Australian Politics

World’s biggest study finds array of harms from common plastics

This is yet another foray in the war against BPA etc. It appears to be based on a "report" that accepts as proven the harms alleged, depite the repeated failures of the central correlations to reach significant levels in research. See the originating article below:

https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.4056

The world’s first major scientific review into the effects of plastics and microplastics chemicals on human health has found that the chemicals in many common products are associated with a wide range of health risks, including poor birth outcomes and miscarriage, infertility, metabolic disease and endocrine dysfunction.

Australian researchers who carried out the study say it “categorically proves” that none of the chemicals examined, including BPA, flame retardants, PFAS and an array of other common chemicals found in plastics that infiltrate people’s bodies in small quantities every day, can be considered safe.

“This is a red flag for the world,” said Sarah Dunlop, head of plastics and human health at the Minderoo Foundation. “We must minimise our exposure to these plastic chemicals, as well as the many that haven’t yet been assessed for human health outcomes but are known to be toxic.”

The peer-reviewed study published in the Annals of Global Health by Australian doctors and academics associated with the Perth-based Minderoo Foundation was an umbrella review – considered the highest level of scientific synthesis – of almost 800 published studies and 52 systematic reviews into the effects of plastics chemicals.

“To our knowledge, this study is first to investigate the complete, high-level, evidence for human health effects of plastics and plastic-associated chemicals across a broad range of plastic chemical groups,” the authors of the study said.

It follows a Florey Institute study earlier this month that for the first time established a biological pathway between the plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) and autism spectrum disorder.

The umbrella review investigated five classes of chemicals including bisphenols and phthalates, PBDE, PCBs and PFAS, known as a ‘forever chemical’ used at defence bases that has been found in several crucial water supply plants. Also included were plasticisers and flame retardants – two classes of functional additive with the highest concentration ranges in plastic.

The study found that none of the investigated classes of chemicals are safe with statistically significant harmful impacts found for fertility in men and women, birth weight in babies, children’s neurodevelopment, and the development of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and asthma.

Bisphenol A (BPA) – commonly found in food packaging, water bottles and cosmetics – was found to be associated with genital changes in infants, type 2 diabetes in adults, insulin resistance in children and adults, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity and hypertension in children and adults and cardiovascular disease.

Phthalates plasticisers – found in a wide array of plastic products including nail polish, children’s toys, cosmetics and medical products – were associated with spontaneous pregnancy loss, genital changes in boys, and insulin resistance in children and adults.

There were additional associations between certain phthalates and decreased birth weight, type 2 diabetes in adults, precocious puberty in girls, reduced sperm quality, endometriosis, adverse cognitive development and intelligence quotient (IQ) loss, adverse fine motor and psychomotor development and elevated blood pressure in children and asthma in children and adults.

Other types of chemicals were similarly associated with pregnancy loss, decreased birth weight, endometriosis, bronchitis in infants, obesity, and the cancers Hodgkin’s lymphoma and breast cancer.

It is next to impossible for an individual to limit completely their exposure to harmful plastics chemicals, although experts advise reducing consumption of water in plastic bottles, reducing consumption of packaged food, and not heating plastic containers in the microwave.

Regulation of production and plastics chemicals in products is the only way to protect human health. But there is very little regulation of plastic chemicals in Australia or most other countries.

A Global Plastics Treaty is currently being negotiated that advocates of reform hope will set the stage for recognition of the substances’ harmful health effects and increase pressure on governments to regulate.

Professor Dunlop said there was now no doubt that plastics chemicals were harmful to human health.

“Plastic is not the safe, inert material we thought it was,” she said. “It’s made of 16,000 chemicals or so. We are exposed. We’re exposed across our lifespan, and there are health impacts across our lifespan.

“We’ve got to pull together and act fast, because plastic production is soaring. We need to really get the cause of the problem and reduce or cap plastic production.

“The second thing is to take a really good, hard look at the chemicals, because at the moment, unlike pharmaceuticals, which are highly regulated, industrial chemicals are being produced at a rate that is from this just outstripping our ability to identify what’s being produced and outstripping our ability to find out whether or not it’s harmful.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/health/worlds-biggest-study-finds-array-of-harms-from-common-plastics/news-story/09d9382f70c7db3b4edc199946bc0bb9

***************************************************

Coalition to launch an all-out blitz on teal seats

Peter Dutton will launch an all-out assault to wrestle back seats lost to the teals and edge the Coalition closer to winning government, with the Liberal Party bringing forward preselections, ramping up fundraisers and attacking Climate 200-backed independents.

The Australian can reveal opposition frontbenchers are preparing blitzes of teal-held seats in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, with Kooyong and Curtin emerging as the top targets for the Liberal Party.

With Amelia Hamer, Tom White, Ro Knox and Tim Wilson already locked in for Kooyong, Curtin, Wentworth and Goldstein respectively, the NSW Liberal Party on Wednesday opened nominations for the northern Sydney seats of Mackellar and Warringah.

Nominations for the Labor-held central coast seat of Robertson close at 5pm on Thursday.

While winning Allegra Spender’s seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s east is considered unlikely, senior Liberal Party strategists have not given up on reclaiming historic blue-ribbon territory. If former NSW planning minister Rob Stokes or another high-profile candidate nominates for Mackellar, Liberal strategists are hopeful of ousting Sophie Scamps.

Senior opposition sources said there had been strong fundraising and volunteer support for Ms Hamer and Mr White, who are running in Monique Ryan’s inner-Melbourne seat of Kooyong, which she took from former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and Kate Chaney’s Perth seat of Curtin.

Institute of Public Affairs' Daniel Wild has slammed the Teals calling them “cashed up Greens”.

Amid tensions among teals on key issues and recent attacks targeting Mr Dutton, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley attacked the independents for “betraying” their traditionally conservative electorates and teaming up with Labor and the Greens.

Ms Ley, the most senior woman in the Coalition who has visited the six key teal seats 31 times since the 2022 election, will travel to Kooyong next week and make her ninth visit to the Perth seat of Curtin.

Following recent scandals, the federal Liberal executive is increasingly likely to take control of preselections in NSW ahead of the election.

Amid expectations of a hung parliament following the next election and the Coalition needing to win back a swath of seats, Ms Ley accused the teals of becoming the “official opposition to the opposition” and having no right to “critique” parliamentary standards.

“It is clear we now have an official opposition to the opposition. This is a betrayal of the communities the teals were elected to represent – they promised their communities they would fight for them and their local issues, but instead all these communities have seen is an unhealthy teal obsession with Peter Dutton and the Coalition,” Ms Ley told The Australian.

“These members have enabled Labor and the Greens to evade scrutiny, reduce transparency and get away with policy decisions that specifically disadvantage Australians living in teal-held seats.

“By regularly giving Labor and the Greens cover in the parliament and in the media, the teals have clearly decided their pathway to re-election isn’t by holding this bad Labor government to account but by launching slurs at us.”

Sky News host Chris Kenny says the hypocrisy and cynicism was “flowing thick and fast” in Canberra today.

After a group of teal independents attacked Mr Dutton for what they claimed was poor parliamentary standards, Ms Ley said “the reality is that the House of Representatives is a robust chamber, a unique workplace, where MPs are sent here to fiercely advocate for their communities”.

“The fact is that the teals have not lived up to the tests they have set on ‘parliamentary standards’ in their comments about Peter Dutton and that is not good enough. Until they do that, I find it hard to accept their critique of the parliament.”

The attack on the teals came as the government introduced legislation establishing a new Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission – a watchdog recommended in the review into parliamentary workplaces conducted by then sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told ABC radio the IPSC was a “significant structural reform” that would help to “change the culture in this workplace”.

The IPSC would be led by a “chair commissioner” who would be supported by between six to eight other commissioners.

All would be appointed on a part-time basis, with their pay set by the remuneration tribunal.

Current or former MPs, staffers, journalists, lobbyists, cafe workers, volunteers or interns employed within a commonwealth parliamentary workplace could be subject to allegations lodged with the IPSC.

If an allegation related to a current parliamentarian, the investigating commissioner could refer a finding of a serious breach to the Privileges Committee, which could recommend a fine of 2-5 per cent of an MP’s annual base salary, a discharge from a parliamentary committee position and a suspension from the parliament.

Teal MP Zali Steggall on Wednesday expressed concern the IPSC would investigate only allegations of conduct that did not form part of the proceedings in parliament.

She said she and many of her colleagues had experienced “heckling, bullying, shouting (and) intimidation” in the chamber.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/coalition-to-launch-an-allout-blitz-on-teal-seats/news-story/51878c039e8e2b397def21a8b86488fe

****************************************************

DNA whistleblower ignored

She should have been first pick

The scientist who exposed Queensland’s DNA lab disaster has been left ouf of the new authority tasked with overseeing forensic testing in the state.

Forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, who uncovered disastrous testing practices at the government-run lab that compromised thousands of criminal cases and potentially allowed killers and rapists to escape justice, has been excluded from the new advisory board overseeing the lab.

In parliament on Wednesday, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath announced the 11-member council would be chaired by former District Court judge Julie Dick SC and include representatives from forensic services, law, policing and victim support.

The authority was a key recommendation of retired judge Walter Sofronoff in his 2022 commission of inquiry into the DNA testing debacle.

Mr Sofronoff’s inquiry was launched as a result of Dr Wright’s revelations on The Australian’s Shandee’s Story and Shandee’s Legacy podcasts, and prompted the state government to invest $200m to rebuild the lab.

Dr Wright said she was “obviously disappointed” her application to join the authority had been unsuccessful.

“I haven’t put a foot wrong so I am at a loss to understand what else I need to do to be considered,” she told The Australian.

“I want victims of crime and Queenslanders to know that I am not giving up on them and I am not going away. I will continue to represent them even if it has to be from the outside.”

Based on the Gold Coast, Dr Wright works for the Australian Army developing forensic capability for counter-terrorism and national security needs, and as an RAAF reservist squadron leader helps recover and identify fallen soldiers from historic and current conflicts.

She is a visiting fellow with the Genomics Research Centre at the Queensland University of Technology, was involved in the response to the 2002 Bali bombings, led an international team identifying victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, was manager of the national DNA database, and was pivotal to identifying the remains of schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.

Premier Steven Miles said he was unaware Dr Wright had expressed interest in the role. Ms D’Ath said 45 people applied for positions and appointments were made “following a highly competitive international search”.

In his final inquiry report, Mr Sofronoff found catastrophic testing problems at the lab may have been avoided if a forensic science advisory board had existed.

“Indeed, it is difficult to see how many of the mistakes dealt with in this report could have lain undetected for long if there had been such oversight,” he wrote.

Forensic experts on the authority include forensic services director at the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police Christopher Porter and Adjunct Professor Alastair Ross, who is foundation director of the National Institute of Forensic Science.

The manager of the Queensland Police Service’s DNA unit, David Neville, who began to quietly review the lab’s unusual failure rate in detecting DNA in late 2021, was also appointed.

Other members include victim advocates Cathy Crawford and Rhea Mohenoa, Queensland Health’s chief medical officer Catherine McDougall and solicitor Patrick Quinn as well as representatives from police, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Legal Aid Queensland.

Crown prosecutor Gregory Cummings has been promoted to a new deputy director role at the DPP, which will focus on cases requiring retested DNA evidence.

Ms D’Ath said the establishment of the council was a “significant step toward reforming Queensland’s forensic services”.

“The council will monitor and review all FSQ policies and procedures relating to the administration of criminal justice, which should help to restore the community’s confidence in our state’s forensic services.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/dna-expert-kirsty-wright-will-fight-on-despite-snub/news-story/a2e83799ac8d2d95d0ef86a5c94cf460

*****************************************************

Facebook removes pro-nuclear energy content

Dozens of Facebook users promoting pro-nuclear lobby group Nuclear for Australia’s content have had posts removed for being “misleading”, triggering claims some people are trying to “suppress vital information that could change the future of our country”.

Months out from the federal election – in which nuclear will be a key issue – and after anti-nuclear groups had their content blocked or accounts temporarily deleted across social media platforms, Nuclear for Australia has received 44 complaints from supporters who have had posts taken down.

The users had shared a Nuclear for Australia petition to legalise nuclear energy and a video interview between the organisation’s founder, Will Shackel, and businessman Dick Smith supporting the energy source in June and July.

But a Meta spokeswoman played down the issue, denying it had censored the two posts The Australian was able to share with it.

“Based on the information available, we believe the content was removed due to a technical error by our automated systems. The error was identified and fixed in late July and all impacted posts were reinstated,” the spokeswoman said.

Facebook users were told their posts were removed because “it looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way” and “your post goes against our community standards on spam”.

“We want you to share freely with others. We only remove things or restrict people to keep the community respectful and safe,” Meta says in an automated response.

Mr Shackel will email supporters on Wednesday asking for contributions to “help us bypass the roadblocks and bring the truth to light”.

“The truth about nuclear energy could transform Australia’s future but has been blocked from reaching the people who need to hear it most,” he says in a copy of the email.

“This isn’t just a minor inconvenience – it’s a clear indication of the political will of some to suppress vital information that could change the future of our country.”

Mr Smith, whose face and voice have been used in fraudulent ads online, said it was impossible for the government to legislate against removal of material but they needed to step in and treat Meta and other tech giants as publishers, ensuring they were liable for what they put on their platforms.

“You end up with this situation where they let through fraudulent ads run by criminal gangs but at the same time they delete genuine posts,” Mr Smith said.

Renew Economy, which posts clean energy news and analysis, had the same automated response from Meta as Nuclear for Australia did when a post sharing analysis by University of Queensland economist John Quiggin was removed on July 22.

The analysis was headlined “Czech nuclear deal shows CSIRO GenCost is too optimistic, and new nukes are hopelessly uneconomic” and found building two to four megawatt nuclear plants in Australia would “probably cost $50bn-$100bn, and not be complete until well into the 2040s”.

The Climate Council had a TikTok video hitting out at the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy taken down on July 21 for violating community guidelines of “integrity and authenticity”.

The video reappeared a few days later after a staff member appealed, saying the video was science-based and had been reviewed by researchers at the organisation prior to it going live.

The Climate Council says it understands TikTok pulls videos only after users lodge complaints and is investigating how many complaints it takes to get a post removed.

The Australian Conservation Foundation had its account on X suspended on July 22 for violating the social media platform’s rules “against evading suspension” after a user reported them.

The organisation appealed the decision and after the ACF made contact with an Australian-based employee at X, the account was switched back on that night.

ACF’s X profile was suspended for a second time on August 4 with no warning and was down for nearly two days, with the social media platform saying its account had been flagged as spam by mistake.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said at the time he didn’t always agree with the ACF but the suspension was “another outrageous example of social media trying to shut down voices for climate action”.

Mr Shackel posted on X: “Breaking: Australian Conservation Foundation has had its X account suspended. Perhaps the disinformation caught up with them …”

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety was examining the influence and impacts of social media on Australian society, including how digital platforms influenced what Australians saw and heard online.

“Digital platforms have a range of community standards, terms of service and policies to support the integrity of the information and accounts on their platforms,” she said.

“Debate on matters of public interest is a hallmark of our democracy.”

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said social media platforms should not censor legitimate political debate, noting freedom of expression was fundamental to society.

“The last thing we need are digital giants telling us what we can and cannot say but the Albanese government sees things differently,” he said. “If its deeply flawed misinformation bill had become law, political censorship by big tech would have become rampant.”

Mr Bowen was approached for comment but his office referred The Australian to his previous remarks attacking the removal of Renew Economy’s Facebook post and the ACF’s X account.

Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said: “Labor and others should not rob Australians of their right to a mature conversation about the role zero-emissions nuclear energy could play in Australia as part of a balanced energy mix.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/facebook-removes-pronuclear-energy-content/news-story/03f0994c82eb006062be542a7898276f