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Health impacts of microplastic and nanoplastic exposure | Nature Medicine
Thursday September 18th, 2025 at 8:44 PM

Nature Medicine
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COVID outbreak blamed for Sydney Airport chaos
Thursday September 18th, 2025 at 11:46 AM

7NEWS
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Sydney Airport has been hit by major delays after a COVID outbreak swept through the control tower, forcing multiple air traffic controllers to call in sick.

The staffing crisis severely impacted departure operations, with flights limited to just 15 per hour for much of the day — around half the usual capacity at Australia’s biggest airport.

Airlines expressed fury over the disruptions but worked to shuffle passengers and reschedule flights to minimise the impact on travellers.

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Tower management initially warned the delays would continue into tonight, leaving red faces across the airport as frustrated passengers faced lengthy waits.

However, by mid-afternoon, airport authorities had scrambled to fill the roster gaps and flights returned largely to normal operations.

The timing couldn’t have been worse, with heavy passenger loads expected between Sydney and Melbourne due to the big weekend of footy finals.

Despite the earlier chaos, airport officials have promised there will be no further delays for football fans travelling to Melbourne for the finals.

The incident highlights the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on critical infrastructure, with the virus continuing to cause staffing shortages across essential services.

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Quebec bet big on Lion electric school buses. Now critics say the plan has backfired - Castanet.net
Wednesday September 17th, 2025 at 12:15 PM

Castanet.net - Canada
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Andrew Jones, owner of Autobus Beaconsfield and Transport Scolaire Élite, poses next to Lion electric school buses in his garage at their depot in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, after the government pulled the electric buses off the roads in the province following a fire. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Photo: The Canadian Press

Andrew Jones, owner of Autobus Beaconsfield and Transport Scolaire Élite, poses next to Lion electric school buses in his garage at their depot in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, after the government pulled the electric buses off the roads in the province following a fire. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The Quebec government's aggressive push to electrify its school bus fleet — while giving one local manufacturer a virtual monopoly — could now be turning school bus operators off electric vehicles and delaying the transition, critics say.

The abrupt withdrawal of 1,200 Lion electric school buses from Quebec roads after a bus in Montreal caught fire last week is prompting renewed criticism of the provincial government's approach to electrification.

Many school bus routes in Quebec remained cancelled Tuesday as bus operators completed inspections and made repairs to the vehicles' wiring, following guidance from Lion. Three Lion buses have caught fire in the last year, though nobody has been injured and the buses' batteries were not involved.

Chantale Dugas, president of the Quebec federation of bus operators, said Tuesday that about half of Lion buses were back in service. The federation says three-quarters of the buses should be running on Wednesday, and full service should resume by Friday at the latest.

But Dugas said the episode, which began Thursday night when the province ordered Lion buses off the road, is the latest in a "chaotic" series of events since the Quebec government embarked four years ago on a mission to electrify the school bus fleet, which she said has left bus operators feeling "abandoned."

It's not just carriers who are raising concerns. Valérie Tremblay with the Canadian Electric School Bus Alliance said provincial policies have already hindered the uptake of electric buses, and the fires will only aggravate the problem. "Right now, if I were a school bus operator, I could see very few good reasons to make the transition," she said.

In 2021, Quebec mandated that all new school buses purchased in the province be zero-emission as part of a goal to electrify 65 per cent of its bus fleet by 2030. But the subsidies it offers to bus operators to buy electric vehicles require that they be assembled in Canada, meaning that Lion is the main beneficiary of the program.

The province was trying to support a local company, Tremblay said, since Lion is headquartered in St.-Jérôme, Que. "I think it was really a matter of political will."

But the quasi-monopoly that Quebec gave to Lion has had consequences for private carriers like Andrew Jones, a Montreal-area bus operator. He said the eight Lion buses he owns are unreliable, in part because when they break down, it can take weeks to get them back on the road.

"In the case of Lion buses, we're obligated to only deal with their certified techs. So we're waiting on them to have availability. We're waiting on them for parts," he said. "We're subject to waiting on them 100 per cent of the time."

Dugas and Tremblay both said Quebec should make it easier for operators to purchase buses from elsewhere, especially in light of the string of negative headlines about Lion in recent months. After seeking protection from its creditors in December, the struggling manufacturer was acquired by a group of Quebec investors in May.

The Quebec government has invested heavily in Lion, and Premier François Legault said in May that the province stood to lose about $140 million.

"Perhaps broadening the administrative criteria and allowing other manufacturers to sell their vehicles in Quebec will give the transition a second wind," Tremblay said. "It could definitely help to ensure that electric school buses are not exclusively associated with Lion in the public's mind."

Lion's financial woes left operators in a bind earlier this year, unable to buy more electric buses while the company was in bankruptcy protection and forbidden from buying diesel replacements. In the spring, the Quebec government finally scrapped its requirement that all new purchases be electric.

Jones said he has since cancelled orders for 20 new Lion buses, and has ordered diesel buses instead. He said a deciding factor for him was the province's decision last year to reduce annual financial support for operating the electric buses from $12,900 to $5,000 per vehicle. "It's a huge shortfall for us to cover," he said.

According to Jones, the insurance cost for an electric bus is triple what it would be for a diesel equivalent. Electric buses also go through more tires because the vehicles are heavier, he said, and operators have to pay to maintain electric charging stations. The operators' federation estimates that each electric bus costs $14,000 more per year to operate than its diesel counterpart.

"When you start adding it all up and then knowing that (Lion) went through financial difficulties, you start wondering, will they still be here in two or three years?" Jones said. "So if that means I have to put off electrification for two or three years again … I'll roll that dice."

In the spring, the government increased its subsidy for the purchase of electric buses to $240,000 per vehicle, up from a maximum of $175,000. But Jones said the sticker price of Lion buses has also increased, so operators are still paying the same amount.

Dugas said the federation hopes to meet with the Quebec education and transport ministers to chart a path forward. "The government's mistake wasn't in wanting electrification, it was in the business model that was imposed on our carriers," she said.

"It was in saying that you would receive financial assistance on the condition that you use the services of a single manufacturer."

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sarcozona
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Right to repair would save so much money - and ultimately bolster the growth of competitors

> He said the eight Lion buses he owns are unreliable, in part because when they break down, it can take weeks to get them back on the road.
"In the case of Lion buses, we're obligated to only deal with their certified techs. So we're waiting on them to have availability. We're waiting on them for parts," he said. "We're subject to waiting on them 100 per cent of the time."
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'Gut punch' for people who get cancer diagnosis in emergency: study | National Post
Wednesday September 17th, 2025 at 11:03 AM

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CDC pauses work-from-home permission for those with disabilities | STAT
Tuesday September 16th, 2025 at 10:55 PM

STAT
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revoked permission for employees with disabilities to work from home, at least temporarily, and paused approving reasonable accommodations for new applicants seeking to work from home, according to a Sept. 15 email obtained by STAT.

The agency’s decision stems from the Trump administration’s January directive to mostly end remote work for federal employees and is tied to an August update to a broader Health and Human Services telework policy, which the CDC email said did not include long-term telework as an option for federal employees with disabilities. 

The email says CDC is awaiting clarification from HHS, but meanwhile, “all approvals for long-term telework, to include reasonable accommodation (RA) long-term telework are paused until further notice.” Employees may still submit requests for reasonable accommodation and are “encouraged to reach out to their supervisor or manager for assistance with an interim solution,” according to the email from an official in the CDC’s Office of Human Resources.

It’s unclear how many CDC employees work remotely full time, though Yolanda Jacobs, president of AFGE Local 2883, one of the unions representing CDC workers, said that dozens of employees were affected by the withdrawal of approval for remote work.

Disability lawyers suggested that the CDC’s action could violate the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a landmark law that provides employment protections for federal employees with disabilities.

“This raises serious concerns, any type of reasonable accommodation must be individualized and looking at the specific job’s duties,” said Alison Barkoff, the former head of the Administration for Community Living. “A blanket policy that telework can never be an accommodation raises serious legal concerns.”

This confusion over remote work started in January, when President Trump issued an executive order calling for agency heads to “terminate remote work arrangements” and require employees to return to working in person, though federal officials would later carve out telework exceptions. The uncertainty spread when everyone at the CDC who oversaw reasonable accommodations was let go as part of the major April reduction in force, at which time employees with pending requests for reasonable accommodations were given temporary approval for their exemptions, according to Jacobs.

There was no movement in this telework tug-of-war until Monday, when CDC employees with longstanding reasonable accommodations and others who had submitted requests were denied without explanation. Jacobs believes this policy change can be attributed to “overreach and overinterpretation” from CDC officials who were unsure of how to interpret the August policy update. It’s unclear whether other health agencies will be affected. 

HHS officials did not respond to a request for comment.

CDC employees were not given detailed explanation for why their reasonable accommodations or requests had been withdrawn, though disability law requires that supervisors have conversations with federal employees about why they need accommodations for their specific role. One employee received an email revoking their telework accommodation at 2:23 a.m. on Tuesday, according to emails obtained by STAT. Their supervisor had not been made aware of the decision. Jacobs said that others were told to report to work the next day, disability notwithstanding.

“That means that some employees would no longer be able to work for the agency,” she said. “You’re being told that your disability doesn’t matter.”

STAT’s coverage of disability issues is supported by grants from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.

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sarcozona
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The cdc doesn’t want any more disabled employees
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