Keck School of Medicine study finds “forever chemicals” disrupt key biological processes

Exposure to a mixture of chemicals called PFAS leads to alterations in biological processes associated with a broad range of diseases.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF USC

A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that exposure to a mixture of synthetic chemicals found widely in the environment alters several critical biological processes, including the metabolism of fats and amino acids, in both children and young adults. The disruption of these biological processes is connected to an increased risk of a very broad range of diseases, including developmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and many types of cancer. 

Known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, these man-made chemicals are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. PFAS are sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they break down very slowly and accumulate in the environment and human tissue.

Although individual PFAS are known to increase the risk of several types of disease, this study, published February 22 in Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to evaluate which biological processes are altered by exposure to a combination of multiple PFAS, which is important because most people carry a mixture of the chemicals in their blood. 

“Our findings were surprising and have broad implications for policy makers trying to mitigate risk,” said Jesse A. Goodrich, PhD, assistant professor of population and public health sciences and lead author of the study. “We found that exposure to a combination of PFAS not only disrupted lipid and amino acid metabolism but also altered thyroid hormone function.”

A first of its kind research project

To understand the effects that the mixture of PFAs has in the body, the team used blood samples collected from 312 adolescents who participated in the Study of Latino Adolescents at Risk and 137 children from the Southern California Children’s Health Study. They found that all the children and adolescents had a mixture of several common PFAS in their blood including PFOS, PFHxS, PFHpS, PFOA and PFNA. More than 98% of the participants also had PFDA in their blood. 

The researchers also measured thousands of naturally occurring chemicals in blood and, using a biostatistical method they developed, they identified how exposure to multiple different PFAS impacted each of these naturally occurring chemicals. This information helped the researchers determine that PFAS exposure altered the way the body metabolized lipids and amino acids as well as the levels of thyroid hormone, an important determinant of metabolic rates. 

The researchers focused on children and young adults because they are going through critical stages of development that may make them more susceptible to the negative health effects of PFAS exposure. It is also a time when many serious diseases that manifest in adults begin to take root. The researchers added that these results are consistent with earlier studies that showed exposure to individual PFAS in childhood was associated with dysregulated lipid and fatty acid metabolism, which can increase the risk of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease later in life. 

One finding that stood out, according to Goodrich, was the fact that the PFAS exposure had an effect on thyroid hormone function, which has a critical role in growth and metabolism. Because of this, changes in thyroid hormones play an important role in child development during puberty, which can have important effects on a range of diseases later in life, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Important public health consideration

Another important finding was the fact that exposure to a mixture of PFAS, rather than a single chemical of this type, drove the disruption of these biological processes. This finding was consistent across the two cohorts, even though they had different levels of PFAS exposure. 

Almost all people in the U.S. have detectable levels of several PFAS, which are in a wide variety of products including waterproof clothing and food packaging, in their blood. An estimated 200 million people in the U.S. have drinking water with PFAS levels that are considerably higher than the levels recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022. 

Some manufacturers have phased out the use of individual PFAS, but the authors of this study conclude that this research shows why it may be more important to regulate PFAS as a class of chemicals. 

“We are really only beginning to understand the range of effects that these chemicals have on human health,” said Leda Chatzi, MD, PhD, professor of population and public health sciences and another of the study’s authors. “While current interventions have focused on phasing out the use of individual PFAS, such as PFOS and PFOA, this research shows why the focus should be on reducing exposure to all PFAS chemicals.” 

About the study

Additional authors of the study include Jingxuan He, Brittney O. Baumert, Zhanghua Chen, Sarah Rock, Hongxu Wang, Frank D. Gilliland, David V. Conti, and Michael Goran of the Keck School of Medicine of USC; Douglas I. Walker, Dean P. Jones and Xin Hu of Emory University; Xiangping Lin, Damaskini Valvi, and Zoe Coates Fuentes of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Tanya L. Alderete of the University of Colorado Boulder; Kiros Berhane of Columbia University.

The researchers would like to acknowledge the source for funding this research which was provided by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES029944).

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JOURNAL

Environmental Health Perspectives

DOI

10.1289/EHP11372 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Metabolic signatures of youth exposure to mixtures of per- and polyfluoroalkyl 2 substances: A multi-cohort study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Feb-2023

Discovery of massive early galaxies defies prior understanding of the universe

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

 

IMAGE: IMAGES OF SIX CANDIDATE MASSIVE GALAXIES, SEEN 500-800 MILLION YEARS AFTER THE BIG BANG. ONE OF THE SOURCES (BOTTOM LEFT) COULD CONTAIN AS MANY STARS AS OUR PRESENT-DAY MILKY WAY, BUT IS 30 TIMES MORE COMPACT. view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, CSA, I. LABBE (SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY). IMAGE PROCESSING: G. BRAMMER (NIELS BOHR INSTITUTE’S COSMIC DAWN CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe. 

“These objects are way more massive​ than anyone expected,” said Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, who modeled light from these galaxies. “We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”

Using the first dataset released from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the international team of scientists discovered objects as mature as the Milky Way when the universe was only 3% of its current age, about 500-700 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope is equipped with infrared-sensing instruments capable of detecting light that was emitted by the most ancient stars and galaxies. Essentially, the telescope allows scientists to see back in time roughly 13.5 billion years, near the beginning of the universe as we know it, Leja explained.

“This is our first glimpse back this far, so it's important that we keep an open mind about what we are seeing,” Leja said. “While the data indicates they are likely galaxies, I think there is a real possibility that a few of these objects turn out to be obscured supermassive black holes. Regardless, the amount of mass we discovered means that the known mass in stars at this period of our universe is up to 100 times greater than we had previously thought. Even if we cut the sample in half, this is still an astounding change.”

In a paper published today (Feb. 22) in Nature, the researchers show evidence that the six galaxies are far more massive than anyone expected and call into question what scientists previously understood about galaxy formation at the very beginning of the universe.

“The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science,” said Leja. “We’ve been informally calling these objects ‘universe breakers’ — and they have been living up to their name so far.”

Leja explained that the galaxies the team discovered are so massive that they are in tension with 99% percent of models for cosmology. Accounting for such a high amount of mass would require either altering the models for cosmology or revising the scientific understanding of galaxy formation in the early universe — that galaxies started as small clouds of stars and dust that gradually grew larger over time. Either scenario requires a fundamental shift in our understanding of how the universe came to be, he added.

“We looked into the very early universe for the first time and had no idea what we were going to find,” Leja said. “It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”

On July 12, NASA released the first full-color images and spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The largest infrared telescope in space, Webb was designed to see the genesis of the cosmos, its high resolution allowing it to view objects too old, distant or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope.

“When we got the data, everyone just started diving in and these massive things popped out really fast,” Leja said. “We started doing the modeling and tried to figure out what they were, because they were so big and bright. My first thought was we had made a mistake and we would just find it and move on with our lives. But we have yet to find that mistake, despite a lot of trying.”

Leja explained that one way to confirm the team’s finding and alleviate any remaining concerns would be to take a spectrum image of the massive galaxies. That would provide the team data on the true distances, and also the gasses and other elements that made up the galaxies. The team could then use the data to model a clearer of picture of what the galaxies looked like, and how massive they truly were.

“A spectrum will immediately tell us whether or not these things are real,” Leja said. “It will show us how big they are, how far away they are. What’s funny is we have all these things we hope to learn from James Webb and this was nowhere near the top of the list. We’ve found something we never thought to ask the universe — and it happened way faster than I thought, but here we are.”

The other co-authors on the paper are Elijah Mathews and Bingjie Wang of Penn State, Ivo Labbe of the Swinburne University of Technology, Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University, Erica Nelson of the University of Colorado, Rachel Bezanson of the University of Pittsburgh, Katherine A. Suess of the University of California and Stanford University, Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen, Katherine Whitaker of the University of Massachusetts and the University of Copenhagen, and Mauro Stefanon of the Universitat de Valencia.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-05786-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Feb-2023

“Forbidden” planet orbiting small star challenges gas giant formation theories

Based on our current understanding of planet formation, TOI-5205b should not exist; it is a “forbidden” planet.”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: ARTIST'S CONCEPTION OF A LARGE GAS GIANT PLANET ORBITING A SMALL RED DWARF STAR CALLED TOI-5205. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE BY KATHERINE CAIN, COURTESY OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE.

Washington, DC— A team of astronomers led by Carnegie’s Shubham Kanodia has discovered an unusual planetary system in which a large gas giant planet orbits a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205. Their findings which are published in The Astronomical Journal, challenge long-held ideas about planet formation.

Smaller and cooler than our Sun, M dwarfs are the most common stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Due to their small size, these stars tend to be about half as hot as the Sun and much redder.  They have very low luminosities, but extremely long lifespans.  Although red dwarfs host more planets, on average, than other, more massive types of stars, their formation histories make them unlikely candidates to host gas giants.

The newly discovered planet—TOI 5205b—was  first identified as a potential candidate by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Kanodia’s team, which included Carnegie’s Anjali Piette, Alan Boss, Johanna Teske, and John Chambers, then confirmed its planetary nature and characterized it using a variety of ground-based instruments and facilities.

“The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a  Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising!” exclaimed Kanodia, who specializes in studying these stars, which comprise nearly three-quarters of our galaxy yet can’t be seen with the naked eye.

A small number of gas giants have been discovered orbiting older M dwarf stars. But until now no gas giant has been found in a planetary system around a low-mass M dwarf like TOI-5205. To grasp the size comparison here, a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star could be compared to a pea going around a grapefruit; for TOI-5205b, because the host star is so much smaller, it is more like a pea going around a lemon. In fact, when the Jupiter-mass TOI 5205b crosses in front of its host, it blocks about seven percent of its light—one of the largest known exoplanet transits.  

Planets are born in the rotating disk of gas and dust that surrounds young stars. The most commonly used theory of gas planet formation requires about 10 Earth masses of this rocky material to accumulate and form a massive rocky core, after which it rapidly sweeps up large amounts of gas from the neighboring regions of the disk to form the giant planet we see today.

The time frame in which this happens is crucial.

 “TOI-5205b’s existence stretches what we know about the disks in which these planets are born,” Kanodia explained. “In the beginning, if there isn’t enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.  And at the end, if the disk evaporates away before the massive core is formed, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.  And yet TOI-5205b formed despite these guardrails. Based on our nominal current understanding of planet formation, TOI-5205b should not exist; it is a “forbidden” planet.”

The team demonstrated that the planet’s very large transit depth makes it extremely conducive for future observations with the recently launched JWST, which could shed some light on its atmosphere and offer some additional clues about the mystery of its formation.

Artist's conception of a large gas giant planet orbiting a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205. Until now no gas giant has been found in a planetary system around a low-mass M dwarf like TOI-5205

A Jupiter-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star could be compared to a pea going around a grapefruit; for TOI-5205b, because the host star is so much smaller, it is more like a pea going around a lemon, said lead author Shubham Kanodia.

CREDIT

Artwork by Katherine Cain is courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The TESS follow-up research was conducted using the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF; Texas, US) and Low Resolution Spectrograph (LRS2; Texas, US) on the 10-m Hobby Eberly Telescope, the ARCTIC camera on the 3.5-m Apache Point Observatory (APO; New Mexico, US), the NN-Explore Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager (NESSI, Arizona, US) at the 3.5-m WIYN telescope, the 0.6-m Red Buttes Observatory (RBO, Wyoming, US), and the 0.3 m Three Hundred Millimeter Telescope (TMMT, Chile).

Other members of the research team were: Penn State University’s Suvrath Mahadevan, Jessica Libby-Roberts, Caleb Cañas (also of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Andrea Lin, Arvind Gupta, Luke Powers, and Lawrence Ramsey; Princeton University’s Gudmundur Stefansson; University of Texas Austin’s Greg Zeimann and William Cochran; University of Arizona’s Andrew Monson and Chad Bender; UC Irvine’s Paul Robertson; the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research’s Joe Ninan; University of Colorado Boulder’s Scott Diddams; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Samuel Halverson; University of Washington’s Suzanne Hawley; University of Wyoming’s Henry Kobulnicky, Brock Parker, and Tera Swaby; the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Andrew Metcalf; the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Arpita Roy (also of Johns Hopkins University); Macquarie University’s Christian Schwab; Carleton College’s Ryan Terrien; and George Mason University’s John Wisniewski.

__________________

The Carnegie Institution for Science (carnegiescience.edu) is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with three research divisions on both coasts. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in the life and environmental sciences, Earth and planetary science, and astronomy and astrophysics.

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JOURNAL

The Astronomical Journal

DOI

10.3847/1538-3881/acabce 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

TOI-5205b: A Short-period Jovian Planet Transiting a Mid-M Dwarf

Study finds sinking tundra surface unlikely to trigger runaway permafrost thaw

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: ORNL SCIENTISTS CREATED A HIGH-PERFORMANCE SIMULATION OF THE ARCTIC TUNDRA THAT FOUND THE PROCESS OF SOIL SUBSIDENCE DUE TO PERMAFROST THAW WOULD BE SELF-LIMITED IN THE DECADES AHEAD. view more 

CREDIT: DAVID GRAHAM, ORNL/U.S. DEPT. OF ENERGY

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists set out to address one of the biggest uncertainties about how carbon-rich permafrost will respond to gradual sinking of the land surface as temperatures rise. Using a high-performance computer simulation, the research team found that soil subsidence is unlikely to cause rampant thawing in the future.

This permanently frozen landscape in the Arctic tundra, which has kept vast amounts of carbon locked away for thousands of years, is at risk of thawing and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified the possibility of soil subsidence leading to a feedback loop that could trigger a rapid thaw as a major concern in the decades ahead. Accelerated thawing caused by uneven land subsidence has been observed on smaller scales over shorter time frames, but the IPCC’s assessments were uncertain as to what may happen over the long term.

That’s where ORNL stepped in with its Advanced Terrestrial Simulator, or ATS, a highly accurate, physics-based model of the region’s hydrology fed by detailed, real-world measurements to help scientists understand the land’s evolution.

What they found is that even though the ground will continue to sink as big ice deposits melt, the uneven subsidence also leads to a drier landscape and limits the process’s acceleration through the end of the century, as described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Improved drainage results in a drier landscape over a decadal timescale, and the process then becomes self-limiting,” said Scott Painter, who leads the Watershed Systems Modeling group at ORNL.

The scientists focused on a large region of the tundra characterized by ice wedges — long pieces of ice that crack the surface and extend belowground to create polygonal forms in the Arctic landscape. The cryo-hydrology simulations were informed by measurements gathered in the polygonal tundra.

The ATS was first developed for the Department of Energy’s NGEE Arctic project led by ORNL, focused on observations, experiments and modeling of the environmental processes at play in the region to improve climate predictions.

“We looked at the microtopography caused by these ice wedges in the subsurface and how that controls the flow of water,” Painter said. “Ours is the first capability to capture the effect of changing microtopography and represent it in climate models.”

Painter added that the team has a high degree of confidence in the model since it was developed for NGEE Arctic and has been evaluated against the project’s real-world observations.

He noted that most models, including ORNL’s, are in agreement in generally projecting large amounts of carbon thaw in the Arctic as temperatures rise. “But here, we have identified that one of the most worrisome processes, this runaway thawing due to subsidence, is unlikely to occur over a long time frame.”

The study pointed out other implications of a drying landscape. “As the polygonal tundra gets very dry, by the year 2100 it could have ecological impacts for migratory birds, which use these ecosystems as breeding grounds,” Painter said.

Other scientists collaborating on the study include ORNL’s Ethan Coon; Ahmad Jan, formerly of ORNL and now at the NOAA-affiliated Office of Water Prediction; and Julie Jastrow of Argonne National Laboratory.

The research was supported by NGEE Arctic, which is sponsored by the DOE Office of Science’s Biological and Environmental Research Program and led by ORNL, and BER’s Environmental System Science Program at Argonne. NGEE Arctic supported the original development of ATS as well as recent enhancements to incorporate subsidence into the model.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science. 

An illustration of the long-term evolution likely to occur as rising temperatures and subsequent thawing of frozen Arctic soils affects the northern Alaska tundra, as predicted by a high-performance model created by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

CREDIT

Adam Malin and Ethan Coon/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2212171120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Drying of tundra landscapes will limit subsidence-induced acceleration of permafrost thaw

UK
Will climate change affect Sizewell C nuclear safety?


Charles Bliss
Fri, 24 February 2023 

Cefas remote pilot aircraft lead Sara Stones (Image: Sizewell)

Sizewell C has received its Development Consent Order (DCO) to build a new nuclear power station on the Suffolk coast, which will generate affordable, low-carbon energy for six million homes over the next 60 years.

Many local organisations and residents took part in the Planning Inspectorate’s (PINS) examination of Sizewell C last year.

PINS concluded that Sizewell C had put in place the necessary measures to monitor, identify and address coastal changes. The project’s coastal defence feature will protect it up to the end of its design life in 2140 and can be adapted to be effective against more extreme climate scenarios.

PINS concluded that Sizewell C had fully addressed the flood risk associated with the project at the main site and the associated developments. It said the project was taking an appropriate approach to managing groundwater and surface water.

But while the Planning Inspectorate concluded that the benefits of the project would “strongly outweigh the potential adverse impacts”, concerns have been raised about how climate change, coastal erosion and flooding might affect the power station.

East Anglian Daily Times: Sizewell C marine environment manager Dr Stephen Roast

Sizewell C marine environment manager Dr Stephen Roast (Image: Sizewell)

Marine environment manager Dr Stephen Roast is responsible for assessing the coastal and marine impacts of the power plant on water quality and local ecology (and vice versa).

“Locals quite rightly ask about sea level rise and erosion due to climate change,” he says. “We know this part of the shore very well and this stretch at Sizewell is comparatively stable.”

The team has put thousands of hours into studying this coastline and designs take into account the effects of erosion to the north of the site.

“Sizewell C coastal defences 'work with nature', so that as material erodes, it will move downdrift to neighbouring beaches, which is what happens naturally,” says Stephen.

The Coastal Processes Monitoring and Mitigation Plan will be enforced throughout construction, operation and decommissioning of the station. Advanced modelling is used to study the possible effects of extreme storms and tides on the shoreline.

“We’ve got a good idea of what could happen over the next 100 years,” says Stephen. Sizewell C uses the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).

“We’ve taken into account the possibility that climate change may happen more quickly than predicted. If we end up on a more severe trajectory, we’ve got a plan with layers of resilience that will provide protection.”

If a storm causes erosion, processes are implemented to replenish beaches.

“We will measure the depth of the underlying seabed levels, as well as flying drones with high-resolution photography from Minsmere Sluice to Thorpeness to track coastal processes and address them,” Stephen says. “If erosion reaches a trigger level defined in the monitoring plan, we will recharge that beach with new sediment. Our modelling predicts that no more than four or five recharges will be needed over the whole operational life of the station.”

East Anglian Daily Times: Sizewell C external hazards lead Tom Bulkeley


“We understand how important it is to demonstrate the safety of the nuclear power station,” says Tom Bulkeley, external hazards lead. “We recognise that flooding and coastal erosion could be significant, so we have addressed that via the site’s location, configuration and defences – all of which are justified in line with regulatory requirements.

“We really do consider everything that could possiblyhappen. Even very extreme cases – whether that’s intense rainfall directly on the site, or the ability of the coastal defences to withstand storm surge on high tides, or even tsunamis.

"There is only really one type of tsunami that could threaten the southern part of the North Sea: a Storegga tsunami, which did happen about 8,000 years ago. Even though it’s not particularly realistic that an event like that could happen again soon, the scale of our defences is prepared for it.”

Stephen adds: “One of the main reasons for building Sizewell C in the first place is to try to get a grip on climate change by generating electricity from a low-carbon source. This project will be a big contribution to achieving net-zero.”

Google's news-blocking test in Canada a 'terrible mistake', says PM Trudeau



Fri, February 24, 2023 
By Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday it was a "terrible mistake" for Alphabet Inc's Google to block news content in reaction to a government bill that would compel the tech giant to pay publishers in Canada for news content.

Google said this week it was testing blocking some Canadian users' access to news as a potential response to the Trudeau government's "Online News Act," which is expected to be passed into law.

Trudeau, speaking to reporters in Toronto, said the blocking of news in Canada was an issue "bothering" him.

"It really surprises me that Google has decided that they'd rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalists for the work they do," he said.

"I think that's a terrible mistake and I know Canadians expect journalists to be well paid for the work they do.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The "Online News Act," which Trudeau's Liberal government introduced last year, created rules for platforms like Meta's Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers.

Facebook has also raised concerns about the legislation and warned it might be forced to block news-sharing on its platform.

The legislation passed Canada's House of Commons in December and is currently in the unelected upper chamber of the parliament, which rarely blocks legislation the lower house clears.

The rules aim to help the Canadian news industry, which has called for regulation of tech firms, citing growing financial losses while Facebook and Google steadily gain greater market share of online advertising income.

Ottawa's proposal is similar to a ground-breaking law that Australia passed in 2021, which too triggered threats from Google and Facebook to curtail their services. Both eventually struck deals with Australian media companies after a series of amendments to the legislation were offered.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Josie Kao)

Marco Rubio: East Palestine train derailment shows danger of putting profits over people

For decades, our policies prioritized efficiency over resiliency and rewarded globalism instead of patriotism.

Opinion
The Abilene Reporter-News

Sen. Marco Rubio
Fri, February 24, 2023 

“They feel that they can take advantage of us because we are a smaller town," a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, told CBC News. "What rolls through on those trucks is of more value than the lives of the residents in this community.”

The words of this American capture the perspective of East Palestine residents who are living in an apocalyptic landscape because of the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals.

In any functional society, the wreck of a massive, 150-car train and the emergence of a black cloud that threatens thousands of U.S. citizens would prompt an immediate, comprehensive response from government officials and the rail firms responsible.

In President Joe Biden’s America, the people of East Palestine were left scrambling in the dark, with, until Thursday, an absentee Transportation secretary, a struggling Environmental Protection Agency and industry representatives who won’t answer basic questions.

East Palestine needs solutions: Toxins don't play politics. After derailment, East Palestine deserves answers, not games.

The consequences should be swift and severe. This winter, we’ve seen disaster after disaster strike our national transportation system – from crippling flight cancellations and delays in January to multiple near misses on airport runways across the country to the derailment outside East Palestine.

A black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern train on Feb. 6.

Buttigieg waited 17 days to visit East Palestine

It was an opportunity for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who nearly three weeks after the derailment visited East Palestine on Thursday, to claim responsibility and demonstrate his ability to reinstate safety and security. Instead, he laughs about his failures, blames the Trump administration and gives speeches about racism in transportation rather than adequately addressing immediate concerns.

That is unacceptable. If this secretary won’t do his job, President Biden should find someone else who will.

Mayor Pete needs to show up: Americans need answers. Where is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg?

But there is more at play with the train wreck than incompetent bureaucrats. What is happening in East Palestine points beyond the Transportation Department to a deeper, broader problem in our nation – the effects of a decadeslong obsession with economic efficiency.

There was a time when American corporations understood their welfare was tied to that of the American people. They knew that their interests could not be divorced from the national interest or the interests of the communities they served without things going haywire. Sadly, that time is now just a memory. For years, major corporations have ditched corporate patriotism for the theory of shareholder primacy and the corresponding pursuit of short-term profits.

That led to the offshoring of manufacturing, which wreaked havoc on factory towns across the country and created dependence on foreign nations, including adversaries like China, for critical medicines, minerals and more.

The obsession with short-term profits also created just-in-time inventory management, which produced national shortages when the pandemic unwound global supply chains. During good times, delivering goods with no margin for error worked fine. During bad times, however, our lack of resilience proved disastrous.

No industry escaped the demands of globalization and Wall Street. In the rail industry, they caused the spread of precision-scheduled railroading, or PSR, by which firms lower operating costs by relying on the smallest number of employees for the longest trains possible.

Rail workers put in long hours on the job

PSR increased profits for shareholders, but it has led to the abuse of rail workers, who are forced to work long hours without leave and face retaliation for calling in sick – the grievances that prompted last year’s threatened rail strike.

PSR has also made our rail networks more fragile and accident-prone. America began waking up to this problem late last year. I warned then that the system was dangerously flawed, and now we’re seeing the consequences of those flaws in awful reality.

This is what happens when workers become line items on a spreadsheet and a small town becomes nothing more than a dot on a map in an ocean of consumers. The Biden administration and Norfolk Southern railway need to do right by the people of East Palestine, and it is time lawmakers do right by the American people.

Sen. Marco Rubio is a Republican from Florida.

For decades, our policies prioritized efficiency over resiliency and rewarded globalism instead of patriotism. That needs to change. We cannot allow ourselves to become a country that values sales and deliveries more than the lives of our citizens and the health of our communities. If we do, more disasters are sure to follow.

Sen. Marco Rubio is a Republican from Florida.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ohio derailment marks another Pete Buttigieg, Biden failure

Ohio train: Americans blind to toxic dangers rolling through towns

Kayla Epstein - BBC News, New York
Fri, February 24, 2023

Officials inspect the crash site of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment

Every day, trains laden with potentially harmful materials, like the one that derailed in East Palestine this month, rumble through American towns and cities. Often, residents are unaware of the danger.

Environmental experts warn that without stricter regulation from Congress and increased transparency requirements for dangerous materials passing through residential areas, many more towns and cities will be left in the dark and unprepared, as East Palestine was before a 3 February derailment unleashed a toxic onslaught on the town.

"Millions of people deal with it every single day, they probably just don't know it," says David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment.

"The potential for a catastrophic train derailment and fire or explosions has been high, it's certainly been something experts have warned about for many, many years".

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which regulates the industry, does not provide lists of the rail lines that hazardous materials travel, according to an agency spokesperson.

Railroad companies are loathe to disclose much information about hazardous cargo and routes the material travels, citing security concerns. Local governments can request information from the railroads annually for the purpose of planning their emergency response.

One of the people left in the dark was Ohio's own governor.

Norfolk Southern had not notified officials that vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials would be winding its way along the tracks that ran through East Palestine the day of the disaster, said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

"This train apparently was not considered a high-hazardous material train, therefore the railroad was not required to notify anyone here in Ohio about what was in the rail cars coming through our state," Mr DeWine said at a 14 February press conference.

"If this is true … this is absurd, we need to look at this. Congress needs to take a look at how these things are handled."

At a tense town hall on 15 February, East Palestine's residents expressed frustration at the lack of knowledge about the risk that passed through their backyards each day.

"I wouldn't know what to say if anything could have prevented this, because there's never no information about trains that are going through this town," said Wes Durkis, a local maintenance worker. "My whole life, they just come and go, and we don't know."

An Ohio EPA official inspects a waterway in East Palestine for signs of contamination

Freight trains are used to carry materials both innocuous and hazardous over long distances.

An expansive network of Class-1 railroads, which are operated by the major railroad freight companies and one passenger company, wind their way through America's coasts, heartlands and metropolises each day, racking up millions upon millions of miles every year.

Many of them carry potentially flammable or toxic substances, like crude oil or petrochemicals.

About a thousand train derailments occur in the US each year, according to the FRA. Leaks from trains carrying hazardous materials happen rarely. Only nine such incidents occurred in 2022, according to FRA data. The year with the highest number of hazardous material releases, 2020, only saw 20 such incidents.

But accidents do happen, and when they occur, they can devastate a community.

In 2005, a Norfolk Southern train carrying pressurized chlorine gas crashed in Graniteville, South Carolina, sending a toxic plume over the town. Nine people were killed in the crash and thousands had to evacuate.

A year later, the town's residents told The Washington Post they still suffered consequences from the fallout.

In 2012, a train carrying vinyl chloride - the same chemical primarily involved in the East Palestine incident - derailed in Paulsboro, New Jersey. Cars containing the substance derailed off a bridge and released 23,000 gallons of the chemical.

In 2015, a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in the state of West Virginia, destroying a house and contaminating the local drinking water.

North American rail tragedies were not limited to the US. In 2013, a train carrying oil derailed and exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people and forcing 2,000 residents to evacuate.

Derailed crude oil tankers in downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec in 2013

In many circumstances, local emergency responders were not prepared to deal with a chemical spill or explosion due to a lack of knowledge about the substances passing through their communities, a ProPublica investigation into railroads used to transport oil found. Emergency managers throughout the US told the investigative outlet that they did not receive notifications about dangerous materials traveling by rail.

Given that these freight lines run through major US cities, as well as small towns like East Palestine, millions of Americans are potentially at risk, environmental experts said.

In Pennsylvania alone, 3.9 million people lived within the evacuation zone of trains carrying crude oil, a study conducted by PennEnvironment found in 2015. That included hundreds of thousands of people in the Philadelphia metro region.

Any changes to railroad regulations would require the federal government to act; states and cities do not have much power to regulate the rail industry because it operates across state lines.

After the accident, East Palestine's residents are hyper-aware of the trains that have resumed passage through their town. And they know just as little about what the carriages carry as they did before the disaster, they say.

"The day they lifted the evacuation, there were trains going through in the background carrying the same thing," said Lisa Hamner, a frustrated East Palestine resident whose business sits just meters from the derailment site.

"What's the next town going to be? It's sad."

Bernd Debusmann Jr contributed to this report.

Brockovich warns Ohio town of dangers after train crash

Activist Erin Brockovich speaks during a town hall meeting at East Palestine High School, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, concerning the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. 

(AP Photo/Matt Freed)

JOHN FLESHER
Fri, February 24, 2023

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Worried residents packed a high school auditorium Friday as activist Erin Brockovich and attorneys warned of long-term health and environmental dangers from chemicals released after a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Brooke Hofmeister, a mother of two young children, said she feared for their health and felt worse than before about the situation after hearing the presentation.

“The truth is pretty scary," the 29-year-old said.

She and her husband, Cory Hofmeister, said they didn't feel safe in their hometown and were uncertain about whether to remain, echoing concerns raised by many who attended the two-hour session. It was sponsored by East Palestine Justice, a group formed by Brockovich, lawyers and scientific and medical experts.

No one was injured when 38 Norfolk Southern cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of town Feb. 3. As fears grew about a potential explosion, officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast had the area evacuated and opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky again.

More than 2,000 people registered to attend the meeting Friday, with the crowd spilling into the school gymnasium. Brockovich, who gained fame and was portrayed in a film for battling Pacific Gas & Electric Co. over groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California, told the audience to fight for recognition and trust their instincts.

“You want to be heard, but you're going to be told it's safe, you're going to be told not to worry,” Brockovich said. “That's just rubbish, because you're going to worry. Communities want to be seen and heard.”

Health and environmental risks will remain for years, she said.

“Don’t expect somebody to give you the answers. Unfortunately, this is not a quick fix. This is going to be a long game."

Brockovich and her associates are among a number of legal teams that have come to the area offering to talk with residents about potential litigation over the derailment. Several lawsuits already have been filed.

Federal and state officials have repeatedly said it’s safe for evacuated residents to return to the area and that air testing in the town and inside hundreds of homes hasn’t detected any concerning levels of contaminants from the fires and burned chemicals. The state says the local municipal drinking water system is safe, and bottled water is available while testing is conducted for those with private wells.

Despite those assurances and a bevy of news conferences and politician visits -- including this week from top officials in the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump -- many residents still express a sense of mistrust or have lingering questions about what they have been exposed to and how it will impact the future of their families and their communities.

At Friday night's meeting, attorney Mikal Watts urged people to get their blood and urine tested promptly, saying the results could help establish whether they have been exposed to dangerous substances and could be helpful if they take legal action.

“The court of public opinion and a court of law are different,” he said. “We need evidence.”

The Hofmeisters were among local residents who said afterward they intended to be tested.

Greg McCormick, 40, a lifelong East Palestine resident who was among those evacuated after the train, said he would consider testing.

“I'm just lost, like everyone else here,” he said. “We don't know where we're going, what we're doing. ... We're about to lose our Mayberry, but we're sure as hell going to fight for it.”

Erin Brockovich, experts advise East Palestine residents of grim days to come

Brooks Sutherland, Cincinnati Enquirer
Fri, February 24, 2023

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio − When environmental activist Erin Brockovich took the stage Friday to share what she's learned over 30 years of work on similar disaster relief scenarios, she seamlessly put into words what many residents have felt over the past three weeks.

"I can't tell you how many communities feel that that these moments are the biggest gaslight of their life," Brockovich told an audience of a few hundred at East Palestine High School.

Brockovich's appearance, which was requested by many East Palestine residents who emailed her, put a cap on a week in which multiple notable figures descended upon the small Ohio village that sits near the Pennsylvania border.

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine, where he donated bottles of water and cleaning supplies to the community still reeling from a Norfolk Southern train derailment and controlled burn that sent thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into the air. Then on Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the village to meet with investigators, tamp down criticisms of the Biden administration and call on congress to help reinstate stronger regulation and heftier fines when railroads violate safety rules.

There was also a CNN Town Hall and a visit from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

As he addressed the crowd Friday night in an event billed as a town hall but was more of an informational session, Texas attorney Mikal Watts told East Palestine residents to block out the political noise and stay focused on the many serious health complications the community has yet to face and the litigation that's still to come.

Coverage of the East Palestine train derailment is being provided for free. Subscribe today to support local journalism and access all of our content online.

Watts presented for the majority of the evening a slideshow detailing to residents what happened, what precedent says and what they could face moving forward. As an attorney presenting at an event billed as a town hall, Watts was unable to answer questions due to state law decided by the Ohio Supreme Court. What he did detail is just how often derailments happen.

"It is a shockingly dangerous phenomenon," Watts said.

Attendees listened quietly as Watts went over just how many derailments Norfolk Southern has been involved in alone. Using federal data, his firm, Watts Guerra LLP, found that the rail company behind East Palestine's derailment has reported 3,397 events that could be classified as a derailment over the past 20 years.

"This is happening about every three days," Watts said.

Ohio train derailment:What is Norfolk Southern's safety record?

More than 2,500 people attended a Justice for East Palestine event in the East Palestine High School auditorium Friday.

Brockovich, the famed environmental activist who led efforts to build a groundwater contamination case against a natural gas company 1993, has been involved in similar activism for 30 years. But this case, she says, is different.

Water quality:Ohio officials say East Palestine's water is safe. But where's the full data?

'You burned me:' Norfolk Southern CEO blasted by East Palestine residents in CNN town hall

NTSB report:Norfolk Southern alerted to overheated wheel bearing right before Ohio train derailment

"I've never seen in 30 years, a situation like this," she said, warning residents that what her team was going to present them may scare them. " ... I feel your angst and I feel your frustration. And I want to share something with you, you're not alone."

East Palestine residents fill the East Palestine High School auditorium as Erin Brockovich and others held a Justice for East Palestine event Friday.

Brockovich has whistleblower history

In 1993, Brockovich was a whistleblower against Pacific Gas and Electric Company after discovering a mysterious widespread illness in Hinkley, California. Her efforts exposed that Hinkley's water had been poisoned for 30 years by PG&E, leading to a $333 million settlement for residents affected.

The lawsuit led to an eponymous film starring Julia Roberts in 2000. Brockovich has spoken out about the pollution in East Palestine and the response from the government on many occasions since the Feb. 3 train derailment, urging transparency instead of rampant confusion regarding the risks the community faces.

When lights at the event inadvertently went out, one resident quipped that it was a perfect representation of how they have felt during the process.

"That's how we feel, in the dark," the woman shouted.

Pennsylvania impact: Even 100+ miles from the derailment, residents are asking: Should I be worried?

Erin Brockovich held a Justice for East Palestine event Friday.

Residents report symptoms after derailment

Since the derailment and controlled burn, many residents have reported a number of ailments and symptoms. The state of Ohio set up a makeshift clinic in East Palestine earlier this week in response to help facilitate some of the medical needs of residents. Watts advised them to get blood tests at a local center to make sure they weren't exposed to the dangerous chemicals released into the air.

Maps and graphics:The toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, explained

Lisa Fulton, who lives on Taggart Street right by the scene of the derailment, said she has felt some symptoms since the derailment occurred and wanted to find out more information about what her next steps should be.

"I saw the fire come right down the tracks," she said after the event. "I've had a sore throat and some tightness in my chest. And I've been wheezing because I have asthma."

LuAnn Krause, a nurse practitioner, is concerned about the effect the chemicals will have on children.

"Their bodies are forming, their blood cells are forming, their bone marrow is forming" she said. "And they're at risk for leukemia."

Watts said the group of attorneys and activists may plan similar events as early as next week to continue to inform the public.

Bob Bowcock, a water expert and hydrologist, warned the aftermath of the derailment won't go away any time soon.

"You're in a situation that you're going to be dealing with for the rest of your lives if you stay here," he said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Erin Brockovich gives advice to Ohio residents after train derailment