New “Nano-Diamond” Battery Can Last Up to 28,000 Years
Beebom Staff -August 30, 2020


With several researchers and scientists working on various kinds of battery tech, we have seen some pretty long-lasting batteries for EVs and even smartphones. However, no matter how long these batteries last, they would lose their power, maybe in days or even months, after a charge. So now, a company has some bold claims which state that their new radioactive-waste-consuming batteries can last for thousands of years and too on a single charge!

According to a recent report, California-based battery-makers, NDB has developed a new type of battery that can use radioactive waste to generate electric power. Moreover, the company claims that these batteries can last up to 28,000 years.

NDB’s new “nano-diamond batteries” are a new type of battery that uses nuclear material as a source to create electrical energy. According to the company, these new batteries serve as little generators that can take radioactive waste materials from nuclear powerplants to convert it into electrical energy to power cars and electronic devices.
A Nuclear Waste-Consuming Battery

As per the report, the company used leftover radioactive graphite to create different kinds of diamonds with varying carbon levels. These residue radioactive graphite are pretty harmful if left untreated. So, the company takes the waste material and purifies it.

Then they develop a layered structure to make the batteries that can produce electricity. And according to NDB, they can manipulate the structure of the battery and make it in any size, like AA or AAA.

Now, if you are thinking about the radiation levels around you when you use this new battery, then do not worry. The company says that these batteries give off radiation which is less than the natural radiation of the human body. So, it should be safe to use the nano-diamond batteries.

The company also states that this technology can be scaled up to create these special batteries for future EVs. Generally, companies like Tesla take responsibility for their car batteries for up to eight years or for 100,000 miles.

However, NDB claims that with the technology scaled up, it can produce car batteries that will power an EV for around 90 years. Apart from cars, these batteries can also be hugely useful for medical devices like pacemakers.

Now, we are not sure when these batteries will actually make their way to the consumer market. Nonetheless, these kinds of new developments show that we are certainly not letting out environment down and are willing to protect it.

The company has released an explanatory video about these new batteries and the technology behind them. You can check it out right below.


SOURCE The Next Web

Minas Gerais asks court to block Vale assets worth $4.7 bn

Bruno Venditti | August 26, 2020

The aftermath of the disaster in Brumardinho after Vale’s tailings dam collapsed. Photo by Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama, Wikimedia Commons.

Brazil’s Minas Gerais state authorities and federal prosecutors have asked a judge to order Vale (NYSE: VALE) to pay for economic losses and other damages stemming from last year’s deadly Brumadinho tailings dam disaster, which killed 270 people.

The authorities have sent a joint petition seeking a judge’s order for the miner to freeze 26.7 billion reais ($4.78 billion) in assets for eventual restitution to the state.

They are also seeking 28 billion reais ($5.01 billion) in collective “moral and social” damages.

AUTHORITIES HAVE SENT A JOINT PETITION SEEKING A JUDGE’S ORDER FOR THE MINER TO FREEZE ASSETS FOR EVENTUAL RESTITUTION TO THE STATE

“This amount corresponds to the net profit distributed to shareholders in 2018, an amount that could have been applied to guarantee the safety of the dams,” prosecutors said.

According to Vale, $1.9 billion have already been presented in guarantees and judicial deposits.

“Vale reinforces that this is not a new public civil action but claims in the lawsuit, which has been in progress since January 2019,” the company said in a press release.

Vale said that it is not formally aware of the requests made and will comment on them in the records of the proceedings, within the period stipulated by the judge.

In July, a court decision suspended $1.5 billion in legal deposits that had been previously required in a case related to the deadly dam collapse.

In May, the city of Brumadinho suspended Vale’s operating license after health agents said that the company’s onsite activities had “not respected the rules of social isolation.”

A Minas Gerais state court in Brazil later revoked the decree after the company argued that the suspension was issued with the main purpose of serving as retaliation for non-payment of emergency aid to the entire population of the city.

The Fire Brigade of Minas Gerais will resume the search for still missing bodies of 11 victims of the disaster.

Earlier this year, state prosecutors charged Fabio Schvartsman, the chief executive at the time of the burst, and 15 other people with homicide. Schvartsman left his position at the company in March 2019.

Wage talks with Kumba Iron Ore hit deadlock, union says


Reuters | August 26, 2020

Sishen Mine, a Kumba Iron Ore mine in South Africa’s the Northern Cape Province. (Image by Graeme Williams, Media Club, Wikimedia Commons)

South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday said that wage negotiations with Kumba Iron Ore, owned by Anglo American, were deadlocked and the union had declared a dispute, a move that is one step short of a strike.

NUM, the majority union at Kumba, said the company had agreed a wage increase of 8% for the lowest-paid workers and 6.5% for the highest-paid, but the two parties had disagreed over sick leave.

“The company policy on sick leave provides workers with 120 days. To our dismay, in a round of negotiations, the company wants to do away with the benefit,” the NUM said in a statement.

The union’s declaration of a dispute means that a protected strike could go ahead if conciliation talks between the parties mediated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration fail to break the impasse.

Kumba, which has mining operations in the Northern Cape province and a port operation in Saldanha Bay, said it was continuing negotiations with NUM.

“We trust that we will be able to reach an amicable solution soon, which will be in the best interest of both the employees and the company,” Kumba Iron Ore said in an emailed statement.

Negotiations with the two other unions, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and Solidarity, which are representated at Kumba’s operations, have been concluded.

(By Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)

Rio Tinto’s weak response to cave blasts will trigger stronger reaction

Reuters | August 25, 2020

Rio Tinto was given permission to blast Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 under Section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act. (Credit: Puutu Kunti Kurrama And Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation)

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, Clyde Russell, a columnist for Reuters)

Rio Tinto may have inadvertently triggered the law of unintended consequences with its blasting of an Aboriginal heritage site at one of its Australian iron ore mines, and the subsequent slap on the wrists for some senior executives.

The board of Rio cut the bonuses of three senior executives including Chief Executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques as part of the company’s review into the destruction of two historically significant caves in Western Australia state, against the wishes of the Aboriginal traditional owners.

Rio, which overtook Brazil’s Vale as the world’s biggest iron ore miner last year, destroyed the Juukan Gorge caves in May as part of an expansion of its Brockman 4 mine.


REVIEW FOUND THERE WAS NO SINGLE “ROOT CAUSE OR ERROR” THAT RESULTED IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CAVES, RATHER IT WAS A “SERIES OF DECISIONS, ACTIONS AND OMISSIONS OVER AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME

While the blasting met legal requirements, Rio has faced a public and investor backlash for allegedly putting profits ahead of heritage, a view amplified by the revelation that the company had alternatives to destroying the caves but chose not to pursue them.

The Rio board review said there was no single “root cause or error” that resulted in the destruction of the caves, rather it was a “series of decisions, actions and omissions over an extended period of time.”

The board recommended improving procedures and setting up new processes to ensure this type of incident doesn’t happen again.

The board’s review likely fails what Australians refer to as the “pub test,” which means whether the average patrons of a typical bar believe the actions are reasonable and appropriate.

The loss of about $3.7 million in bonuses for the three executives is a very mild punishment, given their level of remuneration and the fact that Jacques, along with head of iron ore Chris Salisbury and Simone Niven, the executive responsible for corporate relations, bear responsibility for what has become a public relations disaster for the company.

The board’s soft-pedalling of the cave destruction was condemned by shareholder advocacy group the Australasian Corporate Centre for Responsibility, and several institutional investors.

While Rio will no doubt hope the issue blows over with the passage of time, it’s more likely that it leads to a renewed focus on environment, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Shareholders are becoming increasingly aware of the financial risks of companies that are viewed as not having leading ESG programmes and a culture of doing the right thing.

Social licence to operate, along with climate change, comes up often as the top concerns for miners, with a survey last year by consultants EY showing 44% of mining executives viewed keeping a social licence as their top concern.
Miners to change

Unfortunately, the Rio incident with the Juukan caves shows that miners may still have some way to go in order to be seen to be placing ESG issues at the heart of their operations.

Rio isn’t alone in this, with other leading mining companies seeming to fall short in this area, despite public commitments that it is their top priority.

Like Rio’s corporate affairs boss Niven, other miners have executives listed as having responsibility for ESG issues, such as outgoing BHP external affairs chief Geoff Healy, Tim Langmead at Fortescue Metals Group, Anik Michaud at Anglo American and Luiz Osorio at Vale.

Glencore is unusual among major miners in not having an executive with ESG responsibilities listed on its website.

But merely having an executive named doesn’t mean these people are among the most important decision makers in the companies they work for.

All the executives’ names above have additional responsibilities and none of them have a public profile worth speaking about.

In effect, they are largely invisible and take little or no public part in the debate over ESG issues.

This hardly speaks to mining companies that appear to view ESG issues as front and centre of their existence.

For companies to be taken seriously, it would likely take the appointment of senior executives, with real power over the decision-making process, to become involved in placing ESG at the heart of each company’s mission.

If Rio had somebody like this, somebody could have stopped the blasting even if the CEO wanted it to proceed, somebody who understood that the negative optics of blowing up the caves considerably outweighed the potential profits, then it may have avoided the current mess.

However, it’s likely that ongoing shareholder demands for increased ESG accountability, coupled with activism by interest groups, will force miners down the path of making ESG more than just the current statements of principle.

Codelco presses ahead with automation plans to bolster production

Reuters | August 28, 2020

Haul trucks at Codelco’s Gabriela Mistral mine are 100% autonomous. Credit: Codelco

Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, will press ahead with plans to roll out automation of its mining operations as it seeks to maintain production levels into the future amid declining ore grades and the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive said on Friday.

The progress of Codelco’s digitalization agenda has strained relations with the unions because of the potential for technological advances reducing the need for manual labour.

Technological development is however critical to ensuring the longer-term viability of mining, Codelco CEO Octavio Araneda said in a seminar hosted in the capital Santiago.

COPPER MINERS IN CHILE ARE FACING A COMBINATION OF DECLINING ORE GRADES AND COSTLY OVERHAULS OF AGEING MINES

Copper miners are struggling globally with the ongoing disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, while in Chile they are also facing a combination of declining ore grades and costly overhauls of ageing mines.

“We are committed to a programme of introducing autonomous trucks in the pits. That’s a potent and challenging goal in terms of automation,” he said.

“That’s the big step still remaining to take, our are plants are already pretty automated.”

Codelco, which delivers all its profits to the state, increased production by 4.7% in the first half of the year even as it reduced staffing and adjusted shift systems to slow the spread of the virus in its operations.

But as Chile reached its peak of infections in July and the virus spread to its northern desert cities, Codelco’s unions reported around 3,000 cases and a handful of deaths, it was forced to stall development projects and smelters.

Araneda celebrated Codelco’s managing to reduce levels of the coronavirus among workers to an average of seven daily cases per day in a mass of 70,000 people, more than half of whom are asymptomatic.

Araneda said the company was prepared for a second wave.

“It is very likely that increases in the number of infections will happen in the country and the regions where we operate,” he said.

Chile this week surpassed 400,000 infections and more than 11,000 deaths from covid-19 though with a drop in daily infection and positivity rates, it has begun a cautious lifting of lockdowns and resumption of business activity in the capital and around the country.

(By Fabian Cambero and Aislinn Laing; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Canadian mine wages steady increase over five years

 August 28, 2020

Canadian Malartic mine is the country’s largest operating gold operation. (Image courtesy of Canadian Malartic.)

Canada’s mining industry has seen steady increases in wages over the past 5 years for energy fuel mines, metal mines, and industrial mineral mines.

These statistics are derived from five surveys conducted between 2016 and 2020 by MINING.COM’s sister company Costmine, a division of InfoMine USA, Inc, publisher of Mining Cost Service.

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They found that, of Canada’s mining industry wage statistics, metal mining showed the highest average increase in wages, though metal mines lagged slightly behind on the pay scale. Industrial mineral mines showed the next highest increase in wages and coal mines pulled in third for the smallest increase.

Source: Costmine

The energy mines’ lead in wages resulted, in part, from generous compensation packages offered by northern Alberta’s oil sands industry. For example, base pay for a heavy equipment operator was reported as high as C$52.06 per hour in 2020.

Average benchmark hourly base wages for select job titles over the 5 year period are shown in the following tables for comparison purposes. Wages are reported in Canadian dollars.

Source: Costmine

Benefit packages at Canadian mines are often generous. In addition to the Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan in Canada, Universal health care plans are also mandated.

Many mines turn to bonus plans to make up for lower wages. Most plans today offer bonuses based on formulas that include safety, productivity, environmental protection, and achieving individual or team goals. Some also include commodity prices in the factoring. These plans can easily increase a miners pay 10 to 15% or more.

Source: Costmine

Metal mines are prime examples for supporting lower wages with bonus plans. In the 5 year period between 2016 and 2020, the number of bonus plans for surveyed metal mines ranged from 74% to 88% of metal mines.

Source: Costmine.

In comparison, only 27% of surveyed coal mines reported providing bonus plans in 2020; a number that has decreased from 44% in 2016 continues to fall far short of the reported number of metal mines providing bonuses. Industrial mineral mines fair a bit better than coal mines with 50% of mines reporting bonuses, but fewer of those mines are offering bonuses than in 2016.

The full report, titled Canadian Mine Salaries, Wages and Benefits, is available at Costmine.

Costmine would like to thank Brunel, co-sponsor on the 2020 Survey Results.

Freeport Indonesia workers end protest at Grasberg
Reuters | August 28, 2020

Grasberg mine on the island of New Guinea, one of the world’s biggest sources of copper and gold. (Image: Google Earth.)

Workers at Indonesia’s Grasberg gold and copper mine on Friday ended a protest demanding an easing of a coronavirus lockdown at the mine operated by a local unit of Freeport-McMoran Inc, a workers’ representative and the company said.

Mining operations were disrupted after protesters had blocked access to the world’s second-largest copper mine since Monday, calling on the company to resume a bus service to allow them to travel to a nearby town, and for a bonus payment.

Yonpis Tabuni, a workers’ representative, said by text message that all their demands had been met and the protest had ended.


FREEPORT EMPLOYS 13,000 PEOPLE IN TEMBAGAPURA, THE CLOSEST TOWN TO THE GRASBERG MINE

He shared a video showing workers opening up road blockades, partially shrouded by thick fog and rain, at the mine located at a mountain-top mining complex in the easternmost region of Papua.

“We have reached peace with the management,” said another worker who declined to be named, adding that the company had given them a written memo of the agreement. Freeport Indonesia confirmed on Friday the blockades had been removed after earlier saying the local government had given permission to ease lockdown restrictions.

Riza Pratama, a spokesman for Freeport Indonesia, said on Thursday the company and local government had agreed to ease curbs to allow workers to leave the mine area and visit the nearby town.

Local authorities would allow some workers to leave Grasberg each day after passing rapid test screening for the coronavirus, instead of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, he said.

They would also need to pass a temperature check upon arriving at the nearby town. Pratama said 4,600 workers who had not taken any leave since April would be prioritised. Freeport employs 13,000 people in Tembagapura, the closest town to the Grasberg mine. Of those, 389 had tested positive for the coronavirus and all but 28 had recovered, Pratama said on Wednesday.

(By Agustinus Beo Da Costa, Fransiska Nangoy and Ed Davies; Editing by Martin Petty)

Freeport to ease lockdown in bid to end protest at Grasberg

Reuters | August 27, 2020

Grasberg copper-gold mine Papua province, Indonesia (Image: NASA)

The Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoran Inc said on Thursday it would ease a lockdown at its Grasberg gold and copper mine after a protest this week by workers angry over not being able to leave the mountain-top mining complex for months.

Mining operations have been disrupted after workers have blocked access to the world’s second-largest copper mine in the easternmost region of Papua since Monday, demanding transport out of the mine resumes and to receive a bonus for working during the pandemic.

Riza Pratama, a spokesman for PT Freeport Indonesia, said the company and the local government had agreed to ease curbs to allow workers to leave the mine area and visit the nearby town, but had yet to reach an agreement with workers on the policy implementation.


FREEPORT EMPLOYS 13,000 PEOPLE IN TEMBAGAPURA, THE CLOSEST TOWN TO THE GRASBERG MINE

Local authorities were allowing some workers to leave Grasberg each day when they passed rapid test screening for the coronavirus, instead of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, he said.

“They have to take rapid test when leaving, but there’s only a limited number of tests at a time and the number of buses is also limited,” he said. “That’s what we are trying to regulate now.”

The workers will have to also pass a temperature check upon arriving at the nearby town.

Pratama said 4,600 workers who had not taken any leave since April would be given priority, but a worker said the protest would go on until there was a written agreement.

“We will open the access only when we have the inter-office (memo) from the management in our hands,” said a worker who declined to be named for fear of repercussions.

The worker said a deadline had been set for 6 pm (0900GMT) for it to be issued, otherwise the protest would continue on Friday.

Freeport employs 13,000 people in Tembagapura, the closest town to the Grasberg mine. Out of these, 389 had tested positive for the coronavirus, with 361 of them now recovered, Pratama said on Wednesday.

(By Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies)

Academia needs a reality check: Life is not back to normal
By June Gruber, Jay J. Van Bavel , William A. Cunningham, Leah H. Somerville, Neil A. Lewis, Jr.

Aug. 28, 2020

Academic scientists are facing an ominous start to the academic year. Some universities are welcoming students back to campus with detailed COVID-19 testing and prevention guidelines. Others have suddenly retracted in-person plans, moving to fully online courses as coronavirus cases spiked. “We all should be emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our community,” a professor at Yale University wrote to students in a 1 July email.

The problems don’t end there. Many academics are also grappling with ongoing racial injustices and associated protests, wildfires, and hurricanes. We continue to see widespread effects on mental health, with roughly one-third of Americans reporting symptoms of clinical depression or anxiety. June and her colleague recently described the escalating mental health crisis as the next biggest coronavirus challenge.

We have struggled with our own mental and physical well-being—as well as challenges associated with canceled vacations, lack of child care, the illnesses and death of people close to us, and the mental weight of difficult conversations about racial injustices. We’ve also been worrying about our trainees and the undergraduate students in our classes. The academic and nonacademic job markets have cratered, and some of our colleagues and students have lost internships and job offers as organizations have been forced to cut expenses.

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To be absolutely clear: This. Is. Not. Normal.

And now, with the start of the semester upon us, we continue to receive a massive influx of emails from colleagues detailing service expectations, urgent meetings, new teaching expectations, research disruptions, and complex new policies. We are expected to create malleable teaching plans for in-person and online instruction, oversee the safety of in-person activities, and carry forth with our normal research programs and service duties.

All of this can feel incredibly overwhelming. That’s why we feel strongly that the scientific community needs to take a step back, once again, and recalibrate our expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some universities may be reopening. But with all the grim statistics and uncertainty, one thing is clear: Things may not be back to normal for many months to come (if ever). As we adapt our expectations for ourselves and others, we suggest three principles for facing reality during the upcoming semester:
Acknowledge that things are not normal

This is a moment for empathy and understanding. Don’t pretend that things are normal or that your lab can go back to “business as usual.” It’s important to openly discuss what is going on with your group members. As June noted in an earlier column, it is essential to support your own mental health, as well as that of your trainees and colleagues.
The previous Letter to Young Scientists


The team-written Letters to Young Scientists column offers training and career advice from within academia.



How to be an ethical scientist
Read more Letters to Young Scientists

If you’re in a position of power, you may want to remind those in your research group that this is a stressful and unprecedented pandemic and that it’s OK for work to be slowed down or postponed altogether. You may also want to advocate for early-career scientists who are afraid to ask for extensions or remote options to reduce their risk of infection.

Consider changing your email signature or syllabus to acknowledge these issues and provide as much flexibility as possible for assignments, lectures, and meetings. Several of us have adjusted our email signatures or created automatic email responses as a small way of reminding people that things are not normal. For example, Jay’s autoemail reply reads, “Due to the coronavirus pandemic and a significant loss of childcare, I will not be able to respond to most requests without losing sleep or my sanity until things return to normal.” In her courses, June has implemented a COVID-19 adjusted syllabus statement to explicitly acknowledge the stressful times students face.

We cannot fully understand everyone’s experiences during this period of crisis. However, by sharing our own vulnerabilities and challenges, we can open the door for discussion. Even a small amount of empathy and accommodation can go a long way.
Respect child care and other personal needs

Six months into the pandemic, many parents are still dealing with the need to care for children at home full-time and to serve as homeschool teachers. Recent research indicates parents may be one of the highest risk groups for mental health distress during these times. This may be especially true for women, who often assume more household or child care duties.

June, Wil, and Jay have young children, and we’ve all been struggling. We consider ourselves to be comparatively privileged parents, with stable and flexible jobs. Our experiences underscore how hard it must be for scientist parents who are in more precarious employment situations.

Be kind to students and colleagues who have children, and who may be barely holding things together. Brainstorm flexible work schedules, provide explicit or default options to turn off their cameras on Zoom calls, and offer frequent check-ins to let them know you are there to support them during this challenging time.
Triage what work is essential and reasonable

Don’t hold yourselves, or your students, to the same standards as 2019. Be reasonable about what you can and cannot accomplish during this tumultuous time. Consider making a list of all your projects and responsibilities; then look that list over and identify what items can be either pushed back or dropped.

After Jay lost his child care and faced a tsunami of additional responsibilities at work, he had to recuse himself from four projects and defer a number of other projects until 2021. June let her lab know that she might be slower than usual in email responses while homeschooling her two young children. There is no shame in saying no to something you simply cannot handle under the circumstances. Indeed, saying no may be the only thing that allows you to focus on and accomplish your more urgent priorities.

We also suggest flexibility on the part of those in power. Faculty members and university administrators should think about changing their expectations for students, postdocs, and others who work under them. If possible, create individualized deadlines that meet people where they are.

Expecting the same output as in previous years, even though many people have less time and more stress than ever, is not a sustainable or humane solution. The world is not normal—so the way we do science cannot be normal either.

Send your thoughts, questions, and suggestions for future column topics to letterstoyoungscientists@aaas.org and engage with us on Twitter.

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doi:10.1126/science.caredit.abe5459


June Gruber

June Gruber is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

WINDSOR ASSEMBLY PLANT WORKERS TO HOLD VIRTUAL STRIKE VOTE AT MIDNIGHT

GORD BACON

Sign at the FCA Windsor Assembly Plant on the corner of Drouillard Road and Tecumseh Road East in Windsor. (Photo by AM800's Teresinha Medeiros)

Workers at Windsor Assembly Plant are set to vote on a strike mandate, but the union hall will be empty.

More than 6,400 members will vote on whether or not to give Unifor Local 444 the legal right to strike virtually Sunday from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.

Local President Dave Cassidy says it's going to be a first for the union.

"This is different. We usually meet with our members, talk with our members and we have a lot of face to face meetings, but because of COVID-19 we can't do that," says Cassidy.

Cassidy expects a ratification vote will still need to be held online.

"Instantaneously we'll have the results from it, but it's just a different world. Even when we do get a deal in place, and we will get a deal in place, then we'll have to ratify it the same way, electronically," he added.

With a lot of new faces in the plant, Cassidy made sure everyone understands a strike mandate doesn't mean there will be a job action.

"We've explained it enough, put communications in the facilities. Me and the plant chair spoke yesterday because there is some turmoil inside the plant with all the job changes," says Cassidy. "We have around 500 workers on lay off."

Cassidy says the current collective agreement expires just before midnight on Sept. 21.

He says getting another vehicle in production at the plant will be a major focus.

Talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Canada are set to begin Monday in Toronto.

Current Physical Distancing Measures Are Based on 'Outdated Science', Say Researchers

CARLY CASSELLA
28 AUGUST 2020


A one-size-fits-all measure for physical distancing in the time of COVID-19 fails to account for numerous factors that could spread the virus further, more and more experts are coming to agree.


When coughing or shouting, recent systematic reviews have shown respiratory droplets can travel more than a couple metres. In one study, a violent exhalation of air spread some droplets eight metres away (26 feet) in just a few seconds.

A one- or two-metre rule could very well be sufficient in some situations, but scientists in the United Kingdom say we need a more nuanced model.

Right now, they explain, the rules we have don't take into account subtle factors like ventilation, time spent together, indoor or outdoor settings, mask use, or the type of social activity occurring - all of which could impact the spread of the coronavirus.

What's more, distancing rules often don't consider the size of airborne droplets, how much virus the droplets can carry, or how susceptible others are to these viral loads.

Nevertheless, most regulations for this pandemic fall between one and two metres, and the UK has recently reduced theirs to one metre or more.

Critics of stricter measures say we are being too cautious, and while that's probably true in some situations, in other cases, scientists argue we are likely not being wary enough.


"Instead of single, fixed physical distance rules, we propose graded recommendations that better reflect the multiple factors that combine to determine risk," the authors of the new analysis write.

"This would provide greater protection in the highest risk settings but also greater freedom in lower risk settings, potentially enabling a return towards normality in some aspects of social and economic life."

The review joins several other recent critiques of current social distancing rules. In July, hundreds of scientists co-wrote a comment piece urging the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reconsider its advice to "maintain at least one metre (three feet) distance between yourself and others."

"The WHO say that there is insufficient evidence to prove aerosol/airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is happening," one of the comment's authors explained.

"We are arguing that there is insufficient proof that aerosol/airborne transmission does not occur."

To what extent that occurs is another matter, but there's mounting evidence the coronavirus is airborne, even in tiny droplets, so the new analysis from the UK takes a similarly prudent approach.


Some recent reviews have found the risk of being infected with COVID-19 within a metre is roughly 13 percent, whereas beyond a metre, it's only 3 percent.

Still, the authors of this new analysis say estimates are based on flawed and often outdated science, some of which goes all the way back to the 1930s. All those decades ago, we predicted how far respiratory droplets can fly when a human coughs or sneezes. Yet that simple model doesn't examine viral load, different sizes of droplets that can travel over a range of distances, or the type of virus itself.

Without exhaled airflow, for instance, large droplets appear to travel at max two metres away, while small ones succumb to drag and evaporation much sooner. With exhaled airflow, on the other hand, clouds of small droplets have been shown to travel beyond two metres.

A study at a hospital in Wuhan, China even found traces of coronavirus hanging in the air roughly four metres away from patients.

Some infectious disease specialists aren't too worried by this, as smaller doses of airborne coronavirus may not pose as big a threat of infection.

A systematic review of social distancing measures, commissioned by the WHO, found that a metre or more of separation could decrease transmission risk by roughly 10 percent. Yet scientists in the UK argue those data are largely based on other coronaviruses, and only partially account for environmental conditions.

While it's hard to trace back individual infections to their precise source and the distance the person was at, there's reason to suspect respiratory droplets might play a part in the current spread of the pandemic - at least in some situations.

In meat packing plants, for instance, outbreaks have been particularly bad, and the authors say this is probably compounded by higher levels of worker contagion, poor ventilation, cramped conditions, background noise (hence, shouting), and not enough mask wearing.

The same sort of conditions might be expected in a pub or a live music venue, they add. We've already seen cluster outbreaks in gyms, call centres and churches, where people talk, pant or sing loudly.

At a choir practice in the United States, one symptomatic person was actually found to have infected at least 32 other singers, and possibly 20 more cases yet to be confirmed, even though the choir members were socially distancing.

These documented outbreaks require an explanation, the authors argue, otherwise they'll just keep happening.

Even as restaurants and bars reopen, countries like the UK are still telling people to stay at least a metre apart, and that could end up misleading the public, making people feel safer than they actually are in riskier situations.

"Physical distancing should be seen as only one part of a wider public health approach to containing the COVID-19 pandemic," the new analysis concludes.

"It should be used in combination with other strategies to reduce transmission risk, including hand washing, regular surface cleaning, protective equipment and face coverings where appropriate, strategies of air hygiene, and isolation of affected individuals."

The study was published in BMJ.