Hershey's First Bilingual U.S. Plant Drives Powerful Results

Investment in U.S. Manufacturing Results in Highly Qualified Employees, Improved Retention and Equity

PUBLISHED 12-09-22

SUBMITTED BY THE HERSHEY COMPANY

HERSHEY, Pa., December 9, 2022 /CSRwire/ -- The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) announced its first bilingual manufacturing facility. Through the launch of the company’s ‘Say Hola’ initiative, the Hershey plant in Hazleton, Pennsylvania now seamlessly integrates both Spanish and English-speaking employees. The transformation evolves Hershey’s employee experience and ensures a work environment that’s accessible and equitable. In place for nearly one year, the program has enabled hiring of a more experienced workforce, improved retention and reduced recruitment costs.  ‘Say Hola’ further advances Hershey’s commitments to its communities while underscoring enterprise-wide DEI priorities, career development programs and enhanced care systems and rewards for employees.

“At the frontline of our business, our manufacturing employees make what we do possible and are a driving force behind our recent supply chain investments,” said Jason Reiman, SVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer. ‘Say Hola’ precedes a wide range of new and improved employee support programs launching in 2023 including enhanced parental leave, new training and development opportunities and local community efforts. “By delivering exceptional and inclusive experiences for employees, their families and the greater communities, we are doubling down on our legacy commitment to ensure Hershey is a top workplace for manufacturing workers so that people can grow within our company.”

In the past 20 years, Hazleton’s population has seen a rapid growth in Hispanic residents – growing from five to more than 60 percent. Recognizing the opportunity to evolve its approach and build programs that lead with inclusivity, Hershey launched this initiative to equip employees with the tools and resources needed to succeed regardless of their primary language. ‘Say Hola’ is part of Hershey’s larger people-first manufacturing strategy and is a direct reflection of the local community’s diverse, rapidly evolving demographics.

By launching ‘Say Hola’ and opening its doors to the changing Hazleton community, Hershey is seeing an increase in employee retention and highly experienced individuals applying for positions. In fact, more than 90 percent of the facility’s recruitment classes now have the desired manufacturing experience versus 50 percent of recruitment classes prior to program launch. The community’s enthusiasm about the transformation to a bilingual plant and word-of-mouth awareness has also reduced recruitment costs.

With a history of doing the right thing for its communities, Hershey’s investment in the Hazleton facility reflects founder Milton Hershey’s legacy and community-building efforts. The company embraced the opportunity to make internal changes to grow side by side with Hazleton and position the 50-year-old manufacturing facility as a mirror of the community. To do this, Hershey:

• Conducts trainings in both English and Spanish
• Produces all signs, labels and forms in both Spanish and English
• Ensures bilingual employees and resources are made available on the floor to support with communication and introduced a 24/7 1-800 number for assistance

Hershey's partnership with its Latino Business Resource Group (LBRG) was pivotal in ideating, planning and executing the ‘Say Hola’ initiative. The LBRG remains deeply involved as Hershey continues to build and implement the program. As its first multilingual pilot program, Hershey will continue to use key learnings from this initiative to move its people-first manufacturing vision forward and support its overarching DEI roadmap.

“The ‘Say Hola’ initiative showcases Hershey’s commitment to our people and the communities in which we live and work – both on a local and global scale,” said Alicia Petross, Chief Diversity Officer. “‘Say Hola’ has accelerated the diversity of our workforce – a key element of our DEI roadmap – and provided upskilling, improved recruiting and retention and most importantly, the program fosters a workplace that looks more like the communities our colleagues live in.”

Earlier this year, Hershey was named No. 6 on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity and No. 9 on the Top Companies for Latino Executives list. The candy and snack maker’s Latino executives and board members are frequently honored in outlets like Latino Leaders Magazine.

About The Hershey Company

The Hershey Company is headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania and is an industry-leading snacks company known for bringing goodness to the world through its iconic brands, remarkable people and enduring commitment to help children succeed. Hershey has approximately 19,000 employees around the world who work every day to deliver delicious, quality products. The company has more than 100 brand names in approximately 80 countries around the world that drive more than $8.9 billion in annual revenues, including such iconic brand names as Hershey's, Reese's, Kit Kat®, Jolly Rancher and Ice Breakers, and fast-growing salty snacks including SkinnyPop, Pirate's Booty and Dot's Homestyle Pretzels.

For more than 125 years, Hershey has been committed to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably.  Hershey founder, Milton Hershey, created Milton Hershey School in 1909 and since then the company has focused on helping children succeed.

To learn more visit www.thehersheycompany.com.

 

Modern tools reveal the brutality of death by multiple sword blows 700 years ago

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: Chiara Tesi et al, Wounded to death. Holistic, multimodal reconstruction of the 

dynamics in a case of multiple perimortem cranial injuries from a medieval site in northern

 Italy, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103643

A team of researchers from the University of Insubria and the University of Siena, both in Italy, has used modern tools to reconstruct the events that led to the death of a young man approximately 700 hundred years ago, in what is now Italy. In their paper published in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the group describes how they used three-dimensional X-ray scans, computed tomography and precision digital microscopy to better understand the events that led to the death of a young Medieval man

In 2006, the skeleton of a decapitated man was found near the entrance to a Medieval tomb that had been built in the 11th century. At the time, researchers suggested the location of the tomb indicated that the skeleton had likely once belonged to a member of the De Citillio family, who had built the church.

Initial study of the skeleton of the young man showed that he was approximately 19 to 24 years old when he died. He had the musculature of an archer and a healed wound on his forehead suggesting he had prior experience in warfare. Closer examination using X-ray technology, tomography and digital microscopy, allowed the researchers to create a virtual skull, which in turn helped to reveal the likely timeline of his death.

Credit: Chiara Tesi et al, Wounded to death. Holistic, multimodal reconstruction of the 

dynamics in a case of multiple perimortem cranial injuries from a medieval site in northern 

Italy, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103643

Examining the placement and angle of the wounds to the skull, the researchers found evidence that suggested the young man had been struck first on the front, top part of his head by a weapon, likely a sword as he faced his attacker. The wound was not deep, suggesting the victim had used a shield to deflect the blow. Then it appears he turned and began to run away.

But he was not able to escape and was hit on the head again, this time from behind, near his ear and then again on the back of the neck. Such blows appeared to have had enough force to knock the young man to the ground, perhaps making him unconscious. One more blow came, this one to the top, back part of the head. Its depth suggested that the young man was no longer attempting to ward off his attacker and that the attacker was intent on killing his victim. The last blow would also have meant nearly instant death.

More information: Chiara Tesi et al, Wounded to death. Holistic, multimodal reconstruction of the dynamics in a case of multiple perimortem cranial injuries from a medieval site in northern Italy, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103643

© 2023 Science X NetworkHead wound suggests ancient Aborigine was killed by a boomerang

Cave markings show that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a lunar calendar

A small team of researchers some independent, some affiliated with University College and the University of Durham, all in the U.K., has deciphered cave markings made by Ice-Age hunters tens of thousands of years ago. In their paper published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, the group suggests the markings are evidence of the first use of a lunar calendar.

Scientists and lay people alike have long known of the cave paintings made by people in the distant past all across Europe and the U.K. Prior research has shown that they were made by Ice-Age hunter-gatherers that lived mostly on the meat from animals of their time. Those animals were often depicted on the walls of the caves in which the people of the time were living.

But one aspect of the cave drawings has remained a mystery—certain dots and dashes placed near the animals. In this new effort, the researchers claim to have at long last deciphered the marks.

After several years of study, the researchers found that the marks coincided with what would have been seasonal behaviors of the animals, such as mating, or birthing. Such information, the researchers note, would have been very important to early hunters because it helped to keep track of which animals would be most easily killed during a given time period.

The researchers also found that the seasonal information drawn on the walls could be broken down into 13 periods, which coincided with the lunar calendar year. And this, they further suggest, is evidence of the first use of a lunar calendar. They also found that certain marks, such as Y-shaped symbols, held specific information, such as the beginning of birthing season for a given animal, while other marks noted seasonal information, such as snow.

The researchers also suggest that such a system of recording could be construed as a means of writing, or perhaps proto-writing system, which they further note, would be evidence of the earliest form of writing by Homo sapiens. They conclude by noting that more work still needs to be done in studying the wall art—there are still marks that have not yet been deciphered.

More information: Bennett Bacon et al, An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S0959774322000415

Examples of animal depictions associated with sequences of dots/lines. (a) Aurochs: 

Lascaux, late period; (b) Aurochs: La Pasiega, late; (c) Horse: Chauvet, late

 (we differ in opinion with the Chauvet team, for whom it would be early); 

(d) Horse: Mayenne-Sciences, early; (e) Red Deer: Lascaux, late; 

(f) Salmon: Abri du Poisson, early; (g) Salmon (?): Pindal, late; (h) Mammoth: Pindal, 

early. (Sources: (a) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux_004.jpg (b)

 Breuil et al. Reference Breuil, Obermaier and Alcalde del Rio1913, pl. XVIII; 

(c) free 

https://web.archive.org/web/20120222092520/http://www.istmira.com/foto-i-video-pervobytnoe

-obschestvo/3924-iskusstvo-predystorii-pervobytnost-2.html (d) https://www.hominides.com/m

usees-et-sites/grotte-mayenne-sciences/ (e) Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International 

(CC BY 4.0); (f) © The Wendel Collection, Neanderthal Museum; (g) Berenguer Reference Be

renguer1994, 92, fig. 63; (h) H. Breuil, in del Rio et al. Reference del Rio, Breuil and Sierra191

1, 61, fig. 57.). Credit: Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2023). DOI: 10.1017/S0959774322

000415

© 2023 Science X Network

Ancient handprints on cave walls in Spain found to include children's hands

Durham professors play part in new discovery about Ice Age hunters and cave paintings

Patrick Gouldsbrough

The Northern Echo
Thu, 5 January 2023 

Two Durham professors have helped make a breakthrough discovery when it comes to ice age hunters.

 Pictures: PA MEDIA 

Professors from Durham University have helped make a breakthrough discovery that Ice Age hunter-gatherers used cave paintings to record sophisticated information about the world around them.

Decoding marks on the drawings for the first time, a team of specialists has proven that at least 20,000 years ago, people across Europe made notes about wild animals and the timings of their reproduction cycles.

Despite help from two professors from Durham University and one from University College London, the initial discovery was made not by an academic, but by London-based furniture conservator Ben Bacon who spent countless hours of his own time looking at examples of cave painting and analysing data.

The so-called “proto-writing” system pre-dates others that are thought to have emerged during the Near Eastern Neolithic by at least 10,000 years.

Mr Bacon said he went to academics with his theory and they listened and encouraged him to pursue it, despite him being “effectively a person off the street”.

The Northern Echo: A red ochre drawing of an aurochs (wild cattle) in La Pasiega cave (Cantabria, Spain) around 23,000 years ago showing a set of four dots. Picture: PA

A red ochre drawing of an aurochs (wild cattle) in La Pasiega cave (Cantabria, Spain) around 23,000 years ago showing a set of four dots. Picture: PA (Image: PA MEDIA)

Archaeologists have long known that sequences of dots and other marks on the drawings had meaning, but no-one could decipher them.

Mr Bacon was keen to decode these, and in particular the inclusion of a “Y” sign – formed by adding a diverging line to another – which he believed meant “giving birth”.

Mr Bacon, who has an English degree but decided not to go into academia, said: “The meaning of the markings within these drawings has always intrigued me so I set about trying to decode them, using a similar approach that others took to understanding an early form of Greek text.

The Northern Echo: Professor Paul Pettitt. Picture: PA

“Using information and imagery of cave art available via the British Library and on the internet, I amassed as much data as possible and began looking for repeating patterns.

Professors Paul Pettitt and Robert Kentridge, both of Durham University, have worked together to develop the field of visual palaeopsychology, the scientific investigation of the psychology that underpins the earliest development of human visual culture.

Professor Pettitt, of the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, said: “To say that when Ben contacted us about his discovery was exciting is an understatement. I am glad I took it seriously.

The Northern Echo: Professor Robert Kentridge. Picture: PA


“This is a fascinating study that has brought together independent and professional researchers with expertise in archaeology and visual psychology, to decode information first recorded thousands of years ago.

“The results show that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a systematic calendar and marks to record information about major ecological events within that calendar.

The Northern Echo: A horse drawn onto the wall of Niaux Cave (Ariege, France) around 15,000 years ago.

A horse drawn onto the wall of Niaux Cave (Ariege, France) around 15,000 years ago. (Image: PA MEDIA)

“In turn, we’re able to show that these people, who left a legacy of spectacular art in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira, also left a record of early timekeeping that would eventually become commonplace among our species.”

Mr Kentridge, Professor of the Psychology of Vision, Durham University, said: “The implications are that Ice Age hunter-gatherers didn’t simply live in their present, but recorded memories of the time when past events had occurred and used these to anticipate when similar events would occur in the future, an ability that memory researchers call mental time-travel.”

'The pace of change has been spectacular': The bid to legalise same-sex marriage in India

 India's Supreme Court is hearing arguments on legalising same-sex marriage after being petitioned by four gay couples who argue they are being denied key rights such as medical consent and adoption as their unions are not recognised. France 24's Delano D'Souza spoke to Joydeep Sengupta and his partner Blaine Stephens, plaintiffs in a case to have their overseas marriage recognised in India, about what legalised same-sex marriage would mean for them and other gay couples in the country.

High-profile flops fill gallery at CES gadget fest

Issued on: 06/01/2023 - 

The Gallery of Flops at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas displays past product ideas that failed to become household items © Robyn BECK / AFP


Las Vegas (AFP) – A Gallery of Flops including a handset just for tweeting and a failed Apple stereo system warned entrepreneurs at CES on Thursday that dreams of market glory can crumble.

Iconic product failures put on display at the CES consumer electronics show included a skin-toning face mask reminiscent of a horror film; eyewear embedded with therapeutic magnets and a model of failed 80s sports car DeLorean.

"Many founders have this bias where they think they're geniuses and everything that they are doing is super right," the gallery of failures organizer, Prelaunch founder Narek Vardanyan told AFP.

"(But) you can burn a lot of money and lose a lot of years."

The annual CES consumer electronics extravaganza threw open its doors in Las Vegas on Thursday as the industry looks to the latest innovations to help cure the pain from an ailing global economy.

Failures on display in the cautionary Gallery of Flops also included Zune MP3 players launched by Microsoft and the defunct Pippin game console from Apple, which never became popular.

About 80 percent of new products launched every year fail, often because founders failed to assess whether people were really willing to spend money on what they were selling, according to Vardanyan.

While tech giants can afford to have products occasionally bomb, such an outcome can be the end of a young startup.

"I think it's great to consider failures because failures are valuable learning experiences," said Brad Holliday of ID8 Innovation, which advises big companies launching startup projects.

"If you can speed your process of understanding when something is not going to be successful, you can save yourself money in the long run," he added.
'Waste money'

Flop show organizer Armenia-based Prelaunch specializes in checking potential demand for new products early in the creation process, according to its chief.

"For a starry-eyed entrepreneur, this type of idea could probably help them not waste a lot of money or time chasing something that isn't reasonable," said MH3 Collective founder Mark Harrison, whose group of ventures in Canada includes marketing agencies and nonprofit organizations.

With close to 100,000 attendees expected, the Consumer Electronics Show runs through Sunday in Las Vegas © Robyn BECK / AFP

"It's interesting; you could have a whole museum," Harrison added while surveying the flops on display.

Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi told AFP that gadget makers showing off innovations this year will be keen to get products to market quickly.

Given the tough global economy, startups don't have the five years they might have once expected to perfect their projects and avert failure, she said.

Startups today need to be "banking on money coming into their coffers in the near future," Milanesi said.

CAPITALI$T ANARCHY

The oven won't talk to the fridge: 'smart' homes struggle

Julie JAMMOT

Fri, January 6, 2023

Tech firms have spent years hawking the idea of a connected home filled with "smart" devices that help smooth daily domestic lives -- and this year's CES gadget show in Las Vegas is no different.

The world's biggest tech trade show features everything from televisions that ping when your clothes dryer is done, to mirrors that fire up your coffee machine in the morning.

But the vision on display at CES remains far from reality as the devices are pricey and they do not yet talk to each other with any fluency.

French company Baracoda is at CES, which runs from 5 to 8 January, to show off a prototype connected mirror that can interact with bathroom scales, the toilet or a toothbrush.

"You can see immediately if you've brushed your teeth properly or if you need to put on sunscreen, for example," says the firm's Baptiste Quiniou.

But it can only work to its full capacity with devices developed by Baracoda or its partners.

For start-ups and multinationals, making these products work with other brands is becoming crucial.

"Sometimes they can do incredibly useful things, but if they're not connected to the wider info system, information dies alone," said analyst Avi Greengart.

- Battle of ecosystems -

Big players from Amazon and Apple to Google and Samsung have built entire ecosystems for their devices, often around a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri.

Greengart said each company thought its ecosystem would draw in enough people and devices to dominate the others.

"What ended up happening is that nobody grew," he said, and the industry "to an extent stagnated".

The biggest firms have spent years trying to tackle the "interoperability" problem, finally agreeing a protocol last year called "Matter" that sets a standard for connected home products.

"You can think about it as the USB of the smart home," said Mark Benson of Smart Things, Samsung's connected home subsidiary.

Just as USB ports allowed all devices to plug into all machines, so the Matter protocol means all connected devices will work with each other, he said, and users will no longer need to download a different app for each device.

But Matter will not kill off Alexa, Siri and their friends just yet.

Jeff Wang of Accenture said making the devices work with each other was the easier part.

"The hard part is the app model, the data model, the sharing of this, because the human nature of companies is to be very selfish about this," he said.

Each brand is now trying to convince the public to adopt its app to centralize control of household appliances.

At CES, Samsung presented a vision of consumers using its Smart Things app to monitor the chicken in the Samsung oven while watching a Samsung TV that would also tell them when their Samsung washing machine was finishing its cycle.

- The last 'smart' device -

Mark Benson reckoned more than half of homes in America now have a smart device in them.

"And more than half of those started their smart home journey just in the last three years," he said.

Yet for now, consumers have largely limited their buy-in to the connected home to inexpensive "smart" speakers, using them as timers or to listen to music.

A spokesperson for CTA, the industry body that organizes CES, said connected home devices were facing "a tough year in the US because of the decline in home sales".

But CTA reckoned the Matter standard would drive the connected home market as the housing sector recovers.

The association said in particular sales of devices that promise to help save energy were likely to go up this year.

It predicted that almost 5 million connected thermostats would be sold in 2023, up 15 percent year-on-year.

In the same field, US company Savant has designed a connected fuse box that will help people monitor energy use.

"That's maybe one of the last, forgotten, things in the home that can be made smart," said Ian Roberts, a group vice president.

juj-jxb/bgs

International fusion energy project faces delays, says chief

ITER, under construction at Saint-Paul-les-Durance in southern France, aims at emulating

 the Sun, which fuses particles together to release energy.

An international project in nuclear fusion may face "years" of delays, its boss has told AFP, weeks after scientists in the United States announced a breakthrough in their own quest for the coveted goal.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy.

Installed at a site in southern France, the decades-old initiative has a long history of technical challenges and cost overruns.

Fusion entails forcing together the nuclei of light atomic elements in a super-heated plasma, held by powerful magnetic forces in a doughnut-shaped chamber called a tokamak.

The idea is that fusing the particles together from isotopes of hydrogen—which can be extracted from seawater—will create a safer and almost inexhaustible form of energy compared with splitting atoms from uranium or plutonium.

ITER'S previously-stated goal was to create the plasma by 2025.

But that deadline will have to be postponed, Pietro Barabaschi—who in September became the project's director-general—told AFP during a visit to the facility.

The date "wasn't realistic in the first place," even before two major problems surfaced, Barabaschi said.

One problem, he said, was wrong sizes for the joints of blocks to be welded together for the installation's 19-by-11-metre (62-by-36-feet) chamber.

The second was traces of corrosion in a thermal shield designed to protect the outside world from the enormous heat created during nuclear fusion.

Fixing the problems "is not a question of weeks, but months, even years," Barabaschi said.

A new timetable is to be worked out by the end of this year, he said, including some modification to contain the expected cost overrun, and to meet the French nuclear safety agency's security requirements.

Barabaschi said he hoped ITER would be able to make up for the delays as it prepares to enter the full phase, currently scheduled for 2035.

On December 13, US researchers working separately from ITER announced an important technical breakthrough.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California said they had used the world's largest laser to create, for the first time, a fusion reaction generating more energy than it took to produce.

"Some competition is healthy in any environment," Barabaschi said about the success.

"If tomorrow somebody found another breakthrough that would make my work redundant, I would be very happy," he added.

ITER was set in motion after a 1985 summit between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Its seven partners are China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

Russia still participates in ITER despite the start of the Ukraine conflict.

In November it dispatched one of six giant magnets needed for the top part of the tokamak.

© 2023 AFP

French scientist leading nuclear fusion project dies at 72

US proposes stricter air quality standards for soot

The US EPA has proposed stricter air quality standards for microscopic particles.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed stricter standards on Friday for microscopic particles responsible for harmful air pollution.

The EPA proposal, which will be subject to public comment and hearings before it would take effect, would toughen the national air quality standard for fine particles, also known as soot.

Fine particle pollution can be caused by a number of sources including construction sites, smokestacks, wildfires, power plants and vehicles.

It causes respiratory illnesses such as asthma, heart attacks and disproportionately affects low-income and communities of color in the United States.

The EPA proposal would strengthen the air quality standard for fine particles from an annual average level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to between nine and 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

"Our work to deliver clean, breathable air for everyone is a top priority at EPA," agency chief Michael Regan said in a statement.

"This proposal will help ensure that all communities, especially the most vulnerable among us, are protected from exposure to harmful pollution."

The EPA estimated that a strengthened air quality standard would prevent up to 4,200 premature deaths and 270,000 lost workdays per year.

The standards were last changed under the Obama administration in 2012. The Trump administration declined to do so in 2020.

Harold Wimmer, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, expressed disappointment with the EPA proposal, saying that it did not go far enough in regulating fine particle emissions.

"Current science shows that stronger limits are urgently needed," Wimmer said.

"More protective standards are necessary to drive cleanup nationwide in communities that currently experience unhealthy levels of deadly particle pollution."

Beto Lugo Martinez, executive director of Clean Air Now, described the proposal as a "good step" but insufficient.

"Without strategic placing of regulatory monitors that can actually measure excessive pollution levels and the will to make polluters pay for violating the standard, this new 'recommendation' will not make a difference," Martinez said in a statement.

Low levels of air pollution deadlier than previously thought

Gas stove pollution causes roughly 12.7% of childhood asthma in the United States, study finds



Gas-burning stoves in kitchens across America are responsible for roughly 12.7 percent of childhood asthma cases nationwide — on par with the childhood asthma risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke, according to a study

The peer-reviewed study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, adds fuel to a burgeoning debate over the potential threats that gas stoves pose to the planet and public health.

It comes as scientists and activists cheer the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recent decision to weigh new regulations on indoor air pollution from gas stoves, even as the natural gas industry fights to keep the signature blue flames of the appliances in American homes.

Gas stoves, which are used in about 35 percent of U.S. households, can emit significant amounts of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant that can trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions. The appliances can also leak methane, a potent planet-warming gas, even when they are turned off, according to research published last year.

Asthma, a leading chronic condition globally, affects about 5 million children across the country. The study, which was led by the environmental think tank RMI, suggests that nearly 650,000 cases of childhood asthma can be attributed to gas stove use.

“It’s like having car exhaust in a home,” said Brady Seals, a manager at RMI who co-authored the research. “And we know that children are some of the people spending the most time at home, along with the elderly.”

The authors relied on 2019 Census data to determine the proportion of children exposed to pollution from gas stoves. They borrowed their methodology from a 2018 analysis that found 12.3 percent of childhood asthma cases in Australia were attributable to gas cooking ranges, and they used data from a 2013 analysis that found children in households with gas stoves were 42 percent more likely to experience asthma symptoms.

The burden of asthma falls disproportionately on children of color and those in lower-income neighborhoods. Black and Hispanic children are twice as likely as White children to be hospitalized for asthma, while poor households are more likely to have smaller kitchens that lack proper ventilation.

“This study’s findings are directly relevant to discussions about environmental justice,” said Rob Jackson, a scientist at Stanford University who has researched methane leaks from gas stoves.

“No child should have asthma from breathing pollution from gas stoves when safer electric options are available,” he added, referring to induction cooktops and other electric versions.

Gas industry pushback

The American Gas Association, a powerful trade group representing the U.S. natural gas industry, slammed the study’s methodology and findings, accusing the authors of pursuing a “headline-grabbing approach” that lacked scientific rigor.

“The claims made in this paper are clearly driven by simple advocacy-based modeling and hypotheticals over the deep and sophisticated analysis we should see in sound science,” Karen Harbert, the association’s president and chief executive, said in an emailed statement.

“The authors conducted no measurements or tests based on real-life appliance usage, emissions rates or exposures, and did not adequately consider other factors that are known to contribute to asthma and other respiratory health outcomes,” Harbert added.

Asked to respond to these criticisms, Seals said she stands by the soundness of the authors’ approach and conclusions. In particular, she noted that the 2013 analysis controlled for other factors that can cause asthma, including exposure to tobacco smoke, pets, mold and water damage.

Potential regulations

Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate outdoor air pollution from cars, power plants and other sources. But the agency lacks the power to regulate indoor air pollution from gas stoves and other appliances.

For decades, advocates have urged the Consumer Product Safety Commission to fill this regulatory vacuum that persists inside people’s homes. The five-member commission is tasked with ensuring the safety of consumer products by addressing “unreasonable risks” of illness and injury.

Last month, Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. announced that the agency would issue a request for public comments by March on possible regulations on gas stoves, which he said “could be on the books” by the end of this year.

Trumka, the son of the late labor leader of the same name, called an outright ban on new gas stoves “a real possibility.”

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm seized on the study to promote the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act that offer households thousands of dollars to transition from fossil-fuel-burning heaters, stoves and cars to cleaner versions.

“We can and must FIX this,” Granholm tweeted Wednesday.

Brazil's new first lady says presidential palace a mess
06/01/2023 



As Brazil's new government held its first meeting Friday, the new first lady got down to business too, dealing with what she called major damage, leaks, and

First Lady Rosangela"Janja" da Silva gave Brazil's biggest broadcaster, TV Globo, a tour of the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence in Brasilia, to highlight what she described as its shoddy condition at the end of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro's four-year tenancy.

Da Silva, who married newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in May, said important parts of the iconic modernist building were left in"deteriorated" condition.She showed the camera crew torn rugs, damaged floors, a broken window, a ceiling stained by water leaks, a massive banquet hall left bare of furniture and other issues that would leave normal outgoing tenants nervous over getting their deposits

Jair Bolsonaro wrecked Brazil’s presidential palace, TV report suggests

Journalist touring residence with new first lady is shown torn sofas, broken windows and art damaged by the sun

Photographs of the rundown Palácio da Alvorada in Brasília’s resembled images of dilapidated student accommodation more than a listed building. 

photograph: Cro Magnon/Alamy

Tom Phillips in Rio de JaneiroFri 6 Jan 2023 16.09 GMT

Jair Bolsonaro’s wrecking of the Amazon made him a global outcast – but his acts of desecration were not limited to the rainforest.

A report by the Brazilian broadcaster GloboNews suggests that even the official presidential residence – a 1950s masterpiece by the architect Oscar Niemeyer – was defiled by the far-right politician during his four years in power.

One of the network’s leading political correspondents, Natuza Nery, took a tour of the Palácio da Alvorada (Palace of Dawn) on Thursday with Brazil’s new first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, and was unimpressed with what she saw.

“The overall state of the building, which is Brasília’s most iconic … is not good … and will require many repairs,” reported Nery, who was shown torn carpets and sofas, leaky ceilings, broken windows and jacaranda floorboards, and works of art damaged by the sun.

Photographs of the rundown palace more resembled images of dilapidated student accommodation than a listed building designed by one of the world’s most celebrated modernist architects.

A tapestry by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, one of Brazil’s most celebrated 20th-century artists, had been damaged after being moved from the library and hung in the sun. “Unfortunately, it will have to be restored,” the first lady said.

Nery said several works of art had disappeared altogether from the palace, which was completed in 1958, two years before Brazil’s purpose-built capital was inaugurated by the then president, Juscelino Kubitschek.

The first lady, who is widely known as Janja, said she had felt “rather disappointed” and “shaken” by the state of disrepair of her new home. A Brazilian cactus planted by her husband, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during his 2003-10 presidency had reportedly been removed. Bolsonaro left a disposable ballpoint pen – one of the symbols of his populist administration – on one of the palace’s desks.

Bolsonaro, who abandoned Brasília on the eve of Lula’s swearing-in last Sunday, looks unlikely to return soon. He is in Florida, and reportedly fears prosecution for alleged crimes including his anti-scientific response to a Covid pandemic that killed nearly 700,000 people in his country.

A report in the Brazilian magazine Istoé this week claimed the former president was pressuring the Italian government to grant his family citizenship and hoped to move there after a stint in the US to avoid jail. Bolsonaro reportedly believed Brazilian authorities would be unable to extradite him from the European country, from where his great-grandfather Vittorio Bolzonaro emigrated in the late 19th century.