Russia’s war heats up cooking oil prices in global squeeze

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AYSE WIETING and KELVIN CHAN

1 of 11

A man uses cooking oil to fry Mandazi, a type of fried bread, on a street in the low-income Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Global cooking oil prices have been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic began and Russia's war in Ukraine has sent costs spiralling. It is the latest fallout to the global food supply from the war, with Ukraine and Russia the world’s top exporters of sunflower oil. And it's another rising cost pinching households and businesses as inflation soars.

 (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)


ISTANBUL (AP) — For months, Istanbul restaurant Tarihi Balikca tried to absorb the surging cost of the sunflower oil its cooks use to fry fish, squid and mussels.

But in early April, with oil prices nearly four times higher than they were in 2019, the restaurant finally raised its prices. Now, even some longtime customers look at the menu and walk away.

“We resisted. We said, ’Let’s wait a bit, maybe the market will improve, maybe (prices) will stabilize. But we saw that there is no improvement,” said Mahsun Aktas, a waiter and cook at the restaurant. “The customer cannot afford it.”

Global cooking oil prices have been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic began for multiple reasons, from poor harvests in South America to virus-related labor shortages and steadily increasing demand from the biofuel industry. The war in Ukraine — which supplies nearly half of the world’s sunflower oil, on top of the 25% from Russia — has interrupted shipments and sent cooking oil prices spiraling.

It is the latest fallout to the global food supply from Russia’s war, and another rising cost pinching households and businesses as inflation soars. The conflict has further fueled already high food and energy costs, hitting the poorest people hardest.

The food supply is particularly at risk as the war has disrupted crucial grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia and worsened a global fertilizer crunch that will mean costlier, less abundant food. The loss of affordable supplies of wheat, barley and other grains raises the prospect of food shortages and political instability in Middle Eastern, African and some Asian countries where millions rely on subsidized bread and cheap noodles.

Vegetable oil prices hit a record high in February, then increased another 23% in March, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Soybean oil, which sold for $765 per metric ton in 2019, was averaging $1,957 per metric ton in March, the World Bank said. Palm oil prices were up 200% and are set to go even higher after Indonesia, one of the world’s top producers, bans cooking oil exports starting Thursday to protect domestic supply.

Some supermarkets in Turkey have imposed limits on the amount of vegetable oil households can purchase after concerns about shortages sparked panic-buying. Some stores in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom also have set limits. German shoppers are posting photos on social media of empty shelves where sunflower and canola oil usually sit. In a recent tweet, Kenya’s main power company warned that thieves are draining toxic fluid from electrical transformers and reselling it as cooking oil.

“We will just have to boil everything now, the days of the frying pan are gone,” said Glaudina Nyoni, scanning prices in a supermarket in Harare, Zimbabwe, where vegetable oil costs have almost doubled since the outbreak of the war. A 2-liter bottle now costs up to $9.

Emiwati, who runs a food stall in Jakarta, Indonesia, said she needs 24 liters of cooking oil each day. She makes nasi kapau, traditional mixed rice that she serves with dishes like deep-fried spiced beef jerky. Since January, she’s had trouble ensuring that supply, and what she does buy is much more expensive. Profits are down, but she fears losing customers if she raises prices.

“I am sad,” said Emiwati, who only uses one name. “We accept the price of cooking oil increasing, but we cannot increase the price of the foods we sell.”

The high cost of cooking oil is partly behind recent protests in Jakarta. Indonesia has imposed price caps on palm oil at home and will ban exports, creating a new squeeze worldwide. Palm oil has been sought as an alternative for sunflower oil and is used in many products, from cookies to cosmetics.

The Associated Press has documented human rights abuses in an industry whose environmental effects have been decried for years.

Across the world in London, Yawar Khan, who owns Akash Tandoori restaurant, said a 20-liter drum of cooking oil cost him 22 pounds ($28) a few months ago; it’s now 38 pounds ($49).

“We cannot pass all the price (rises) to the consumer, that will cause a catastrophe, too,” said Khan, who also struggles with rising costs for meat, spices, energy and labor.

Big companies are feeling the pain, too. London-based Unilever — maker of Dove soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise — said it has contracts for critical ingredients like palm oil for the first half of the year. But it warned investors that its costs could rise significantly in the second half.

Cargill, a global food giant that makes vegetable oils, said its customers are changing formulas and experimenting with different kinds of oils at a higher rate than usual. That can be tricky because oils have different properties; olive oil burns at a lower temperature than sunflower oil, for example, while palm oil is more viscous.

Prices could moderate by this fall, when farmers in the Northern Hemisphere harvest corn, soybeans and other crops, said Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. But there’s always the danger of bad weather. Last year, drought pummeled Canada’s canola crop and Brazil’s soybean crop, while heavy rains affected palm oil production in Malaysia.

Farmers may be hesitant to plant enough crops to make up for shortfalls from Ukraine or Russia because they don’t know when the war might end, said Steve Mathews, co-head of research at Gro Intelligence, an agriculture data and analytics company.

“If there were a cease-fire or something like that, we would see prices decline in the short run for sure,” he said.

Longer term, the crisis may lead countries to reconsider biofuel mandates, which dictate the amount of vegetable oils that must be blended with fuel in a bid to reduce emissions and energy imports. In the U.S., for example, 42% of soybean oil goes toward biofuel production, Glauber said. Indonesia recently delayed a plan to require 40% palm oil-based biodiesel, while the European Commission said it would support member states that choose to reduce their biofuel mandates.

In the meantime, consumers and businesses are struggling.

Harry Niazi, who owns The Famous Olley’s Fish Experience in London, says he used to pay around 22 pounds ($29) for a 20-liter jug of sunflower oil; the cost recently jumped to 42.50 pounds ($55). Niazi goes through as many as eight jugs per week.

But what worries him even more than rising prices is the thought of running out of sunflower oil altogether. He’s thinking of selling his truck and using the cash to stock up on oil.

“It’s very, very scary, and I don’t know how the fish and chips industry is going to cope. I really don’t,” he said.

So far, Niazi has held off on raising prices because he doesn’t want to lose customers.

At Jordan’s Grab n’ Go, a small restaurant in Dyersburg, Tennessee, known for its fried cheeseburgers, owner Christine Coronado also agonized about price increases. But with costs up 20% across the board — and cooking oil prices nearly tripling since she opened in 2018 — she finally hiked prices in April.

“You hate to raise prices on people, but it’s just that costs are so much higher than they were a couple of years ago,” she said.

___

Chan reported from London. AP journalists Edna Tarigan and Fadlan Syam in Jakarta, Indonesia; Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe; Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul; Anne D’Innocenzio in New York; and Sebabatso Mosamo and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed.

USA

Older people fret less about aging in place: 

AP-NORC Poll

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

FILE- A man and woman walk under trees down a path at Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco. People in the final stretches of their working years feel less prepared to successfully age in their own homes than those who are 65 and older and already likely to have shifted into their retirement years. That age gap is among the key findings of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — The older you are, the less you fret about aging in place.

That’s a key insight from a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll, which found that U.S. adults ages 65 and older feel much better prepared to age in their own homes than those 50-64, who are mostly still in the final stretches of their working years.

The poll also documented greater insecurity around aging in place for older Black and Latino Americans, the likely result of a deep-rooted wealth gap that markedly favors whites.

Aging in one’s own home, or with family or a close friend, is a widely held aspiration, with 88% of adults 50 and older saying it’s their goal in an earlier AP-NORC poll.

The outlook among those 65 and older is upbeat, with nearly 8 in 10 saying they’re extremely or very prepared to stay in their current home as long as possible.

But doubts creep in for those ages 50-64. Among that group, the majority who rate themselves as extremely or very prepared shrinks to about 6 in 10, according to the poll.

This relatively younger group is especially likely to say their financial situation is the main reason they don’t feel very prepared to age in place. And they’re also more likely to feel anxious about being able to stay in their communities, get care from medical providers and receive backup from family members or close friends, the poll found.

Part of it may be due to fear of the unknown among people who’ve relied on a paycheck all their lives.

“When you’ve never done it before, and you are only going to do it once, you’re sort of flying by the seat of your pants,” said Leigh Gerstenberger, in his late 60s and retired from a career in financial services. “I spent a lot of time talking to people ahead of me in the journey,” says the Pittsburgh-area resident.

Also, people approaching their 60s may question if Social Security and Medicare will truly be there for them. Stacy Wiggins, an addiction medicine nurse who lives near Detroit, figures she’ll probably work at least another 10 years into her late 60s — and maybe part-time after that. Older friends are already collecting Social Security.

“In my group, you wonder if it’s going to be available,” Wiggins said of government programs that support older people. “Maybe it’s not. You will find people who are less apt to have a traditional pension. Those are things that leave you with a lot of trepidation toward the future.”

Some people now in their 50s and early 60s may still be dealing with the overhang of the 2007-09 recession, when unemployment peaked at 10% and foreclosures soared, said Sarah Szanton, dean of the Johns Hopkins University nursing school. For an aging society, the U.S. does relatively little to prepare older adults to navigate the transition to retirement, she observed.

“As Americans, we’ve always idolized youth and we’re notoriously underprepared for thinking about aging,” Szanton said. “It often comes as a surprise to people.” Her involvement with aging-in-place issues started early in her career, when she made house calls to older people.

In the poll, people 50 and older reported that their communities do an uneven job of meeting basic needs. While access to health care, healthy food and high-speed internet were generally rated highly, only 36% said their community does a good job providing affordable housing. Just 44% were satisfied with access to transportation and to services that support older people in their homes.

Kym Harrelson-Pattishall is hoping that as more people retire to her coastal North Carolina community, health care facilities and other services will follow. As it stands now, a major medical issue can involve a car trip of up to an hour to the hospital.

A real estate agent in her early 50s, Pattishall shares the goal of aging at home, but her confidence level is not very high. “I think it would just eat away what savings I have,” she said.

It’s all about adjusting, says another small-town resident, about 20 years older than Pattishall. Shirley Hayden lives in Texas, near the Louisiana border and on the track of hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico. She says she has no investments and only modest savings, but she rates herself as very prepared to continue aging in place.

“You have to learn to live within your means,” Hayden said. “I don’t charge things I can’t afford to pay for.

“My biggest thing I have to work around as far as expenses is insurance,” she added. “I don’t really need any new clothes. In Texas, you live in jeans and T-shirts and they don’t go out of style. Yeah, your shoes wear out, but how often do you buy a pair of shoes?”

Not so easy to work around is the well-documented racial wealth gap that constrains older Black people in particular. A Federal Reserve report notes that on average Black and Latino households own 15% to 20% as much net wealth as white households.

In the poll, 67% of Black Americans and 59% of Latino Americans ages 50 and older said they felt extremely or very prepared to stay in their homes as long as possible, compared with the 73% share of white Americans saying they feel confident.

Wiggins, the Detroit area nurse, is Black and says it’s a pattern she’s familiar with. “Part of it is generational wealth,” she said. “I have friends who are white, whose dad died and left them settled. I have friends who are Black whose parents died, and they left enough to bury them, but nothing substantial.”

___

AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson and Polling Reporter Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,762 adults age 50 and older was conducted between February 24 - March 1 with funding from The SCAN Foundation. It used a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based Foresight 50+ Panel of adults age 50 and older, which is designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

THE REAL (ESTATE) CAUSE OF INFLATION

Buying a house is mission impossible for many Americans


New home prices have risen across the United States, and borrowing rates are increasing, as well (AFP/Stefani Reynolds) (Stefani Reynolds)

Julie CHABANAS
Tue, April 26, 2022, 

Home for sale. To become the proud owner, simply make a quick offer, and outbid all interested buyers by $100,000.

In the red-hot US housing market, homebuyers are facing sticker-shock as prices have soared, and now they also have been hit with a surge in borrowing rates.

"I've visited approximately 150 houses since 2019," frustrated homebuyer Liz Stone told AFP.

She has been looking for a house in the suburbs of Washington for three years, and has submitted four offers, each above the asking price -- up to $100,000 more. All were rejected.

In the region around the nation's capital, sales prices are four to five percent above the initial asking level, said Liz Brent, founder of the real estate agency Go Brent, in Silver Spring, Maryland just outside Washington.

She points to one house that listed for $840,000 dollars but sold for more than $1 million.

With each sale, "There's one person that wins and 20 people that lose," she told AFP.

Housing supplies were already tight when sales took off during the Covid-19 pandemic, but builders have not been able to keep up amid a shortage of workers and global supply chain snarls.

That shortage pushed prices higher, and now the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates to tamp down inflation pressures.

With those conditions, buyers have to be willing to "take significant risks," and be able to pay significantly more without demanding any contingencies from sellers, like a home inspection, Brent said.

Stone sold her apartment near a year ago in order to have cash on hand to buy a house, but has had to live in a rental since then, as prices have continued to rise.

And Emmet, her nine-year-old son, is very happy in his new school, which limits the scope of her search.

With a smile, Stone admits she is discouraged.

"It's almost like I'm missing my chance of owning a home," she said.

- Borrowing rates on the rise -

Buyers now face another challenge as borrowing rates rise from the historically low levels they were slashed to during the pandemic.

The interest charged on a 30-year fixed-rate loan -- the most common in the United States -- has risen to 5.11 percent, the highest level since 2010, compared to an average of 2.96 percent last year.

That puts properties out of reach for many buyers.

Rory Molleda, 30, and Stuart Malec, 29, were lucky: it only took them four months, and three failed bids, before they were able to purchase a two-bedroom apartment in Washington with a coveted parking spot.

"We feel very happy," Molleda said.

But between the start of their home search in October and the signing in February, the rates began to climb and quickly.

They were at 3.5 percent as the search began, but "then every house we looked at after that, it increased just a little bit," Molleda said.

That means their monthly mortgage payments will be much higher than expected.

Rising prices and high rates already have started to cool sales and increase the inventory of homes available, reducing pressure on the market.

Prices should rise only five percent this year, which is far less than the nearly 17 percent jump last year, Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said.

- Still hot -

But that won't help with the shortage, Brent said.

"We're at such a deficit now, there's no way that the inventory is going to get back to a healthy amount. And so we're going to continue to see prices rise," she said, warning that the surge goes beyond the pandemic and could last for another decade.

Yun notes that many builders went bankrupt in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, which cramped supply.

While he said he expects conditions to improve in the Washington area, some markets will still see strong demand.

"Affordable areas with strong job growth will continue to remain hot, as well as those areas where wealthy retirees are moving to as cash buyers," he said, including Atlanta, Georgia, San Antonio, Texas and the state of Florida.

jul/hs/cs

Housing shortage, soaring rents squeeze US college students


By JANIE HAR

April 26, 2022

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — UC Berkeley sophomore Terrell Thompson slept in his car for nearly two weeks at the start of the school year last fall, living out of a suitcase stashed in the trunk and texting dozens of landlords a day in a desperate search for a place to live.

The high-achieving student from a low-income household in Sacramento, California, was majoring in business administration at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Yet, Thompson folded his 6-foot frame into the back seat of his Honda Accord at night, wondering how he would ever find a home in the exorbitantly expensive San Francisco Bay Area city.

“Academically it was hard, because I’m worried about finding housing and I’m worried about my clothes and I’m worried about getting my car broken into all the time,” said the 19-year-old Thompson, who now lives in a studio apartment he found last September. “I was anxious 24/7.”

College students across the U.S. are looking for housing for the 2022-23 school year and if 2021 was any indication, it won’t be easy. Students at colleges from California to Florida were denied on-campus housing last fall and found themselves sitting out the year at home or living in motel rooms or vehicles as surging rents and decades of failing to build sufficient student housing came to a head.

For some colleges, the housing crunch was related to increased demand by students who had been stuck at home during the pandemic. For others, including many in California, the shortage reflects a deeper conflict between the colleges and homeowners who don’t want new housing built for students who they say increase congestion and noise.

In March, the University of California, Berkeley, said it would have to cap student enrollment because of a lawsuit brought by irate neighbors over the school’s growth. State lawmakers fast-tracked a fix to allow the campus to enroll as many students as planned for the 2022 fall semester, but the legislation does nothing to produce more housing.

Nationally, 43% of students at four-year universities experienced housing insecurity in 2020, up from 35% in 2019, according to an annual survey conducted by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Students reported being unable to pay utilities, rent or mortgage, living in overcrowded units, or moving in with others due to financial difficulties.

And for the first time since it began tracking basic needs in 2015, the survey found an equal percentage — 14% — of students at both four-year and two-year colleges who had experienced homelessness in the last year, said Mark Huelsman, the center’s director of policy and advocacy.

“This is a function of rents rising, the inability of communities and institutions to build enough housing for students and other costs of college going up that create a perfect storm for students,” he said.

For some students, the lack of affordable housing could mean the difference between going to college or not. Others take on massive debt or live so precariously they miss out on all the extracurricular benefits of higher education.

Jonathan Dena, a first-generation college student from the Sacramento area, almost rejected UC Berkeley over the lack of housing, even though it was his “dream program.” He found a studio at the heavily subsidized Rochdale Apartments for under $1,300 a month, but he might have to move because the bare-bones units may close for a seismic renovation.

Dena, 29, wants to continue living within walking distance of campus for a robust college experience.

But the urban studies major and student government housing commission officer said “it’s kind of scary” how high rents are near campus. Online listings showed a newer one-bedroom for one person at $3,700, as well as a 240-square foot (22 square-meter) bedroom for two people sharing a bathroom for nearly $1,700 per person a month.

“If I go to school in Berkeley, I would love to live in Berkeley,” he said.

Nationally, rents have increased 17% since March 2020, said Chris Salviati, senior economist with Apartment List, but the increase has been higher in some popular college towns. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, saw a 24% jump in rents and Tempe, Arizona, saw a 31% hike.

In some cases, the rental increases have been exacerbated by a lack of on-campus housing.

Last fall, demand for on-campus housing was so high that the University of Tampa offered incoming freshmen a break on tuition if they deferred until fall 2022. Rent in the Florida city has skyrocketed nearly 30% from a year ago, according to Apartment List.

Rent in Knoxville has soared 36% since March 2020, and it could get worse after the University of Tennessee announced a new lottery system for its dorms this fall, saying it needs to prioritize housing for a larger freshman class.

Even two-year community colleges, which have not traditionally provided dorms, are rethinking student needs as the cost of housing rises.

Last October, Long Beach City College launched a pilot program to provide up to 15 homeless students space in an enclosed parking garage. They sleep in their cars and have access to bathrooms and showers, electrical outlets and internet while they work with counselors to find permanent housing.

Uduak-Joe Ntuk, president of the college’s Board of Trustees, hesitated when asked if the program will be renewed.

“I want to say no, but I think we will,” he said. “We’re going to have new students come fall semester this year that are going to be in a similar situation, and for us to do nothing is untenable.”

California prides itself on its robust higher education system, but has struggled with housing at its four-year colleges. Berkeley is notoriously difficult, with cut-throat competition for the few affordable apartments within walking distance to campus.

“I definitely was not prepared to be this stressed about housing every year,” said Jennifer Lopez, 21, a UC Berkeley senior from Cudahy, in southeastern Los Angeles County, and the first in her family to attend college.

She imagined she would spend all four years on campus in dorms, but found herself in a scramble for a safe, affordable place to sleep. The urban studies major currently splits an attic space in what is technically a one-bedroom apartment shared by four undergraduates, one of whom sleeps in the dining room.

The total monthly rent is nearly $3,700 — laughably high in most U.S. cities — but she’s grateful for it.

“If I hadn’t heard about this place, I was either going to end up living in a basement, or in this other apartment I know (where) the girls are struggling with leaks and mold,” Lopez said.

The Basic Needs Center at UC Berkeley, which operates a food pantry for students and faculty, found in a snapshot survey that a quarter of undergraduates reported they “lacked a safe, regular and adequate nighttime place to stay and sleep” at some point since October.

“That’s huge,” said Ruben Canedo, co-chair of UC’s systemwide Basic Needs Committee. “This generation of students is navigating the most expensive cost-of-living market while at the same time having the least amount of financial support accessible to them.”

Thompson, the business administration major, started looking for an apartment last May, after spending his first year at home taking classes remotely to save money. He quickly realized that his rental budget of $750 was wildly inadequate and as a second-year student, he no longer qualified for priority in the dorms.

By the time classes began in late August, he was in a panic. He tried commuting from his home in Sacramento, leaving before 6 a.m. for the 80-mile (130-kilometer) drive to Berkeley and returning home around midnight to avoid traffic.

But that was grueling so he took to sleeping in his car. Initially he parked far away in a spot without parking limits. Then he parked at a lot between two student dorm complexes closer to campus, where exuberant partying kept him up at night.

He attended classes, studied and ate sparingly to save on ballooning food costs. He looked at apartments where five people were squeezed into two bedrooms with pared-down belongings stored under beds.

He slept in his car for almost two weeks until a sympathetic landlord who had also grown up in a low-income home reached out, offering a studio within walking distance of campus. The rent is $1,000 a month, and he hopes to stay until he graduates.

“I think I have a little bit of a PTSD factor,” he said.

Most students have no idea of the housing situation when they choose to attend UC Berkeley, said 19-year-old freshman Sanaa Sodhi, and the university needs to do more to prepare students and support them in their search.

The political science major is excited to move out of the dorms and into a two-bedroom apartment where she and three friends are taking over the lease. The unit is older but a bargain at $3,000 a month, she said. The housemates were prepared to pay up to $5,200 for a safe place close to campus.

“You don’t honestly know the severity of the situation before you’re in it,” she said, adding that landlords hold all the cards. “They know that whatever price they charge, we’ll inevitably have to pay it because we don’t really have a choice except maybe to live out of our cars.”

AP journalist Terence Chea contributed from Berkeley, California.

WHITE VOLK
Gallup: Record number of U.S. residents approve admitting Ukrainian refugees

Ukrainians who fled to Mexico amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine wait in front of the San Ysidro Port of Entry of the U.S.-Mexico border on April 4. More than 70% of U.S. residents approve to have up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in the United States, according to Gallup on Tuesday. 

Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI | License Photo


April 26 (UPI) -- Some 78% of U.S. residents approve of allowing up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the United States, representing the country's highest level of public support for admitting refugees in various situations since 1939.

More than 5 million Ukrainian residents have fled their country since the start of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24. Eastern European countries like Poland and Romania have absorbed the bulk of those fleeing the violence.

President Joe Biden said he wants to take in up to 100,000 refugees and will expedite rules for their legal entry. Gallup conducted a poll of U.S. adults from April 1-19 with a margin of error of 4%.

Current U.S. support topped the 66% who approved having "several hundred ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo" in 1999 and a 51% approval of "several hundred" Honduras and Central American refugees in 2018, according to Gallup.

Support for Ukrainian refugees coming to the United States cut across political lines with 61% of Republicans approving the arrival of Ukrainians, 79% of independents and 92% of Democrats.

"Before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the majority of Americans (62%) had a favorable view of Ukraine, far more than viewed Russia favorably (15%)," Gallup said. "Now that the atrocities of war are mounting and driving millions out of the country, nearly four in five Americans are ready to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees."

U.S. residents have often been cool to such influxes of refugees. In 2015, just 37% of U.S. residents approved of 10,000 Syrian refugees coming to the United States. In 1958, 33% of U.S. residents approved of 160,000 Hungarian refugees coming.

In 1979, 32% of U.S. residents approved of Indochinese refugees from Vietnam, commonly called "boat people" coming to the United States.

EU considers banning use of up to 12,000 toxic chemicals


The European Union’s executive branch published a “restrictions roadmap” on Monday as a first step in prohibiting use of certain substances linked to diseases and reproductive issues. 

April 26 (UPI) -- Up to 12,000 potentially toxic or harmful chemicals could soon be banned from use in Europe, the European Commission has announced.

The European Union's executive branch published a "restrictions roadmap" on Monday as a first step in prohibiting certain substances linked to diseases and reproductive issues.

As part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission published its chemicals strategy last October that outlined a sustainable path toward a toxic-free environment.

The proposal announced this week would be the world's "largest ever ban of toxic chemicals", according to the European Environmental Bureau, as reported in The Guardian.

Over 190 million synthetic chemicals are registered across the globe, according to the Chemical Abstracts Service.

Chemical category groups like PVC plastics, flame retardants and bisphenols are included in the EU's plan.

To make it harder for chemical firms to avoid having individual chemicals banned, the European Chemicals Agency prefers dealing with chemicals in groups.

Otherwise, firms can use a tactic called "regrettable substitution -- altering the composition of chemicals to create sister chemicals that could be just as dangerous, The Guardian reported.

The toxins will be part of a regularly reviewed rolling list, according to the European Commission.

Substances may be removed from or added to the list prior to the revision of the EU's Reach regulation for chemicals scheduled for 2027.

Reach "aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances," the European Commission's website stated.

The planned revision will assess possible impacts of changing Reach regulation on the use of animal testing, protecting human health and the environment.

Scientists earlier this year said that chemical pollution had surpassed a "planetary boundary," according to Euro News, which could threaten humanity's survival and break down essential ecosystems.

The United Nations released a report in February showing that chemical pollution-related deaths are surpassing the COVID-19 death toll in the pandemic's first 18 months, the Hill reported

Our Synthetic Environment - Libcom.org 

https://libcom.org/files/Bookchin%20M.%20Our%20Synthetic%20Environment.pdf

Our Synthetic Environment. Murray Bookchin. 1962. Table of contents. Chapter 1: THE PROBLEM. Chapter 2: AGRICULTURE AND HEALTH.

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

http://www.rachelcarson.org › SilentSpring

Carson's passionate concern in Silent Spring is with the future of the planet and all life on Earth. She calls for humans to act responsibly, carefully, and as ...

COVID-19 lockdowns in China had little effect on air quality, research shows

A heavy haze hangs over Beijing, China, on September 13, 2019. Tuesday's study said that in comparing prepandemic data from 2019 and 2020, researchers found that pollution levels varied from city to city -- and were even worse than before the pandemic lockdowns in some places. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

April 26 (UPI) -- Chinese researchers say they have found that big changes in travel patterns due to COVID-19 restrictions appeared to have little effect on urban air pollution, or in some case even worsened it, according to a study published Tuesday.

Leveraging a rare opportunity for research on air pollution afforded by COVID-19 lockdowns, the researchers analyzed the relationship between vehicle traffic and air pollution in 21 cities across China and published the results Tuesday in the academic journal Chaos by the American Institute of Physics.

Rather than finding a consistent link between reduced traffic and lower pollution in each city as expected, the analysts instead found that pollution levels in individual cities were influenced by conditions in other, nearby cities where lockdown conditions may have been different.

Thus, in comparing prepandemic data from 2019 and 2020, the researchers found that air pollution levels varied from city to city -- and were even worse than before the pandemic lockdowns in some places -- depending on the level of restrictions elsewhere in the region.

Air quality levels in Chinese regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and central China were all influenced by surrounding areas, tending to peak just as initial progress for containing the virus was made, the analysts found.

For instance, data showed that pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and central China lessened over time but then spiked as control measures for outbound traffic from Wuhan and Hubei were lifted.

"Air pollution in big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, is more affected by other cities," said study author Saini Yang.

"This is contrary to what we generally think, that air pollution in big cities is mainly caused by its own conditions, including the traffic congestion."

"Our discovery is that in order to improve air pollution, it is not only necessary to improve and reduce our own urban traffic and increase green travel, but also need the joint efforts of surrounding cities," author Na Ying said.

"Everyone is important in the governance of commons."

Expert panel refines guidelines for daily aspirin use to prevent heart attacks


New recommendations caution against the use of daily, low-dose aspirin by older adults. 

Photo by LizM/Pixabay

April 26 (UPI) -- An advisory panel of leading physicians no longer recommends daily low-dose aspirin for the prevention of heart attacks in adults age 60 and older, the group announced Tuesday.

The decision is based on new research suggesting that the net benefits of daily aspirin use in this age group are small, the panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, said in an article published Tuesday by JAMA.

However, for younger adults ages 40 to 59 years who have a greater than 10% risk for developing heart disease over the next decade of their lives -- and are at low risk for bleeding-related side effects associated with aspirin use -- the decision should be made on an individual bases, the group said.

In addition, the task force has concluded that existing evidence is unclear as to whether aspirin use reduces a person's risk for colon and rectal cancers, or for dying from tumors in these organs, it said.

RELATED  Older adults shouldn't start daily aspirin to prevent heart attacks, experts say

"Based on current evidence, the task force recommends against people 60 and older starting to take aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke," Dr. Michael Barry, task force vice chair, said in a press release.

"Because the chance of internal bleeding increases with age, the potential harms of aspirin use cancel out the benefits in this age group," said Barry, director of the Informed Medical Decisions Program in the Health Decision Sciences Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services and preventive medications.

RELATED Study: 10M people in U.S. improperly use daily aspirin therapy

"If you are already taking low-dose aspirin because you have had a heart attack, stroke or stenting or you have a history of AFib, continue to take it as directed by your physician," Dr. Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, volunteer president of the American Heart Association said in a statement.

"This new guidance about low-dose aspirin does not apply to your situation -- do not stop taking aspirin without first talking with your doctor," he said.

Physicians are not obligated to follow the task force's recommendations, but most do, according to Dr. Kevin Campbell, a cardiologist with Health First Heart and Vascular in Merritt Island, Fla.

RELATED Low-dose aspirin may not reduce heart disease risk for everyone

"In the past we believed that there was some benefit to using it prophylactically for those without coronary artery disease," Campbell told UPI in an email.

"However, this recommendation substantiates many of the studies that have come out over the last several years that have shown that the routine use of aspirin for patients without known disease is unlikely to be effective, and in fact may be detrimental," he said.

This is because aspirin, though widely available and used as an over-the-counter pain reliever, is not without side effects, including gastrointestinal and intracranial, or brain, bleeding, Campbell added.

In his practice, he has been recommending aspirin for secondary prevention only, meaning in patients with "known, documented coronary artery disease."

In addition to the known side effects associated with regular use, recent studies have found that low-dose aspirin does not reduce the risk for heart disease in everyone who uses it.

The drug may do more harm than good in older adults, research suggests, yet more than half of people age 75 and older in the United States still use it, according to estimates.

Aspirin may, however, reduce the risk for heart attacks in some people with coronary artery disease, which causes a reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of plaque in the arteries, studies indicate.

"I think that [these recommendations] really help us clarify a longstanding question -- who should get aspirin for coronary artery disease and how long should it be given," Campbell said.

"Those without coronary artery disease should not take aspirin -- particularly those over the age of 60, as the risk of bleeding outweighs any potential benefit," he said.

Biden administration reduces amount of land for oil and gas drilling in Alaska


The sun sets on an offshore drilling rig in Alaska. 

Photo by Kyle Waters/Shutterstock

April 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced that it will reduce the amount of land that can be used for offshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Northeast National Petroleum Reserve.

"This decision is informed by more than a decade of engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders," the BLM said in a 91-page document released Monday.

The move follows a decision by the Biden Administration last June that suspended all oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It effectively reverses a plan by former President Donald Trump to expand oil drilling in the Arctic.

The BLM, part of the Department of the Interior, will limit fossil fuel extractions in the region to 52% of the petroleum reserve, which spans about 23 million acres. Trump had sought to allow up to 82% of the land for drilling. The Biden Administration decision will remove about 7 million acres of the 19.6 million-acre refuge from development.

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The refuge is home to some of the most diverse and spectacular fish and wildlife in the arctic, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website. They include polar bears, caribou, Dall sheep, muskox, salmon-sized Dolly Varden char, and Arctic Grayling. The agency also noted that birds from around the world come to the refuge to breed, feed, and rear their young.

"Conserving these populations and their habitats in their natural diversity is a purpose of the refuge," the agency said.

Meanwhile, the Alaska House of Representatives and Senate have introduced a budget bill that contains $2 million for a special account to be used for lawsuits against the Biden administration. Gov. Mike Dunleavy and a bipartisan group of legislators say the litigation funds are aimed at stopping the federal government's efforts to limit fossil fuel development in the state, which they say results in lost revenues.

The Biden Administration on Monday released a decision by its Bureau of Land Management in the Department of Interior that limits the amount of land where oil and gas can be extracted. Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of the Interior.

RELATED Uncertainty surrounds ANWR oil prospects

In 1923, President Warren Harding set the region aside as an emergency oil reserve for the Navy. It was later transferred to the bureau, which is authorized to sell leases for energy companies to drill.

The Eisenhower administration established Arctic National Wildlife Range in 1960 to preserve unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values.

At the end of President Barack Obama's term in office, he put into place a five-year plan to make future drilling in two key areas of the Arctic illegal.

The Biden Administration on Monday vastly curtailed the amount of land that can be used for oil drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. 

Photo of the area by Alexis Bonogofsky, courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Energy Dept. finalizes rules to phase out costlier incandescent light bulbs AKA TRUMPBULBS(EXPENSIVE & WASTEFUL)

The Energy Department estimates that switching to the more efficient bulbs will save consumers about $3 billion per year -- and the environment 222 tons of carbon emissions over the next three decades. 

File Photo by Byrev/Pixabay

April 26 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden's administration has finalized a change that phases out older, incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient bulbs that save money for consumers and carbon emissions for the environment.

The Energy Department said Monday that two rules making the changes have been finalized, rolling back a policy from former President Donald Trump three years ago that blocked the switch because it was "not economically justified."

The new rules mean that the older, incandescent bulbs will be phased out. The change will take effect almost immediately but the government won't begin enforcement until January.

The move requires manufacturers to create and sell only energy-efficient bulbs and halt sales for bulbs that produce less than 45 lumens per watt.

The Energy Department estimates that switching to the more efficient bulbs will save consumers about $3 billion per year -- and the environment 222 tons of carbon emissions over the next three decades.

"We're putting $3 billion back in the pockets of American consumers and substantially reducing domestic carbon emissions," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said according to The Washington Post.

The move to phase out incandescent bulbs would have occurred two years ago under a policy by former President Barack Obama. Trump skirted the order, however, when he was in office.

Enforcement for switching to the more efficient bulbs will begin first for manufacturers and later for retailers to give them time to dispense of their inventory.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Arizona death row prisoner seeks clemency citing mental illness, disabilities


Clarence Dixon was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student. File Photo courtesy of the Arizona attorney general's office


April 26 (UPI) -- Attorneys for an Arizona death row prisoner filed a petition for clemency for their client Tuesday, citing his mental illness, physical disabilities and abuse as a child.

Clarence Dixon, 66, is scheduled to be executed May 11 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.

His hearing before the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency is set to take place Thursday.

The petition comes one week after a judge ruled against Dixon's challenge of the makeup of the clemency board. In a court filing, his lawyers said the board wouldn't give him fair consideration because it includes too many former law enforcement officers.

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State law prevents more than two people from the same profession from serving on the board, which currently has three former law enforcement officers. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Stephen Hopkins ruled, though, that "law enforcement" isn't considered a profession under the statute.

"Forcing Clarence Dixon to seek clemency from an illegally composed board stacked with law enforcement officers is profoundly unfair," attorney Joshua Spears said Tuesday. "But because his mental incompetence, physical disabilities, and traumatic life history present compelling grounds for executive clemency, we must ensure he does not forfeit his opportunity to pursue that relief."

In the clemency petition, Dixon's lawyers said their client has had untreated paranoid schizophrenia for some four decades. They said he'd been found legally insane in connection to another crime two days after the slaying of Bowdoin.

The attorneys also took issue with his trial judge allowing him to represent himself "despite his obvious mental illness."

"Self-representation meant that the jury never learned important mitigating evidence about Mr. Dixon's traumatic childhood and the insanity findings shortly before the crime occurred," a news release from Dixon's lawyers said.

The filing said Dixon's father physically and verbally abused, and neglected his family, while his mother also used derogatory language toward her children. Both parents struggled to feed and care for their children on the Navajo Nation, causing Dixon to experience hunger, depression and suicidal ideation.

As a young adult, he abused alcohol and drugs, and began showing signs of mental illness.

In addition to mental illness, Dixon's lawyers say he has wasting syndrome, multiple heart, lung, liver and bladder ailments, and glaucoma.

"Clarence's advanced age and declining health present the risk that his execution by lethal injection using pentobarbital would likely result in undue suffering," the petition reads. "His lungs, liver and heart are damaged enough that it might take longer to circulate the medication to reach full toxicity dose leaving him feeling some of the effects of pentobarbital but not all of them."

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich earlier this month objected to a mental competency hearing scheduled for May 3, saying it would likely delay the May 11 execution.

Arizona last carried out an execution on July, 23, 2014, that of Joseph Wood. It took 15 doses of a new combination of drugs -- midazolam and hydromorphone -- and 2 hours for Wood to die.

He was the second inmate to be given the two-drug cocktail after Arizona lost its European supplier of pentobarbital. The European Union voted in 2011 to prohibit the sale of the drug to the United States because of its use in executions.

After Wood's death, the state decided to no longer use the midazolam and hydromorphone combination of drugs, effectively implementing a moratorium on executions until an alternate drug cocktail could be legally secured.