by | Apr 17, 2024 | Fox News
The risk of having potentially harmful chemicals in your drinking water may depend on your zip code.
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience on April 8 found that higher amounts of PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances) were found in drinking water in certain parts of the U.S.
PFAS — also known as “forever chemicals” due to how slowly they break down — are a group of chemicals used during industrial processes and the manufacturing of consumer products.
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Two of the main chemicals are perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).
There are many ways people can be exposed to these chemicals — including in drinking water.
To determine the prevalence of PFAS in the environment, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, analyzed a global dataset of 273 studies dating back to 2004.
The studies included data for over 12,000 samples of surface water (water that collects on the ground) and more than 33,900 samples of groundwater (water found underground, below the surface).
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“We looked everywhere for PFAS concentrations in water data, including scientific journals and governmental reports and websites,” senior author of the study Denis O’Carroll, a UNSW engineering professor, told Fox News Digital.
“We compared PFAS concentrations in these water samples to international regulations. We also compared the types of PFAS analyzed to what we found in consumer products.”
Nearly 70% of the samples had levels of PFAS that exceeded Canada’s minimum safety standards (30 nanograms per liter), while 6% had more chemicals than the European Union’s standard (100 ng per liter), according to the study findings.
In the U.S., PFAS “hot spots” were concentrated in the Midwest, New England and the West Coast, according to a map illustrating the findings — although the chemicals were also detected in other areas across the country.
Globally, Australia, Europe and China showed high levels.
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“To date, nobody has looked at the global extent of PFAS in our waters and compared it to international drinking water standards,” noted O’Carroll.
“Our study found that a substantial fraction of sampled waters exceeded PFAS drinking water guidance values, with the extent of exceedance depending on the jurisdiction and PFAS source.”
Dr. Mark Fischer, regional medical director of International SOS, a health and security risk mitigation company headquartered in London, pointed out that most Americans also have these chemicals in their blood.
“Although the use of these chemicals has declined in recent years, they are difficult to break down, so they are still found in some food, water and consumer products, as well as within the soil and the environment,” Fischer, who was not involved in the UNSW study, told Fox News Digital.
Most people in the U.S. have been exposed to these chemicals, most likely through contaminated food or their drinking water, according to the CDC.
Health risks associated with PFAS include cancers, elevated liver enzymes, lower birth weight and higher cholesterol, Fischer said.
Other potential dangers include heart issues, plus immune and developmental damage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“PFAS contamination has been identified in drinking water in all 50 states, according to the Environmental Working Group,” Fischer said.
“That said, the levels of these chemicals vary throughout states and cities.”
The study did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged.
“We have measured a much wider range of PFAS in consumer products than in our waters,” said O’Carroll.
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“As such, we don’t really have a great idea of the range of PFAS in our waters.”
The data was also limited to what the researchers could find, he noted.
“While we had data for over 45,000 water samples, even more data would be useful, especially for parts of the world where we had limited data.”
The actual amount of PFAS in water could be higher than what the study results imply, O’Carroll added.
“Current monitoring practices probably underestimate PFAS in the environment, given the limited suite of PFAS that are typically quantified but deemed of regulatory concern,” he said.
These are just one of the many types of chemicals that are used in daily life, O’Carroll noted.
“As a society, we need to consider the chemicals we use and reduce our use of some,” he advised.
“Just because we can cheaply use a chemical doesn’t mean we should.”
On April 10, the EPA finalized new limits on the amount of PFAS chemicals permitted in drinking water.
The new standards could reduce exposure for 100 million people, potentially preventing thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of serious illnesses, the agency said in a news release.
This is the “first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard” to protect people from the health risks of PFAS, the agency stated.
The 66,000 public drinking water systems in the U.S. will have three years to reduce PFAS levels to meet the new standards, according to the release.
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The EPA also announced $1 billion in new funding, provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to enable PFAS testing and treatment of public water systems and private wells.
Fox News Digital reached out to the EPA and the American Water Works Association for comment.
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by | Apr 17, 2024 | Fox News
Both articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were deemed unconstitutional by the Senate on Wednesday in a party-line vote.
The first of two articles of impeachment alleged Mayorkas engaged in the “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” regarding the southern border in his capacity as DHS secretary. The second claimed Mayorkas had breached public trust.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed a point of order declaring the article unconstitutional, to which the majority of senators agreed following several failed motions by Republicans.
The article was deemed unconstitutional by a vote of 51-48, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voting present.
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Schumer’s point of order was proposed after his request for unanimous consent, which would have provided a set amount of time for debate among the senators, as well as votes on two GOP resolutions and a set amount of agreed upon points of order, was objected to by Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
Schmitt stated in his objection that the Senate should conduct a full trial into the impeachment articles against Mayorkas, rather than the debate and points of order suggested by Schumer’s unanimous consent request, which would be followed by a likely successful motion to dismiss the articles.
Republican senators took issue with Schumer’s point of order, as agreeing to it would effectively kill the first of the two articles. Several GOP lawmakers proposed motions, which took precedence over the point of order, to adjourn or table the point, among other things. But all GOP motions failed.
“This process must not be abused. It must not be short-circuited. History will not judge this moment well,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as he motioned to table the point of order from Schumer.
After another batch of motions to avoid voting on Schumer’s second point of order, which would deem the second article unconstitutional, the Senate agreed to it. The vote was along party lines 51-49, with Murkowski rejoining the Republicans.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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by | Apr 17, 2024 | Fox News
NPR defended embattled chief executive Katherine Maher against “online actors with explicit agendas” on Wednesday as her old social media posts continue to go viral for exposing her personal left-wing ideology.
What seems like a never-ending supply of social media messages Maher posted before running NPR have been unearthed in recent days by critics of NPR, including Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo.
Maher, who served as the CEO for Web Summit and Wikimedia Foundation prior to taking over NPR last month, showed her support for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020 while regularly sharing liberal talking points and criticizing Donald Trump. Many feel that someone with such blunt partisan views running NPR on the heels of veteran editor Uri Berliner penning a scathing takedown that detailed the “absence of viewpoint diversity” at the organization could be troublesome, but the organization chalked up the resurfaced tweets as “bad faith” attacks.
“This is a bad faith attack that follows an established playbook, as online actors with explicit agendas work to discredit independent news organizations,” an NPR spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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“In this case, they resorted to digging up old tweets and making conjectures based on our new CEO’s resume,” the spokesperson continued. “Spending time on these accusations is intended to detract from NPR’s mission of informing the American public and providing local information in communities around the country is more important than ever.”
Rufo has also unearthed old video of Maher saying the First Amendment makes it too difficult to censor “bad information.” But much of the controversy surrounding her is the result of posts on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
Before taking over NPR, Maher tweeted essentially whatever was on her mind. For example, she once shared details of a dream where her and Kamala Harris were on a road trip together “comparing nuts and baklava from roadside stands” before she “woke up very hungry.”
Others were more political.
Maher wrote on X in May 2020 that while “looting is counterproductive,” it was “hard to be mad about protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.” In another post on the thread, Maher said that property damage was “not the thing” Americans should be upset over.
In another 2020 post, Maher is seen donning a Biden for president hat and said it was the “best part” of her efforts to get out the vote.
“I can’t stop crying with relief,” she wrote after Biden won.
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Maher also took issue with the infamous New York Times Tom Cotton op-ed in 2020, saying it was “full of racist dog whistles.” She argued it was based on the “false premise that the country is in a state of ‘disorder.'”
Several of her old posts that have resurfaced reference concern over White privilege and “White silence.”
In June 2020, Maher declared “White silence is complicity.”
“If you are White, today is the day to start a conversation in your community,” she continued.
Maher identified herself as an “unalloyed progressive” supporting Clinton in the 2016 election. However, Maher had some criticism for Clinton at the time, saying she wished the then-Democratic presidential nominee “wouldn’t use the language of ‘boy and girl,'” because it was “erasing language for non-binary people.”
In 2018, she wrote, “I’m angry. Hot angry, slow angry, relentless angry. This anger is going to fuel and burn for a long time, and it will deliver back exponentially,” during Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Rufo joined Fox News on Tuesday to explain why he’s been busy circulating Maher’s old tweets.
“I spent the last day or two digging through her tweets to show people exactly what she believes. It’s actually incredible. It is the most vapid, left-wing propaganda imaginable,” Rufo said on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
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“She’s been at it for year. She’s a supporter of BLM, she believes in the pseudo-science of White privilege, White fragility, she criticized her own Whiteness,” he continued. “It’s like Mad Libs for left-wing women.”
In addition to the deluge of old social media messages being resurfaced, NewBusters reported on Wednesday that Maher has donated to Democratic candidates such as Stacey Abrams. NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her donations.
Berliner, who resigned after blowing the whistle on NPR’s liberal bias, doesn’t think Maher is fit for the job.
“We’re looking for a leader right now who’s going to be unifying and bring more people into the tent and have a broader perspective on, sort of, what America is all about,” Berliner told NPR media reporter David Folkenflik prior to quitting. “And this seems to be the opposite of that.”
Berliner also scolded Maher when he stepped down.
“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don’t support calls to defund NPR,” Berliner wrote in a statement published on X. “I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism.”
“But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm the very problems at NPR I cited in my Free Press essay,” Berliner continued.
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by | Apr 17, 2024 | Fox News
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Those under 18 still need approval from a guardian, a doctor and the National Board of Health and Welfare.
No longer required is a gender dysphoria diagnosis, defined by medical professionals as psychological distress experienced by those whose gender expression does not match their gender identity.
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Sweden joins a number of countries with similar laws including Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain.
The vote in Sweden passed 234-94 with 21 lawmakers absent, following a debate that lasted for nearly six hours.
Sweden Democrats, the populist party with far-right roots that supports the government in parliament but is not part of the government, opposed the law.
Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was “deplorable that a proposal that clearly lacks the support of the population is so lightly voted through.”
But Johan Hultberg with the Moderates of Sweden’s conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, called the outcome “gratifying.” Hultberg called it “a cautious but important reform for a vulnerable group. I’m glad we’re done with it.”
Kristersson’s center-right coalition had been split on the issue, with the Moderates and the Liberals largely supporting the law while the small Christian Democrats were against it.
Peter Sidlund Ponkala, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, known by its Swedish acronym RFSL, called the law’s passage “a step in the right direction” and “a recognition for everyone who has been waiting for decades for a new law.”
Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization’s youth branch, said it would make life better for its members. “Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts,” Fjellander said in a statement.
Last Friday, German lawmakers approved similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices.
In the U.K., the Scottish parliament in 2022 passed a bill allowing people aged 16 or older to change their gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration. It was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil court upheld in December. The legislation set Scotland apart from the rest of the U.K., where the minimum age is 18 and a medical diagnosis is required.
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by | Apr 17, 2024 | Fox News
Police said nine people are facing charges in what authorities are calling the biggest gold theft in Canadian history from Toronto’s Pearson International airport a year ago.
Peel Regional Police said Wednesday that 6,600 gold bars worth more than 20 million Canadian dollars ($14.5 million) and CA$2.5 million ($1.8 million) was stolen and the gold was melted down and used to purchase illegal firearms.
Those charged include a Air Canada warehouse employee and a former Air Canada manager who gave police a tour of cargo of the facility after the theft. A jewelry store owner is also charged.
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“This story is a sensational one and which probably, we jokingly say, belongs in a Netflix series,” Peel Regional Chief Nishan Duraiappah said.
Peel Reginal Detective Sgt. Mike Mavity said the gold bars, weighing 419 kilograms (923 pounds), and foreign currency, ordered from a refinery in Zurich, Switzerland, were transported in the haul of a Air Canada flight on April 17 last year.
He said that late afternoon a truck driver arrived at the airline’s cargo warehouse with a fraudulent bill that was provided to a airline warehouse attendant.
Mavity said a bill for seafood that was picked up the day before was used to pick up the gold. The duplicate bill was printed off at the Air Canada warehouse, he said.
“They needed people within Air Canada to facilitate this theft,” Mavity said in front of the truck police say was used in the theft.
Mavity said police are searching for the Air Canada manager who gave police a tour of the facility in the days after the theft. He said that manager left his job last summer and said they have an idea of where he is.
Mavity said some of the suspects were known to police and some were not. He said they seized six crudely made bracelets made of gold.
“I don’t think I ever imagined they would have to deal with the largest gold heist in Canadian history,” said Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ontario. “It’s almost out of an ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ movie or CSI.”
Air Canada employee Parmpal Sidhu, 54, from Brampton, Ontario, jewelry store owner Ali Raza, 37, from Toronto, Amit Jalota, 40, a Oakville, Ontario resident, Ammad Chaudhary, 43, from Georgetown, Ontario and Prasath Paramalingam, 35, from Brampton are among those that have been arrested. Mavity said they have been released on bail conditions and will be in court at a later date.
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Mavity said the truck driver that allegedly picked up the gold, Durante King-Mclean, a 25-year-old from Brampton, is currently in custody in the U.S. on firearms and trafficking related charges.
Police are searching for former Air Canada manager Simran Preet Panesar, 31, from Brampton as well as Archit Grover, 36, from Brampton and Arsalan Chaudhary, 42, from Mississauga Ontario.
Peel Regional Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said only CA$90,000 ($65,00) of the more than CA$20 million has been recovered.
U.S. ATF Special Agent, Eric DeGree, said King-Mclean, was arrested in Pennsylvania after a traffic stop and that led to the seizure of 65 illegal firearms that were allegedly destined to be smuggled into Canada. DeGree said he tried to flee after police discovered the firearms in his rental car.
Brinks, an American cash handling company, arrived at the airport cargo facility the night of April 17 to pick up the gold and were told the gold and currency was missing after a search.
Brinks sued Air Canada over the theft last year. According to the company’s filing last year, a thief walked away with the costly cargo after presenting a fake document at an Air Canada warehouse on April 17.
In a Nov. 8 statement of defense, Air Canada rejected “each and every allegation” in the Brink’s lawsuit, saying it fulfilled its carriage contracts and denying any improper or “careless” conduct.
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The country’s largest airline also said Brink’s failed to note the value of the haul on the waybill — a document typically issued by a carrier with details of the shipment — and that if Brink’s did suffer losses, a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention would cap Air Canada’s liability.
In Federal Court filings that claim breach of contract and millions of dollars in damages, Brinks said an “unidentified individual” gained access to the airline’s cargo warehouse and presented a “fraudulent” waybill shortly after an Air Canada flight from Zurich landed at Pearson.
The statement of the claim says the staff then handed over 400 kilograms of gold in the form of 24 bars plus nearly $2 million in cash to the thief, who promptly “absconded with the cargo.”
DeGree said dozens of firearms authorities were seized, including two fully automatic weapons and five guns that were untraceable.
“I’m proud to say that we successfully put an international gun trafficking operation out of business. We kept 65 firearms off the streets of Canada and prevented them from being used in any number of crimes,” DeGree said.
Mavity said that “we believe they melted down the gold and with the profits they got from the gold they used to purchase illegal firearms.”
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