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The torches designed for Milano Cortina 2026, next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Italy, were made in service of the flame. Named Essential, the reusable, ultra-minimalist torch has a flared, open-top design meant to show viewers how the flame is generated because what’s important isn’t the torch, but the flame, Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti tells Fast Company. The design is meant to showcase the flame in motion. The open-top design is crucial to how the flame comes to life, explains Ratti, who designed the torch with his eponymous firm, Studio Carlo Ratti Associati. The torches were developed by Eni and Versalis, both official supporters of the Games, and the Italian manufacturer Cavagna Group engineered their production. Each torch has an air intake near the upper cone that allows oxygen to mix with bio-gas, generating a warmer, more natural yellow flameone that aligns with the Olympic spirit far better than the cold, blue flame of many torches, he says, adding that it was tested in wind tunnels and real-time trials. When the torch is in motion, that same openness helps produce what we call the ‘flag flame,’ a dynamic, horizontal flame that trails behind the torchbearer while running, Ratti says. [Photo: Courtesy of Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics] The 2026 Games bills itself as the most widespread ever, since it’s the first Olympic Winter Games to be named for two cities, Milan and Cortina, and will be held across multiple regions in northern Italy. That’s a geographically big Olympics, but the design of the Essential torches communicates an opposite message of minimalism, of doing more with less. The torches are lightweight, about 2 pounds each without their fuel canisters, which can be refilled and reused as many as 10 times. That reduces the overall number of torches that need to be produced for the 63-day Olympic Torch Relay, which begins this November 26, ahead of the Opening Ceremony on February 6, 2026. The torches’ burners run on fuel made from renewable materials like cooking oil, and they’re made with recycled aluminum and brass alloy coated with a reflective, iridescent finish in two huesa turquoise blue for the Olympic Games and a lustrous bronze for the Paralympics. [Photo: Courtesy of Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics] The accoutrements of the modern Olympic Games give host cities the chance to show off their culture, industries, and style. That’s a unique opportunity to showcase a state’s heritage on a global stage, such as the Paris 2024 medals, which included pieces of the Eiffel Tower. But it also puts a magnifying glass on design mishapssuch as those same medals having to be replaced due to deterioration. For northern Italy, the Games are a chance to show off Milan’s status as a world leader in design. The torches were unveiled at both the Triennale di Milano, an art and design museum in Milan, and the Italian Pavilion in Expo 2025 Osaka in Japan. Raffaella Pani, director of brand, identity, and the “Look of the Games” for Milano Cortina 2026, says the torches are named Essential because they make the most of the bare minimum, allowing the flame to steal the show. This same minimalist approach is setting the stage for the rest of the Games’s aesthetics. If we consider Italian design, in line with our Italian spirit and wanting our brand to be vibrant, dynamic, and contemporary, we can expect future design elements, such as medals and the podium, to also reflect this aspect, she says.
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E-Commerce
When Johnson & Johnson launched the first disposable diaper in 1948, it revolutionized modern parenting. But it also, unwittingly, created an environmental disaster. Diapers are largely made of plastic, which does not biodegrade, but breaks into microplastics that pollute our waterways and end up in our food chain. And yet, more than 300,000 diapers are thrown out every minute, bound for landfills or incinerators, and accelerating climate change.[Photo: Hiro]Theres now a movement to design a more eco-friendly diaper, from creating easier-to-use cloth diapering systems to diapers that use less plastic. But Hiro, a newly launched startup, may have the most creative solution yet. It has launched a diaper that comes with a packet of plastic-eating fungi, which the company says will enable the diaper to biodegrade in the landfill.The startup is the brainchild of two serial entrepreneurs: Miki Agrawal, founder of Thinx period underwear and Tushy bidets, and Tero Isokauppila, founder of mushroom coffee brand Four Sigmatic. Agrawal has always been interested in tackling taboo issues, and when her son Hiro was born, she wanted to develop a diaper that was less harmful to the planet. Thats when she met Isokauppila, a Finnish entrepreneur who has devoted his entire career to making mushrooms more mainstream.[Photo: Hiro]A Fungi FanGrowing up, Isokauppila worked on the farm his family has tended since 1619. His work partly involved tending to mushrooms, which sparked a lifelong fascination with the plant. He went on to study fungi in college, learning about their powers as superfoods as well their ability to help other materials decompose. His knowledge of the a fungis nutrients to launch Four Sigmatic, which sells coffee that incorporates functional mushrooms.Now, Isokauppila is interested in how fungi can help us tackle the plastic crisis. Unlike other plants, mushrooms do not use photosynthesis to create energy. Instead, they need external food sources, and over the past 2.4 billion years they have existed, they have evolved to consume all kinds of materials. In the earliest days of our planets existence, they ate rocks, says Isokauppila. When trees started growing, they evolved to consume trees, helping to transform them into fossil fuels.About 15 years ago, a group of Yale undergraduates went to the Amazon and came across the first plastic-eating fungi. Plastic polymers are made of fossil fuels, and thats a material that fungi has been interacting with for billions of years, according to Isokauppila. My guess is that with so much plastic in our environment, fungi needed food, and plastic is fairly similar structurally to other materials it has consumed in the past, says Isokauppila.[Photo: Hiro]The Plastic-Eating Hiro DiaperThere are now many scientists working on how to use fungi to process the enormous quantities of plastic in our environment, which accelerates the microplastics problem. In fact, there are already some solutions being developed. German scientists are trying to incorporate them into sewage treatment plants, while researchers from China and Pakistan identified plastic-eating fungi in a landfill in Islamabad. Even furniture companies are experimenting with additives that can help their plastic pieces degrade faster. Now Hiro is trying to use a strain of plastic-eating fungi in its diaper product.[Image: Hiro]Hiro diapers themselves are fairly typical. They have the same plastic content as other premium diapers and are made in a factory in Canada that produces diapersfor other brands on the market. However, in the Hiro box, each diaper comes with a little packet of plastic-eating fungi that is dormant until it comes into contact with liquid. During changing time, you simply empty the whole pouch into the dirty diaper. This begins the process of biodegrading the plastic in the diaper. The company claims that within a year, the fungi in the diaper will completely consume the plastic.Isokauppila says that the goal is to incorporate the fungi directly into the Hiro diaper itself, to make the process more convenient. But when the company did focus groups with parents, they realized that they were very concerned about product safety, particularly since diapers make direct contact with the babys body. Over time, we hope that with education, we show that the fungi is perfectly safe, he says.Another question that comes up is whether the fungi is safe when released into the environment. Will it begin eating the plastic in trash bags or items in your environment that you dont actually want to decompose? Isokauppila says that the decomposing process is slow, taking about a year. And once it is out in the wildsuch as in the landfillit will function much like other fungi in the environment. They are already part of nature, he says.[Photo: Hiro]Making Plastic-Eating Fungi WidespreadIsokauppila believes that the Hiro diaper can be a vehicle for popularizing plastic-eating fungi. As research begins to emerge around fungi that consume plastic, we will have more scalable solutions for tackling the enormous quantity of plastic that exists on our planet. But it is possible that consumers will find these solutions scary, partly because people in Western countries are just less familiar with mushrooms and fungi than in other parts of the world.In Asian culture and in Eastern Europe, people love mushrooms and have eaten them for thousands of years, he says. But in Anglo-Saxon cultures, there has been a fear of mushrooms, which is known as mycophobia. (It isnt clear exactly why; anthropologists suggest that it is because there is more mold in England because of the rainy weather, or because the church rejected the use of psychedelic mushrooms.)Isokauppila wants to normalize the use of fungi to break down the plastics we use at home everyday. And over time, if we are able to scale the technology used in Hiro diapers, we could reverse the damage caused by our overuse of plastic.While fungi do offer a glimmer of hope in our fight against the overwhelming plastic pollution problem, scientists say our goal should still be to cut down on our use of plastic. For one thing, we still dont have a solution to breaking down plastic at scale. But theres also the fact that when fungi does break down plastic, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.Ultimately, our goal should be to avoid plastic entirely. But when thats not possiblewhich is oftenthis is the next best solution. If we can break down a diaper, we can break down anything, he says. Once weve gained enough market share, we can partner with other brands and bring this technology to the world.
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E-Commerce
By January 2018, Vanessa Dominguez and her husband had been flirting with moving to a different neighborhood in El Paso, Texas, for a few years. Their daughter was enrolled in one of the best elementary schools in the county, but because the family lived just outside the districts boundary, her position was tenuous. Administrators could decide to return her to her home district at any moment. Moving closer would guarantee her spot. And when their landlord notified Dominguez that she wanted to double their rent, she and her husband felt more urgency to make their move. Finally, the opportunity came. Dominguezs boss owned a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Ranchos del Sol, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in east El Paso, and was looking for a new tenant. With a kitchen island, high ceilings, and a park across the street where kids often played soccer, the house was perfect for the young family. Most importantly, the property was within the school districts boundaries. The property as a whole seemed attractive, and the neighborhood seemed pretty calm, Dominguez recalled. After they moved in, Dominguezs daughter quickly took to running around in the backyard, which featured a cherry blossom tree, and the family often grilled outside. Dominguez barely noticed the warehouse just beyond the cobblestone wall at the back. It really wasnt until the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate in 2020 that she noticed the stream of trucks pulling in and out of the facility. Sometimes, she would hear the rumble of 18-wheelers as early as 6:30 a.m. Still, she made little of it. She didnt realize that the warehouse was owned by Cardinal Health, one of the largest medical device distributors in the country, or that it’s part of a vast supply chain that the American public relies on to receive proper medical care. But for Dominguez and her family, what seemed little more than a minor nuisance was actually a sprawling menaceone that a Grist data analysis found was exposing them to exceedingly high levels of a dangerous chemical. Cardinal Health uses that warehouse, and another one across town, to store medical devices that have been sterilized with ethylene oxide. Among the thousands of compounds released every day from polluting facilities, its among the most toxic, responsible for more than half of all excess cancer risk from industrial operations nationwide. Long-term exposure to the chemical has been linked to cancers of the breast and lymph nodes, and short-term exposure can cause irritation of the nasal cavity, shortness of breath, wheezing, and bronchial constriction. Dominguezs family would go on to experience some of these symptoms, but only years later would they tie it to ethylene oxide exposure. Warehouses like the ones in El Paso are ubiquitous throughout the country. Through records requests and on-the-ground reporting, Grist has identified at least 30 warehouses across the country that definitely emit some amount of ethylene oxide. They are used by companies such as Boston Scientific, ConMed, and Becton Dickinson, as well as Cardinal Health. And they are not restricted to industrial parts of townsthey are near schools and playgrounds, gyms and apartment complexes. From the outside, the warehouses don’t attract attention. They look like any other distribution center. Many occupy hundreds of thousands of square feet, and dozens of trucks pull in and out every day. But when these facilities load, unload, and move medical products, they belch ethylene oxide into the air. Most residents nearby have no idea that the nondescript buildings are a source of toxic pollution. Neither do most truck drivers, who are often hired on a contract basis, or many of the workers employed at the warehouses. Grist identified the countrys top medical device manufacturers and distributors, including Cardinal Health, Medline, Becton Dickinson, and Owens & Minor, and collated a list of the more than 100 known warehouses that they own or use. Some of these companies have reported to state or federal regulators that they operate at least one distribution center that stores products sterilized with ethylene oxide. Others were identified in person by Grist reporters as recipients of products from sterilization facilities. But since companies use multiple sterilization methods, its unclear whether each of these emits ethylene oxide. However, Grist still chose to publish the information to demonstrate the scale of the potential problem: There are almost certainly dozens, if not hundreds, more warehouses than the 30 we are certain aboutand thousands more workers unknowingly exposed to ethylene oxide. Identifying these warehouses and the 30 or so that emit some amount of ethylene oxide was a laborious process, in part because information about these facilities isnt readily available. Grist reporters staked out sterilization facilities, spoke to truck drivers and warehouse workers, and combed through property databases. The problem is much bigger than we all assume, said Rick Peltier, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts. The lack of transparency of where these products go makes us worried. At the El Paso warehouse behind Dominguezs house, Grist spoke to several Cardinal employees who had little knowledge of the risks of being exposed to ethylene oxide. Cardinal Health, which employs a largely Latino workforce at the warehouse, requires some laborers to wear monitors and keep windows and vents open for circulation. But the workers Grist spoke to were unsure what the company is monitoring for. I think its because of a kind of gas that we are breathing, one material handler told Grist while on break. I dont know what its called. In response to the list of Cardinal warehouses that Grist identified, a spokesperson noted in a brief comment that the majority of addresses you have listed are not even medical facilities and that the majority of the locations youve listed arent relevant to the topic youre focused on. However, the company did not provide specific information, and the warehouse locations were corroborated against materials available on the companys website. Cardinals operations extend across the U.S.-Mexico border. The company runs a manufacturing plant in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where gauze, surgical gowns, drape sheets, scalpels, and other medical equipment are packaged into kits that provide everything a doctor needs to conduct a surgery, as one worker put it. The finished kits are trucked back to El Paso or to New Mexico, where theyre sterilized with ethylene oxide by third-party companies that Cardinal contracts with. Then, the products are trucked to one of the two Cardinal warehouses in El Paso, where they remain until theyre shipped to hospitals across the country. All along the way, in the trucks that transport them and the warehouses that store them, ethylene oxide releases from the surface of the sterilized devices, a process called off-gassing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the facilities where medical devices are sterilized, controlling the processes and safety protocols to keep ethylene oxide emissions to safe levels. But for myriad reasons, the federal governmentand the vast majority of stateshas turned a blind eye to warehouses. Thats despite the fact that these storage centers sometimes release more ethylene oxide and pose a greater risk than sterilization facilities. Georgia regulators found that was the case in 201, and a Grist analysis found the warehouse in Dominguezs backyard posed a greater threat than the New Mexico sterilization facility that Cardinal receives products from. The EPA knows that the risks from ethylene oxide extend far beyond the walls of the sterilization facility, said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a lawyer at the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice who works on toxic chemicals, that the chemical remains with the equipment when it is taken to a warehouse, and that it continues to be released, threatening workers and threatening surrounding communities. EPA had a legal obligation to address those risks, he added. In 2009, Cardinal Health reached out to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, the state environmental regulator, seeking permits for its ethylene oxide emissions. At the time, the chemical compound was not known to be as toxic as it is, and TCEQ officials asked few questions about the effect the emissions would have on residents nearby. Grists reporting indicates the company had no legal responsibility to inform state officials but appears to have done so as a responsible actor. The companys applications included a rudimentary diagram of a truck pulling up to a warehouse, an arrow pointing up into the air to denote ethylene oxide emissions from the facility, and a truck pulling out of the warehouse. Due to the unloading of the tractor trailers, Cardinal Health is registering the fugitive EtO that escapes upon the opening of each of the tractor trailers, it noted, using an abbreviation for ethylene oxide. To calculate how much of the chemical escaped from trucks carrying sterilized products, Cardinal Health used an EPA model developed for wastewater treatment systems at TCEQs direction and multiplied the estimate by the number of trucks it expected would drop off products every year. Its unclear why the agency instructed Cardinal Health to use a wastewater model for an air pollutant when alternatives existed, but these imprecise calculations led the company to figure that its warehouses emitted at least 479 pounds per year. TCEQ granted Cardinals permits without requiring the company to take measures to reduce the pollution or notify residents. Four years later, the company appears to have made an effort to determine more precise calculations. In a 2013 experiment, the company fit blowers to a truck and measured the amount of ethylene oxide emittedbut withheld other relevant details, like when the measurements were taken and how many products the truck transported, from the documents it submitted to TCEQ. Cardinal found that, in the first five minutes after a truck pulls into the warehouse, the sterilized products off-gas ethylene oxide at their highest levels. But after five minutes, rather than dropping to zero, the off-gassing levels stayed steady at 7 parts per million for the next two hours. Publicly available documents do not provide details about where the trucks were coming from, how many packages they held, or how long ago the products had been sterilizedcrucial details that determine the rate at which ethylene oxide off-gases. If the medical devices in the truck that Cardinal observed traveled a short distance or if the truck was mostly empty when the experiment was conducted, the company could have vastly underestimated the emissions. The numbers theyre using are just science fiction, said Peltier. For something as powerful as a carcinogen like this, we ought to do better than making up numbers and just doing some hand-waving in order to demonstrate that youre not imposing undue risk to the community. Whats more, the analyses did not take into account the ethylene oxide emissions once the products were moved inside Cardinals facilities. Toxicologists have long identified ethylene oxide as a dangerous chemical. In 1982, the Womens Occupational Health Resource Center at Columbia University published a series of fact sheets educating workers about the chemical, and in 1995, the Library of Congress released a study on the risks of using the gas to fumigate archival materials. However, it wasnt until 2016 that the EPA updated ethylene oxides toxicity value, a figure that defines the probability of developing cancer if exposed to a certain amount of a chemical over the course of a lifetime. That year, the agency published a report reevaluating ethylene oxide utilizing an epidemiological study of more than 18,000 sterilization facility workers. The agencys toxicologists determined the chemical to be 30 times more toxic to adults and 60 times more toxic to children than previously known. Ethylene oxide, they determined, was one of the most toxic federally regulated air pollutants. Prolonged exposure was linked to elevated rates of lymphoma and breast cancer among the workers. In one study of 7,576 women who had spent at least one year working at a medical sterilization facility, 319 developed breast cancer. According to an analysis by the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, roughly 14 million people in the U.S. live near a medical sterilization facility. As a result of the EPAs new evaluation, companies throughout the country came under greater scrutiny, with some sterilizers experiencing more frequent inspections. But regulators in Texas disputed the EPAs report. In 2017, eight years after Cardinal Healths first permit, officials with the TCEQ launched their own study of the chemical and set a threshold for ethylene oxide emissions that was 2,000 times more lenient than the EPAs, setting off a legal battle that is still playing out in court. For warehouses, which do not receive federal scrutiny, TCEQs lenient attitude meant virtually no oversight. By early 2020, people around the world had little energy for anything but the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, the spike in demand for sterilized medical devicesand now masksmeant that more trucks with more materials passed through warehouses like the one just beyond Dominguezs backyard. To approximate how high her familys exposure was to ethylene oxide during this period, Grist asked an expert air modeler to run Cardinal Healths stated emissions through a mathematical model that simulates how pollution particles disperse throughout the atmosphere. (This same model is used by the EPA and companiesincluding Cardinalduring the permitting process.) Grist collected the emissions information from permit files the company had submitted to the state. The results indicated that ethylene oxide concentrations on Dominguezs block amounted to an estimated cancer risk of 2 in 10,000; that is, if 10,000 people are exposed to that concentration of ethylene oxide over the course of their lives, you could expect 2 to develop cancer from the exposure. The EPA has never been perfectly clear about what cancer risk level it deems acceptable for the public to shoulder. Instead, it has used risk benchmarks to guide decisions around the permitting of new pollution sources near communities. The lower bound in this spectrum of risks is 1 in 1 million, a level above which the agency has said it strives to protect the greatest number of people possible. On the higher end of the spectrum is 1 in 10,000a level that public health experts have long argued is far too lax, since a persons cancer risk from pollution exposure accumulates on top of the cancer risk they already have from genetics and other environmental factors. The risk for Dominguez and her family is beyond even that. According to the air modelers results, 603,000 El Paso residents about 90% of the citys population, are exposed to a cancer risk above 1 in 1 million just from Cardinal Healths two warehouses. More than 1,600 peopleincluding many of Dominguezs neighborsare exposed to levels above EPAs acceptability threshold of 1 in 10,000. The analysis also estimated that the risk from Cardinal Healths warehouse is higher than that of a Sterigenics medical sterilization facility, located just 35 miles away in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. These findings underscore how much ethylene oxide can accumulate in the air simply from off-gassing. To be clear, these figures are based on Cardinals own data. Given the questions surrounding the companys estimates, the risk to Dominguez, her neighbors, and the facilitys workers could be higher. In 2021, Dominguez gave birth to her second child, and over the next few years, both she and her children began suffering from respiratory issues. Her young son, in particular, developed severe breathing problems, and a respiratory specialist prescribed an inhaler and allergy medication to help him breathe better. Her daughter, now a teenager, complained of persistent headaches. And she, too, began developing sinus headaches. Meanwhile, Cardinal Health was expanding its operations. In 2023, the company applied to the TCEQ for an updated permit as quickly as possible. At the warehouse across town from Dominguez, the company soon expected to receive nearly four times as many trucks carrying sterilized productspotentially up to 10,000 trucks a yearand the increased truck traffic may increase potential emissions of ethylene oxide. Cardinal relied on the 2013 experiment to estimate the facilitys emissions, simply multiplying that concentration by the new maximum number of trucks the facility would be permitted to receive. The back-of-the-envelope calculation led the company to estimate that the warehouse across town from Dominguez would increase its emissions to 1,000 pounds of the chemical per year. Cardinal also estimated that the medical equipment would off-gas 637 pounds of ethylene oxide inside the warehouse every year. However, it claimed that those emissions are de minimus, or insignificant sources of pollution. Under Texas state law, minimal emissions, such as the vapors that might form in a janitorial closet storing solvents or gas produced by running air conditioners or space heaters, may be excluded from permitting requirements. Like, if Im a college professor in school, I dont want to consider the volatile organic compounds coming out of the marker pens that Im writing with on the board, said Ron Sahu, a mechanical engineer and consultant with decades of experience working with state and federal environmental regulators and industrial operators. The exceptions, he said, were not based on highly toxic compounds like ethylene oxide. As required under Texas rules, Cardinal surveyed facilities around the country that emit comparable amounts of ethylene oxide and summarized the technology they use to reduce emissions. Given the volume of the emissions from the warehouse, the most analogous facilities were the sterilizers themselves. The company found two sterilizers in Texas that utilize equipment to reduce their emissions by 99%. But these options, Cardinal determined, were cost excessive and emissions from the warehouse were very low. Instead, the company said it would simply restrict the number of trucks unloading sterilized productsonly three per hour and 10,000 per year. In other words, it would expand its operations, but in a controlled way, in order to forego proven methods of reducing ethylene oxide emissions. Grist sent TCEQ detailed written questions about the permits it issued to Cardinal. Even though the questions were based on documents the agency has already made publicly available, a spokesperson requested that Grist send a formal records request due to the level of involvement and the amount of technical information you are requesting. Ultimately, in 2023, TCEQ granted Cardinals new permit. At the same time that Cardinal Health was expanding its operations in Texas, the fight to have stricter oversight of ethylene oxide was spreading across the country. Individuals in Lakewood, Colorado, filed private lawsuits for health care damages related to ethylene oxide exposure; others joined class action lawsuits against sterilization companies and the EPA. Finally, in April 2023, the EPA proposed long-overdue regulations to reduce ethylene oxide emissions from sterilizers. While the draft rule covered emissions from storage centers located on-site, it neglected to include off-site warehouses. Other provisions advocates had hoped for, like mandatory fence-line air monitoring near facilities, were also missing from the draft rule. Following standard procedure, the EPA then opened a 75-day period for public comment and potential revision to the draft rule. Earthjustice organized a convening of community advocates from across the country to increase pressure on the agency to strengthen its draft. Residents from California, Texas, Puerto Rico, and other places with sterilizers spent two days in Washington, D.C., petitioning members of Congress, meeting with the EPA, and sharing their stories of exposure. Daniel Savery, a legislative representative at Earthjustice who helped organize the event, told Grist that the meeting with the EPAs Office of Air and Radiation was well attended and that leadership expressed empathy for the stories they heard. But when the agency released the final rule in March 2024, neither off-site warehouses nor mandatory air monitoring was included. The regulations do reference the problem of off-site warehouses and indicate the agencys intention to collect information about thema first step that Savery believes wouldnt have made it into the rule were it not for pressure from the Washington meetings. However, he added, the EPA should have collected information about medical supply warehouses a long time ago. This is the EPAs eighth rodeo on this issue, Savery said, alluding to the many years advocates have pressed the agency to address ethylene oxide exposure since the chemical was found to be highly toxic in 2016. The EPAs Office of Inspector General, an independent agency watchdog, had asked the federal regulators as early as 2020 to do a better job informing the public about their exposure to ethylene oxide from the sterilization industry. The wool is sort of over the countrys eyes for the most part about these emissions sources, Savery said. Efforts to rein in ethylene oxide emissions seem unlikely during President Donald Trumps second term. Trumps nominee to lead the EPAs air quality office, Aaron Szabo, was a lobbyist for the sterilization industry, and the agency recently asked sterilizers seeking an exemption from ethylene oxide rules to send their petitions to a dedicated government email address. The Trump administration has since also said in court filings that it plans to revisit and reconsider the rule for sterilizers. A spokesperson for the EPA said they cannot speak to the decisions of the Bidn-Harris administration and cited the agencys recent decision to offer exemptions to sterilizers. The spokesperson also referenced a separate EPA decision to regulate ethylene oxide as a pesticide. That decision could require a specific study for monitoring data on fumigated medical devices to better understand worker exposure to EtO from fumigated medical devices, the spokesperson said. However, much like the sterilizer rule, the Trump administration could also decide to rescind the pesticide determination. Ethylene oxide from these warehouses is just unregulated, said Sahu, the mechanical engineer. Theres no control, so everything will eventually find its way to the ambient air. Last August, on a cloudy morning in east El Paso, Texas, when most peoples days were just getting started, workers at the Cardinal Health warehouse were sitting in their cars, a stones throw from the Dominguez backyard. Having started their shifts at 5 a.m., they were all on break. One young worker was talking to his girlfriend. Another was scrolling on Facebook. And another snacked on Takis, staining her fingers bright red. Some of their jobs require moving refrigerator-size pallets filled with sterilized medical devices. Others carefully cut open the pallets wrapped in plastic, moving the cardboard boxes containing the medical kits into the warehouse and repackaging them to be trucked to hospitals across the country. They do this with protective gloves, basic face masks, and hairnetsprecautions the company urges to ensure the sterility of the medical equipment, not the protection of the workers. Grist spoke to several of them while they were on break or leaving their shifts. Although none of the workers agreed to speak with Grist reporters on the record, due to a fear of retaliation by their employer, they shared their experiences about working at the warehouse. Most were unaware they were being exposed to ethylene oxide. Some had heard of the chemical but didnt know the extent of their exposure and its risks. Grist also distributed flyers to workers and nearby residents explaining the risks of ethylene oxide exposure. Two workers called Grist using the contact number on the flyer and said they had developed cancers that research links to ethylene oxide exposure after they started the job. Since learning about the warehouses emissions, Dominguez said she now thinks twice before letting her young son play in the backyard. Were indoors most of the time for that reason, she said. Dominguez had been considering buying the property from her boss, but her familys future in their home is now uncertain. I really changed my mind about that, she said. This article was originally published by Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here. Grist created an informational guideavailable in English and Spanishin collaboration with community organizations, nonprofits, and residents who have pushed for more EtO regulation for years. This booklet contains facts about EtO, as well as ways to get local officials to address emissions, legal resources, and more. You can view, download, print, and share it here. If youre a local journalist or a community member who wants to learn more about how Grist investigated this issue and steps you can take to find out more about warehouses in your area, read this.
Category:
E-Commerce
Having a helicopter manager can bring you down. Its exhausting to have a boss who constantly monitors you, requires you to check in all the time, and takes away your authority to make decisions. This sort of micromanagement can lead to decreased employee morale, lower productivity, and reduced job satisfaction, according to experts. Whether intentional or not, helicopter managers send clear signals that they do not trust their direct reports and are concerned about the work getting done correctly, says Matthew Owenby, chief strategy officer and head of human resources at Aflac. Helicopter managers can often exacerbate burnout by making employees feel that they are not respected, their time is not valued, and they are not given any autonomy at work. This can quickly lead to demoralization and disengagement. Its a growing problem, as many leaders appear to be increasing monitoring in the workplace. Owl Labs’s 2024 State of Hybrid Work Report found that 46% of workers reported that their company added or increased employee productivity and monitoring software in the past year. This has, in part, contributed to the rise in workplace anxiety as 43% of employees say their stress levels increased compared to last year, while 55% of managers say they are more stressed than ever, says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs. If youre dealing with a helicopter manager, here are a few things experts suggest you can do: Create an accountability plan The first step is to have a direct conversation about expectations and deliverables. I recommend focusing on establishing clear goals and metrics to shift the conversation from hours worked to results achieved, says Weishaupt. The goal is to shift the focus from constant surveillance to a results-oriented approach. Its important to set outcome-based benchmarks that give both employees and helicopter managers confidence that expectations are being met or exceeded, he explains. This framework outlines key deliverables and success metrics that are agreed upon, continues Weishaupt. With this understanding in place, your manager may reduce the need to hover. To start this conversation, Weishaupt suggests saying something like: I’m committed to our team’s success and wonder if we might explore setting outcome-based benchmarks that would give both of us confidence that I’m meeting or exceeding expectations. I’d be happy to draft a proposed framework for my role that outlines key deliverables and success metrics we could review together. Ask for feedback While your boss may have good intentions, their attitude is likely giving their reports the impression they are not trusted, or making them insecure about their abilities, says Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and vice president of HR Services with Engage PEO. Directly asking your boss for feedback can strengthen the accountability dynamic and cause them to lighten up. During your next check in, try asking for feedback on areas where you can improve, says Matsis-McCready. Its also important to demonstrate that you are open to feedback. When you ask good questions, your manager may not feel the need to hover as much, explains Amy Morin, a psychotherapist and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Dont Do. A sample script, per Morin, could sound like this: I want to make sure that I meet your expectations with this task. Can you share any feedback you have so far so I can make sure Im on track and so we can address any concerns up front? Id also like to hear your input on how youd like to devise a plan for me to keep you updated moving forward. This exchange may facilitate a calmer approach. Avoid pushing back on their management style, cautions Morin. Instead, show that youre looking for guidance and youll alleviate a lot of their fears. And when you do get criticism, its important to remain diplomatic. Avoid disagreeing with feedback even if it doesnt sound quite right, says Morin. If you argue, youll appear defensive and theyre more likely to hover. Proactively communicate If you take a preemptive approach to keeping your boss in the loop on your progress, this could lead to less monitoring. Increasing the number and frequency of status reports or creating a weekly meeting, followed by a written summary of the discussion with action items and focus areas, will demonstrate to some helicopter managers that the direct report is getting their work done and managing their time successfully, says Owenby. Seek out additional training Another thing to discuss with your boss is whether there are additional training opportunities you can pursue. Not only can these classes or training sessions boost your career, they can help increase your bosss confidence in your skill set. Approach the training with enthusiasm, and your manager may allow more autonomy and independence.
Category:
E-Commerce
To make the most of its stores and keep customers coming back to shop in person, baseball hat retailer Lids announced Wednesday that 20 locations will have a newly redesigned store concept this month built for customization and personalization. Physical retail’s not dead, but to breathe new life into itnot to mention make more money from the remaining square footagebrands are rolling out more personalized in-store customer experiences. Concierge-style customer service along with customizable products have become the name of the game to counter the many headwinds physical retail has faced in recent years, including the rise of online and social media shopping, the pandemic, and inflation. Personalized experiences create upsell opportunities, strengthen customer loyalty, and, most important, draw people into those dusty physical locations. [Photo: Lids] Lids does “north of 25 million transactions” in its stores, according to Glenn Schiffman, CFO of Fanatics, the apparel, merchandise, and collectibles company that owns a majority of Lids. Lids makes up a portion of the Fanatics commerce division along with Fanatics merchandise and collaborations with other brands, sports leagues, and celebrities. Its commerce division, which includes retail, is responsible for about three-fourths of its 2024 revenue, according to data from Sportico, a sports industry trade outlet. Parent company Fanatics grew 15% in 2024. [Photo: Lids] At Lids, the new store concept has a build-a-hat kiosk where customers can personalize headwear digitally; select locations will also have curving stations where customers can curve the brim to their liking. Known for its officially licensed and branded hats and apparel, Lids says the new stores have an increased emphasis on local teams and exclusive products. Exclusive product drops have become a common model for brands and artists to generate hypeand sales. [Photo: Lids] “Customization has always been at the heart of our brand, and this new store design takes it to the next level,” Lids President Bob Durda said in a statement. “This rollout represents our commitment to a dynamic, customer-centric experience where every visit feels personal, engaging, and tailored to each individual.” [Photo: Lids] Customization at Lids gives shoppers a product that’s distinctively theirs for a premium. The store offers hat curving for $10, stitching for $12, and patches for $15. Jersey personalization, which is available in some stores, starts at $50. Sure, you could get a cheap baseball hat from Amazon, or a custom jersey through the MLB’s pricey Fanatics-run online custom shop delivered in a few days. Lids seeks to counter these offerings with a premium design built to your liking with help from a professionaland you can walk out with it the same day. Personalization also increases the likelihood of return customers. A 71% majority of consumers expect personalized interactions from companies, according to a 2021 report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which also states that 78% of customers are more likely to make a repeat purchase from companies that personalize their offerings. The trend toward personalized, customized retail experiences can be seen across categories, from self-service kiosks at select Pizza Hut locations to DIY AI Jibbitz for Crocs. By giving customers the opportunity to build their own custom caps, Lids is giving them a store experience worth visiting.
Category:
E-Commerce
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