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CBP Announces Reopening of U.S. NEXUS/FAST Enrollment Centers Customs and Border ProtectionCBP Announces Reopening of U.S. NEXUS/FAST Enrollment Centers - Customs and Border Protection
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Thursday, March 31, 2022
CBP Announces Reopening of U.S. NEXUS/FAST Enrollment Centers - Customs and Border Protection
CBP Announces Reopening of U.S. NEXUS/FAST Enrollment Centers - Customs and Border Protection
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NEXUS, FAST centers reopening at U.S. borders April 19 - WETM - MyTwinTiers.com
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NEXUS, FAST centers reopening at U.S. borders April 19 WETM - MyTwinTiers.comNEXUS, FAST centers reopening at U.S. borders April 19 - WETM - MyTwinTiers.com
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Seabird Island gas bar fitted with EV fast chargers – Agassiz Harrison Observer - Agassiz Harrison Observer
A new fast-charging station for electric vehicles is coming to the Seabird Island community.
B.C. Hydro announced the charging site is operational adjacent to the Sqéwqel Gas Bar (3971 Chowat Road) as of March 11. This site is part of a network of more than 100 fast chargers across the province.
“Seabird Island Band is pleased to provide EV charging stations at our fueling station, in aid of a cleaner greener source of power for the traffic driving Highway 7 through our land and traditional territory,” stated Seabird Island Chief Jim Harris. “Protecting the environment is a task that belongs to all of us.”
READ ALSO: Seabird Island business park nearing completion
The charge site includes two 50-kilowatt charging units, which each add the equivalent of approximately 50 kilometres of driving time in about 10 minutes.
Minister of Energy, Mines and Low-Carbon Innovation Bruce Ralston said the installation is the latest in the province’s effort to make it easier for B.C. drivers to switch to greener, electric vehicles with a network of chargers spanning highways across B.C.
“This site in Agassiz was selected with safety, inclusiveness and convenience in mind,” stated Chilliwack-Kent MLA Kelli Paddon. “The site is wheelchair accessible and is right beside the well-lit Sqéwqel Gas Bar.”
READ ALSO: Seabird compost facility helps create a better earth
This installation is also part of B.C. Hydro’s broader Electrification Plan, which is an overall initiative to switch from fossil fuels to hydroelectricity.
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Seabird Island gas bar fitted with EV fast chargers – Agassiz Harrison Observer - Agassiz Harrison Observer
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Wednesday, March 30, 2022
CHIME Outrigger telescopes boost search for fast radio bursts - McGill Newsroom
In the quest to identify the origins of one of astronomy’s biggest mysteries – fast radio bursts (FRBs) – Canada’s world-renowned telescope, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), is getting backup.
Supported by approximately $10 million in grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the CHIME/FRB Outriggers project has now secured funding to complete the construction of three new radio telescopes to work in conjunction with the main CHIME instrument, located in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.
“It has been a pleasure to work with the talented team developing the outriggers for CHIME,” said Robert Kirshner, Ph.D., Chief Program Officer for Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “Despite the burdens of COVID, interruptions in the supply of steel for the antennas, and competition with bitcoin miners for the specialized computer chips that power their computational wizardry, the CHIME team is headed toward a spectacular improvement in the scientific yield of CHIME’s copious FRB discoveries.”
Outriggers to sharpen CHIME’s vision
With the ability to detect 10-100 times more fast radio bursts than all other telescopes combined, CHIME has had a radical impact on FRB science. The telescope has allowed scientists to observe the vanishingly brief bursts with exquisite time resolution. CHIME’s limitation, however, has been its inability to identify with any precision where the FRBs were coming from. The outriggers will enable this radical leap.
“The CHIME telescope can currently locate the position of a fast radio burst to a patch of sky equivalent to the size of the full Moon. With the addition of the three new outrigger telescopes, this patch of sky can be reduced to the size of a quarter held at roughly 40 km,” explained Patrick Boyle, Senior Project Manager for the CHIME/FRB Outriggers project and Senior Academic Associate in the Department of Physics at McGill University.
By pinpointing FRBs, the new telescopes will allow scientists to zoom in on the environments within galaxies from which the bursts originate and, in so doing, narrow down the possible explanations for their existence.
“The CHIME/Outrigger Fast Radio Burst team is poised to shed even more light on one of the Universe’s most exciting recent discoveries: the fleeting pulses known as fast radio bursts (FRBs),” said lead CHIME/FRB researcher Prof. Victoria Kaspi, Director of the McGill Space Institute and Professor of Physics at McGill University. “The CHIME outrigger telescopes will help us to both understand the origins of FRBs and realize their potential as cosmic probes.”
CHIME’s new siblings
The outrigger telescopes are smaller versions of the original set to be built in three locations across North America. One of the outrigger sites is in Canada:
- Near Princeton, British Columbia, on land kindly leased to CHIME by HML Mining Ltd., where construction of the new telescope’s reflector has already been completed
The other two are in the United States and result from partnerships with existing radio astronomy observatories:
- The Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, where it sits in the middle of the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ).
- The Hat Creek Radio Observatory in California, where the CHIME/FRB project has partnered with the SETI Institute.
“Green Bank Observatory’s distance from the other CHIME locations, being within the NRQZ and the pre-existing infrastructure available on our campus make this the perfect site for a new CHIME Outrigger. The instrument will benefit from the protections of radio frequency interference that the NRQZ provides. It is good to see our extensive 2,700 acre campus being used in new ways, and it is exciting to see this impressive instrument under construction,” said Andrew Seymour, a Green Bank Observatory scientist working with the CHIME team on the project.
“We are thrilled to welcome the world-class CHIME team to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory,” said Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. “Hosting a CHIME outrigger represents a phenomenal and complementary addition to the HCRO’s science mission.”
Building on a successful collaboration
Representing an amazing convergence of scientists across North America, the CHIME/FRB Outriggers project is a collaboration between several Canadian and international institutes, including McGill University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, West Virginia University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Also partnering on the project is the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the National Research Council of Canada, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the Green Bank Observatory.
The outrigger project has also received funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the electronics as well as salaries for faculty, postdocs and graduate students located in the United States.
About the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the Bay Area. Visit moore.org and follow @MooreFound.
About the Green Bank Observatory
The Green Bank Observatory is a major facility of the National Science Foundation administered by Associated University, Inc.
About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge with the world. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages data analytics, machine learning, and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia, and government agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.
About McGill University
Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill University is Canada’s top ranked medical doctoral university. McGill is consistently ranked as one of the top universities, both nationally and internationally. It is a world-renowned institution of higher learning with research activities spanning three campuses, 11 faculties, 13 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 39,000 students, including more than 10,400 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,000 international students making up 30% of the student body. Over half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 20% of our students who say French is their mother tongue.
For media requests, please contact:
McGill University: Fergus Grieve, Communications Officer, fergus.grieve [at] mcgill.ca
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: Trity Pourbahrami, Communications Officer, Science Program, trityp [at] moore.org
Green Bank Observatory: Jill Malusky, Public Relations, jmalusky [at] nrao.edu
SETI Institute: Rebecca McDonald, Director of Communications, mcdonald [at] seti.org
CHIME Outrigger telescopes boost search for fast radio bursts - McGill Newsroom
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EU proposes new rules to discourage disposable fast fashion - CTV News
The European Union warned consumers to stop using their clothes like throwaway items and said Wednesday that it plans to counter the polluting use of mass-market fast fashion.
New rules proposed by the EU's executive arm call for a mandatory minimum use of recycled fibers by 2030 and would ban the destruction of many unsold products. The European Commission rules also seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global labor conditions in the garment industry.
"We want sustainable products to become the norm," commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said. "The clothes we wear should last longer than three washes."
The changes would require a massive shift in an industry that in order to keep costs and prices down, produces items with a short life span in developing nations in Asia and Latin America, often under poor working conditions.
"All textiles should be long lasting, recyclable, made of recycled fibers and free of dangerous substances. The strategy also aims to boost reuse and repair sectors and address textile waste," Timmermans said.
Almost three-quarters of all clothing and textiles used in EU are imported. In 2019, the 27-nation bloc imported over 80 billion euros ($89.2 billion) in clothes, mainly from China, Bangladesh and Turkey, according to the European Commission, and the average consumer throws away 11 kilos (over 24 pounds) of textiles a year.
Fast fashion is most closely associated in Europe with the high street -- commercial areas where clothes-hunters shop at mass-market retailers such as H&M, Primark and Zara. The EU, although targeting clothing made for that market, also wants luxury brands to set the standard for sustainable fashion in an industry where the fleeting and ephemeral is essential to turnover.
"There's a cultural change taking place," Timmermans said, added that major fashion houses "are always the first to show the way forward."
"The designers, the artists - they realize that the world has changed and that we need to revisit the way we design fashion," he said.
Sustainability is a new frontier in the luxury industry. Upcycling and other methods to reduce the carbon footprint have been mainstays for some of the most famous brands on the runways of London and Paris, such as Stella McCartney, which belongs to the Kering group, and more recently Chloe under sustainability-conscious designer Gabriela Hearst.
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Thomas Adamson contributed from Paris
EU proposes new rules to discourage disposable fast fashion - CTV News
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
watchOS 8.5 may have broken fast charging on the Apple Watch Series 7 - The Verge
While the Apple Watch Series 7 didn’t come with longer battery life, it did offer faster charging — at least, it did until last week. Some users are now complaining the feature no longer works after updating to watchOS 8.5, according to a 9to5Mac report.
Fast charging is exclusive to the Series 7. With it, Apple says the Watch’s battery can go from 0 to 80 percent in roughly 45 minutes. However, Series 7 owners on Reddit, Apple’s support forums, and MacRumors’ forum are saying their Watches are now charging at a snail’s pace. A couple of Reddit users claimed that the Watch would only charge roughly 5 percent in 15–20 minutes. Meanwhile, a user on Apple’s forum claimed the Watch only charged 5 percent in an hour. For context, Apple says an Apple Watch SE can get to 80 percent in 1.5 hours.
Initially, it appeared that the issue may have only been affecting those using Belkin’s 3-in-1 BoostCharge Pro. However, some have since claimed the problem also extends to Apple’s own fast-charging puck. The Verge reached out to Apple and Belkin for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
That said, while 9to5Mac says it has been able to confirm the issue, The Verge was not able to replicate the problem using a 41mm Series 7 with a fast-charging puck and 20W Apple charging brick.
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Battery life remains one of the Apple Watch’s main “hurdles.” Ever since the first iteration of the Watch, Apple’s stuck to its estimate of 18 hours on a single charge. (In practice, you may get a bit longer, though you still have to charge daily.) Fast charging was meant to take the sting out of strategically planning when to charge your Watch, especially for those who may want to use it for sleep tracking.
While convenient, fast charging on the Series 7 requires users to jump through some hoops. The Series 7 ships with a compatible fast-charging puck, but you have to supply your own USB-C brick. That brick also has to meet Apple’s specifications (which you can see here). While older Apple Watch chargers will work with the Series 7, you won’t get faster charging speeds. Furthermore, if you’re using a third-party charger, it likely doesn’t support fast charging. Currently, there are only two third-party Apple Watch chargers that support the feature — and both are from Belkin.
Hopefully, a fix will arrive soon. In the meantime, you might want to factor in a little extra charging time.
watchOS 8.5 may have broken fast charging on the Apple Watch Series 7 - The Verge
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Where Breaking the Ramadan Fast Includes Caribou - The New York Times
Last week, Maleika Jones was still waiting for a package of Ramadan decorations. In her preparations for the monthlong holiday, which in the United States begins on Saturday, she ordered festive lights and trimming to hang up for her family’s celebrations as they break the fast each night.
“Of course, even though it’s an Amazon order, it takes several weeks to get here,” she said.
Ms. Jones lives in Anchorage, home to Alaska’s only mosque — some 6,700 miles west of Mecca, in a commercial district of the city, next to a sports bar and an insulation contractor’s office, with views of the Chugach Mountains.
The mosque — the northernmost in the country — is also the heart of a growing Muslim community that is preparing to gather for Ramadan for the first time since the pandemic began. The roughly 2,500 Muslims in the Anchorage area come from all over the world; they’re immigrants, refugees, locals, veterans, students and others, all sharing a faith and a love of food.
The Muslim community “is quite a diverse population, but then we’re all able to come together on the common grounds of our faith and traditions, the core traditions,” said Ms. Jones’s husband, Gregory Shuaib Jones, an electrician. “The different ethnic groups may have some slight variations in the style of their cooking or the style of their dress, but the core is there.”
The Joneses moved to Anchorage from South Carolina in 2009 with the purpose of teaching people about Islam. Both are members of the Anchorage Interfaith Council, and Ms. Jones is the co-chair.
Anchorage is one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse cities, with more than 100 languages represented in its public school system. People often move to the area as part of the military, as new immigrants or as refugees — many from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Cuba, Iraq and Bhutan. Most recently, 100 refugees from Afghanistan have settled in the area.
Heather Barbour, a lawyer and a leader in local Muslim circles, said the mosque — formally, the Islamic Community Center of Anchorage Alaska — has members from 40 to 50 countries.
“I love the fact that there are so many different cultures and people from all over the world, and I think that makes Anchorage a very rich city,” she said. “The Muslim community is kind of a microcosm of that. You take that diversity and you kind of shrink it down and that’s the mosque.”
This diversity can lead to some conflicts and differences of opinions, but Ms. Barbour said it is one of the community’s greatest strengths.
“If you go somewhere like Chicago or New York, you’ll find different mosques,” she said. “You’ll find a Pakistani mosque or an Arab mosque or an Albanian mosque. It’s a mosque, but it’s infused with the culture of the place. We don’t have that ability. It really kind of forces us to try to stay true to the religion and not let different cultures influence how we do things.”
Anchorage’s location can pose complications for Ramadan. During the holiday, Muslims around the world forgo eating from dawn until sunset every day of the month — breaking the fast with a feast called iftar. Ramadan dates vary year to year, following the Islamic lunar calendar. This year, Ramadan falls in the spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and in Alaska that will mean fasting from 5 a.m. to about 6:30 p.m.
But when the holiday falls in the summer or winter months, the northern cities of the world must accommodate different fasting times. Anchorage experiences about 22 hours of daylight during the summer solstice; winter solstice brings very little light — only about five hours. To work around such extremes, Muslims in far-northern countries are given special permission to adopt the timetable of Mecca. (Some Alaskan Muslims choose to follow the local sunrise and sunset.)
“This is a unique challenge here in Alaska,” Mr. Jones said. “When we first got here, it’s like 11:30 at night, and the sun’s not going down and I’m like, ‘What is going on here?’”
Mr. Jones said that when he moved to Anchorage, he talked to local Muslims to learn about time adjustments in the summertime, because it was difficult to complete three of the five prayers that are timed between sunrise and sunset. “You’ll be getting all your prayers in between 11 a.m. and 2 a.m., and that’s just not a normal lifestyle,” Mr. Jones said.
The Anchorage mosque has been a work in progress for more than a decade.
For about 35 years, members rented retail space in a strip mall. In 2008, after a fund-raising effort, the group bought a plot of land off one of the city’s main thoroughfares. And because paying interest on a loan is forbidden in Islam, the mosque had to be built piece by piece as the group collected enough money.
The community moved into the building in 2011. Youssef Barbour, a physician and a spokesman for the center, said the mosque is nearly complete, with only the minaret and an elevator left to add.
Despite the bigger space, the building can feel crowded on Fridays and during the holidays, when 700 to 800 people gather for special Ramadan services.
That growth in the Muslim community is reflected in the increasing availability of halal food in the city.
When Sajid Raza moved to Anchorage in 2016 to do graduate research at the University of Alaska Anchorage, he said it was hard to find halal food, particularly meat.
“At the time, there were just a couple of restaurants, like one Indian restaurant and one pizza place,” said Mr. Raza, who now lives in Bozeman, Mont. “There was one grocery store, and it was bringing mostly frozen meat from Seattle, but it was quite expensive because of transportation costs and stuff.”
Today, Anchorage is home to three halal specialty shops and several restaurants with halal dishes on the menu. The local Walmart, Safeway and Costco stores also carry halal-certified options.
“That’s a remarkable development for the Muslim community, because that means that the halal is becoming more and more mainstream throughout America,” Mr. Jones said. “Alaska being so remote, we may be probably one of the last communities to get it.”
Still, certain ingredients remain difficult to find. Alaska imports 95 percent of its food, and pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions continue to hinder the regular delivery of goods to the state.
“Most people, if they are from different parts of the world, whether it’s Senegal or Pakistan, people bring those spices in,” said Ms. Jones, who does the same when she visits her family in South Carolina. “A lot of people that go back and visit their hometowns, they bring the spices and things here.”
Stocking up on spices and other ingredients about a month ahead of time is an important part of preparing for Ramadan in Alaska. Finding enough frozen halal meat is also important. A neighbor of the Jones family hunts, killing each animal according to the Islamic law and ritual that makes the meat halal. Recently, the neighbor shared halal caribou meat with Ms. Jones.
Families will buy rice, lentils, flour, vegetables for soup dishes, and dates — an ingredient that is likely found in every Muslim home in Anchorage, despite cultural background. Medjool dates — the “big fat, gooey ones, the really good ones” — are becoming easier to find at Costco during Ramadan, Ms. Barbour said. Eating dates is a traditional way to break the fast.
“This is a time where we start preparing mentally, spiritually, financially — buying certain types of foods that we may not eat throughout the year,” Ms. Jones said.
Ms. Jones is also working with other women from the mosque to practice making dishes ahead of the holiday. Last week, Ms. Jones made lamb biryani and curried chickpeas and chicken with a friend from Pakistan.
Ms. Jones has also been watching online videos to learn how to make foods, like samosas, that she can freeze ahead of time.
“When you break the fast, it’s so nice and refreshing to have different types of appetizers and finger foods and things like that already on the table,” she said. “It would be too hard to sit here and roll out 20 pieces of bread when I break my fast, you know, versus already having it put together in the freezer.”
Though Ramadan is a month of prayer and reflection, it is also a joyful time for Muslim families, and iftar gatherings are a highlight of the holiday. Before the pandemic, Anchorage’s Muslim community met nightly to break the fast over big potlucks.
“People think about food during the fasting day,” Mr. Barbour said. “So food becomes like — you are thinking about what you are going to eat today. People sometimes actually gain weight because of how much emphasis is on food, but it is a nice season for enjoying a nice meal.”
During these potlucks, people fill their plates at the buffet table. “Most people have no idea who brought what or what it is,” Ms. Barbour said. “Everybody eats everything, and it’s just a real mishmash, which is really awesome.”
Women in the community have also hosted smaller gatherings at their homes once or twice a week. This year, Ms. Jones and her daughter Shumailah are planning on making kebabs, roti, fruit with yogurt and a large batch of potato and meat-filled samosas for their iftar gatherings.
“During Ramadan, that’s the time where people really try to roll their sleeves up and bring out the best dishes,” Ms. Jones said.
With few Covid-19 restrictions, the community is looking forward to evening potlucks on Fridays and Saturdays.
“Everybody misses it, and everybody’s really excited to be seeing each other again,” Ms. Barbour said. “Sharing food, that’s one thing that’s just across pretty much every culture that brings people together. That’s the common language, to sit down with your friends and community members. It’s a very relaxed, very happy time. And, we have really missed it.”
Where Breaking the Ramadan Fast Includes Caribou - The New York Times
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Fast & Furious Crossroads to be fastly and furiously delisted April 29 - Polygon
Fast & Furious Crossroads, the Fast & Furious tie-in game from Slightly Mad Studios, is being delisted from digital storefronts on April 29.
According to an update on the game’s website, Crossroads will no longer be available to purchase on that date, but players that own it digitally will still have it in their libraries and will be able to download it again in the future. Similarly, DLC and online modes will still remain functional — sales, per the update, are the only thing being halted.
All product sales will end on:
April 29th, 2022 - 4am CEST
*Please note that times may vary by region.
If you bought the game digitally it will remain in your library and can be redownloaded in the future.
Any DLCs purchased before April 29, 2022 will still be available to use after this date. The game’s online modes will also remain active.
Of course, as we’ve seen before, halting sales is often just a precursor to an eventual server shutdown, the first phase of what publishers refer to with euphemisms like “end of life.” Considering the fact that the game launched in August 2020 — which would have coincided with one of the much-delayed F9: The Fast Saga’s many planned release windows — this would mean a very short life for the game, vanishing after less than two years.
Despite being set in the world of the Fast and Furious films and featuring several of its characters and cars, Crossroads failed to connect with audiences thanks to rote gameplay that didn’t let players enjoy said cars. It mostly tasked them with simply driving from one place to another on a linear path interrupted by the odd stunt.
Turns out maybe living your life a quarter mile at a time might not be the best idea.
Fast & Furious Crossroads to be fastly and furiously delisted April 29 - Polygon
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Monday, March 28, 2022
Solar energy explains fast yearly retreat of Antarctica's sea ice - Science Daily
In the Southern Hemisphere, the ice cover around Antarctica gradually expands from March to October each year. During this time the total ice area increases by 6 times to become larger than Russia. The sea ice then retreats at a faster pace, most dramatically around December, when Antarctica experiences constant daylight.
New research led by the University of Washington explains why the ice retreats so quickly: Unlike other aspects of its behavior, Antarctic sea ice is just following simple rules of physics.
The study was published March 28 in Nature Geoscience.
"In spite of the puzzling longer-term trends and the large year-to-year variations in Antarctic sea ice, the seasonal cycle is really consistent, always showing this fast retreat relative to slow growth," said lead author Lettie Roach, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at the UW and is now research scientist at NASA and Columbia University. "Given how complex our climate system is, I was surprised that the rapid seasonal retreat of Antarctic sea ice could be explained with such a simple mechanism."
Previous studies explored whether wind patterns or warm ocean waters might be responsible for the asymmetry in Antarctica's seasonal sea ice cycle. But the new study shows that, just like a hot summer day reaches its maximum sizzling conditions in late afternoon, an Antarctic summer hits peak melting power in midsummer, accelerating warming and sea ice loss, with slower changes in temperature and sea ice when solar input is low during the rest of the year.
The researchers investigated global climate models and found they reproduced the quicker retreat of Antarctic sea ice. They then built a simple physics-based model to show that the reason is the seasonal pattern of incoming solar radiation.
At the North Pole, Arctic ice cover has gradually decreased since the 1970s with global warming. Antarctic ice cover, however, has seesawed over recent decades. Researchers are still working to understand sea ice around the South Pole and better represent it in climate models.
"I think because we usually expect Antarctic sea ice to be puzzling, previous studies assumed that the rapid seasonal retreat of Antarctic sea ice was also unexpected -- in contrast to the Arctic, where the seasons of ice advance and retreat are more similar," Roach said. "Our results show that the seasonal cycle in Antarctic sea ice can be explained using very simple physics. In terms of the seasonal cycle, Antarctic sea ice is behaving as we should expect, and it is the Arctic seasonal cycle that is more mysterious."
The researchers are now exploring why Arctic sea ice doesn't follow this pattern, instead each year growing slightly faster over the Arctic Ocean than it retreats. Because Antarctica's geography is simple, with a polar continent surrounded by ocean, this aspect of its sea ice may be more straightforward, Roach said.
"We know the Southern Ocean plays an important role in Earth's climate. Being able to explain this key feature of Antarctic sea ice that standard textbooks have had wrong, and showing that the models are reproducing it correctly, is a step toward understanding this system and predicting future changes," said co-author Cecilia Bitz, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences.
Other co-authors are; Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, a UW research assistant professor in atmospheric sciences; Ian Eisenman at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Till Wagner at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Roach is currently a research scientist with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.K.-based Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Washington. Original written by Hannah Hickey. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Solar energy explains fast yearly retreat of Antarctica's sea ice - Science Daily
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RCMP investigating random stranger attack at West Kelowna fast food restaurant - West Kelowna News - Castanet.net
Photo: Google Maps
A man was assaulted in an apparent random attack Sunday.
West Kelowna RCMP has yet to track down the suspect after a frightening incident at the Tim Hortons/Wendy’s Sunday afternoon at Highway 97 and Bering Road.
A Castanet reader reported a man was assaulted, apparently unprovoked. The suspect walked in, attacked the victim, threatened other people in the restaurant, destroyed some personal property and then left.
Staff Sgt. Duncan Dixon said RCMP are hoping to secure video of the incident to help identify the attacker. “I’ve tasked my community safety fellows to go grab video from that place and other places today.
“I’m hopeful we will get some good images and hopefully be able to identify him using that.”
He says witness statements were taken at the scene and it appears the suspect was acting strangely before the assault.
Staff Sgt. Dixon said it did not appear the suspect was known to the victim. Luckily the man was not seriously injured in the attack.
RCMP investigating random stranger attack at West Kelowna fast food restaurant - West Kelowna News - Castanet.net
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Sunday, March 27, 2022
PLAYOFFS: Fast start helps Terriers tame Cougars, grab control of series - OrilliaMatters
Momentum can be a fickle mistress.
But, right now, momentum must feel like rocket fuel to the Orillia McLean & Dickey Terriers, who suddenly are in the driver’s seat in their second-round playoff series against the Schomberg Cougars.
A little over 12 hours after a heart-stopping double-overtime victory on home ice, the Terriers travelled to Schomberg Sunday afternoon and dominated the home side early before hanging on to a well-earned 7-5 victory over the Cougars.
With the win at the Trisan Centre, Orillia now has a commanding 3-1 series lead with a chance to eliminate Schomberg on home ice at Rotary Place Tuesday night.
The Terriers started fast Sunday, jumping out to a 3-0 first-period advantage thanks to goals from Josh Brown, Austin Holesnki and Noah Mountain.
Riding the momentum, the Terriers scored twice more in the middle frame as Sam Pink and Broderick Black extended Orillia’s lead to 5-0 before Schomberg finally beat Terriers ‘tender Reed Spinola. The Terriers were up 5-1 after 40 minutes.
In the third, Schomberg tried to mount a comeback and certainly made things interesting, but fell short as Orillia prevailed 7-5. Three of the Cougars' goals in the final frame were power-play goals as the Terriers were short-handed for much of the third period.
Noah Sands and Dylan Palomaki (empty net) scored for Orillia in the third period. Lucas Wessinger was Orillia's top playmaker, earning a trio of assists.
For Spinola, it was his first time back in the crease after sitting out a three-game suspension that was levied in the team’s first-round series against Midland.
He stopped 25 of 30 shots in the matinee triumph - including a second-period penalty shot. For Schomberg, Matteo Tarantino allowed five goals on the first 20 shots he faced and was pulled in favour of Tristan Szymanowski, who stopped six of the seven shots he faced in the final frame.
The previous three games were each won by the home team and each game had been decided by a single goal - two of them in overtime. These two teams had identical regular season records and to say they are evenly-matched is an understatement.
Despite that, Orillia, looking to continue to ride that momentum, can win the best-of-seven series Tuesday night. Game time at Rotary Place in west Orillia is 7:30 p.m. If necessary, a fifth game would be played in Schomberg Thursday night.
PLAYOFFS: Fast start helps Terriers tame Cougars, grab control of series - OrilliaMatters
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CDN/NDG can decide where new fast-food restos go - The Suburban Newspaper
Canada’s Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of a Quebec Superior Court ruling that said the city can ban certain types of restaurants from parts of its territory.
In 2015, Côte des Neiges–Notre Dame de Grâce council passed a by-law that provided for zoning changes to limit the zones where new fast-food restaurants could be established in the borough.
The applicants fighting the by-law, including the Restaurants Canada industry association, McDonald's and other chains, contested its validity and argued the provisions were vague, but the Superior Court disagreed. The legislation initiated by then Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand and passed by the Russell Copeman administration allowed such restaurants in certain areas but not in others.
Montreal’s most populous borough wanted to limit the spread of fast-food restaurants on its territory, and the by-law was passed during a period when many discussions took place about the types of restaurants that could be acceptable, including pushes for nutrition information on restaurant menus and where restaurants could operate drive-throughs, all with table promoting healthier eating and reducing reliance on cars.
The legislation, which included nine better-health directed elements, including provisions about bicycles and summer markets, defined fast food restaurants as those with no table service and using disposable utensils. It did not address the quality of food. Businesses offering no table service and whose packaging and utensils are mostly disposable can only open in Plaza Côte des Neiges, on Décarie between Queen Mary and Vézina, and on St. Jacques from West Broadway to Benny. Existing businesses were unaffected.
As reported in The Suburban in 2016, the borough stated clearly that it was in a legal position to do so. The urban planning director at the time, Sylvia-Anne Duplantie, said the bylaw was carefully worded to define the types of prohibited businesses. “We don't necessarily talk of nutritional value of food but plates and utensils: it's a new way of defining restaurants.”
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and held that the provisions in issue constituted a zoning operation because there were significant differences between a fast-food restaurant and other types of restaurants and that the city did not have to show that fast-food restaurants and other types of restaurants had, from a practical standpoint, a different impact on the use and occupation of land.
CDN/NDG can decide where new fast-food restos go - The Suburban Newspaper
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CDN/NDG can decide where new fast-food restos set up - The Suburban Newspaper
Canada’s Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of a Quebec Superior Court ruling that said the city can ban certain types of restaurants from parts of its territory.
In 2015, Côte des Neiges–Notre Dame de Grâce council passed a by-law that provided for zoning changes to limit the zones where new fast-food restaurants could be established in the borough.
The applicants fighting the by-law, including the Restaurants Canada industry association, McDonald's and other chains, contested its validity and argued the provisions were vague, but the Superior Court disagreed. The legislation initiated by then Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand and passed by the Russell Copeman administration allowed such restaurants in certain areas but not in others.
Montreal’s most populous borough wanted to limit the spread of fast-food restaurants on its territory, and the by-law was passed during a period when many discussions took place about the types of restaurants that could be acceptable, including pushes for nutrition information on restaurant menus and where restaurants could operate drive-throughs, all with table promoting healthier eating and reducing reliance on cars.
The legislation, which included nine better-health directed elements, including provisions about bicycles and summer markets, defined fast food restaurants as those with no table service and using disposable utensils. It did not address the quality of food. Businesses offering no table service and whose packaging and utensils are mostly disposable can only open in Plaza Côte des Neiges, on Décarie between Queen Mary and Vézina, and on St. Jacques from West Broadway to Benny. Existing businesses were unaffected.
As reported in The Suburban in 2016, the borough stated clearly that it was in a legal position to do so. The urban planning director at the time, Sylvia-Anne Duplantie, said the bylaw was carefully worded to define the types of prohibited businesses. “We don't necessarily talk of nutritional value of food but plates and utensils: it's a new way of defining restaurants.”
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and held that the provisions in issue constituted a zoning operation because there were significant differences between a fast-food restaurant and other types of restaurants and that the city did not have to show that fast-food restaurants and other types of restaurants had, from a practical standpoint, a different impact on the use and occupation of land.
CDN/NDG can decide where new fast-food restos set up - The Suburban Newspaper
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Saturday, March 26, 2022
Fast-moving Colorado wildfire forces 19,000 people from their homes - CBC News
Authorities ordered 19,000 people from their homes on Saturday due to a fast-moving Colorado wildfire in rolling hills south of the college town of Boulder, not far from the site of a destructive 2021 blaze that levelled more than 1,000 homes.
The wildfire had grown to 50 hectares by late afternoon with no containment, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. Evacuation orders covered 8,000 homes.
Protected wildland was burning near the Table Mesa neighborhood and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), police said on Twitter. Authorities have called it the NCAR fire.
We are working on multiple notifications to the community right now but if you’re in either of these shaded areas please EVACUATE NOW. We will continue to share info as the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NCARfire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NCARfire</a> evolves. Also working to find a secure media staging area. Will tweet when found <a href="https://t.co/xtvFgLgylm">pic.twitter.com/xtvFgLgylm</a>
—@boulderpolice
The fire is in an area where a blaze destroyed 1,000 homes last year in unincorporated Boulder County and suburban Superior and Louisville.
Superior town officials told residents in an email that there were no immediate concerns for the community.
The fire was moving south-southeast toward Eldorado Springs, the Boulder County Sheriff's office said. The Boulder Fire Department was fighting the blaze.
Eldorado Canyon State Park has been closed and authorities have ordered people who are hiking or climbing in the area to leave. University of Colorado Boulder Police are evacuating the south campus and police blocked westbound traffic on roads near the blaze.
The fire started around 2 p.m. MT Saturday, said Boulder Fire-Rescue spokesperson Marya Washburn. An Emergency Operations Center was activated, Boulder police said. Emergency alerts have been sent to cellphones within a 0.4 kilometre radius of the research centre.
We will livestream our next press/community update around 7pm Mountain time via <a href="https://twitter.com/bouldercolorado?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bouldercolorado</a> YouTube account and we will tweet the link here. The fire is currently at 126 acres with zero containment <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NCARFire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NCARFire</a> <a href="https://t.co/csRD4eUHZN">pic.twitter.com/csRD4eUHZN</a>
—@boulderpolice
"Message is to EVACUATE area due to fast moving wildfire #boulder," police said.
There was no immediate information on the cause of the blaze.
The skies are clear and the temperature was about 23 C with wind at about 40 km/h.
Fast-moving Colorado wildfire forces 19,000 people from their homes - CBC News
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Why Your Startup Should Hire Slow, Fire Fast - Grit Daily
The labor market has never been stagnant. But right now, it’s more fluid than ever. Last November, a stunning 4.5 million people chose to leave their jobs. Newscasters dubbed it The Great Resignation. Thanks to the pandemic, workers have needed to reflect seriously on their priorities and what those meant for their work life balance. Whether it’s more remote work or higher pay, workers across the nation have left a lot of vacancies in their wake.
Now, it’s time for businesses to do some of their own reflection. Sudden vacancies may force a company to fill the position quickly, but what happens when the new hire isn’t right for their job? Nearly 75% of employers say they’ve chosen the wrong candidate for hire before. When a company makes a hiring mistake, termination is how they correct it. Situations like these are foundational for the mantra “hire slow, fire fast.”
But what does it mean to practice hire slow, fire fast at your own company? It might be easier to clarify what it doesn’t mean. Hiring slow doesn’t mean businesses wait for the perfect hire to drop into their lap. As long as a candidate meets the criteria, they can likely be trained for excellence in their role. Part of hiring slow is taking the time to consider each option. Don’t hire an individual just because they were early to apply.
Also remember: selective hiring is a luxury not every business has. Before your company can set overly exacting standards for job listings, they need to be a place where people want to work. Businesses have a brand independent of their product or service: their reputation among workers. As discussed above, employees are becoming more selective about the places they choose to work in recent months.
Why Firing Fast Works
On the other side of the spectrum, fire fast is not the same as firing employees on a whim. New hires often need training or guidance before they can succeed in their role. The real issue your company should be thinking about is fit. If an employee is a bad fit, they won’t be happy staying. Whatever team they work with could suffer for their presence. Think about long term benefits over immediate needs. Firing doesn’t have to be extreme. If you think of it as the path towards fixing a hiring mistake, it can be easier to approach directly. Approach fired employees with compassion and work to aid in their transition. The unpleasantness of firing is unavoidable, but there are ways to soften the blow.
In Conclusion
The best part about hiring slowly is that if it’s done properly, firing fast doesn’t need to happen. The hiring process doesn’t start with candidates. It starts with the company reevaluating their needs and expectations. When a vacancy opens, your company should carefully consider its business goals while drafting the new job description. Listings should include skills and attributes necessary for long term success. Finally, don’t forget to factor team dynamics into candidate considerations: team fit is critical.
Brian Wallace is a Columnist at Grit Daily. He is an entrepreneur, writer, and podcast host. He is the Founder and President of NowSourcing and has been featured in Forbes, TIME, and The New York Times. Brian previously wrote for Mashable and currently writes for Hacker Noon, CMSWire, Business 2 Community, and more. His Next Action podcast features entrepreneurs trying to get to the next level. Brian also hosts #LinkedInLocal events all over the country, promoting the use of LinkedIn among professionals wanting to grow their careers.
Read moreWhy Your Startup Should Hire Slow, Fire Fast - Grit Daily
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Friday, March 25, 2022
Land fast-tracked for residential builds in HRM could add more than 22,000 units - CBC.ca
The Nova Scotia government is fast-tracking nine major residential construction projects in the Halifax Regional Municipality, a move the province's housing minister said Friday will help address the "particularly severe" shortage of available units in the area.
John Lohr said the designation of nine areas located throughout the municipality will create as many as 22,600 new residential units. The projects were put forward by a panel made up of municipal and provincial officials charged with speeding up housing development in the capital region.
"These nine special planning areas could offer a significant number of new homes for people in the region, and save months, even years, in approval time," Lohr said in a news release. "I want to thank the municipality for its support and collaboration as we work on solutions."
The designation allows Lohr to assume authority for development approvals in the nine areas as outlined in the Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipal Act. The law, passed last fall, was originally criticized by Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, who said he was concerned the province would undo years of planning work by the municipality.
Mayor says public participation remains a concern
Savage, who attended Friday's announcement, said he was pleased overall with the panel's work.
"This wasn't a process that we welcomed and we still have concerns about public participation, but what we've seen is good faith from the provincial government, good faith from the panel to recognize and support those plans we have in place," Savage told reporters.
"The work of this panel, led by [former Liberal housing minister] Geoff MacLellan has indeed been collegial, focused, and I think productive."
Lohr acknowledged in the release that while housing is a challenge across the province, the shortage in the Halifax area is especially acute.
"We need to act now to address it," he said.
According to the provincial government, the housing deficit in the Halifax region is estimated at 17,000 units and growing.
The nine planning areas include:
Savage said all the projects were at some stage of the approval process or were slated to be brought before council.
1 project rejected by community council
In fact, the North West Community Council recently rejected the plan by Armco Capital Inc. for the Indigo Shores project.
Lisa Blackburn, the councillor for Middle Sackville, said the decision was based on the fact local schools in the area are already beyond capacity.
"The decision that the community council made was based largely on the overcrowding at the Millwood family of schools, in particular the elementary school, Sackville Heights Elementary," said Blackburn.
She said the school has six portable units and has lost common rooms, including the cafeteria and music room, to create classroom space.
The councillor for Bedford-Wentworth, Tim Outhit, also expressed concern about the province taking over the approval process for these projects.
"What we don't want to do is just build for the sake of building," said Outhit. "We want good development. We want complete communities.
"Complete communities come with recreation, transit, transportation improvements, a plan for schools, green space, and they come with well-designed neighbourhoods."
$2.3M to study key development questions
The Nova Scotia government is offering the municipality $2.3 million to fund studies to that effect.
Savage said the money will be put toward answering key development questions surrounding transportation, recreation, the need for schools, and the protection of biodiversity, lakes and wildlife.
"We want to have complete communities for people to live so they don't have to jump in a car and drive into the city to get what they need," said Savage.
Concerns about affordability
NDP Leader Gary Burrill said he was disappointed with the announcement because of a lack of commitment to affordable housing units.
"When you've got a project in the middle of an affordable housing crisis for over 20,000 units, and the total that are guaranteed for affordability is none and something that might happen, that's not good enough," said Burrill.
"That doesn't address the real situation, the real composition of the crisis that we're in."
The Ecology Action Centre's sustainable cities co-ordinator echoed those concerns.
"As far as I understand it, there's nothing in the legislation or the task force ... to say that they're required to respond to the range of housing needs across the housing spectrum," Kortney Dunsby said in an interview Friday.
"It's very clear in Halifax that we need all types of housing."
Dunsby said she thinks the province is operating under the assumption that more units will bring the overall cost of housing down. But she said "it's important that all of the future developments have this lens of affordability .... so that we're building for exactly the needs of our community."
Like Savage, she raised concerns about public participation. Dunsby said she's worried about developments being approved without additional input from the public.
In particular, she raised concerns regarding development around Sandy Lake, one of the municipality's last remaining wilderness areas.
"It's an incredibly valuable ecosystem, not just for humans, but also wilderness as a wilderness corridor," Dunsby said
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Land fast-tracked for residential builds in HRM could add more than 22,000 units - CBC.ca
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Dangerous chemicals found in food wrappers at major fast-food restaurants and grocery chains, report says - CTV News
Alarming levels of dangerous chemicals known as PFAS were discovered in food packaging at a number of well-known fast-food and fast-casual restaurants and grocery store chains, a new report found.
The highest levels of indicators for PFAS were found in food packaging from Nathan's Famous, Cava, Arby's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Stop & Shop and Sweetgreen, according to an investigation released Thursday by Consumer Reports.
Often called "forever chemicals" because they do not break down in the environment, PFAS are used in food packaging to prevent grease and water from soaking through food wrappers and beverage cups. PFAS can also be found in the ink used to print logos and instructions on food containers.
The new report comes more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, when the public has relied heavily on takeout and grocery deliveries.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls exposure to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) a "public health concern," citing studies that found the human-made chemicals can harm the immune system and reduce a person's resistance to infectious diseases.
"There is evidence from human and animal studies that PFAS exposure may reduce antibody responses to vaccines," stated the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. "More research is needed to understand how PFAS exposure may affect illness from COVID-19."
MORE THAN 100 FOOD PRODUCTS TESTED
The Consumer Reports investigation collected 118 food packaging products sold by 24 companies in the tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It tested those products for organic fluorine -- a marker for PFAS. Researchers then sent samples of products with the highest levels to an independent laboratory that could perform more specific tests, said Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist for advocacy at Consumer Reports.
Regulatory limits for how much PFAS food packaging should contain can vary greatly. In the U.S., there are no federal limits, leaving action up to the states. Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington have passed bills banning intentional use of PFAS in food packaging, but haven't yet specified a limit, according to Consumer Reports. In January 2023, a new law in California will set the limit at less than 100 ppm (parts per million).
However, Denmark set a much lower regulatory limit of 20 ppm with great success, said Xenia Trier, a chemicals, environment and human health expert at the European Environment Agency.
"In Denmark we've seen both a decrease in noncompliance by industry from 60% to about 30% and a decrease in levels of PFAS in packaging products over the past 10 years," Trier told CNN. "It does work to set limits and enforce them. It is possible to find alternative solutions and if one manufacturer can make packaging without PFAS, then it should be possible for everybody to do it."
The Consumer Reports investigation found the highest indicators for PFAS -- 876 ppm and 618 ppm -- in two types of bags for sides at Nathan's Famous restaurants.
High indicators of PFAS (in the 500s) were also found in a Chick-fil-A sandwich wrapper and in fibre bowls at Cava, a Mediterranean restaurant chain.
Indicator levels in the 300s and 400s were found in a bag of cookies at Arby's, bamboo paper plates at Stop & Shop, and in a bag for both cookies and French toast sticks at Burger King.
Levels of PFAS indicators in the 200s were found in a Sweetgreen paper bag for focaccia, additional items at Cava, and in bags for french fries, cookies and Chicken McNuggets at McDonald's.
However, all of the companies listed had additional food packaging that tested at levels below 200 ppm. Four companies -- Arby's, Nathan's Famous, McDonald's and Stop & Shop -- also sold food in packaging that had no detectable levels of PFAS, the report said.
The Consumer Reports investigation did not test packaging from every food product sold at each company.
"I would not urge consumers to take these brand names and only go to this one or that one, as this investigation only looked at just over 100 products," said Graham Peaslee, a professor of physics, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
"However, this will hold industry's toes to the fire, so in that sense, I think it's a valuable report," he added. "Measuring and saying PFAS is there and it's dangerous gets people's attention, and companies tend to avoid attention like that."
HEALTH IMPACT OF PFAS
PFAS chemicals are in many products: nonstick cookware, infection-resistant surgical gowns and drapes, cell phones, semiconductors, commercial aircraft and low-emission vehicles. The chemicals also are used to make carpeting, clothing, and furniture resistant to stains, water and grease damage.
In use since the 1950s, PFAS are chemicals most Americans have "in their blood," especially perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)," according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is charged with protecting the public from hazardous substances.
In the Consumer Reports investigation, the most common chemical found in the food packaging that was tested was PFOA, with PFOS coming in fifth, according to the report.
In addition to impacts on the immune system, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said studies in humans and lab animals have found links between certain PFAS chemicals and an increase in cholesterol levels, alterations in liver enzymes, a higher risk of developing kidney or testicular cancer, small reductions in infant birth weights and an additional risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women.
"PFAS have also caused birth defects, delayed development, and newborn deaths in lab animals," the agency stated, while adding "not all effects observed in animals may occur in humans."
As environmental groups and the public began to take notice of the health impacts of the chemicals, manufacturers started to voluntarily phase out the use of PFOS and PFOA in the U.S. Between 1999 and 2014, blood levels of PFOS in Americans had declined by more than 80% and blood levels of PFOA had declined by more than 60%, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry stated.
However, "as PFOS and PFOA are phased out and replaced, people may be exposed to other PFAS," the agency continued. Newer versions of PFAS in food packaging appear to be absorbed by food more readily than the older versions, according to a 2016 study.
Studies in Denmark have shown that PFAS do "migrate from the paper into the food," Trier said. "Even though it was not 100%, we still saw substantial transmission. In general, transmission from packaging to food is increased as the temperature of the food rises and the time spent in wrapping materials increases."
INDUSTRY RESPONSE
The Consumer Reports investigation mirrored results of reports in 2018 and 2020 by Toxic-Free Future and Safer Chemicals Healthy Families. Those reports found "harmful" levels of PFAS in fast-food packaging and in nearly two-thirds of takeout containers made of paper, like those used at self-serve salad buffets and hot bars.
In response to the 2018 report, Whole Foods became the first grocery chain in North America to publicly commit to remove PFAS from takeout containers and deli and bakery paper. Other companies have followed suit, including Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Amazon.com, Cava, Chipotle, Freshii, McDonald's, Panera Bread, Sweetgreen, Trader Joe's and Wendy's, according to Toxic-Free Future.
In the new investigation, Consumer Reports tested 13 food packaging products from retailers that had previously committed to phasing out PFAS. Seven of the 13 had levels of PFAS above 20 ppm, the report said.
Burger King, which had high levels of PFAS in three of six products tested, had not made a public commitment to phase out PFAS, according to Consumer Reports. Early Thursday, parent company Restaurant Brands International announced it will globally phase out any "added" PFAS from "guest-facing packaging materials" at the Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes brands "by the end of 2025 or sooner."
Nathan's Famous, which Consumer Reports said also has not made a public commitment to reducing PFAS, told CNN the company had begun phasing out the bags. "One of our goals in this complete package redesign is to reduce PFAS," said Phil McCann, vice president of marketing at Nathan's Famous. "Full transition will be complete by December 2022."
Chick-fil-A told CNN it had been on a four-year journey to phase out PFAS: "Chick-fil-A has eliminated intentionally added PFAS from all newly produced packaging going forward in our supply chain. While some legacy packaging may still be in restaurants, it is expected to be phased out by the end of this summer," the company tweeted Wednesday.
Cava, which had previously pledged to reduce PFAS but had five out of six products with indicators between 200 ppm and 548 ppm, told CNN that "due to a multitude of factors related to the pandemic, and especially global supply chain shortages, the transition to eliminating added PFAS, which began in August of 2021, is taking longer than planned. Our teams are working with our suppliers to complete the transition within the year."
A McDonald's spokesperson said less than 7.5% of the company's global food packaging contained added PFAS at the end of 2020 and said the company was continuing its search for alternative materials that offered proper grease-resistant barriers, with a goal of reducing deliberately added PFAS by the end of 2025.
Sweetgreen told CNN the company was "proud to share that we are currently in the process of rolling out new PFAS-free focaccia bags that will be available in all Sweetgreen locations by the end of Q2."
Jennifer Brogan, director of external communications and community relations for Stop & Shop, told CNN the company could "confirm that these Nature's Promise brand plates have been removed from all store locations."
A spokesperson from Arby's told CNN in an email that the company has "minimal packaging materials containing PFAs and is on track to have PFAs removed from all packaging products by the end of 2022."
ACTIONS THE PUBLIC CAN TAKE
Experts say people who want to avoid PFAS in their takeout and food delivery packaging should favour companies that have pledged to remove the chemicals.
Take food out of the container as soon as you receive it, and never reheat food in its original container. Instead, remove your food and heat it in ceramic or glass containers, Trier said.
The Consumer Reports investigation found some of the highest levels of PFAS were in paper bags (192.2 ppm) and molded fibre bowls and trays (156.8 ppm). Paper plates tested at 149 ppm, and food wrappers and liners came in at 59.2 ppm.
Don't be fooled by "environmentally friendly" claims -- they don't guarantee a product is PFAS-free. When Consumer Reports tested those products, some had levels of PFAS above 100 ppm, and most had some detectable levels, the report said.
Experts also suggest reducing the frequency of takeout meals to once a week or less, and recommend that people instead make food at home.
You can also reach out to your congressional representative and senators and support the bipartisan bill Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act, experts said. Designed to ban the use of any PFAS as a food contact substance, the bill was introduced into both chambers in November.
Dangerous chemicals found in food wrappers at major fast-food restaurants and grocery chains, report says - CTV News
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