Deregulate!

[Admin]

Behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses, Piyush is telling me how he made a quarter of a million dollars. "It was easy money," he says, detailing how he bought fancy cars and wore designer clothes. From a modest background, Piyush made a fortune by defrauding innocent victims at the other end of a phone. "To become a rock star we have to do something," he says. "Become a thief?" I ask. "Right," he replies coolly. Piyush meets me in a friend's apartment, in one of Delhi's richest neighbourhoods. The group of young men I've come to talk to all have one thing in common - they've worked in India's scam call-centre industry. The country is well-known for outsourcing jobs from Western countries to legitimate call centres, but there's also a thriving dark side. For nine years after leaving college, Piyush was part of it. "I wasn't getting a job anywhere else and the money and the incentives were good," he says. The company Piyush worked for ran what is known as a "tech support scam". It would send a pop-up to people's screens, telling them their computer had been infected by a "pornographic virus" or other malware, and giving them a helpline number to call. As panicking customers rang in, Piyush and his colleagues would milk them for money, to fix a problem that didn't actually exist. Piyush tells me that tricking people is an "art". "We used to target the old people," he says. "There are many old people in the US who don't have families, are alone and are disabled, so it's very easy to trick them."

Confessions of a call-centre scammer - BBC News

• More predatory capitalism, although this one is of course illegal so deregulation isn't the main problem here.
  

[Admin]

The UK will be powerless to prevent potentially dangerous chemicals being used in everyday goods because Boris Johnson is pursuing an ultra-hard Brexit, campaigners are warning. The country will become “a dumping ground” for products linked to cancer, thyroid disease, hormone disruption and developmental problems because the prime minister insists on pulling out of the EU’s successful watchdog, they say. It means the UK must start from scratch in vetting hazardous chemicals itself – but with far less money and staff, in a process expected to take many years.

In the interim, manufacturers will be able to successfully challenge attempts to exclude chemicals banned in the EU – in everything from food and drink packaging and paints to furniture, carpets, clothing and even toys, the groups fear. “If we don’t have access to the safety data then the government could be challenged in the courts over decisions and it could lose,” warned Libby Peake, of the Green Alliance think tank.

Brexit: UK unable to prevent dangerous chemicals in everyday goods because of Boris Johnson’s plans, campaigners warn | The Independent

[Admin]

Sanitizers that don’t contain the CDC’s recommended minimum of 60% alcohol are flying off store shelves and listed by sellers on Amazon for outrageous prices. Here is what you need to know.

You Might Be Buying a Hand Sanitizer That Won’t Work for… — ProPublica

• Another example of predatory capitalism that doesn't need regulation..
  

[Admin]

HHydraulic fracturing has boomed in the U.S. over the past decade, but unless you live near it, you may not realize just how close fracking wells can be to homes and schools. In Colorado, the wellbore – the hole drilled to extract oil or gas – can be 500 feet from someone’s house under current state rules. In some states, like Texas, drilling can be even closer. For people living in these areas, that means noise, pollution and other stressors that can harm physical and mental health. People with homes near fracking operations describe vibrations that can make sleep difficult and disturb their pets. Truck traffic around wellpads adds to the noise, dust and other airborne pollutants, creating another layer of industrial disruption. 

One woman I spoke with had a 30-foot-high sound wall put up around her property, but the parade of semitrucks at all hours still rattled her home, and the sound wall couldn’t keep out the noise. When she opened her bedroom curtains, all she saw was a brown wall where she used to have mountain views. As a social scientist who studies extractive industries and their environmental justice and health impacts, I have spent years in communities with unconventional oil and gas activity, visiting homes and well sites. My research shows that living near fracking sites can lead to chronic stress and self-reported depression. These effects often relate to systemic problems associated with the industry.

When fracking moves into the neighborhood, mental health risks rise

[Admin]

Tragically, America is swamped with fraudulent medical-grade masks, some of which are only 1 percent effective. Many masks do not have labels clearly indicating their manufacturer. Some official mask-testing methods are inappropriate, including the use of far higher pressure than normal breathing exerts. No reasonable certification is available for the most useful masks generally available to the public. All of this means that everyone has to somehow figure out for themselves which masks are effective.

Not all countries have this problem. Taiwan massively scaled up its manufacturing of masks at the start of 2020, such that by April every citizen received a fresh supply of high-quality masks each week, and the distribution system was regulated by the government. Taiwan’s COVID-19 death rate per capita is more than 1,000 times lower than that in the U.S. Hong Kong has been distributing patented six-layer masks (the efficacy of which has been laboratory tested) to every citizen. Singapore is on at least its fourth round of distributing free, reusable, multilayer masks with filters to everyone—even kids, who get kid-size ones. In Germany, Bavaria has just announced that it will be requiring higher-grade masks. If all of these places can do this, why can’t we?

Why Aren't We Wearing Better Masks? - The Atlantic

[Admin]

Federal agents have seized roughly 10m fake 3M brand N95 masks in recent weeks, the result of an ongoing investigation into counterfeits sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies. The most recent seizures occurred on Wednesday when homeland security agents intercepted hundreds of thousands of counterfeit 3M masks in an east coast warehouse that were set to be distributed, officials said. Investigators also notified about 6,000 potential victims in at least 12 states including hospitals, medical facilities and others who may have unknowingly purchased knockoffs, urging them to stop using the medical-grade masks. Officials encouraged medical workers and companies to go to 3M’s website for tips on how to spot fakes.

US federal agents have seized roughly 10m fake N95 masks in recent weeks | Coronavirus | The Guardian

[Admin]

Hence the comparison to big tobacco. In the early 1960s, scientists at one cigarette maker, Reynolds, concluded that the evidence that smoking was linked to cancer was “overwhelming”. Meanwhile, researchers at the rival firm Philip Morris were drawing up a list of dozens of carcinogens in cigarette smoke. But guess what – none of that information was made public. On the contrary, for more than three decades, the tobacco industry refused to admit any evidence of harms from smoking, even though its own research told the exact opposite story..

Is Facebook the tobacco industry of the 21st century? | Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian

[Admin]

According to Anne Miller, executive director of the nonprofit group Project N95, the masks that offer the most protection are indeed the N95 and the K-N95 -- both are approved by the U.S. government to block 95% of the new coronavirus. But she warned that there are lots of counterfeits out there. The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) tests masks to be sure they meet the standards for what's called "filtration rate," she explained. As the pandemic began, lots of masks were submitted to NIOSH for approval as companies sought to cash in on surging demand. Only a few succeeded. "Some of those masks were like 20% filtration," Miller noted. In fact, "over 60% of the masks that were submitted did not pass NIOSH tests -- they did not perform," she said. "From my perspective as a consumer, I don't want to shell out my money and get something that I think is protecting me that isn't and then I have a false sense of security -- and then I get sick," Miller added.

N95 Masks: A Must-Have With Omicron, But Fakes Abound | Health News | US News

[Admin]

Starting in 2014, the impoverished city of Flint, Michigan, experienced the highest-profile lead exposure crisis in recent American history. Lead levels in Flint’s children spiked after the city failed to properly treat a new water source. Eventually, the state of Michigan and city of Flint were forced to agree to a $641 million settlement for residents affected by the lead poisoning, and several state officials, including former Gov. Rick Snyder, were criminally indicted for their role in exposing children to lead.

While estimates differ, a prominent study found that the share of screened Flint children under the age of 5 with high lead levels reached 4.9 percent in 2015, up from 2.4 percent before the problems with lead contamination began. According to the CDC guidance at the time, a level of lead in blood that would be considered high was 5 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL) (the agency has since lowered the threshold to 3.5 µg/dL). That said, no level of lead exposure is considered safe, and even exposure well below public health recommendations can be quite harmful. That nearly 5 percent of young children in Flint faced exposure to rates that high is a travesty.

As scandalous as the Flint lead crisis is, it’s sobering to know that it may be just the tip of the iceberg globally. A recent systematic evidence review, widely cited and respected in the field, pooled lead screenings from 34 countries representing two-thirds of the world’s population. The study estimated that 48.5 percent of children in the countries surveyed have blood lead levels above 5 µg/dL. Let me repeat that: Flint became the symbol of catastrophic lead exposure in the United States. The breakdown of a long-neglected system was so terrible that it led to headlines for months and even became an issue in the 2016 presidential election. Yet children in low- and middle-income countries are, per this estimate, 10 times likelier to have high blood lead levels than children in Flint were at the height of the city’s crisis.

The world’s lead exposure crisis, explained - Vox

[Admin]

More than one in 10 fish oil supplements tested from among 60 large retail brands are rancid, while nearly half are just under the recommended maximum limit, according to independent tests. Conducted over several years by Labdoor, which analyses vitamins and supplements based on criteria such as purity, label accuracy and nutritional value, the tests measured common US-branded fish oils, available globally, against international voluntary standards of rancidity. Some fish oils recorded levels 11 times higher than recommended limits. Rancidity arises when a product becomes oxidised. In fish oil, a rancid example can involve a strong fishy taste and rotten smell. “It was fairly frequent,” said Dan Mark, Labdoor’s research director. “For us, they would start to smell and feel off.” The rancidity is often masked by flavourings, which are added to most fish oils to reduce the fishy taste and smell.

Revealed: many common omega-3 fish oil supplements are ‘rancid’ | Fish oil | The Guardian