The Clean

Maintaining a clean kitchen is a perpetual task that’s best performed as a collection of habitual motions you barely notice: Filling the dishwasher with breakfast dishes before you fill your water bottle for the day. Clearing off and wiping down counters while you recount the day’s schedule. These are the daily rhythms of life that take place in the heart of the home.Read Full Story The CleanClean HouseTallahasseeSan FranciscoThe KitchenOpen KitchenWork From HomeBreakfast TimeWork TimeThe Long Way HomeShifrahUpper CabinetsRefrigeratorCleaningBreakfast Dishes

PHNOM PENH Oct 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The pandemic risks triggering a race to the bottom that could push tens of millions of Asian garment workers into greater hazard on the factory floor, with women hardest hit, the International Labour Organization said on Wednesday.About 40% of workers furloughed or laid off by the COVID-19 crisis were not back at work by the third quarter and those who do return could lose hard-won labour rights, the agency said.“Workers are extremely vulnerable and factories are vulnerable to agree to conditions with brands that don’t allow them to ensure proper working conditions,” said Tara Rangarajan of the ILO’s Better Work programme.“It’s important ... that this doesn’t become a race to the bottom where those at the lowest end of power and privilege are the ones that suffer the greatest,” she said at the launch of an ILO report on the pandemic’s effect on garment workers.Garment workers have been heavily hit by the pandemic, with shops closed and factories shuttered.Fashion brands cancelled billions of dollars worth of orders from suppliers around the world, costing workers up to $5.8 billion in lost wages, according to advocacy group Clean Clothes Campaign.In the Asia-Pacific - home to about 65 million garment workers - orders from big Western buyers fell by up to 70% over the first half of 2020, costing the average worker between two and four weeks’ salary, said the United Nations agency.While the industry has stabilised in some centres, in Bangladesh, where at least 70,000 workers have been laid off, fears are growing that many will become destitute.“Given that the situation is worsening, I think we can all imagine what that would mean,” said Christian Viegelahn, a senior economist for the ILO in the Asia-Pacific.The crisis has given rise to union busting in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar and seen countries introduce harsh laws that activists fear could be used to restrict worker rights.Women make up the majority of garment factory staff and have born the brunt of the crisis, Viegelahn said.“There is significant risk that we see existing inequalities between women and men exacerbated and some of the progress we have seen over recent years will be reversed.”The researchers studied Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines, with uncertainty due to last for months - at least.Mohammad Akash has reverted to transporting stones for about $2 a day since he was laid off from a Dhaka garment factory.“It pays half what I used to earn and its twice as painful,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.The 33-year-old lost his job in March and said he is still waiting on severance pay and other benefits promised by the bosses he had served for eight years."I haven't been able to pay rent for my house in four months," he said. (Reporting by Matt Blomberg and Naimul Karim, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org)ILOLabor RightsClothingPhnom PenhWorkforceLayoffCOVID-19 PandemicPhilippinesIndonesiaChinaUnited NationsFear FactoryWorkers RightsBetter WorkClean Clothes Campaign

The sustainability initiative that arose out of the Long-Range Vision has awarded 17 seed grants providing one year of funding to faculty pursuing groundbreaking ideas for sustainability solutions. The grants focus on a

UNDATED -- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has released two reports that studied the water quality in the Mississippi River-Sartell Area Watershed and strategies to restore and protect it moving forward. The first

The US Environmental Protection Agency has lowered methane emissions standards - which will 'lead to environmental damage and health issues like cardiovascular disease'. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) relea

Air District and Richmond-San Pablo community members release first-of-its-kind air monitoring plan. The Air District, in partnership with community members, has released the Path to Clean Air, a Richmond-San Pablo commu

During the 2020 monitoring period, Ferndale’s Department of Public Works (DPW) collected samples from 31 properties with known lead service lines. Of these 31 properties, five were found to have lead concentration levels above the lead Action Level established by the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act of 15ppb (parts per billion). The City’s 90th percentile value was 30 ppb.Safe Drinking WaterWater SupplyWater ServiceWater SafetyWater QualityClean WaterNSF/ANSI StandardDPWEGLEHealthMonitoringFoodSamplesInventory Service LinesLead Service LinesRead Full Story

Court approves Lehigh Cement settlement to reduce air emissions in Cupertino. The Air District is announcing that a consent decree lodged last year in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the Air District, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other local agencies with Lehigh Cement and Lehigh White Cement to reduce harmful air emissions has been approved by the court.Read Full Story Portland CementU.s. EpaSulfur DioxideClean Air ActManufacturing PlantsU.S. EPAEnvironmental PollutionAir PollutionThe U.S. District CourtDepartment Of JusticeLehigh White CementKb PDFLehigh Cement SettlementApproves LehighHarmful Air Emissions

James Hamblin is tired of being asked if he's smelly. Hamblin, a physician and health reporter, has been fielding the question since 2016, when the article he wrote about his decision to stop showering went viral. The pi

England, 2020. Every single river and lake is polluted beyond legal limits. Not one is free from toxic chemicals from industries past and present. Water companies disgorge untold volumes of raw human sewage into them, wh