Countless animals ingest plastics and die. Do we care? Do we care that these plastics are now in the human food chain?
We often see news items about the environmental impact of single-use plastic straws. And we want to do something, which is good. Costa Rica plans to ban single-use plastics. At a recent G7 summit, the nations condemned single use straws and said they will discuss the matter at a future meeting. But no action has…
Evidence reviews of masks, goggles and shoe covers suggest individual pieces of PPE aren’t enough by themselves
By Michael Brown Contributor Troy Media There’s no evidence to suggest simple surgical masks aren’t as effective as scarce N95 respirator masks in protecting health-care staff during routine primary care, according to an international research team conducting literature reviews of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the context of COVID-19. University of Alberta occupational medicine specialists Sebastian…
Just because you ride a bike, that doesn’t put you on the side of the angels or make you better than the rest of us
In Vancouver, my hometown, city council is using the COVID-19 pandemic to fulfil a long-held fantasy: the elimination of cars and the end of vehicle traffic throughout the city. While the rest of us are coping with one of the worst economic crisis in Canadian history and bungling along with reduced public transit and dwindling…
Until regulators more loudly express their expectations for online identity verification, the integrity of risk mitigating training will be in doubt
Editor’s note: Online health and safety training is a booming industry, but how can employers and the public be assured that workers are completing course requirements? In the third in a series, Troy Media looks at gaps in regulation that throw the integrity of online learning into doubt. Online safety training for workers is here…
Today’s automobiles are full of safety features and more improvements are added every model year
In a dramatic video that made the rounds on the Internet a few years ago, a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu is crashed into a 1959 Chev Bel Air in a front offset collision staged by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Despite the prevailing wisdom that older automobiles, with their heavier construction and greater use…
Who will ensure devices have been tested thoroughly and are secure? Who will ensure our privacy is protected?
Back in the early 1990s, I came across a story about a Coke machine that you could query from anywhere on the Internet and it would tell you the temperature of the drinks, the last time it was stocked and how full it was. The machine was in the computer science department of Carnegie Mellon…
Online health and safety training is a booming industry, but how can employers and the public be assured that workers are completing course requirements?
Editors note: Online health and safety training is a booming industry, but how can employers and the public be assured that workers are completing course requirements? In the first of a series, Troy Media explores efforts to prevent fraud in the new world of digital learning. Safety training is increasingly going online because companies and…
A safe environment, fair pay, leadership and consideration for employees’ futures should always be at the forefront
I recently heard of a leader within an organization who was treating his assistant much like a slave. Not only was the leader verbally demeaning to the assistant, he would often bring his dog to work and expect his assistant clean up the mess his dog left in the building. Working in a non-unionized environment,…
You just don’t have the necessary eye-hand-ear co-ordination to drive and carry on a conversation at the same time, not even if you’re using Bluetooth
Hey you! Yeah, I’m talking to you … the guy who seems to be talking to himself or, worse, the one with a cellphone plastered to the side of his head. A moment of your time, if you please. I’ve been stuck in traffic behind you for a while and even if you haven’t noticed,…
Early reviews were strong but over time, questions about quality have cropped up
Introduced in 1976 and built in Germany, the original Ford Fiesta was one of the company’s most successful models. Over the years, Ford sold some 12 million of the sub-compacts worldwide. It was discontinued in North America in the early 1980s, despite continuing to be offered elsewhere. In Europe, the Fiesta has consistently been one…