Campbell’s soup cans to become BPA free
THE world’s most iconic soup brand has pledged to remove a controversial ingredient from its products.
March 29, 201612:46pm http://www.news.com.au
While opinions remain divided over whether it’s a dangerous toxin or a harmless preservative, Campbell Soup Co will stop using the chemical Bisphenol A in its canned products by the middle of next year, in response to an impassioned consumer campaign.
Bisphenol A, also known as BPA, is used to make the epoxy-resin linings of metal food cans.
It is an endocrine disrupter that has been linked with cancer, brain damage and hormonal problems, but the level of safe use is in dispute.
Some scientific studies support the argument that low doses are okay, while others argue that low doses may be even more harmful.
The US-based Breast Cancer Fund, which lobbied hard for BPA to be removed, says it’s linked to breast and prostate cancer, infertility, early puberty in girls, type-2 diabetes, obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Both the US Food and Drug Administration and Food Standards Australia New Zealand maintain that BPA is safe at the current levels used in food, but activists have labelled it a ‘child killer’.
The chemical, which research has shown the female sex hormone oestrogen, can affect the body’s endocrine system.
Its effects are often more pronounced in children and infants, leading to the chemical being phased out of use in baby bottles in Australia.
Now, after more than 40 years of using BPA to line its canned soups, gravies and convenience meals, Campbell Soup Co has began switching to alternative packaging.
About 75 per cent of Campbell’s soups will be sold in non-BPA cans by the end of this year, according to the company, which maintains that BPA is among the world’s safest options.
“Our priority throughout this transition has been, and will continue to be, food safety,” said Mike Mulshine, Campbell’s senior program manager of packaging.
In most instances, Campbell is trying to replace BPA with acrylic and polyester options.
Campbell’s began studying alternatives to BPA in 2012, after a six-month activist campaign targeted the company, sending more than 70,000 letters demanding a change.
“Parents want to be sure when they serve Campbell’s Soup to their kids that it is free of toxic chemicals that contribute to disease,” Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, Executive Director of Healthy Children Healthy World, said at the time.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘worst’ bleaching
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living structure and can be seen from space.
Evidence that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst coral bleaching on record has renewed calls for the UN to list it as “in-danger”.
The National Coral Bleaching Taskforce says 95% of reefs from Cairns to Papua New Guinea are now severely bleached.
It says only four reefs out of 520 have no evidence of bleaching.
Unesco voted not to put the reef on its World Heritage in Danger list last year, but green groups want the decision reassessed.
Coral taskforce convener Professor Terry Hughes told the BBC his team was yet to find the southern border where the bleaching ended.
“Tomorrow we will continue further south from Cairns to Townsville about 400km (250 miles) and spend the day scoring another 150 reefs,” Professor Hughes said.
Mass coral bleaching
- Coral bleaching is caused by rising water temperatures resulting from two natural warm currents.
- It is exacerbated by man-made climate change, as the oceans are absorbing about 93% of the increase in the earth’s heat.
- Bleaching happens when corals under stress drive out the algae known as zooxanthellae that give them colour.
- If normal conditions return, the corals can recover, but it can take decades, and if the stress continues the corals can die.
- The current worldwide bleaching episode is predicted to be the worst on record.
Experts say it is too early to tell whether the corals will recover, but scientists “in the water” are already reporting up to 50% mortality of bleached corals.
Climate change and the effects of El Nino are being blamed for the rise in sea temperatures that causes coral bleaching.
“What we’re seeing now is unequivocally to do with climate change,” Professor Justin Martin University of Queensland told the ABC.
“[At] the Paris climate change meeting, essentially the whole world has agreed this is climate change, and we’re seeing climate change play out across our reefs”.
Source: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘worst’ bleaching – BBC News
NHL exec notes link between fighting, concussions: report
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly (l.) and commissioner Gary Bettman (r.) in 2012.
BY Justin Tasch NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, March 28, 2016, 9:23 PM
Emails unsealed by a U.S. federal court in Minneapolis revealed NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in September 2011 that fighting in hockey leads to more brain injuries, including “personal tragedies,” according to a TSN report.
Daly was responding to an email from commissioner Gary Bettman, sent to Daly and then-player-safety executive Brendan Shanahan. Bettman was commenting on a Globe and Mail article Shanahan sent the other two with the headline “Getting rid of hockey’s goons.” Three NHL enforcers, Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, all died during a span of less than four months in 2011.
“Do you remember what happened when we tried to eliminate the staged fights?” Bettman emailed to Daly and Shanahan on Sept. 3, 2011, according to TSN. “The ‘fighters’ objected and so did the pa [NHLPA]. Eliminating fighting would mean eliminating the jobs of the ‘fighters’, meaning that these guys would not have NHL careers. An interesting question is whether being an NHL fighter does this to you (I don’t believe so) or whether a certain type of person (who wouldn’t otherwise be skilled enough to be an NHL player) gravitates to this job (I believe more likely).”
“I tend to think its a little bit of both,” Daly responded in an email the NHL sought to keep sealed. “Fighting raises the incidence of head injuries/concussions, which raises the incidence of depression onset, which raises the incidence of personal tragedies.”
Bettman then replied that he believed “the fighting and possible concussions could aggravate a condition. But if you think about the tragedies there were probably certain predispositions. Again, though, the bigger issue is whether the [NHLPA]would consent to in effect eliminate a certain type of ‘role’ and player. And, if they don’t, we might try to do it anyway and take the ‘fight’ (pun intended).”
Shanahan then wrote that the previous NHLPA regime would be against that. He also said that while fighters used to aspire to rise above the fourth line, now those players train to be fighters.
The fighters used to ingest alcohol or cocaine to deal with their role, Shanahan said, but “now they take pills. Pills to sleep. Pills to wake up. Pills to ease the pain. Pills to amp up. Getting them online.”
The discussion contradicts the NHL’s public stance on the dangers of concussions. Last year, Bettman tried to downplay the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE.) This month at the NHL general managers’ meeting, after NFL safety executive Jeff Miller admitted a link between CTE and football, Bettman said “I think it’s fairly clear that playing hockey isn’t the same as playing football.”
After former players filed suit against the NHL in September 2013 alleging the league covered up knowledge of the long-term effects of head trauma, the NHL hired Edelman Berland, a market-research company, to find out how fans perceive violence in the NHL compared to the NFL.
In response to Michael Berland, the market-research company’s chief executive, NHL executive vice president of communications Gary Meagher described the NFL’s concern for player safety as “smoke and mirrors”
Meagher also wrote “The nhl has never been in the business of trying to make the game safer at all levels and we have never tried to sell the fact that this is who we are… The question is: should we be in that business and if we were, what could we possibly achieve without throwing millions of dollars at education.”
He later added that the NHL doesn’t see selling safety “as an important part of our mandate.”
Source: NHL exec notes link between fighting, concussions: report – NY Daily News
Blue Jays on Sportsnet: Every. Base. Covered.
TORONTO, March 28, 2016
Brighter Stro-Shows, bigger bat flips, more reasons to “bring the rain”. Sportsnet is getting Toronto Blue Jays fans closer to the game than ever before, delivering more ways to experience the 2016 regular season across TV, mobile, tablet, computer, and radio. Sportsnet will produce and air all 81 home games in 4K, marking the world’s first 4K MLB broadcast.
To bring all the 4K content to life, Rogers and Sportsnet are launching North America’s first 24/7 dedicated sports feeds featuring 4K content on Friday, April 1 – Sportsnet 4K and Sportsnet ONE 4K. The following day (April 2), the Blue Jays take the field for the world’s first 4K MLB broadcast, facing the Boston Red Sox in their final pre-season game at 12:30 p.m. ET from Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
All 162 Blue Jays regular season games, beginning with the season opener on Sunday, April 3, can be experienced on Sportsnet, the Sportsnet Radio Network, and streamed on the Sportsnet mobile app or Sportsnet.ca/now.
All the ways to experience the Blue Jays on Sportsnet this season…
- Blue Jays in 4K… In addition to the final pre-season game on April 2, all 81 regular season home games will be available to Rogers customers on Sportsnet 4K and Sportsnet ONE 4K. Rogers is also offering the Sportsnet 4K feeds to all cable, satellite and IPTV providers across Canada. For channel allocation details and information on how to get a NextBox 4K™ set top box, please visit www.Rogers.com
- Blue Jays on Sportsnet… All 162 games available across Sportsnet. Visit here for full the broadcast schedule
- Blue Jays on the Sportsnet Radio Network… Fans from coast-to-coast can tune in to the Sportsnet Radio Network to hear the Blue Jays broadcasts throughout the season. Visit here for a full listing of the 19 stations
- Blue Jays on Sportsnet mobile app and Sportsnet NOW… All 162 games available for streaming across tablet, computer, or mobile phone
All the details on Sportsnet’s star-powered lineup across multiple platforms…
TV
- Blue Jays Central – Leading off every Sportsnet Blue Jays broadcast, Jamie Campbell and Gregg Zaun host the half-hour pre-game show, with a special one-hour show ahead of the season opener and home opener
- In The Booth – Former Blue Jays Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler return to the TV broadcast booth, providing play-by-play and analysis, with award-winning broadcaster Dan Shulman joining the team to call upwards of 30 games this season, beginning with the home opener on April 8
- On the field – Barry Davis and Hazel Mae bring fans the news from the field and the road during all game broadcasts, as well as for Blue Jays Central and Sportsnet Central
Radio
Game Broadcasts – Sportsnet Radio Network:
- In The Booth – Jerry Howarth, celebrating his 35th season as the voice of the Blue Jays, returns as play-by-play man in the broadcast booth alongside analysts Joe Siddall and Mike Wilner
- Blue Jays Talk – Host Wilner recaps the game and takes calls from fans following each regular season game radio broadcast
Sportsnet 590 The FAN (Toronto):
- Baseball Central / Baseball Central @ Noon – From April 4 to June 24, host Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker bring fans their daytime MLB fix weekdays at 11 a.m. ET. The show moves to the Noon ET hour beginning June 27
- Buffalo Bisons – Blue Jays fans can tune into the future of the franchise with 14 live broadcasts of Bisons games on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. For full schedule, visit www.bisons.com
Digital
Sportsnet.ca and the Sportsnet mobile app are the top destinations for news and commentary on the Toronto Blue Jays, featuring analysis, opinion and can’t-miss highlights:
- Daily Blue Jays beat coverage led by baseball columnist Shi Davidi
- Blue Jays and MLB breaking news, columns and commentary from Davidi, Blair, Wilner, Ben Nicholson-Smith, Arden Zwelling, Kristina Rutherford and Michael Grange, all available at the Rundown blog
- Sportsnet’s weekly baseball podcast, At the Letters, hosted by Zwelling and Nicholson-Smith
- Sportsnet.ca’s MLB Live Tracker, featuring up-to-the minute stats, win probability and commentary for the ideal complement to the on-field action
Magazine
- Sportsnet magazine’s full Blue Jays 2016 preview issue is on newsstands now with more than 40 pages on all things Blue Jays. Columnists Stephen Brunt, Grange and Blair dive deep on the topics that will define 2016 for the franchise. Throughout the season, fans can stay locked into the magazine for features, insights, award-winning infographics and interviews
Social Media Links
Official Website www.sportsnet.ca
Like Sportsnet www.facebook.com/sportsnet
Follow Sportsnet @Sportsnet
Follow Sportsnet 590 The FAN @FAN590
Follow Jamie Campbell @SportsnetJamie
Follow Gregg Zaun @GreggZaun
Follow Dan Shulman @DShulman_ESPN
Follow Barry Davis @SNBarryDavis
Follow Hazel Mae @thehazelmae
Follow Mike Wilner @Wilnerness590
Follow Joe Siddall @SiddallJoe
Follow Jeff Blair @SNJeffBlair
Follow Ben Nicholson-Smith @bnicholsonsmith
Follow Michael Grange @michaelgrange
Follow Shi Davidi @ShiDavidi
Follow Arden Zwelling @ArdenZwelling
Official Sportsnet PR @SportsnetPR
About Sportsnet
Sportsnet connects Canadian sports fans to their favourite teams and athletes, using five platforms: TV, Radio, Print, Online and Mobile. Delivering storytelling on a local, regional, national and global level, the multiplatform brand consists of Sportsnet, sportsnet.ca, Sportsnet 590 The FAN, Sportsnet 960 The FAN, Sportsnet magazine, Sportsnet Mobile and Sportsnet NOW. Sportsnet consists of four regional channels (Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific), and the nationally-distributed Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet World, and Sportsnet 360. Sportsnet is the official Canadian NHL national broadcast rights holder, and is also the official regional television broadcast rights holder for the Calgary Flames (including radio rights on Sportsnet 960 The FAN), Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs (including radio rights on Sportsnet 590 The FAN), Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens. In addition, Sportsnet is also the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights holder of the CHL, including the Memorial Cup. Sportsnet is the Canadian leader in MLB television broadcasts and is home to all 162 Toronto Blue Jays games, plus MLB Playoffs and the World Series. Sportsnet also offers an exciting sports lineup including the NFL, Toronto Raptors, NBA, CIS Vanier Cup, Grand Slam of Curling, IndyCar, the Rogers Cup tennis tournament, and extensive soccer programming including Barclays Premier League, Bundesliga, CONCACAF and Canadian national team matches for men and women. Sportsnet Central is the network’s news program, providing regional and national coverage of the day’s events in the world of sports.
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 