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Daily Archives: June 23, 2022

Do you live close enough to a small US airport to have lead exposure? Check our maps

Quartz – At in the heart of Silicon Valley filled up their tanks with a heavy metal most Americans assumed was banished long ago: lead. Reid-Hillview was not unusual in this respect. Virtually every small airplane in the US burns fuel containing tetraethyl lead (TEL), an additive introduced in the 1920s to boost octane levels. It’s so toxic, a splash on the skin can be lethal. But in January, Santa Clara County, which owns Reid-Hillview, imposed the first ban in the US on refueling with leaded aviation gas, sparking a fight with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and forcing some plane owners to refuel their airplanes elsewhere. County officials have since reaffirmed the ban, and now other airports are considering following suit. Prompted by scientific research showing higher than average lead levels in children living near Reid-Hillview, Quartz has done the first investigation combining lead emissions data at the country’s top civil aviation airports with flight paths for small, piston-engine aircraft over affected neighborhoods. The analysis of over 350 million aircraft locations from planes taking off and landing in the US shows the extent to which lead-fuel burning aircraft regularly expose homes, parks, schools, and playgrounds across the country. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates 16 million people—and 3 million children—live within a kilometer of these airports…”

Americans differ by party, age over ways to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S.

America’s Abortion Quandary – A majority of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, but many are open to restrictions; many opponents of legal abortion say it should be legal in some circumstances: “Americans’ long-standing debate over abortion has often centered on whether the procedure should be legal. But beneath the… Continue Reading

Vatican releases thousands of Holocaust-era letters and requests online

Times of Israel: “Pope Francis orders the online publication of 170 volumes of its Jewish files from the recently opened Pope Pius XII archives, the Vatican announces, amid renewed debate about the legacy of its World War II-era pope. The documentation contains 2,700 files of requests for Vatican help from Jewish groups and families, many… Continue Reading

The Future of Corporate Criminal Liability: Watching the ESG Space

Nelson, J.S. (Josephine Sandler), The Future of Corporate Criminal Liability: Watching the ESG Space (January 15, 2022). J.S. Nelson, The Future of Corporate Criminal Liability: Watching the ESG Space, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4057736 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4057736 “The future of corporate criminal liability in the U.S. and around the world may be for failure to adequately act… Continue Reading