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☆ Frank Popoff, Who Sought to Lead a Friendlier Dow Chemical, Dies at 88
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Richard Sandomir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Frank Popoff, a chief executive and chairman who tried to make Dow Chemical more conciliatory toward regulators and environmentalists in the late 1980s and ’90s, and who prodded the chemical industry to adopt safer practices, died on Feb. 25 at his home in Midland, Mich., where Dow is based. A spokesman for the company said the cause was cancer. “I think we have a fair amount of work to do in terms of the way we are viewed,” Mr. Popoff told The New York Times in 1987, shortly before succeeding Paul F. Oreffice as chief executive. “We know we’ll never change Ralph Nader’s mind. But Dow is at peace with itself, and we want our people to feel good about the company, too.”

Persons: Frank Popoff, Dow, Popoff, Orange, “ Dow, Mr, Paul F, Oreffice, “, Ralph Nader’s, ” Organizations: Dow, U.S, Environmental Protection Agency, New York Times Locations: Midland, Mich, Bulgarian, Vietnam

When Daniel Skousen scrubs at the ash and soot covering his Maui home, he worries about the smell. Crews have installed air quality monitors throughout town and are spraying a soil sealant to prevent toxic ash from being washed into the ocean or blowing around. The Hawaii Department of Health's Environmental Health Services Division also told Skousen's attorney it had no records about residential testing of contaminants to release. “If it smells like burned plastic or burned electrical cables, then probably those chemicals are in the air and not healthy,” Hertz-Picciotto said. Whether a home can be made safe enough for residency comes down in part to the resident's risk tolerance, Hayes said.

Persons: Daniel Skousen, ”, Bill Hayes, Hayes, Char, ” Hayes, Crews, Kellen Ashford, Shawn Hamamoto, ‘, ’ ”, Edward Neiger, ” Ashford, Andrew Shoemaker, it's, Shoemaker, Dioxins, Skousen, Irva Hertz, Davis, Picciotto, ” Hertz, He’s Organizations: Hawaii Department of Education, Environmental, Agency, Associated Press, Hawaii Department of Health, Hawaii Department of, Environmental Health, Health Department, U.S . Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, Lahaina Civic Center, World Health Organization, University of California, Hertz, Cooperative Institute for Research, Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Locations: Lahaina, Boulder County , Colorado, Maui, ” State, Skousen, “, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder

[1/8] Waste from international clothing brands is stored before being used to fuel kilns at a brick factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia November 17, 2023. It found pre-consumer garment waste including fabric, plastic, rubber, and other materials from the brands was being burned at seven factories. The factories were burning garment waste to save on fuel costs, it said. Brick factory workers reported regular migraines, nosebleeds, and other illnesses, the UK report said. LPP said it was unaware its textile waste was being burned in brick kilns, and has contacted its agents responsible for placing orders in Cambodia.

Persons: Lululemon, Co's, Betty, Tilley Endurables, Armour, Lidl, LICADHO, LPP, Tilley, Clare Baldwin, Helen Reid, Katherine Masters Organizations: Cambodian League, Promotion, of Human, REUTERS Acquire, Adidas, Walmart, The Cambodian League, of Human Rights, Reuters, UNDP, Royal Holloway, University of London, Navy, Lidl Stiftung, Reebok, Venus, World, Cambodian Ministry of Environment, Sarom Trading, Thomson Locations: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Cambodian, Kandal

☆ Fact Check-NOAA graphic does not show public threat from ‘deadly plume’ after Ohio train derailment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Weeks after the crash, a tweet sharing the NOAA graphic said: “This is how far the deadly plume from East Palestine, OH had traveled by Feb. 8. The image shows the “vertical distribution of air movement” away from the train derailment incident, Alison Gillespie, a NOAA spokesperson, told Reuters via email. “The concentration of pollution decreases dramatically as you go downwind,” which she said is not seen in the graphic shared online. The Feb. 24 NOAA post acknowledged that the graphic was removed from the original article, then restored unchanged, without explaining the removal. A NOAA graphic shared on social media shows a simulation of generic particle dispersion vertically into the atmosphere following an Ohio train derailment and fire but does not indicate air pollution levels or the risk they posed.

☆ Amazon's plastic packaging was reportedly found thousands of miles away at illegal dump sites in India
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon delivery packages from North America were found in illegal dump sites and mills in India. Plastic waste ends up in dump sites that emit vile odors and can pollute the air, Bloomberg reports. Amazon delivery packaging was also found mixed in with materials processed at sugar cane and paper mills in Muzaffarnagar, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg's findings come three years after the Indian government lifted its ban on importing plastic waste due to the country's waste shortage, the India Times reported. The spokesperson also referred Insider to Amazon Second Chance, a guide for customers to understand how to recycle their Amazon packaging.

☆ Human Composting Should Be an Option for New Yorkers - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Caitlin Doughty | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Human composting — or, as it’s sometimes referred to, natural organic reduction — fulfills many people’s desire to nurture the earth after dying. In its place, Ms. Spade founded Recompose, a new for-profit company designed to bring human composting to the public. I have no stake in Recompose or any other human composting company.) Human composting, by Recompose’s reckoning, uses just an eighth of this energy and falls in total price between cremation and conventional burial at around $7,000. Human composting reframes the dead body: not something to be protected from nature and the elements, but something meant to return to them.

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