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cbabe's JournalCarcinogen in your deodorant?
Source: The Guardian
Carcinogenic chemical benzene found in hundreds of US personal care products
Independent lab found the chemical in more than a quarter of items it tested – sometimes at levels considered ‘life threatening’
Tom Perkins
Fri 18 Mar 2022 04.00 EDT
Independent testing has found hundreds of popular personal care items in the US to be contaminated with benzene, a highly carcinogenic chemical, prompting several big brands to voluntarily recall dozens of products in recent months.
The lab, Valisure, last year detected benzene in hand sanitizers, sunscreens, deodorant, dry shampoos, conditioners, antiperspirants, deodorants, body sprays and anti-fungal treatments. The contamination has been most frequently detected in aerosol or spray products, some at levels the Food and Drug Administration characterized as “life-threatening”.
The findings suggest that benzene contamination is widespread and is probably in more products that have not yet been tested, said David Light, Valisure’s chief executive.
“Benzene really shouldn’t be there at all,” he said. “What we’re seeing is a fundamental problem in the manufacturing of a lot of consumer products.” To date, Valisure has tested 662 items and found the chemical in 180, or about 27%, of products.
Procter & Gamble, Bayer, CVS and Johnson & Johnson have issued voluntary recalls for widely distributed brands including Brut, Sure, Pantene, Herbal Essences, Old Spice, Secret, Tinactin, Lotrimin, Coppertone, Neutrogena and Aveeno. Among the recalled hand sanitizer brands are Art Naturals, Best Brands and Natural Wunderz.
Light pointed to “decades of research” that has found no safe levels of benzene exposure because it’s so toxic at very low levels. The petroleum-based chemical “causes cancer”, especially leukemia and in blood forming organs, the US Department of Health and Human Services wrote. The toxin has also been shown to harm the central nervous system and reproductive organs.
(More)
Read more: Theguardian.com
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Id.me coming to WA after dropped by IRS
IRS has dropped ID.me's facial recognition tech after backlash, but Washington state will roll it out in June
by Lauren Rosenblatt, The Seattle Times
facial recognition
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Washington state is getting ready to roll out the ID.me facial recognition system dropped by the IRS last month over privacy and equity concerns.
Human rights activists and some federal lawmakers are asking state government officials, including in Washington, to ban the system. Amid the outcry, Washington's Employment Security Department says it doesn't use ID.me to verify the identities of people claiming jobless benefits—but plans to start doing so in June.
"Recently, we launched a competitive procurement process to secure a tool claimants would use to verify their identity before applying for benefits," said Nick Demerice, director of public affairs. ID.me, Demerice said, was the winning vendor.
Sold as a way to help stop scammers from accessing unemployment aid by adding an extra layer of security, ID.me offers government agencies and other customers a way to verify an individual's identity using information like a driver's license, Social Security number and a facial scan. The system prompts each user to take a "video selfie," holding the camera in front of their face to scan until they see a green check mark.
ID.me's technology is already used in 27 states' unemployment systems, as well as several federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Four states credited the system with preventing $210 billion in fraud, ID.me says.
Washington launched a pilot project with ID.me in 2021, part of its efforts to combat a spike in fraud in spring 2020, Demerice said. Washington state officials found $1.6 million in fraudulent claims in March and April of that year, leading them to temporarily halt unemployment benefits.
The state did not implement the ID.me system following the pilot.
Recently, ID.me's facial recognition technology has come under fire for the amount of information it collects from applicants, which opponents of the system worry could be misused, resold or stolen.
Critics also say the system creates barriers that prevent people from accessing unemployment aid. The tech is not accessible to people who don't have smartphones, computers or internet access. Facial recognition technology, they contend, also perpetuates racial biases.
Techxplore.com
Original article seattletimes.com March 2
Jack Sweeney tracking oligarch jets.
Teen who tracked Elon Musk’s jet turns his attention to Russian oligarchs
Jack Sweeney has amassed 162,000 Twitter followers on a new account monitoring the private jets of billionaires and tycoons
Theguardian.com
March 1
Hope he also posts addresses of oligarch palaces. We could chalk their sidewalks.🌻
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