the tip of the iceberg. This is the door swinging wide open, and now we need to collaborate with those in the science world and figure out where we can take this,” Edwards said.

“There’s been a lot of chatter, even in the very beginning of this project, talking about what other diseases they could do. We’ve talked about TB, we’ve talked about flu A and B, possibly for this next flu season, seeing if we can get the dogs to alert on that,” she said, as volatile organic compounds are also produced by people with influenza. “It’s just a matter of being able to figure out how to collect samples, how to train the dogs, and then to be safe and effective around those diseases too.”

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April 24, 2023

State leaders targeting climate investing have quiet stakes in the fossil fuel industry

Post By zittrexstore Oil and Gas BlackRock Inc, business, business news, Conocophillips, Devon Energy Corp, Environment, ESG investing, Exxon Mobil Corp, florida, George W. Bush, Government and politics, Government pensions and social security, Joe Biden, missouri, Oil and Gas, Political ethics, politics, Pollution, texas, Valero Energy Corp No Comments

In October, Scott Fitzpatrick, then-treasurer of Missouri, announced his state would pull $500 million out of pension funds managed by BlackRock.

He said he would move Missouri’s money away from the asset manager because it was “prioritizing” environmental, social and governance investing over shareholder returns. Fitzpatrick, a Republican who won election as the state’s auditor in November, used his office as treasurer to target BlackRock after years of criticizing Wall Street for a perceived turn toward investing focused on climate and social issues.

As he homed in on BlackRock, Fitzpatrick quietly held a financial stake in a massive fossil fuel company that could suffer from the broader adoption of alternative energy. Fitzpatrick and his wife owned a more than $10,000 stake in Chevron during both of 2022 and 2021, according to his latest financial disclosures filed with the state.

Fitzpatrick is among a group of powerful Republican state leaders who have waged similar fights against environmentally conscious investing as they held personal investments in, or saw political support from, the fossil fuel industry.

A handful of state financial officers who have similarly attacked ESG practices owned stock or bonds in oil, gas or other fossil fuel companies in recent years, according to the latest state financial disclosure reports reviewed by CNBC. Some of the state officials have received campaign donations from fossil fuel companies or their executives.

Climate activists with Stop the Money Pipeline hold a rally in New York City to urge companies to end their support for the proposed Line 3 pipeline project and stop funding fossil fuels and forest destruction, April 17, 2021.

Erik McGregor | LightRocket | Getty Images

State leaders face possible conflicts of interest when they have a chance to see financial gains from the fossil fuel industry as they use their offices to defend the sector — or in some cases move their state’s dollars away from clean-energy investments, government ethics experts told CNBC. As the officials ramp up their criticism of Wall Street investment practices, a lack of state laws requiring regular stock disclosures makes it difficult for the public to monitor what personal stake their representatives could have in the actions they take in office.

Brandon Alexander, the chief of staff to the Missouri auditor’s office, told CNBC in an emailed statement that Fitzpatrick’s publicly traded securities are either in a trust or qualified retirement accounts that are managed by a financial advisor.

“Other than employer sponsored retirement accounts (the entirety of which are invested in target date funds over which he has no control), all of Auditor Fitzpatrick’s publicly traded securities, are held in a trust or in qualified retirement accounts which are actively managed by a financial advisor to whom he gives no direction,” Alexander said. “He has never ‘had private briefings tied back to the fossil fuel industry’ nor does he personally direct or execute trades himself. Auditor Fitzpatrick stands by his criticism of the ESG movement, especially as it relates to the application of ESG standards in the management of public funds.”

Unlike members of Congress, state financial officers in many cases only have to disclose their stock ownership once a year. In some states, they do not have to divulge their investments at all. In contrast with federal lawmakers, they also do not have to file regular records disclosing their new trades.

None of the officials mentioned in this story engaged in illegal conduct. But the fact that they have investments that could be helped by their high-profile campaigns against ESG investing may create trust issues with the people they represent, says ethics experts.

“This is a problem that we have elected officials at the federal and state level that are simply not willing to avoid personal financial conflicts of interest,” Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, told CNBC in an interview. “You could have someone own stock in a company and pursue policy that could benefit that company. What’s good for Exxon Mobil’s stock is not necessarily good for America.”

Painter said that owning such stock is not illegal for state based leaders. Congressional lawmakers are also allowed to own stock but the 2012 STOCK Act disallows members of Congress to use non-public information to gain a profit and prohibits insider trading.

Another government ethics expert also cited an appearance of conflict as an issue for public officials.

“If an official has a financial interest in a company or an industry, it is reasonable to question whether that interest impacts how they approach their government work,” Donald Sherman, a senior vice president and chief counsel for watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNBC in an interview.

The fight against ESG investment standards has become a core issue for some Republicans at the federal and state level. Many of those officials have used their positions to target companies they believe are too politically active or, in some cases, are hurting certain industries, such as fossil fuels.

In the case of state financial officers, they have the power to shift public assets or pension funds away from certain firms and to other institutions.

letter to President Joe Biden opposing policies that promote ESG. The Biden administration has promoted environmentally conscious investing, and the president used his first veto on a measure that would have shot down a Labor Department rule that promoted ESG policies.
The letter said the state officials “believe the White House should be spearheading a call to invest in American energy instead of pursuing ESG initiatives that divide American energy businesses and discourage investment in these reliable energy industries.” The group went on to say that “freedom is the key to addressing climate change. The depth and breadth of American innovation is unparalleled globally, including the development of green technologies. However, oil, gas, coal, and nuclear are currently the most reliable and plentiful baseload power sources for America and much of the rest of the world.”
McCoy is one of the state financial officers who held an investment in fossil fuels. He had a stake in the industry as recently as 2020 — though changes in disclosure rules mean he has not had to disclose his assets more recently.
McCoy disclosed in 2020 that he owns bonds in fracking company Halliburton and a stake in the U.S. Oil Fund, an ETF that tracks the benchmark price of U.S. crude oil. The disclosure says that these stakes are either “more than 5 percent of the total interests in such business or investment, or [have] a net fair market value of more than $5,000.”
The 2020 disclosure was the last time McCoy filed a document showing his investments. Some states, including Georgia, do not require officials who hold key state positions to file full disclosure forms, and require those leaders to publish only a one-page affidavit, according to Haley Barrett, a spokeswoman for Georgia’s Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
Two of McCoy’s affidavits filed with the state say virtually nothing about his business dealings and stock holdings. McCoy’s most recent affidavit, from 2022, shows his titles as treasurer and as a member of a variety of boards, including the state Depository Board.
McCoy also had to sign a statement to confirm that he has taken “I have taken no official action as a public officer in the previous calendar year which had a material effect on my private, financial or business interests.” That affidavit and a 2021 version of the document does not say whether McCoy currently owns any stocks in the fossil fuel industry.
When asked about what the state ethics commission does to verify if those signed statements are accurate, Barrett said in an email that “once these documents have been filed with our office and reviewed, there is an opportunity to determine if there are any discrepancies in the filings. Investigations can be initiated internally through our office or by a third party complaint.”
McCoy and his office did not return requests for comment.
McCoy is far from the only ESG critic who has a financial or political interest in fossil fuel companies.

Texas’ state comptroller, Glenn Hegar, argued in letters to money managers last year that he believes firms such as BlackRock, HSBC and UBS are boycotting the energy industry, saying in a statement at the time that he believes “environmental crusaders” have created a “false narrative” that the economy can transition away from fossil fuels. Hegar co-signed an open letter in 2021 with other state financial officers that was addressed to the U.S. banking industry and defended the fossil fuel industry.

“We will each take concrete steps within our respective authority to select financial institutions that support a free market and are not engaged in harmful fossil fuel industry boycotts for our states’ financial services contracts,” the letter reads.

He also co-signed the 2022 letter to Biden from a slate of other state financial officers defending the fossil fuel industry.

Hegar has since escalated his campaign against the institutions. Hegar sent letters to fellow state money managers arguing that they have not done enough to cut ties with BlackRock and other firms that he said boycotted the oil and gas industry, Bloomberg reported in February.

In the lead-up to his anti-ESG push, Hegar owned stock in the oil and gas industry. In 2021, the Texas comptroller and his spouse owned between 100 and 499 shares of Devon Energy and up to 99 shares of ConocoPhillips, according to his latest financial disclosure.

His financial records from all of the previous years since he became state comptroller in 2015 do not show any stock in these two companies or in the fossil fuel industry at large.

Hegar’s political ambitions have also seen a boost from the oil and gas industry — a dominating force in Texas. During his 2022 reelection, Hegar received donations from a range of PACs and executives from the oil and gas business.

His campaign received $10,000 last year from Ben “Bud” Brigham, the chairman of oil and gas development company Brigham Exploration, according to state campaign finance records. The PACs of Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Calpine Corp. and Valero Energy were among Hegar’s fossil fuel donors during his run for reelection last year, according to state records.

Hegar and his office did not return requests for comment.

Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, has been railing against ESG investment standards since around the time he was reelected to the position in November. Patronis was also among the co-signers of the 2022 letter to Biden defending the fossil fuel industry.

By December, Patronis announced that the Florida Treasury would start divesting $2 billion of assets managed by BlackRock. In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in February, Patronis explained the decision.

“The bottom line: I’m seeing dollars are being siphoned off. I’m seeing individuals, like [BlackRock CEO Larry] Fink and others that are using the state of Florida’s money for a social agenda,” he said.

He added: “I just care about returns. And I’m not seeing that.”

Heading into 2022, he also had a financial interest in the fossil fuel industry.

Patronis owned 100 shares combined of Exxon Mobil and Chevron — the two largest gas companies in the world — at the end of 2021, according to his most recent publicly available disclosure.

His personal interest in fossil fuel companies has grown in recent years. In 2018, he disclosed only about 10 shares of Exxon and did not list any Chevron stock.

The document was the first time since 2018 that Patronis listed investments in the sector.

Frank Collins III, the state’s deputy chief financial officer, told CNBC in a statement that Patronis believes ESG efforts are part of a campaign to decimate the oil and gas industry. He said Patronis does not personally make trading or investment decisions for the state’s retirement systems.

“The CFO wants great returns for those in Florida’s retirement funds, nothing else. While the ESG movement has been on a campaign to erase America’s oil and gas industry from the map, those industries were making returns for investors,” Collins said.

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April 20, 2023

A quarter of Americans live with polluted air, with people of color and those in Western states disproportionately affected, report says | CNN

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CNN
—

About 1 in 4 people in the United States – more than 119 million residents – live with air pollution that can hurt their health and shorten their lives, according to a new report from the American Lung Association. People of color are disproportionately affected, as are residents of Western cities.

Since President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act in 1970, emissions of outdoor air pollutants have fallen 78%, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. But Wednesday’s 2023 State of the Air report, which focuses on ozone and particle pollution, shows that millions put their health on the line every time they step outside.

To capture pollution levels at the county level, researchers analyzed data collected by the EPA’s Air Quality System, a repository of ambient air quality data from more than 10,000 monitors. They characterized the hourly average ozone concentration and the 24-hour average particle pollution concentration for 2019-21 at each monitoring site and factored in year-round pollution information from the EPA.

There were significant improvements in some areas. Generally, 17.6 million fewer people were breathing unhealthy air than in last year’s report, due largely to falling levels of ozone in some regions.

Ozone pollution is the main ingredient in smog. It comes from cars, power plants and refineries. Exposure to ozone can immediately exacerbate asthma symptoms, and people with long-term exposure to higher levels face a significantly higher risk of death from respiratory diseases than those who live with cleaner air.

Around 25% more counties got an A grade in the report for lower levels of ozone pollution. Some of that improvement can be attributed to the Clean Air Act, according to Katherine Pruitt, author of the report and the American Lung Association’s national senior director for policy.

Emission controls have helped, she said, as has the country’s continuing move away from its reliance on coal for its energy needs. Even something simple as the increase in the number of people who work from home has played a role.

“The Biden administration has set themselves a good, strong to do list of things that will help with environmental justice and climate protection,” Pruitt said. “They’re moving kind of slow, though. So we’d like them to pick up the pace.”

Despite the progress, not everyone was lucky enough to live in a county with good ozone levels. More than 100 million people live in counties that get an F for ozone smog, the report says.

Western and Southwestern cities are the most ozone-polluted, with 10 of the 25 most-polluted cities in California. New York, Chicago and Hartford, Connecticut, were the only three on that list east of the Mississippi River.

The five metropolitan areas with the worst ozone pollution are Los Angeles-Long Beach, California; Visalia, California; Bakersfield, California; Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California; and Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona.

Particle pollution, the other form of pollution tracked in the report, still seems to be a significant issue for the US.

Often hard to see, particle pollution is a mix of solid and liquid droplets that may come in the form of dirt, dust, soot or smoke. Coal- and natural gas-fired power plants create it, as do cars, agriculture, unpaved roads, construction sites and wildfires.

Particle pollution is so tiny – 1/20th of a width of a human hair – that it can travel past your body’s usual defenses.

Instead of being carried out when you exhale, it can get stuck in your lungs or go into your bloodstream. The particles cause irritation and inflammation and may lead to respiratory problems. Exposure can cause cancer, stroke or heart attack; it could also aggravate asthma, and it has even been associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety, studies show.

The new report says the number of people living in counties with failing grades for daily spikes of particle pollution was the highest it has been in a decade. Nearly 64 million live with these kind of unhealthy spikes in counties that get failing grades.

One driver of the high amounts of particle pollution are the wildfires that have consumed hundreds of thousands of acres. In 2021 alone, there were 14,407 fires, many in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. There used to be a wildfire season, experts say, but now they happen year-round.

Those fires are why the regions with the highest concentrations of air pollution are largely in the West.

When the American Lung Association started producing its report in 2004, 106 counties in 30 states got failing grades for daily spikes in particle pollution. Fewer than half were in eight states west of the Rocky Mountains. Today, 111 counties in 19 states got Fs for spikes in particle pollution, and all but eight counties are in the West, the report says.

Urban centers in the Rust Belt and the industrialized East had gotten the most failing grades in the early 2000s, but many have cleaned up and now get passing grades.

Bakersfield, California, displaced Fresno as the metropolitan area with the worst short-term particle pollution, but Fresno did not suddenly develop cleaner air. That city still had the most-polluted label for year-round particle pollution, tied with Visalia, in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.

Los Angeles is still the city with the worst ozone pollution, according to the report, as it has been for all but one of the years included in the report.

California has some of the more progressive environmental legislation in the country, but the climate crisis has not been kind to the state, said Tarik Benmarhnia, an air pollution and wildfire researcher at the University of California, San Diego, who did not work on the new report.

“All these cities like Bakersfield and Visalia are in a valley near the forests that are seeing big fires. There’s also intense agricultural and industrial work there, so they unfortunately have all the worst conditions for air pollution,” Benmarhnia said.

There are some newcomers to the list of the 25 areas with the most particle pollution, including Denver and Fargo, North Dakota. Reno, Nevada; Yakima and Spokane, Washington; and Boise, Idaho; all made the worst list this year.

San Luis Obispo, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle and Bellingham, Washington; all moved off the list of worst 25 cities.

Residents in the cities ranked worst for particle pollution are living with more of it, the report says. In the top 25 cities with the worst air, the average number of days residents were exposed to high levels of fine particle pollution increased to a weighted average of 18.3, up from 16.5 in last year’s report.

East of the Mississippi, Pittsburgh and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, were the two worst metropolitan areas in the country, posting more days high in fine particle pollution in this year’s report.

Not everyone experiences pollution the same way in the US. Regardless of the region, communities of color bear the brunt of the problem.

Specifically, although people of color make up 41% of the overall US population, they are 54% of the nearly 120 million people living in counties with at least one failing grade for unhealthy air. And in the counties with the worst air quality, 72% of the 18 million residents are people of color, the report said.

Other research has also shown this trend. On maps that lay out areas with high levels of air pollution and where communities were redlined – areas where Black people were forced to live – they line up perfectly, Pruitt said.

“Then, the other aspect is, when you have a community of color that is a voluntary community, people aren’t forced to live there, those are communities that tend to have less of a voice, so decision makers place polluting sources in those communities because there’s not as much howling by people with power when they do. So those communities get the highways; they get the landfills; they get the fence lines,” she said.

There’s a myth that only poor communities live with disproportionate pollution levels, says Chris Tessum, a professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Illinois. Tessum, who was not involved in the new report, says race really is the determining factor.

“The thinking is that people with more money will buy better property, which has lower air pollution and that’s just the way of the world or whatever, but that’s just kind of emphatically not, not true,” he said.

Communities need to play a key role in making decisions to help clean air, Tessum said.

“People that have the power will use that power to benefit themselves and not the people that have been historically overburdened,” he said.

The new report says government and residents can make a difference. One suggestion is to leverage Inflation Reduction Act funding to help reduce emissions at ports and to invest in zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and in infrastructure that would improve air quality monitoring.

States can also use the Clean Air Act authority to adopt the California zero-emissions standards for cars and trucks, the report says.

At the federal level, agencies must finalize stronger limits on air pollution to truly protect public health and advance environmental justice, the report says, including standards to move the country toward zero-emissions vehicles. The EPA also has to set stronger national standards for particle pollution and ozone, the researchers say.

Pruitt said she knows firsthand how better policies can work. She said growing up before the Clean Air Act, pollution was so high that she could see it every time she stepped outside. Today, the pollution is not nearly as visible.

“I’m in my mid-60s, and of course, air pollution was very tangible when I was young, but these days, thank goodness it isn’t. Most people don’t see it,” she said. Unless a person has a lung condition, they may not even feel it.

But just because you can’t see it or feel it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Pruitt encourages people to remember that no level of pollution is safe. The World Health Organization estimates that the combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually.

“People don’t really recognize that what they’re breathing is impacting their health,” Pruitt said.

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April 12, 2023

EPA proposes new regulations on toxic gas used to sterilize spices and medical equipment | CNN

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CNN
—

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed a set of new restrictions on facilities that use the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide, a colorless, odorless gas that is used to sterilize medical devices and spices.

The agency said the new rules, which have not been finalized, would help to reduce ethylene oxide gas that these facilities release by 80%, bringing emissions below a Clean Air Act standard for elevated cancer risk.

Communities exposed to ethylene oxide gas have been pushing the EPA to put tighter controls on plants that use ethylene oxide gas.

In 2018, an EPA report found that dozens of communities across the nation faced elevated cancer risks because of trace of amounts of ethylene oxide released into air as part of the sterilization process.

The EPA issued the report on the new risks without issuing a news release, as it had done for the same report in years past. Some affected communities learned of the risk through a health assessment conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and media reports. A report from the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General found that some communities weren’t alerted to their risk by EPA at all.

The elevated risk became apparent after a two-decade long review of the toxicity of ethylene oxide by scientists in EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program.

While the EPA acknowledged that ethylene oxide was more dangerous that had been previously understood, it continued to use an older set of rules to regulate facilities that released ethylene oxide as well as companies that manufacture it.

The proposed rules aim to better align regulations on the producers and users of ethylene oxide with the cancer risk posed by the chemical. They follow a set of proposed rules issued by EPA last week that would put new controls on facilities that manufacture ethylene oxide.

Taken together, the two sets of rules would remove 77 tons of ethylene oxide emissions a year, an 84% reduction compared with 2020 levels, EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe said in a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Environmental watchdog groups applauded the proposed restrictions, but noted that they don’t go far enough to protect vulnerable communities, where residents are often low-income and disproportionately people of color.

“These regulations are long overdue, by almost a decade. I’m relieved and pleased that the EPA has finally issued proposed standards that are based on their own scientists’ recommendations on an updated, higher cancer risk value. If enacted, these updated regulations would reduce emissions in fenceline communities,” said Darya Minovi, a senior researcher scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“When the EPA issues the final rule, they should throw the net wider. The standard should cover a larger range of facilities to include off-site warehouses that often store recently sterilized equipment that continue to release ethylene oxide, but aren’t regulated for their air emissions.”

Minovi also said the EPA should require fenceline monitors – devices that constantly read the air outside of facilities to make sure that toxic gas isn’t drifting into neighborhoods.

Jaime Rukstales, a member of the Illinois grassroots advocacy group Stop EtO in Lake County – one of the communities impacted by ethylene oxide pollution – says the EPA needs to impose tougher restrictions on “all types of facilities that impact the health of our communities … including sterilizers, manufacturers and warehouses near our homes, schools and businesses.”

Some off-site warehouses used to store newly sterilized products have registered high levels of ethylene oxide due to off-gassing of the products.

Meanwhile, chemical manufacturers sued the EPA in February over its updated hazard assessment for ethylene oxide. The industry wants the agency to use a less protective standard developed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

AdvaMed, a group that lobbies for the interests of medical device manufacturers, warned that more regulations could pose problems for patients.

“If new EPA regulations force sterilization facilities to close, patients could face treatment delays as sterile technology supplies, such as pacemakers and surgical equipment, fall short,” Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of AdvaMed, said in a comment posted on the group’s website.

The EPA said some commercial sterilizers have already made the planned changes.

“Many sterilization and health care facilities are already taking the steps outlined in the proposal and have seen emissions drop significantly,” McCabe said.

Most facilities have taken action to control ethylene oxide blown out of sterilization chambers through exhaust vents known as “back vents” but only 25% to 33% of sterilizers are controlling so-called fugitive emissions, ethylene oxide that escapes or leaks into room air, said Jonathan Witt, an environmental engineer and technical lead on EPA’s review of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.

“So we think it’s a good sizable chunk of the industry, but still a little ways to go,” Witt said on a call with reporters.

If the rules go into effect, sterilizers would have 18 months to make the changes, which the EPA said is an accelerated time frame under the Clean Air Act.

AdvaMed’s Whitaker says that’s not enough time.

“It could take many months for abatement equipment to arrive. Supply chains and manufacturing are still recovering from the pandemic,” he noted in the statement.

In issuing the proposed rules, the EPA said it aimed to strike a balance between lowing cancer risks for impacted communities and workers who use ethylene oxide while preserving “critical sterilization capabilities.”

The proposed rules would apply to 86 commercial sterilization facilities in the United States that use ethylene oxide gas to fumigate spices and medical devices.

The EPA says 20 billion medical devices – mostly single-use, disposable items used in health care such as catheters, gloves and surgical gowns – are sterilized using ethylene oxide.

The US Food and Drug Administration is actively exploring alternatives to the use of the gas, the EPA said on Tuesday, but some devices still can’t be sterilized any other way.

In proposing the new rules, EPA said its new analysis found that exposure to ethylene oxide, or EtO, on the job significantly increased cancer risks for workers in sterilization facilities and those who apply ethylene oxide in health care facilities.

“Now, a new EPA analysis shows that there may also be significant risks to workers who handle [ethylene oxide] and people who live, work or go to school near places where EtO is used in sterilization. And failing to take action to address these risks is simply unacceptable,” EPA Administrator Janet McCabe said on a call with reporters.

The additional lifetime cancer risk for a worker exposed to ethylene oxide for eight hours a day, 240 days a year for 35 years was between 1 in 10 and 1 in 36 for workers in sterilization facilities; and between 1 in 12 and 1 in 25 for workers exposed to ethylene oxide in health care facilities.

To help lower those risks, the proposed rules require greater use of personal protective equipment for workers and new controls to decrease the amount of ethylene oxide in indoor air.

Whitaker from AdvaMed, the medical device industry group, said the cancer risk for employees exposed to ethylene oxide on the job is overstated and disregards “the strong employee protections already in practice.”

Companies will also be required to use new real-time monitoring methods to confirm that these pollution controls are working inside facilities. These controls can measure ethylene oxide in indoor air down to 10 parts per billion. If ethylene oxide levels climb above this threshold, everyone in the workplace would be required to wear protective equipment.

They will also lower the amount of ethylene oxide that can be used for each sterilization cycle. The EPA is proposing to limit the application rate for ethylene oxide to no more than 500 milligrams per liter of air.

The rules would eliminate some niche uses of ethylene oxide where alternatives exist, including its use in museums, archival settings, beekeeping, some cosmetics, and in musical instruments.

The EPA will take public comment on the new rules for 60 days. The agency will also host a virtual public webinar on May 1 to discuss its proposed rules and new risk assessment.

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March 9, 2023

Price Of Economic Growth: Rising Air Pollution Is Choking Indian Cities And Killing People

Post By zittrexstore Business AIR, choking, cities, economic, Growth, Indian, killing, people, Pollution, price, rising No Comments

India has become the world’s fastest-growing economy, but air pollution–the bane of industrial societies–is choking its cities and taking a huge toll on its people’s health. And despite years of efforts, the country’s attempts to improve air quality are not making much of an impact and healthcare experts are raising alarm about the impact of toxic air.

The number of smog-filled cities in India continues to rise with each passing year. More than 130 cities now face pollution levels below national standards, according to a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Capital Delhi is now one of the most polluted cities in the world. Financial hub Mumbai, although near the sea, has also been hit hard by pollution and is witnessing a surge in health issues ranging from throat infection and dry cough to breathing difficulties among citizens.

Air quality in Bengaluru, India’s tech capital, went downhill last October, escalating health concerns among residents.

“It is very obvious that the bulk of air pollution is caused by construction activities, vehicles, and manufacturing or industrial activities, and there is no policy in the direction of reduction, mitigation or discouragement of any of these,” civic activist Sandeep Anirudha said in a critique of the government’s efforts.

Air pollution–a slow killer

Air pollution is reducing the life expectancy of people in Delhi by 10 years. The Air Quality Life Index indicates that particulate matter (PM) pollution reduces life expectancy more than communicable diseases, the World Economic Forum said in a report last year. Particulate matter are microscopic solids or liquid droplets that can be inhaled by humans and cause serious health issues.

While there has been a decline in Covid-19 cases in Indian cities, a rise in cases of respiratory and heart issues are increasing the strain on the healthcare system. Children and the elderly aged 60 and above are more likely to have health complications.

Sudden deaths due to heart attacks have increased in India due to long-term exposure to air pollution, particularly PM2.5, according to a study published in Jama Network Open.

Researchers found long-term PM 2.5 exposure is directly linked with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Experts suggest that tiny air pollutants can cause narrowing of the heart arteries, which can result in heart stoppage.

“My asthma has intensified after breathing the air pollutants over the past few months,” Kartik Verma, a resident of Delhi-National Capital Region, told International Business Times. “The air around my residence is continuously degrading, thanks to the incessant construction and vehicular pollution in the area. Doctors suggest if I don’t take immediate precautionary measures and change my surrounding, I may be at risk of severe lung and heart issues.”

India’s polluting industries

Booming industrialization, rising urbanization and associated commercial activities are also contributing to air pollutant emissions and poor air quality in the country.

More than half, or 51%, of air pollution in India is the result of industries, as per a research analysis. More than 6% of India’s industries reportedly don’t comply with environmental standards, threatening harmful emissions and discharge of effluents, as per Times of India.

Dr. Uday Sanglodkar, a senior consultant hepatologist at Mumbai’s Global Hospital, highlighted how rampant construction and traffic fumes have been impacting the city’s air quality. He said long-term exposure to smoke and pollution is weakening the lungs and other organs of growing children and pregnant women. There is a rise in cases of chronic and persistent coughs, alongside the annual flu season, across the city.

“It makes us think how pollution is contributing to health concerns among people of all age groups,” Dr. Sanglodkar told International Business Times.

Even as the government of India has implemented various policy measures to reduce industrial emissions, the extent to which these measures are helping remains debatable. In recent years, various ministries have implemented programs to promote clean technologies in key sectors, such as the National Electric Mobility Plan 2020 and energy efficiency labeling for energy-intensive home appliances.

The most significant measure was the announcement of the National Clean Air Program in 2019, which mandates 122 cities with high pollution levels to design city-specific action plans to reduce PM2.5 emissions by 20-30% by 2024 compared to 2017 levels. While the policy was announced with high expectations, its ground-level implementation has remained shaky. The plan lacks a concise funding strategy as budgetary allocations have remained stagnant and inadequate.

Looking at the regional level, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, Bengaluru’s civic body, for instance, allocated $54.5 million to implement fresh measures aimed at controlling the rising AQI levels in the city. And the Delhi government is planning an extensive system, including anti-smog guns to water sprinklers mounted on mini-trucks, to control pollution on roads and construction sites in the city this summer.

The effectiveness of these measures will also depend on various factors, including the willingness of the citizens to bring and adopt the required changes to reduce air pollution at the home level.

Dr. Sanglodkar suggested certain preventive measures to tackle the harmful effects of pollution on health. Wearing masks in outdoor spaces and avoiding smoking are among them.

“The government must take rigorous measures to curb construction activities and limit the emissions from vehicles to put rising air pollution under check. Also, there is a need for creating meticulous awareness among the general public about the need to take active participation in minimizing the impact of air pollution,” he added.

Same story across the globe

A recent study released by Lancet Planet Health said nearly everyone, approximately 99.82% of the global population, is currently exposed to unhealthy levels of harmful air pollutants (particulate matter 2.5 or PM 2.5). The findings of the study published Monday highlight the growing need for public health officials and policymakers to focus on measures to curb leading sources of air pollution. The study confirmed only 0.001% of the world’s population breathes considerably acceptable air, Japan Times reported.

As the fifth-largest global mortality risk factor, air pollution has emerged to be a prominent public health concern in other major economies, including China and U.S. Harmful air pollutants contribute to millions of premature deaths and other health hazards every year in countries around the world. It has caused about one-tenth of global deaths, with the overall death toll exceeding 5 million. Some 21% of China’s health concerns were linked to air pollution due to rapid industrialization, which is 8% higher than the U.S. PM 2.5 has been identified as the main cause of smog in the U.S., which is being inhaled by people every day, raising the risk of lung and heart disease.

Daily pollution levels have increased in Australia, New Zealand and Latin America, with more than 70% of days globally surpassing safe levels.

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