The Right Chemistry: Toilet paper and its predecessors – Montreal Gazette

Posted on by

One of the first signs of impending doom presented by the appearance of COVID-19 was the disappearance of toilet paper from store shelves. People panicked at the possibility of their bottoms being assaulted by rough paper ripped from paper bags or magazines. Actually, there was never any need to be so spooked, because even during the lockdown, paper producers were deemed to be an essential service and toilet paper was being rolled out at a normal rate. The perceived shortage did have an effect, though. It focused the spotlight on this commodity as well as on the various methods to which people historically resorted in pursuit of eliminating remnants of natures call.

In ancient times, the handiest solution was, well, the hand. Usually the left. Thats why in some cultures, eating, or even just touching someone with the left hand, is still regarded as a sinister practice. The ancient Greeks used stones, while the Romans favoured a xylesphongium, a natural sponge on a stick inserted through a vertical opening on the front of a stone toilet seat. There was no need to stand up to finish the job. Interestingly, a modern incarnation of this device is available for overweight people, but instead of a sponge, the gadget holds a piece of toilet paper.

Read the original here:
The Right Chemistry: Toilet paper and its predecessors - Montreal Gazette

The Relationship is Over. The Chemistry is Gone: Former Teammate Urges Sebastian Vettel to De-Maranello His Mind – Essentially Sports

Posted on by

For Sebastian Vettel, the season opener didnt quite go the way he would have hoped for. In fact, far from it, it was a debacle. The 4-times world champion had a poor qualifying and started the race in P11.

However, if he was hoping for a much-improved performance in the race, that hope was sent flying out of the window, after he spun trying to get past Carlos Sainz on the inside.

All in all, it was a very tough day in the office for the German. He only managed a solitary point, finishing P10, thanks to several drivers retiring ahead of him.

Mark Webber, Vettels former teammate at Red Bull, took pity on him and has suggested that the relationship between Vettel and Ferrari is no more.

The former Red Bull driver Mark Webber appeared on the podcast, In The Fast Lane, and said, The relationship is over. The chemistry is gone, the marriage is over.

Sebastian is dressed in red, hes driving a red car but hes there for himself. In some scenarios, you wish it could be over now because thats pretty much how its looking.

Webber also feels that the way Vettel was told about his future with Ferrari, was an indication that the relationship between him and the team was already cold.

He said, I think it surprised most of us. Sebastian probably the most, of news that there was no contract offer. Clearly, that relationship, or the dynamic of how that was going, wasnt healthy and they thought it was best not to continue.

However, Webber doesnt think that the Germans F1 days are done as of yet. He said, I dont think its over yet. I think he still has a chance to get something in 22. Who knows, maybe 21 at Red Bull?

I think he needs to reinvent himself and de-Maranello his mind, in terms of trying to get that energy back. I think hes still going to be on the grid in the future, whether its 22 or 21. Hes still got a bit left in him.

Nevertheless, at the moment, Vettel will not be thinking too much about what the future has in store for him. Instead, hell be looking forward to the next Grand Prix, in the hope of some redemption.

Follow this link:
The Relationship is Over. The Chemistry is Gone: Former Teammate Urges Sebastian Vettel to De-Maranello His Mind - Essentially Sports

Will the New Orleans Pelicans off-court chemistry matter more in closed campus? – Pelican Debrief

Posted on by

Brandon Ingram #14 of the New Orleans Pelicans (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Its July, and that means a return to New Orleans Pelicans basketball! But its not the typical July basketball we are used to. Normally July means we are checking out the newest draft picks during summer league games in Las Vegas.

Who could forget our first look at Zion Williamson taking the court in a Pelicans uniform a year ago?

But this year is different in every way, including the NBA season.So what will the new version of the NBA look like in Orlando? Well find out soon enough.

All-Star Forward Brandon Ingram spoke to the media earlier this week about motivating each other and feeding off of each other during the games.

We have to use our own juice, our own energyjust like going back to open gym where were just trying to go at each other and trying to make the best out of each other, but trying to do it in the right way, Ingram told reporters. I think this is a time where we have to feed off of other people on the team and feed off the fire of the bench.

But the team doesnt just need to rely on each other when dealing with actual game play. The bubble format will also test their mental capabilities, as Jrue Holiday said in an interview with the AP.

This is one of the mental parts about it that guys have to adjust to, where someone like me, I go home and its where I kind of relax, Holiday said. I try my best not to bring my work home with me so I can hang out with my wife, my dog, and my daughter and I can do things like that. I think thats going to be a little bit of a challenge, especially after like seven to 10 days.

The Pelicans arrived in Orlando this week and will get rolling with their full-squad practices before three scrimmage games. The first game of the revamped season is July 30 against the Utah Jazz at 5:30 pm NOLA time, which you can see on TNT.

Read more:
Will the New Orleans Pelicans off-court chemistry matter more in closed campus? - Pelican Debrief

New PFAS Chemical Contamination Discovered in New Jersey – The Intercept

Posted on by

Government scientists suspected that the factory was releasing a dangerous PFAS chemical, and they had good reason to think so. The company operating it had knowingly released another PFAS chemical from this site before and the first toxic industrial compound, which persists indefinitely in nature, had contaminated local drinking water and accumulated in the bodies of the people who drank it. The company phased out that first problem chemical as part of an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency and began using another in its place.

The challenge was to identify the new compound. Because the company didnt reveal the chemistry of the replacement in fact had kept its details purposefully obscured on the grounds that it was confidential business information the scientists had to resort to expensive, painstaking detective work to figure out what chemical the company was now using and whether they were releasing it into the environment.

By collecting samples near the factory, then analyzing and reverse engineering the molecules in them, the scientists were able to deduce that the company had replaced one compound from the family of manmade, industrial chemicals with another. Based on complex mapping, they showed that the new compound, like the old one, was spreading far beyond the factory and was contaminating the area even as the scientists were doing their taxpayer-funded sleuthing.

If you feel like you have read this story before, it may be because this precise series of events led to the 2015 discovery that DuPont had replaced its toxic and environmentally persistent chemical PFOA with GenX, which came to light only after EPA scientists spent years sampling the water of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina near what was then a DuPont factory, analyzing the samples, and reverse engineering the chemicals they found downstream from the factory.

This time, after yet another game of scientific cat-and-mouse, researchers from theEPA and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have discovered another instance in which a company hasreleased a potentially dangerous little-known PFAS replacement compound. According to an article being published tomorrow in Science, eight variations of a recently identified group of PFAS compounds were found in soil in New Jersey,with their concentrations decreasing along with their distancefrom a Solvay plant in West Deptford, New Jersey, that makes fluorochemicals. According to the article, the pattern is consistent with Solvay being the source of these compounds. Perhaps most disturbing, the chemicals apparently travel with the wind and were found throughout the state. The smallest of the molecules, which is thought to be most easily transported, was detected in a soil sample from Merrimack, New Hampshire some 280 miles away.

As The Intercept previously reported,Solvay Specialty Polymers, a division of a Belgian chemical company, used the recently identified chemicals known only as Solvays compound as a replacement for the compound PFNA, which is a close relative of PFOA. (PFNA is based on a slightly longer chain of carbon atoms.) Solvay used PFNA to make specialty plastic for semiconductors and lithium batteries in its West Deptford plant as far back as 1990. The company phased out the use of the chemical in 2010 as part of an agreement with the EPA that restricted the production of PFAS compounds based on relatively long chains of carbon, but not before PFNA had spread into the environment near the Solvay plant. According to a 2015 report, more than 100 water samples around the factory contained PFNA, and 83 wells around the site were contaminated with both PFNA and PFOA. Elevated levels of PFNA were found in people living near the plant, with one persons blood level reaching 63 times the national average, according to a document Solvay submitted to the EPA in 2015. The chemical also accumulated in the blood of the companys workers, according to a report filed with the EPA in 2004.

Solvay declined to respond to questions from The Intercept about the findings described in the Science article.

In the case of GenX, there was ample evidence that the replacement chemical posed a serious threat to human health. DuPont had done animal experiments that showed GenX caused many of the same health problems that PFOA does, including cancer. Although the company sent summaries ofthe animal experimentsto the EPA, the agency had quietly filed them away and allowed the chemical to be used despite the clear red flags they raised. The companies letters alerting the EPA to the hazards posed by the chemicalremained out of the public eye until The Intercept published them in 2016. Since then, its become clear that some 250,000 people in North Carolina were exposed to GenX and a number of other PFAS through their drinking water. Research is now underway to understand how those chemicals affected the health of the people who drank them for decades.

In the case of the newly discovered replacements for PFNA, there is very little publicly available research on the health threats they pose. A search for a number associated with the chemical on the EPAs computerized database of chemicals turns up no records, which may indicate that it is listed on the portion of the governments inventory of chemicals that is shielded by companies claims of confidentiality. Solvay did not respond to a question about whether its replacement chemicals were listed in the confidential inventory or whether the company had conducted tests of its toxicity.

According to a companion commentary that is also being published in Science tomorrow, California regulators studied the sub-class of PFAS to which the new replacements belong and issued a warning last year that they also persist in the environment and may have similar or higher toxic potency than the longer-chain [PFAS chemicals] they are replacing.

The European Chemicals Agency has a little bit more information, linking the PFNA replacement five hazards, being fatal if swallowed, fatal in contact with skin, causing liver damage through prolonged or repeated exposure and being toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects. But 12 other categories in its assessment were marked as data lacking.

Unfortunately, as with GenX in North Carolina, the definitive answers to questions about the dangers of these chemicals will likely be found in the people who were unwittingly exposed to them for years. In the case of Solvays replacements, residents of West Deptford and other places near the plant are likely to be the most affected. A study is already underway in West Deptford and Paulsboro, a small, high-poverty community 2 miles from the Solvay plant, to determine how ingesting PFNA, which has been shown to harm pregnant mice and their developing offspring in lab experiments, has affected residents. The peoplethere have been concerned about the health consequences of that chemical since learning about it in 2013.

And now theyre having to face another toxic compound that was supposed to be a safe replacement for the original which raises the specter of even more health problems, said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, who helped bring the PFNA contamination to light in this community. Its totally unjust. The people living near Solvay are being treated as guinea pigs again.

View post:
New PFAS Chemical Contamination Discovered in New Jersey - The Intercept

The Right Chemistry: Charlie Chaplin, Dr. Tuttle and the Spanish flu – Montreal Gazette

Posted on by

Avoid public gatherings. Close churches and theatres. Dont shake hands. Dont spit. Wear masks. Sounds like Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2020. But those words were spoken by Dr. Thomas Tuttle in 1918 when the Spanish flu, which did not originate in Spain, was sweeping across the globe. Countries involved in the First World War censored stories about the flu so as not to create even more panic than that sparked by the war. Spain was neutral and newspapers published extensively about the flu in that country, forever linking the disease with Spain.

Tuttle was a specialist in infectious diseases and had been appointed health commissioner in the state of Washington. Although viruses had not yet been discovered, he was convinced the disease was spread through human contact, particularly by the coughs and sneezes of people who had been infected. He even raised the prospect of individuals transmitting the disease without being sick themselves, a situation now termed asymptomatic transmission.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Link:
The Right Chemistry: Charlie Chaplin, Dr. Tuttle and the Spanish flu - Montreal Gazette

The Global Specialty Chemical Market is expected to grow from USD 201,847.32 Million in 2018 to USD 284,313.32 Million by the end of 2025 at a…

Posted on by

NEW YORK, April 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Specialty Chemical Market is expected to grow from USD 201,847.32 Million in 2018 to USD 284,313.32 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.01%.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871478/?utm_source=PRN

The positioning of the Global Specialty Chemical Market vendors in FPNV Positioning Matrix are determined by Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) and placed into four quadrants (F: Forefront, P: Pathfinders, N: Niche, and V: Vital).

The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Specialty Chemical Market including are Akzonobel N.V., Albemarle Corporation, Ashland Inc., BASF SE, Chemtura Corporation, Bayer AG, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, Clariant AG, Cytec Industries Inc., Evonik Industries AG, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Ferro Corporation, Henkel AG & Co. KGAA, Huntsman Corporation, Novozymes, PPG Industries, Solvay SA, and The DOW Chemical Company.

On the basis of Type, the Global Specialty Chemical Market is studied across Adhesives, Advanced Ceramic Materials, Construction Chemicals, Electronic Chemicals, Food Additives, Pesticides, Plastic Additives, Printing Inks, Rubber Processing Chemicals, Specialty Mining Chemicals, Specialty Oilfields Chemicals, Specialty Paper Chemicals, Specialty Polymers, Textile Chemicals, and Water Treatment Chemicals.

On the basis of Function, the Global Specialty Chemical Market is studied across Antioxidants, Biocides, Catalysts, Demulsifier, Separation Membranes, Specialty Coatings, Specialty Enzymes, Specialty Pigments, and Surfactant.

For the detailed coverage of the study, the market has been geographically divided into the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The report provides details of qualitative and quantitative insights about the major countries in the region and taps the major regional developments in detail.

In the report, we have covered two proprietary models, the FPNV Positioning Matrix and Competitive Strategic Window. The FPNV Positioning Matrix analyses the competitive market place for the players in terms of product satisfaction and business strategy they adopt to sustain in the market. The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisitions strategies, geography expansion, research & development, new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.

Research Methodology:Our market forecasting is based on a market model derived from market connectivity, dynamics, and identified influential factors around which assumptions about the market are made. These assumptions are enlightened by fact-bases, put by primary and secondary research instruments, regressive analysis and an extensive connect with industry people. Market forecasting derived from in-depth understanding attained from future market spending patterns provides quantified insight to support your decision-making process. The interview is recorded, and the information gathered in put on the drawing board with the information collected through secondary research.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on sulfuric acid offered by the key players in the Global Specialty Chemical Market 2. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments in the Global Specialty Chemical Market 3. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets for the Global Specialty Chemical Market 4. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new products launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the Global Specialty Chemical Market 5. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players in the Global Specialty Chemical Market

The report answers questions such as:1. What is the market size of Specialty Chemical market in the Global?2. What are the factors that affect the growth in the Global Specialty Chemical Market over the forecast period?3. What is the competitive position in the Global Specialty Chemical Market?4. Which are the best product areas to be invested in over the forecast period in the Global Specialty Chemical Market?5. What are the opportunities in the Global Specialty Chemical Market?6. What are the modes of entering the Global Specialty Chemical Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05871478/?utm_source=PRN

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

__________________________ Contact Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-global-specialty-chemical-market-is-expected-to-grow-from-usd-201-847-32-million-in-2018-to-usd-284-313-32-million-by-the-end-of-2025-at-a-compound-annual-growth-rate-cagr-of-5-01-301049505.html

SOURCE Reportlinker

More:
The Global Specialty Chemical Market is expected to grow from USD 201,847.32 Million in 2018 to USD 284,313.32 Million by the end of 2025 at a...

‘Married at First Sight’: Jamie Otis Jokes About Her Lack of Chemistry With Doug Hehner On Their Wedding Day – Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Posted on by

Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner have been married for over six years after tying the knot in New York on the first season of Lifetimes Married at First Sight.

While Doug and Jamie are now proud parents to their youngdaughter, Henley, and a newborn son, Hendrix, things havent always been soeasy for them. In addition to financial troubles over the years, theyve gonethrough two miscarriages on their way to parenthood.

And their wedded bliss wasnt always so, well, blissful. In fact, Jamie famously broke down on her wedding day with Doug, admitting that she wasnt attracted to him at all. The Married at First Sight star recently took to Instagram to joke about her lack of chemistry with Doug at firstand reflect on how far theyd come since then.

When Doug and Jamie first walked down the aisle, Doug was blown away by his brides beauty. But his wife didnt feel the same way.

This is the worst feeling, a shaken-looking Jamie toldLifetime producers on her wedding day. Obviously, I wasnt like, what aknockout! I just happen to be not attracted to the guy.

After the ceremony, Jamie seemed to fall apart before herbridesmaids convinced her to keep going and keep her head held high. Icouldnt even try to be elegant and graceful anymore, the Married at First Sightstar admitted as she crumpled in the hallway in her wedding dress. I just founda corner and started crying.

Since then, Doug has admitted the footage hurt him. But he never took it too much to heart, and he slowly won Jamie over across time.

View this post on Instagram

WE HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! We changed our sons name. We filled out his birth certificate & have officially changed it from Hayes Douglas to Hendrix Douglas. We couldnt decide between Hayes and Hendrix our whole pregnancy. We ended up going with Hayes, but the moment I pushed him out & brought him to my chest I almost blurted out, Hendrix! My whole pregnancy we struggled finding the right name for our precious baby boy. We had @sj_strum whos a baby name expert from Europe come on our podcast and share some names and meanings she revealed to us that Hendrix is loosely tied to Johnathan. As many of you know, our first born sons name is Johnathan. I delivered him at 17 weeks & he went straight to heaven to be our little angel watching over us from above. I never used to believe in spirits really, but I know in my heart that Johnathan is with us I mean, I can *feel* him and he sends so many signs. This first photo was one of the last ones I had with Hendrix in my bellyit wasnt a professional shoot it was just taken in our backyard. You can see the light shining down from above directly over my belly. Then the second photo was on our baby moon. The day we woke up for our maternity shoot there was a double rainbow! we couldnt even believe it! Since I lost two pregnancies prior to conceiving Hendrix, he is considered a double rainbowand rainbows always remind me of Johnathan. The last sign was the day I was due with Hendrix. I had to go to the midwife for a check up and on the way home there was a random rain storm that had a rainbow! I was driving and couldnt snap a photo but I wish I had just pulled over to grab one! It was so incredible! I mean, what are the chances?! I could chalk it up as coincidence, but I really dont think so! Call me crazy, but I know our angel baby sent us this sweet rainbow baby. Hes telling his parents hes been watching over Hendrix (and Gracie) and will continue to do so. We are so happy to honor our angel baby & name our newborn son a name that is affiliated with his.even if it is in a very uncommon way.

A post shared by J a m i e O t i s (@jamienotis) on May 18, 2020 at 7:32pm PDT

RELATED: Married at First Sight: Which Couples and Former Cast Members Appeared On the Where Are They Now? Special? What Did They Reveal?

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Married at First Sight Stars Beth Bice and Jamie Thompson Open Up About Marriage, Quarantine, Starting a Family, and Filming Couples Cam

RELATED: Married at First Sight: Which 9 Couples Will Appear On Couples Cam?

Despite their initialtroubles, it seems like Doug and Jamie have a healthy sense of humor about howthey got their start.

Jamie and Doug are currently starring on the Married at First Sight spinoff, Married at First Sight: Couples Cam, a self-shot limited series that follows nine previous couples as they navigate quarantine and the coronavirus pandemic together. Lifetimes Instagram account recently celebrated the nine couples wedding days with photos of their first kisses at the altar.

Everyones first was as cute as we remembered, the caption read. Fan favorite, memorable coupleslike season 10s Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd, season 6s Shawniece Jackson and Jephte Pierre, and season 9s Elizabeth Bice and Jamie Thompsonall shared passionate kisses during their nuptials. But Jamie looked visibly uncomfortable in her first-kiss photo with Doug, in which she turned her cheek (possibly to avoid closer contact).

Jamie commented on the difference, joking: @doughehnerOur first kiss was not quite like theothers.

But Married at FirstSight fans quickly pointed out that their marriage and family werebeautiful, no matter how things started out. But look at you and Doug now,one viewer replied. Its the last first kiss though, another agreed.

One Instagram user argued, It doesnt matter where it started. You have a beautiful family now. Im really happy that everything worked out so well for you both.

On Doug and Jamies sixthwedding anniversary earlier in 2020, Jamie once again reflected on her initial lackof attraction to and chemistry with her husband. Although they had a rockystart, the mom of two appreciated how much theyd gone through together.

It was NOT love at first sight, the Married at First Sight star wrote on Instagram. I wasnt even attracted to my groom. There were no butterflies in my tummy AT ALL.

Jamie confessed that her lack of attraction led her to panic and made her wedding day miserable. I legit had a full blown panic attack, she admitted. The minute I could get away I hunched over in tears & tried hiding from everyoneI just lost it. I genuinely thought I made the WORST mistake of my life.

Still, the bride added, she wanted to keep an open mind and give love a chance. And over time, Doug proved himself to be the man of his wifes dreams.

We didnt fall in loveimmediately. That happened s.l.o.w.l.y, Jamie explained. He was SO patient,loving, and respectful though. Over the next few months we built a foundationof friendship, respect, & loyalty.

Jamie advised others in the same boat totry to allow love to grow and not focus so much on initial physical attraction.If youve been searching but havent found theone yetmy best advice is to keep your heart/mind open & try not to judgea book by its cover, she recommended.

The Married at FirstSight star gushed about her soulmate, calling him the love of her lifeonethat she could have missed out on, if shed focused too much on that initial lackof overwhelming attraction. If I had walked away bc I wasnt attracted Iwouldve missed out on the love of my life, Jamie wrote poignantly. Physicalattraction can grow & true love will come over time if its with the rightperson. Trust me on this one!

View original post here:
'Married at First Sight': Jamie Otis Jokes About Her Lack of Chemistry With Doug Hehner On Their Wedding Day - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

As floodwaters bear down on Dow Chemical, worries about water toxins – Bridge Michigan

Posted on by

A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said its too early to assess environmental damage.

Their brine pond is inundated with river water, but otherwise, were told, Dows protective measures are holding, the spokesman, Nick Assendelft, told Bridge in an email. Once we can safely get into the flooded area, we will evaluate the impacts.

Tom Zimnicki, water program director with the Michigan Environmental Council, said he worries about aging Michigan dams and infrastructure located close to an industrial facility.

The case in Midland is, unfortunately, a good example of what happens when critical infrastructure failures lead to a whole host of other human health and environmental issues, Zimnicki said.

The Tittabawassee River flows next to the Dow site, which began operating in 1897 and over the years has produced more than 1,000 organic and inorganic chemicals, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The company produces a host of chemical products, from agricultural grain preservatives and coatings used in construction and manufacturing processes, to airplane deicer fluids and silicone powders used in cosmetics.

Dioxins and furans, byproducts formed during the manufacture of chlorine-based products, may cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system and other health issues, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

A 2006 study by the University of Michigan found that people who lived in the Midland and Saginaw areas for the years from 1960 to 1979 were likely to have higher levels of dioxin chemicals in their blood compared to people who lived elsewhere. Researchers believe Dows past airborne emissions are to blame. Although the companys dioxin releases have dramatically declined since then, chemicals from past releases have settled into area soil and run off into the river sediment.

Dioxins take centuries to break down in the environment. They remain at elevated soil levels in the Tittabawassee floodplain and elsewhere in the Midland area and points downstream, as well as in the flesh of area fish, game and eggs from chickens raised in the floodplains. Because of the areas contamination, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services advises against eating certain types of fish from the river.

The Tittabawassee downriver from Dow is a federal Superfund site that stretches several miles downstream, but contamination extends to more than 50 miles downstream into the Saginaw Rivers and into Saginaw Bay, according to the EPA.

After a court showdown with environmentalists that began in 2003 and eventually involved what was then the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA, Dow agreed to clean up the river an effort that has stretched for 13 years and along an 18-mile stretch, Miller said.

Last November, Dow further agreed to a $77 million settlement that would fund environmental restoration projects to restore fish and wildlife habitats polluted by dioxins and other toxins and establish new recreation areas.

Ultimately, its unclear precisely what chemicals could be released into the flood waters, U-Ms Burton said. Dows announcement that its ponds had been flooded did not elaborate on the chemical contents of the ponds.

Burton said flood waters also could rupture storage tanks at the 1,900-acre site, releasing chemicals, contaminated sediments and soils downstream and into farmland, residential areas and recreational sites.

I've driven along [the river], and its just one cabin after another in some of the stretches, Burton said. It is very much a recreational waterway, despite being a superfund site.

Probably only Dow knows what's in those ponds. It is probably a wide mixture of compounds he said, noting that such details will have to be reported to federal and state regulators.Past flood events have caused discharges of untreated sewage from Dows facility and public water systems, according to local news reports.

The EPA, in an email to Bridge, said it will deploy personnel if requested by FEMA or the state, and it said it will work with Michigan EGLE to evaluate any chemical releases.

At this time, Dow has reported no chemical releases to the river, according to the email.

Health officials Wednesday warned area residents about the health risks of floodwaters, saying their wells could be contaminated with disease-carrying bacteria, in part, from overwhelmed sewage systems.

In Midland, which emergency officials had predicted could soon be under as much as nine feet of water, the water was still safe to drink from the municipal water system. Several township systems also remained stable, said Fred Yanoski, Midland County health officer.

But countless other residents around Midland pull water from wells that might soon be under flood waters. Those residents would need to have waters tested for bacterial contamination and be disinfected, Yanoski said.

Many live in flood plains and know the drill by now, but the unprecedented flooding will reach more wells never before breached, he said.

Public health officials also were assisting five emergency shelters, as well, where emergency personnel were trying to balance the needs of thousands of displaced residents with protocols for social distancing and personal protection equipment necessitated by the continued COVID-19 outbreak.

Health staff assisted at emergency shelters, where Red Cross and other staff and volunteers worked with displaced residents against a backdrop of COVID-19 concerns.

People are being screened, Yanoski said Its certainly not a perfect world, and its certainly very difficult Its a challenge, but people need a place to go.

Still heeding state shelter-in-place orders, staff of the Central Michigan District Health Department also fielded phone calls routed to their homes about drinking water concerns as flood waters spilled into Arranac and Gladwin counties, said Steve Hall, district health officer.

I'm not gonna lie to you, he said, when you're in the middle of a pandemic and now [counties] dealing with significant flooding, it is a challenge.

Read the original:
As floodwaters bear down on Dow Chemical, worries about water toxins - Bridge Michigan

Coronavirus trials need to be flexible | Opinion – Chemistry World

Posted on by

This is an important time for clinical trials. Researchers and hospitals are rushing to determine the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. At the same time, many trials on other medicines are being stopped, suspended, or transferred to remote systems (with medicines and monitoring equipment delivered at home combined with digital consultation).

And while we have begun to see (sometimes confusing) results from a gaggle of preliminary studies looking to evaluate existing or experimental drugs against Covid-19, the picture will only become clear with large scale, high powered efforts such as the Solidarity trial being coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

As Derek Lowe points out in his latest column, those trials will take time to reach a level of evidence sufficient to justify administering a vaccine to millions (or even billions) of people worldwide. But its not just the scale of the trials that presents challenges. The trials design needs careful planning to ensure that they dont overburden already-stretched healthcare systems.

While the WHOs Solidarity trial is rigorously testing four of the most promising treatment options, there is also an opportunity to establish trials that are specifically designed to respond to a rapidly evolving emergency such as Covid-19. That means trials that can adapt their protocols as new information and treatment options become available, without adversely affecting the integrity of the data.

On this front there are lessons to be learned from the past, including the recent Ebola outbreak. Adapting trials on-the-hoof makes it easier to wrongly conclude treatments are effective when they arent. And if a treatment does show definite effects, then there needs to be facility for it to be integrated into the baseline care of other patients, on ethical grounds alone. Some of these issues can be broached by adopting design based on Bayesian statistics, and statisticians at the US Food and Drug Administration (among many others) have put in significant effort to develop guidance for designing trials in this way.

Its also important that the results of these trials are made available quickly, and in open and transparent ways. This will help avoid issues that were seen with Roches influenza drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir). The company is accused of withholding data showing the drug to be less effective than originally claimed, which led various countries to stockpile the drug and prescribe it more widely than perhaps was justified during outbreaks of more virulent flu strains.

These are significant challenges, especially with the time and resource constraints of a pandemic. But, with sufficient cooperation, I believe it can be done.

Visit link:
Coronavirus trials need to be flexible | Opinion - Chemistry World

Locked On Phoenix Suns Podcast: Suns and chemistry with Michael Pina – Bright Side of the Sun

Posted on by

SB Nations own Michael Pina stopped by the show today to discuss a litany of topics with us. From the Suns bright future to how teams go about developing team chemistry, a lot of good nuggets littered throughout this one.

Pina recently wrote a tremendous story on the Suns, looking at how they are finally starting to show improvement after years of stagnation. Led by Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, plus Ricky Rubios studying presence, Phoenix is finally moving up, but what does Aytons true ceiling look like?

We close talking through Michaels feature story on team chemistry in the Association. What were his biggest takeaways after writing it? Finally, what will the NBA look like when it resumes after COVID-19?

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify!

Follow on Twitter: @LockedOnPHXSuns, @MichaelVPina, @esidery, @BrendonKleen14

See the original post here:
Locked On Phoenix Suns Podcast: Suns and chemistry with Michael Pina - Bright Side of the Sun

A new chemical compound created by researchers at West Virginia University is lighting the way for renewable energy – pvbuzz media

Posted on by

The compound is a photosensitizer, meaning it promotes chemical reactions in the presence of light. It has many potential applications for improving the efficiency of modern technologies ranging from electricity-producing solar panels to cell phones.

The study, published March 16 in Nature Chemistry, was conducted by researchers in Assistant Professor of Chemistry Carsten Milsmanns lab with support from his National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

These technologies currently rely on precious metals, like iridium and ruthenium, to function. However, only limited supplies of these materials remain in the world, making them nonrenewable, difficult to access and expensive.

We noticed that there have been few efforts in studying the more abundant metals titanium and zirconium because they are often not as easy to work with. Precious metals have always been the go-to elements because of their favorable chemical properties that make them easier to use and study, and thats predominantly how it has been done in the field, Milsmann said. Were hoping to change that.

Milsmanns compound is made from zirconium, which is much more abundant and easier to access, making it a more sustainable and cost-effective option. The compound is also stable in a variety of conditions, such as air, water and changes in temperature, making it easy to work with in a variety of environments.

Since the compound can convert light into electrical energy, it could be used in the creation of more efficient solar panels.

Solar panels are typically made using silicon and require a minimum threshold of light to collect and store energy. Instead of using silicon, researchers have long been exploring the alternative of dye-sensitized devices, in which colored molecules collect light and function in low-light conditions. As an added benefit, this also allows the production of semitransparent components. To date, the necessary dyes rely heavily on the precious material ruthenium, but Milsmanns new compound could potentially replace it in the future.

The problem with most solar panels is that they dont work well on cloudy days. They are pretty efficient, inexpensive and have a long lifespan, but they need intense light conditions to function efficiently, Milsmann said. One way around that is to make dye-sensitized versions where a colored compound absorbs light to produce electricity in any weather condition. In the future, we could design buildings that produce energy, essentially making the faade of your building, including all of its windows, into a power plant.

On the flipside, the compound could also be used in organic light-emitting diodes, which convert electrical energy into light, essentially reversing the function of a solar panel. This characteristic makes the compund a potential light source for producing more efficient cell phone screens.

Many cell phone displays contain iridium, another precious metal compound that does exactly what our compound does, Milsmann said. The advantage of having a light-emitting diode is that most of its energy is turned into light. In the past, light sources were inefficient because they only turned a small fraction of the energy they received into light.

The research teams next step is making the compound water soluble so it can potentially be used in biomedical applications, such as photodynamic therapy for cancer patients.

The compound can produce reactive oxygen species that induce cell death. It sounds really dangerous, but because the reaction only occurs during exposure to radiation with light, its location and duration can be tightly controlled, Milsmann said. If you can focus your light onto a specific point, you can generate reactive oxygen species to act only in response to the light, making it safe. This has the potential to remove tumors less invasively than through surgeries and chemotherapy.

The research team included WVU alumnus Yu Zhang (PhD Chemistry, 19), current graduate student Dylan Leary and Professor of Chemistry Jeffrey Petersen, among others.

Were laying the foundations for a lot of different applications, Milsmann said. Understanding how this compound works, which is what we did in the paper, will help people who want to bring these technologies forward.

See the original post here:
A new chemical compound created by researchers at West Virginia University is lighting the way for renewable energy - pvbuzz media

After the spill: safety standards and metrics – Features – The Chemical Engineer

Posted on by

Ten years after Macondo, US offshore drilling safety improvements remain elusive

IN the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident at the Macondo well, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) issued a series of recommendations to bolster safety. These have yet to be fully implemented. As such, offshore drilling in the US remains an unacceptably hazardous operation.

The CSB is a non-regulatory federal government agency that conducts investigations to determine the causal factors leading to major industrial chemical incidents where the release of a hazardous substance resulted in loss of life, serious injury or substantial property damage. Being apart from the industry and other regulatory agencies affords us the independence to examine incidents from a systems perspective, identifying gaps in safety management systems and regulations broadly, and issue recommendations to prevent their reoccurrence or mitigate their consequences.

The Macondo investigation was a multi-year effort for the CSB, and one of the most challenging experiences in agency history. Our investigation commenced several months post-incident after we received requests from the US Congress to apply the same rigour to this complex incident as the agency had to its investigation of the 23 March 2005 explosions and fire at the BP America refinery in Texas City, TX.

Then followed lengthy litigation against Transocean, the drilling contractor and entity with the most eyewitnesses on the rig, for failure to provide key document and interview subjects. The agency prevailed after four-and-a-half years, during which time the CSBs investigation focussed where it could with the cooperation of other entities. The magnitude of the case, and its technical complexity, challenged an agency with limited resources. Nevertheless, we persisted, ultimately issuing four volumes containing 16 safety recommendations. While many official entities investigated this incident, the CSBs reports cover aspects not addressed by these other bodies, most of whose work had concluded before the final phases of testing of the blowout preventer and the conclusion of litigation revealed new insights.

The CSB issued four volumes and an executive summary on the incident:

Full details can be found here.

The CSBs primary lever for driving safety change is our recommendations, which stem from our investigation findings. It is through our recommendations that we drive safety change and through their adoption that we measure success. When we identify safety gaps whose absence could have prevented the incident or mitigated its consequences, we issue a specific recommendation to a recipient to close the gap so a future incident with a similar fact pattern doesnt occur or isnt as catastrophic. Recommendations are only issued for outstanding gaps made at the time our final report is issued; if safety change was made during our investigation then what might have been a recommendation is no longer needed. This is, of course, a desirable outcome.

Given the length of this investigation, other official reports on the incident, and industry efforts to understand and address known issues, one might have hoped that few CSB recommendations would be needed because the desired safety changes would have been made in the time between the incident and the publication of Volumes 1 and 2 (>4 years post-incident) and Volumes 3 and 4 (6 years post-incident). Yet the CSB identified 16 recommended actions that the Board deemed essential for improving safety that had not yet been taken. They include:

The text of each recommendation can be found here.

After CSB recommendations are published, our staff track them through periodic communication with the recipient to encourage their adoption. Progress toward implementation is assessed by the Board, which then votes to change the status of a recommendation. Ultimately, we drive recipients toward full implementation of the recommendation, but we also measure progress made along the way, and may accept alternative actions if they meet the intended goal. The current status of our recommendations reveals that change continues to come slowly. Ten years after the incident, and 46 years after they were issued, only four CSB recommendations have been closed and of those only one has been closed acceptably. Two have been "Closed Reconsidered/Superseded", meaning the Board retracted the recommendation upon new information or additional analysis. One has been "Closed Unacceptable Action/No Response Received". Most remain "Open Awaiting Response" or "Evaluation/Approval of Response" indicating either that the recipient has not yet communicated their intentions regarding the recommended action, or the Board has not yet evaluated its response.

The one acceptably closed recommendation was to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). The following text is from the Boards Recommendation Status Change Summary:

As a part of its investigation, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) analysed the current regulatory oversight of US offshore oil and gas operations. The CSB determined that few specific data points relevant to a companys health, safety, and environmental operations are specifically required for disclosure to shareholders of companies trading in the US under regulations promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pursuant to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933 or 1934, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, or any other existing financial law or regulation. As the SASB has created health, safety, and emergency management reporting standards for both onshore and offshore operations, the Board voted to issue a recommendation to the SASB.

In June of 2016, SASB began the process of modifying its Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Sustainability Accounting Standard. SASB published the final standard on its website on 8 November 2018, along with an accompanying Basis for Conclusions document that outlines the new standards rationale, supporting analysis, market input and benefits.

The Board voted to change the status of CSB Recommendation No. 2010-10-I-OS-R9 to: Closed Acceptable Alternative Action on 15 April 2019 because while the SASBs new standard for the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Sector does not add additional leading and lagging indicators to actively monitor major accident safety barriers and the management systems for ensuring their effectiveness, it does require reporting a description of process safety related management systems, including safety barriers, used to identify and mitigate catastrophic and tail-end risks in periodic mandatory filings with the SEC, such as the Form 10-Q, Form S-1, and Form 8-K. The new SASB standard also emphasises and promotes the concept that personal safety metrics are important but separate from process safety performance indicators by requiring them to be reported as separate metrics.

There are also positive signs that other recommendations will be adopted. The clearest comes from the Ocean Energy Safety Institute, to whom the CSB issued a recommendation to:Conduct further study on riser gas unloading scenarios, testing, and modelling and publish a white paper containing technical guidance that communicates findings and makes recommendations for industry safety improvements.

The CSB determined that the Macondo incident progressed from a gas-in-riser event ultimately to an uncontrolled blowout after the crews well control actions and the physical well barriers (eg the blowout preventer and diverter system) were unable to mitigate the hazardous conditions created once hydrocarbons entered the riser and noted that this is a hazardous situation because riser gas migration toward the rig may be nearly undetectable and can rapidly change from a seemingly stable condition to an extremely high flow rate, releasing large amounts of gas on the drilling rig that can ignite and explode. [CSB Macondo Report, Volume 3. Section 1.3, page 35.] Therefore, a recommendation
was made to OESI to study various scenarios and publish technical guidance for industry action.

Recommendation No. 2010-10-I-OS-10 to the OESI was made an Open Acceptable Response or Alternative Response by the Board on 29 January 2020 as its ongoing research work on studying riser gas unloading scenarios, testing. Modelling is actively underway and it anticipates publishing a white paper containing technical guidance that communicates findings and makes recommendations for industry safety improvements, in 2021.

The Board also remains optimistic about the eventual closure of 2010-10-I-OS-5, which calls for the American Petroleum Institute to revise API RP 75: Recommended Practice for Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Offshore Operations and Facilities to require a specific focus on major accident prevention. API has revised this recommended practice, and the CSB, which participated in its revision and advocated for inclusion of the elements contained in this recommendation, is now evaluating it for potential closure.

Even after a recommendation has been closed unacceptably, the CSB continues to advocate its adoption. Such is the case for recommendation 2010-10-I-OS-7, which calls upon the US Department of the Interior:Drawing upon best available global standards and practices, develop guidance addressing the roles and responsibilities of corporate board of directors and executives for effective major accident prevention. Among other topics, this standard shall provide specific guidance on how boards and executives could best communicate major accident safety risks to their stakeholders, as well as corporate level strategies to effectively manage those risks.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, responding on behalf DOI, initially disagreed with CSBs assignment of this recommendation to DOI. The conversation continues. In an effort to demonstrate our commitment to the importance and positive impact of our recommendations and based upon BSEEs decision not to implement recommendation 2010-10-I-OS-7, the Board committed to developing the recommended guidance itself. As a result, our agency recently released the CSB product entitled CSB Best Practice Guidance for Corporate Boards of Directors and Executives in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry for Major Accident Prevention.

In the aftermath of the explosions and fire came the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon and the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, with environmental and economic costs that reverberate today that threaten the lives and livelihood of workers and communities.

CSB recommendations provide practicable actions that drive safety change.

This article is part of series called Deepwater Horizon: a Decade On. Read the rest of the series here

Excerpt from:
After the spill: safety standards and metrics - Features - The Chemical Engineer

JMU Chemistry department uses chemicals left in the building to make hand sanitizer – WHSV

Posted on by

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) With labs shut down until further notice amid the COVID-19 pandemic, James Madison University's Chemistry Department is using some of the chemicals normally meant for teaching to aid local medical workers instead.

According to a statement from JMU, heads of the department quickly realized that some of their stored chemicals, like ethanol, glycerol and hydrogen peroxide, could be combined to make hand sanitizer, which has been in short supply in the Shenandoah Valley, just like most of the country.

"When I saw that hand sanitizer was needed, I asked our stockroom manager, Brian Kane, to do an inventory of the departmental supplies that we would need to make the sanitizer according to the WHO recipe and to calculate how much we could make with our unused chemicals," said Linette Watkins, unit head for the JMU Chemistry Department.

According to the school, Kane determined they had enough chemicals on hand to make about 100 liters, but could make around double that amount if they could find more glycerol.

"When the department faculty found out that we needed glycerol to make more, they donated more glycerol from their own labs to increase our capacity and we hope to make at least 200 liters," Watkins said.

The supplies are being pulled from the inventory by Kane, who is also making labels and then leaving them for Chakree Tanjaroon, an instrument chemist, who is making and bottling the solutions, according to Watkins.

Tanjaroon, who also is in charge of checking the building and helping keep equipment safe while the department lowers its energy expenditures, has been working alone to abide by social distancing protocols and has been making 30 liters a day.

The department donated its first 50 liters last week to Augusta Health.

Watkins said sanitizer will also be made for Sentara Rockingham Memorial Hospital and local doctors offices. Students may be employed to make some no-contact deliveries in the next few weeks.

See the original post here:
JMU Chemistry department uses chemicals left in the building to make hand sanitizer - WHSV

Albright College Fashion and Chemistry Faculty Connect to Make Fabric Face Masks – bctv.org

Posted on by

Days after beginning to work remotely in mid-March, Albright Associate Professor of TheatreandFashionand Costume Shop Coordinator,Paula Trimpey, M.F.A., heard that supplies for nurses were already in critical supply. So she fired up her sewing machine and began making face masks for anyone who asked. Associate Professor ofChemistry and Biochemistry,Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D., took up the charge of sterilizing the masks.

It started with a theatre alumnus who wanted some for a family member with a compromised immune system and went on to many,many friends and family members, said Trimpey. So far, the masks have gone to a Doctor of Pharmacology at John Hopkins in Baltimore, a nurse at theReading Dialysis Unit,Albright College Public Safety and Aramark Food Services at Albright, said Trimpey.

We use 100% cotton with a high thread count since this also bleaches well. The ties allow for any size face/head where elastic masks can sag on small faces/heads.

On April 3, Governor Tom Wolfcalled for all Pennsylvanians to wear maskswhen venturing away from home, but to reserve surgical and medical mask for health care workers and first responders.

Masks help prevent people from sharing illnesses, said Wolf. But, they dont do a great job at keeping people from getting sick; and, theyre not foolproof, so it is critical that our first act is to ask ourselves if we really need to leave our house. If we dont really, truly need to leave, then we shouldnt.

To help others create homemade masks, Trimpey and Hamann created a series offive how-to videos, showing the full process, from cutting patterns to sterilizing finished masks.

>Watch videos

Read more:
Albright College Fashion and Chemistry Faculty Connect to Make Fabric Face Masks - bctv.org

Green Chemistry Company, Distillery Team Up To Make Hand Sanitizer – CBS Boston

Posted on by

MEDFORD (CBS) A group of local companies is working together to help people on the front lines fighting the coronavirus by making hand sanitizer. Pair a green chemistry company with a distillery, and youve got a formula that makes a difference.

Theyre getting the latest batch of hand sanitizer ready at Evolved By Nature, a green chemistry company in Medford that usually makes skin care products. We realized there was a tremendous need in the community for hand sanitizer for those on the front lines, said the companys president, Rebecca Lacouture.

The company has dedicated some of its manufacturing lab to make hand sanitizer thats so crucial to so many people, from nurses and doctors to janitors and food service workers. And its a group effort. Boston Harbor Distillery donated the alcohol, the Royal Label Company stepped up to make the labels which were designed by advertising agency Arnold Worldwide.

So far theyve made more than 150 gallons. There was a need for all those in the community who have manufacturing capabilities to rally together to be able to bring everything together so that we could get those critical supplies out to those in need, Lacouture says.

First stop on the delivery route is Tufts Medical Center, just one of several hospitals benefiting from the collaboration. Its going to allow our patients to get the safe care they need and also for our employees to be protected to supply that safe service, said Andrew Fleming from Tufts.

But its not only the big medical institutions that are receiving support. Project Do Something Boston is also getting a supply to share with Boston Health Care for the Homeless. Theyre the people who are out there on the front lines screening and treating our homeless friends, said Robert Morgan from Project Do Something.

The alcohol is the trickiest ingredient in the hand sanitizer formula because it needs to contain a very high alcohol content. So if any other distilleries want to get involved Evolved By Nature would love to hear from you.

More:
Green Chemistry Company, Distillery Team Up To Make Hand Sanitizer - CBS Boston

What Exactly *Is* an At Home Chemical Peel, And Which One Is Right for Me? – Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted on by

You spring clean your home. How about your skin? As we leave winter (and the dull, dry skin associated with it) behind, a quick way to refresh your glow is to try an at home chemical peel.

According to Dendy Engelman, MD, of Manhattan Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery in New York, "its a method of exfoliation that uses a powerful dose of acids to weaken the cellular bonds between skin cells in the dermis. This helps to slough away dead, dull-looking cells, reveal healthy cells, reduce hyperpigmentation and improve skin texture."

"The main difference between the acids used in chemical peels is particle size. AHAs, or alpha hydroxy acids, are the smallest, then comes the BHAs, or beta hydroxy acids, followed by the PHAs, or polyhydoxy acids, which have the largest molecules," explains Engelman. "In-office procedures use stronger concentrations, which penetrate deeper into the skin, thus revealing more noticeable results as compared to an at-home peel, but because of their strength, they should only be administered by a licensed practitioner."

It depends on what youre looking to troubleshoot. If you are acne-prone or tend to easily get blackheads, BHA are your best bet. "Beta hydroxy acids like salicylic acid or willow bark extract have keratin-dissolving properties that can break down dead skin cell build up and decongest pores," says Engelman.

If you have dry or dull skin, Engelman recommends an AHA. "Alpha hydroxy acids like glycolic or lactic acid has the smallest particle size, meaning it is the most effective at breaking down the cellular bonds, which in turn, helps to reveal new, fresh skin cells." What this means for you: Major glow.

If you have sensitive skin that is easily irritated, try a PHA. "Polyhydroxy acids like gluconolactone or lactobionic acids have a larger molecular structure than AHAs and BHAs, which means they take longer to penetrate the skin and they wont penetrate as deeply, so theyre a much milder way to exfoliate," explains Engelman.

Story continues

"Before you commit to using an at-home peel, there are a couple of questions you need to ask yourself, such as: Are you using a retinol or retinoid? Are you using any other exfoliating products (such as a scrub), and are you going to shave around that area of skin?" says Engelman. "All of these things remove the top layer of your skin so adding a peel to the mix can deplete your epidermis and compromise your skin barrier. If you answered yes to any of those questions, Id recommend stopping them for three days before and after you use a peel to minimize irritation."

A good practice when introducing an active ingredient (like retinol or chemical peels) into your skincare regimen is to start slow. "I always recommend starting off with one to two times a week at firstmaybe even once every two weeks for people with very sensitive skin," advises Engelman. See how your skin reacts and then you can increase usage as needed. "The biggest mistake people make with exfoliants and with any products is over-doing it."

Next, post-peel care is very important. "You want to use an occlusive moisturizer, which is designed to prevent water loss in your skin. Preventing water loss allows your skins natural oils to nourish the newly revealed, younger skin cells, says Engelman. Look for moisturizers that have ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and peptides to strengthen the skin barrier."

And last but certainly not least: "It is important to limit sun and wind exposure by applying a broad-spectrum sunscreen daily, wearing protective clothing and staying indoors during peak hours (between 10 am and 4 pm), since your skin is more vulnerable to environmental aggressors after a peel."

OK, now that weve all graduated chemical peel 101, lets talk shop. Ahead are ten of our (and Dr. Dendys) favorite at-home peels.

This cult peel has been a favorite amongst dermatologists, estheticians and beauty editors alike. (And fun fact: Its celebrating a milestone anniversary of 20 years!) The peels were created by a top New York derm and were one of the first at-home options available to the masses. Dendy likes them because they "contain both alpha and beta hydroxyl acids like salicylic acid, glycolic acid, malic acid, which is a great combination to tackle a variety of skin issues including blocked pores, dull skin and hyperpigmentation." We like how easy they are to use. Just swipe the first pad over skin, wait two minutes and follow up with the second pad to finish.

$88 at Sephora

For the easily irritated, these gentle pads are a safe bet. Made with natural beta and alpha hydroxy acids (from wintergreen and Australian caviar lime, respectively) and balanced with jasmine and burdock root extracts, youll get the skin clarifying benefits of exfoliating without any afterburn or redness.

$65 at Dermstore

For any face mask lovers out there, consider this as your weekly treatment. Dendy likes that it "combines powerful botanical enzymes with salicylic acid and eco-friendly microbeads to provide an ideal combination of physical and chemical exfoliation." Just smooth it over damp, clean skin in a thin, even layer and let sit for five minutes before rinsing off using small, circular motions.

$95 at Dermstore

Another option that combines both physical and chemical exfoliation, these wine-soaked pads are a cult favorite within the K-beauty community. Each wipe is made with a lattice-woven gauze that gently scrubs away surface debris, while the blend of lactic and glycolic acids tackle anything thats left behind. (Youll want to rinse this off after a few minutes because it has a slightly sticky residue.)

Buy It $23

Inspired by the chemical peels Gwyneth used to get at her derms office, this weekly treatment is packed with an impressive 15 percent glycolic acid (making it one of the most potent at-home peels weve ever tried). To use, slip your fingertips inside the glove and swipe the soft side over the delicate skin of your face and the textured side over your neck, chest and shoulders. Note: You will likely feel a tingling sensation at first, but you will also wake up with a noticeable glow.

Buy It $125

Lets be clear: The "baby" in "babyfacial" is referring to how soft and silken this peel makes your skin feel after using it. It has nothing to do with its strengthwhich is pretty darn potent with a whopping 25 percent blend of AHAs. (Thats glycolic, tartatic, lactic and citric acids, by the way.) It also features two percent BHA to keep pores clear and pumpkin ferment extract to really get the job done. As a result, the glow is real, yall (but dont use it more than once a week).

$80 at Sephora

For those of us with stubborn blackheads and breakouts, these peach-scented pads are a godsend. Formulated with both salicylic and glycolic acids, they work double duty to clear pores of excess oil while dissolving any dead skin cells that sit on and beneath the surface. Within a few weeks of use, weve noticed that our normally speckled noses are much clearer.

$46 at Dermstore

Gentle on your walletand your skin. With a blend of lactic and glycolic acid (plus vitamins A and E), this overnight treatment sloughs off dead skin cells while you sleep. Allantoin and rosehip add a buffer, so your skin doesnt get dry or irritated. Oh, and this budget brand is also clean, vegan, cruelty-free and nothing in the line (including this peel) costs over 20 dollars.

$20 at Dermstore

What do Demi Lovato, Lili Reinhart and this beauty editor have in common? A love for this delicious mask from celebrity aesthetician Rene Rouleau. Jam packed with four different acids, bromelain (an exfoliating enzyme derived from pineapple), blueberry, raspberry seed oil and strawberry, it also looks and smells like a berry jam. We use it as a weekly preventative measure against future breakouts (and a brighter visage).

$89 at Rene Rouleau

For a gradual glow, Dendy recommends this 4-week treatment, which combines PHA, AHA, and idebenone (a supercharged antioxida
nt) to exfoliate the skin, soften fine lines, and improve the overall radiance and evenness of your skin tone.

$162 at Elizabeth Arden

RELATED: 5 DIY Face Masks You Can Make with Things in Your Pantry

Read more:
What Exactly *Is* an At Home Chemical Peel, And Which One Is Right for Me? - Yahoo Lifestyle

Is there a My Chemical Romance nod in this twenty one pilots video? – Alternative Press

Posted on by

With the country on virtual lockdown, many people have turned toward iconic bands such as twenty one pilots and emo royalty My Chemical Romance for entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic. Some have spent their time rewatching videos and noticing Easter eggs from the bands for the first time.

One twenty one pilots fan uncovered a potential nod to MCR in the video for their Trench song, My Blood.

The duo have long been fans of My Chemical Romance. In 2017, they covered the MCR song Cancer for a tribute compilation album celebrating the tenth anniversary of My Chemical Romances The Black Parade.

The band even added the cover of Cancer to their live show setlist. In 2017, they played the song throughout the Emotional Roadshow tour.

twenty one pilots take on the song was celebrated by both fans and MCR frontman, Gerard Way.

It was great. I was really impressed. I didnt know what to expect, and I was surprised by what I heard, Way shared. He added that he was a fan of the band and that what they do is really interesting.

Now, a Reddit user posted a screenshot of the My Blood video suggesting that twenty one pilots MCR tribute doesnt stop with their cover.

Focusing on the Halloween party the band performs at in the video, the user points out a person is dressed up in a black bandleader hat with silver accents. Theyre also wearing a spiked collar and have an exaggerated painted black smile. All of this is reminiscent of My Chemical Romances iconic The Black Parade era from the skeleton named Pepe dressed in a bandleader costume to the bands own attire.

The screenshot got a couple of comments, with one person saying that it was interesting seeing a nod to My Chemical Romances magnum opus in another bands video.

Someone else said it wasnt surprising given that twenty one pilots are huge fans of My Chemical Romance. Given how deep twenty one pilots go with their own imagery, we cant help but wonder if there are other hidden references to MCR or otherwise in their other videos. You can take a look at the costume for yourself at 2:05.

Do you think the outfit was a nod to The Black Parade or not? Let us know in the comments below.

Read the rest here:
Is there a My Chemical Romance nod in this twenty one pilots video? - Alternative Press

Immigrants in Detention Facilities At Risk of Toxic Chemical Exposure, According to Newly Compiled Research – Earthjustice

Posted on by

San Bernardino, CA

Today, the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition held a press conference to share new information about the ongoing use of the industrial disinfectant HDQ Neutral, which contains hazardous chemicals, at the Adelanto Immigrant Detention Facility, run by the private prison company the GEO Group. In addition to the dangers already faced by those in custody, including lack of access to medical care, COVID-19 continues to spread and the misuse of HDQ Neutral is causing physical harm to immigrants in ICE custody.

The event featured testimony from immigrants who experienced mistreatment inside Adelanto, including Jos Tapete, an immigrant, advocate and organizer who was held for weeks at and and has had health effects from chemical spraying and from 11 women who sent a letter from inside the facility and was co-hosted by Inland Empire Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice, Freedom for Immigrants, and Earthjustice among other local partners. Representative Mark Takano (D-Calif.) also joined the call. Last month, he along with Representative Vargas (D-Calif.) sent a letter to ICE, seeking answers to allegations raised by the coalition about the improper use of toxic cleaning agents at Adelanto.

A new fact sheet, developed by Earthjustice, provides an overview of available scientific research that documents the negative health impacts associated with even low levels of exposure to this class of chemicals, including:

Due to the link between exposure to this class of chemicals and asthma, HDQ neutral could potentially make immigrants at Adelanto more vulnerable to COVID-19 and they may experience a higher severity of symptoms. Further, the long-term health effects observed in animal studies raise concerns about the safety of this class of chemicals.

The industrial disinfectant is only supposed to be used outdoors or in well-ventilated areas, according to the manufacturer. However, testimonies from immigrants being held, some of which were shared today, state that the chemicals are being sprayed every 1530 minutes in close proximity and sometimes directly at them. Dozens of complaints have been issued by those detained, yet both U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the GEO Group continue to deny the danger and are undermining a whistleblowers attempts to expose the danger. From intimidation to direct retaliation, immigrants continue to face increasing threats to their lives and to their health.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has continued to show flagrant disregard for the health of those in custody, including the use of industrial chemical disinfectants at other migrant detention facilities and attempting to build new facilities on highly toxic superfund sites.

DHS and ICE has proven time and again that they have no regard for human life and cannot be trusted to protect those in custody. There is no guarantee or indication that these heavy industrial chemicals can be used safely in detention facilities, where people are held in close proximity and are exposed involuntarily. Until there is concrete proof that this chemical can be safely applied at facilities like this, its use must be discontinued immediately. However, the ongoing failures of DHS and ICE have created conditions that make it impossible to keep those in custody safe and therefore, as a coalition we are calling for the immediate release of everyone being held in migrant detention facilities.

The GEO officers are using this chemical when we are eating or using the phone. All detainees are having allergy, throat problems, nose bleeding, or difficulties breathing. We are in an enclosed area, no air, no natural light, the HDQ Neutral is accumulating and the only air we breathe. We have complained but nothing is done by GEO officers, according to a letter sent by 11 women housed at the Adelanto Facility and read by Guillermo Torres, an organizer with Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).

The crowded and closed conditions in Adelanto, along with the fact that immigrants in detention do not have protective equipment, render the use of HDQ Neutral not only highly problematic, but also grossly illegal, said Raul Garcia, Legislative Director of Healthy Communities at Earthjustice.

We must take seriously any allegations that detainees are suffering adverse health effects due to the excessive and improper use of cleaning agents at the Adelanto Detention Facility in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. I, along with Congressman Juan Vargas, have sent letters to both ICE and the Warden at Adelanto seeking information on the usage of this disinfectant and any correlation between its improper use and detainee illness. ICEs response that they are following all proper procedures was woefully inadequate and directly contrary to the information being reported on the ground. It is critical that in the midst of this public health crisis, that efforts to curb and prevent the spread of COVID-19 are both safe and effective, urged Representative Mark Takano (D-Calif.).

Originally posted here:
Immigrants in Detention Facilities At Risk of Toxic Chemical Exposure, According to Newly Compiled Research - Earthjustice

Dwyane Wade Predicted Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic Were Going to Have Superb… – Heat Nation

Posted on by

Miami Heat veterans Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler have built a close friendship.

However, Heat icon Dwyane Wade predicted that the pair was going to be close beforehand.

Youre going to enjoy playing with him, Wade told Dragic early in the season.Hes one of my favorite guys.

Wade played alongside Butler during the 2016-17 season on the Chicago Bulls. The pair led the Bulls to the 2017 playoffs, though they got ousted in the first round to the Boston Celtics.

The retired Heat legend also participated in a couple of postseason battles with Dragic in their time together in Miami. In fact, the backcourt duo nearly helped the Heat advance to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016.

Now, Dragic and Butler are trying to help the Heat win a championship in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla. Their friendly chemistry and close relationship have been on display.

They are currently facing off against the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs.

During the Heats 109-100 victory in Game 2 of the series on Thursday, Dragic put up 20 points, three rebounds and six assists. Butler concluded the contest with 18 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals in 38 minutes of action.

More:
Dwyane Wade Predicted Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic Were Going to Have Superb... - Heat Nation

Emmitt Smith on Dak Prescott contract: Cowboys will ruin team chemistry if they ‘try to mess with him’ – CBS Sports

Posted on by

Try as they might, the Dallas Cowboys again failed to get a deal done with Dak Prescott in 2020. It's the second attempt in as many offseasons that's failed to bear fruit, this time the two sides coming as close as they've ever been before the bell finally tolled during last-second talks on July 15. And with that, Prescott will play the 2020 season under a franchise tag that will pay him $31.4 million, and a third attempt to secure a long-term deal will get underway in 2021 -- or the Cowboys will likely find themselves paying $37.7 million on a second tag. Time will tell how it all shakes out, but Emmitt Smith is unequivocal in his stance on the matter.

Smith told the Cowboys earlier this offseason they "can't play chicken" with Prescott, and has yet another warning for them as they ready for their Sept. 13 opener against the Los Angeles Rams. Never one to bite his tongue, Smith says the fate of the entire locker room is at stake when it comes to contract negotiations with Prescott.

"If you try to mess with Dak Prescott, trying to mess with him mentally, try to mess with him from a financial standpoint -- you're going to effect the whole chemistry of that entire team," Smith said on a recent episode of Tiki and Tierney, CBS Sports Radio/CBS Sports Network. "That's one of the things I've seen many coaches, organizations, and owners do too often and just destroy the chemistry of a ball-club. I've seen it happen and I don't think they need to do that with Dak."

Smith once drew the ire of some fans who felt he undervalued Prescott during the Ezekiel Elliott holdout in 2019, attributing much of the Cowboys offensive success to the prowess of the run game. He's since made it clear several times over his belief in Prescott is unwavering, in that he views the two-time Pro Bowler as the franchise quarterback of both now and the foreseeable future.

"I do think Dak is the guy going forward," said Smith. "There's no question in my mind about that. Dak Prescott is in control of that offensive unit, is in command of that offense, and he has earned the respect as the leader of that team. The way he plays the game translates in that."

Prescott, who believes he will "be a Cowboy for the rest of his career,"is once in again in prime position to increase his value on the open market -- something the Cowboys are desperately trying to keep him from reaching. He logged a career-best season in 2019 under first-year offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, and the addition of Mike McCarthy as head coach, another receiving weapon in rookie first-round pick CeeDee Lamb and the promotion of playmaking tight end Blake Jarwin to starter sets him up for even more dominance in 2020.

If all goes to plan, and the team's receivers don't again lead the league in drops, Prescott could set a franchise record in single season passing yards -- after just narrowly missing doing so last season -- en route to setting a much bigger franchise record: namely, highest-paid player in Cowboys history.

That is, of course, if they take Smith's advice.

View original post here:
Emmitt Smith on Dak Prescott contract: Cowboys will ruin team chemistry if they 'try to mess with him' - CBS Sports