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The ship that crashed into the Baltimore bridge carried 764 tons of hazardous material, and some containers have been breached, NTSB says
Screenshot/NTSB
At least 56 containers of hazmat goods were on board the Dali when it crashed, the NTSB said.Some of the containers were "significantly breached" and some are in the water, officials said.The 984-foot ship is still caught under the debris of Baltimore's biggest bridge, which collapsed on Tuesday.The 984-foot container vessel that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge was carrying at least 56 containers of hazardous material, some of which have fallen into the water, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
The board's chair, Jennifer Homendy, told reporters on Wednesday that officials boarded the Singapore-flagged Dali for an inspection on Tuesday evening.
A senior NTSB hazmat investigator identified the 56 hazardous containers while observing the cargo and manifest, Homendy said.
"That's 764 tons of hazardous materials. Mostly corrosives, flammables, and some miscellaneous hazardous materials," said the board chief.
Some containers held "class 9" materials, which may include lithium-ion batteries, she said.
Homendy added that she saw that some hazardous material containers were "breached significantly" and several had fallen into the Patapsco River, but did not have "an exact number."
Officials have also "seen sheen on the waterway," she added.
NTSB officials said the exact kinds of hazardous materials on the Dali have yet to be identified, and could not speak to the risks posed to the public.
When asked whether people should be concerned about the "sheen" on the river, Homendy said the transportation safety agency had referred the information to other federal and state authorities.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
BI also contacted two organizations researching water quality in the area, the Chesapeake Research Consortium and Blue Water Baltimore.
"It's a massive undertaking for an investigation," Homendy said, adding that the total probe into the ship's malfunctions could take 12 to 24 months.
The Dali lost power on Tuesday morning and crashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge, causing its span to collapse. Six construction workers who were on the bridge have died or are presumed dead, with four bodies still unrecovered.
The vessel has a gross tonnage of 95,000 tons, meaning the containers carrying hazardous materials would have taken up a small fraction of its total carrying capacity.
While the Key Bridge's collapse has not been declared a chemical-related emergency as of Wednesday evening, hazardous materials will likely complicate the city's clean-up process.
"It's a pretty dangerous situation in that area, and we can't go in there," Homendy said.
A recent major disaster, when a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohi,o in February 2023, still affects residents more than a year after the event.
Delays in freeing up the Patapsco River also threaten major economic consequences. The Port of Baltimore — the ninth busiest US port for international cargo and a major hub for the automotive industry — is closed to vessels until further notice as wreckage blocks the waterway.
The loss of the bridge itself is likely to become a pain point for Baltimore commuters since 11.3 million vehicles plied the Key Bridge annually. It was also the only land transport route for hazardous materials, posing another complication for local industries.
Authorities are still investigating how the Dali lost power as it tried to navigate under the Key Bridge.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said on Wednesday that the ship had passed two foreign port inspections, one in June and another in September.
Paris Hilton hopes her kids 'aren't as addicted to social media' as she is when they grow up
Charles Sykes/Bravo
Paris Hilton says she hopes her kids "aren't as addicted to social media" as she is when they grow up.She made the comments during a panel at the "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" summit, per People.Hilton previously told BI that influencer culture can be "toxic" and she doesn't want her kids to be caught up in that.Paris Hilton says she hopes her kids won't grow up to be "as addicted to social media" as she is.
During a panel at the "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" summit in Los Angeles on Monday, Hilton said she wanted her children to "live a world outside of social media and being on their phone all the time," per People.
"So I feel that's really taken a lot from children. Kids are not going outside anymore and playing as much because everyone's just so busy on their phones," Hilton said. "So hopefully my kids won't be as addicted to social media as I am."
The summit included panels, performances, and fireside chats featuring Hollywood celebrities and political leaders, including Halle Berry and first lady Dr. Jill Biden.
"I just want my children just to feel just so loved and seen and want to be that next generation of someone that brings positivity to the world and just to have big hearts and big loving," Hilton said during the panel. "That's something that's really important to me."
Hilton has two children with her husband, Carter Reum. Hilton married Reum in November 2021. The couple welcomed their son Phoenix in January 2023 and their daughter London less than a year later.
This isn't the first time Hilton has talked about how she doesn't want her kids to be on social media.
She said in her 2021 reality series "Paris in Love" that she hopes her future daughter has no interest in becoming an influencer and elaborated on her thoughts to Business Insider's Samantha Grindell.
"I just feel that it can be toxic in some ways where I really wouldn't want my daughter in this world because I just think there's so much emphasis on being perfect," Hilton told BI. "And then having people be mean and write rude comments. I just wouldn't want my daughter to have to experience that."
In her 2020 documentary "This Is Paris," Hilton said she felt "responsible" for getting young people addicted to social media, per Today.
"Everyone says I'm the original influencer, but sometimes I feel like I helped create a monster," Hilton said in her documentary. "When you add up all those hours ... it's literally like years of your life spent just looking at a phone."
Hilton isn't the only celeb mom who has spoken up against social media for kids.
In a January interview with Elle, Penélope Cruz also shared her concerns about letting her kids use social media.
"It's so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming," Cruz said. "And who pays the price? Not us, not our generation, who, maybe at 25, learned how a BlackBerry worked. It's a cruel experiment on children, on teenagers."
Cruz added that her 10-year-old daughter, Luna, and her 12-year-old son, Leo, "don't even have phones."
Globally, people spend almost four hours a day looking at their mobile phones, per data from the Global Media Intelligence Report 2023.
Research has also shown that youths who spend the most time glued to their phone screens are more likely to develop depression and anxiety, among other problems, in the future.
However, there are ways to stop the mindless scrolling. When it comes to raising Gen Alpha kids, experts say that parents should keep them offline for as long as possible and emphasize the importance of real-life connections.
Prepare for the #motivational doom scroll — LinkedIn is trialing TikTok-style short videos
Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
LinkedIn is experimenting with presenting video posts in a short-form, infinite-scrolling format.The company confirmed the trial to TechCrunch on Wednesday.These videos appear to be taken from existing posts on LinkedIn.LinkedIn is testing a new short-form video feature in the same vein as YouTube Shorts and TikTok, making it one of the latest platforms to invest in infinite scrolling.
The Microsoft-owned company confirmed the experiment to TechCrunch on Wednesday, as the outlet reported spotting a LinkedIn user who posted about the videos.
"I told y'all once LinkedIn as a product catches up to the other platforms it's over," marketing professional Austin Hull wrote.
Hull posted a screen recording of the LinkedIn app on his phone, which showed him navigating to a "video" tab and then scrolling through four short clips.
One was of an entrepreneur discussing lessons learned from a TV appearance, and another featured a product engineer discussing her career.
A woman in the third video said: "Welcome back to another episode of 'What I do for work.'"
The last clip showed a startup founder giving advice on LinkedIn.
While shot in the 9:16 aspect ratio used by creators for mobile scrolling content, these posts don't appear to be specifically created for the short-form feature.
The ones featured in Hull's video come from normal LinkedIn posts, which have a caption above the clip, likely meaning LinkedIn is just presenting the same posts differently.
A screenshot of a video uploaded by Sonny Caberwal, whose clip was featured in a short-form video format on Hull's post.Screenshot/LinkedIn/Sonny Caberwal
If the company rolls out this feature more widely, it would have to catch up with YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and essentially every popular social media platform in the pivot toward short-form video content.
The format is widely considered a staple for younger tech users, and online video is even recognized as a "nearly universal part of teens' and tweens' media diet" by Sesame Street's producers.
Infinite scrolling hasn't always been well-received. US officials are concerned that it's getting people more addicted to social media, which could harm mental health.
In its October lawsuit against Meta over mental health concerns for children, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office described infinite scrolling as "designed to defeat children's attempts to self-regulate and disengage" with social platforms.
"Users are spoon-fed highly personalized content designed to keep them hooked," the lawsuit said. "As a result, users often find themselves unwittingly and infinitely scrolling."
LinkedIn's press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
The Baltimore bridge disaster is just the latest knock to global shipping and trade
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Supply chains disruptions have repeatedly come under the spotlight in recent years.The collision of the Dali containership with the Baltimore Key Bridge is the latest risk to supply chains.Geopolitics, climate change, and shipping incidents all pose risks to supply chains.Supply chains are the backbone of global trade, but they've been largely taken for granted — until recently. Over the past few years, supply chain woes have repeatedly come into the spotlight.
The vital link came under the spotlight when President Donald Trump launched a trade war against China in 2018, prompting investors to reassess their reliance on the factory of the world.
Since then, global integrated supply chain systems just seem to keep getting disrupted — be it by the COVID-19 pandemic or Russia's war in Ukraine.
On March 26, the Dali — a 984-foot-long cargo ship — collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Port of Baltimore is now closed to vessels. Its reopening could take months, impacting trade and business.
The auto industry is expected to be disrupted, as the Port of Baltimore is the top handler in the US for car imports and exports, supply chain platform Project44 wrote in a report on March 26.
"The automobile industry is notoriously lean, meaning any disruptions will have ripple effects throughout the manufacturing process," Project44 wrote.
The domino effect is due to the "just in time" model that supply chains have been relying on for decades. This means materials were moved right before they were needed. The model keeps business operations extremely efficient — but it also opens them up to risks should just one part of the system fail.
"While just-in-time supply chain strategies have been the 'go-to' for 40 years, you can only expect something held together by chewing gum and shoelaces to last so long," Nari Viswanathan, a senior director of supply chain strategy at Coupa, a business spend management platform, told Business Insider.
Viswanathan said "the world has been on a roller coaster that won't stop" over the last few years, which has in turn sent the world's supply chains into tailspin after tailspin.
Given that risks impacting supply chains are intertwined, they pose multifaceted risks to operations, Julie Gerdeman, the CEO of Everstream Analytics, a platform for supply-chain risk management, told BI.
Here are three key reasons why supply chains just seem to keep screwing up in recent years.
1. Heightened geopolitical tensions
Geopolitics are one of the biggest drivers of risks in fields ranging from economy to technology. Supply chains are no exception.
The issue first came to the fore in 2018, when Trump imposed high tariffs on a range of Chinese imports. It has become more amplified because of the tech rivalry between the US and China.
Examining ongoing conflicts in the Black Sea and Red Sea respectively shows how geopolitical conflicts affect global supply chains.
Russia's blockade of the Black Sea amid the war in Ukraine is preventing wheat and sunflower supplies from Ukraine from moving freely to other parts of the world.
The Red Sea — a vital trade route between Europe and Asia — is under siege by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
To avoid being caught in the Red Sea attacks, cargo-carrying ships are staying away from the Suez Canal and rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope around the southern tip of Africa — but that will prolong journeys.
2. Climate change
In the summer of 2023, a historic drought affected rainfall that feeds into the Panama Canal, lowering the canal's water levels and limiting the number and weight of ships that can float on it. The drought was caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon and its warming effects, which were more severe in 2023 due to climate change.
The fall in water levels at the Panama Canal caused a buildup in the number of ships waiting to cross the waterway, increasing transit time and prompting some vessels to reroute through the Cape of Good Hope.
Roughly 40% of US container traffic passes through the Panama Canal. By late November, the wait time for some ships waiting to pass through the waterway was around 20 days — up from five to seven days in October.
"The low water levels at the Panama Canal are a clear example of the effects of climate change in rainfall and weather patterns across the globe, which causes a ripple effect through the supply chain," shipping giant Maersk told BI in September.
3. Shipping incidents
Ships transport 90% of the world's trade, and the vessels keep getting bigger and bigger on the back of ballooning trade volumes over the decades.
Containerships such as the Dali, which are typically used to transport consumer and packaged goods, have "grown up in size by as much as 1,500% in the last 50 years," Captain Rahul Khanna, the global head of marine risk consulting for Allianz, told Business Insider's Geoff Weiss on Tuesday.
At 984 feet, the Dali is just the "standard size these days," Allan Post, a veteran ship's officer told The Conversation on March 26.
With the increase in size, the risk that something goes very wrong also increases.
"A number of recurring themes have emerged in major incidents in recent years, many of which are a consequence of the increased size of vessels," Justus Heinrich, a shipping product leader at Allianz Commercial, a corporate insurer, wrote in a May 2022 report.
This is best exemplified by the case of the massive 1,312-foot Ever Given container ship, which ran aground and blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021. The incident delayed about 16 million tons of cargo on hundreds of container ships at a time when COVID-19-related movement restrictions were already straining the global shipping system.
MARCH 29, 2021: High-resolution satellite imagery of the Suez canal and the container ship (EVER GIVEN) that remains stuck in the canal north of the city of Suez, Egypt.Maxar Technologies
To be sure, the number of serious shipping accidents worldwide has declined in the longer term, Allianz wrote in its report. However, incidents involving large vessels — in particular container ships and large vehicle carriers — are resulting in disproportionately large losses.
In fact, the cost of responding to incidents and clean-up is typically many times the ship's value, per Allianz.
"Larger vessels mean larger losses," Khanna wrote in the report.
Take-Two to acquire Gearbox from Embracer
Mark Zuckerberg says Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is basically the Taylor Swift of tech
STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images; Ashok Kumar/TAS24 via Getty Images; Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
Music has Taylor Swift, and AI has Jensen Huang — at least, according to Mark Zuckerberg.Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg likened Nvidia's CEO to the pop star on Tuesday.Zuckerberg made the comment on a photo with Huang, where the pair switched jackets in a "jersey swap."Mark Zuckerberg really, really likes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Zuckerberg on Tuesday showed off his "jersey swap" with Huang, a photo of the moment he swapped his shearling brown jacket for Huang's iconic black leather jacket.
Not everyone knew who the Meta chief was posing with — but one person dared to slip into the comments section and ask Zuckerberg who Huang was.
Zuckerberg's response?
"He's like Taylor Swift, but for tech," Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram comment reply on Tuesday.
This isn't the first time Huang's been likened to the tech world's version of Swift.
Huang acknowledged the comparisons when he made a joke about having to perform like Swift during Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference on March 18.
"As I was simulating how this keynote was going to turn out, somebody did say that another performer did her performance completely on a treadmill so that she could be in shape to deliver it with full energy," Huang said, referencing Swift's grueling training regime for her record-breaking Eras Tour.
"I didn't do that. If I get a low wind at about 10 minutes into this, you know what happened," he continued.
Yet for Zuckerberg, gushing about Huang isn't just about Swiftie-style fanboying. Huang's work in Nvidia is vital to Meta's survival, given Zuckerberg's professed ambitions for Meta to become a leading player in AI.
As part of that goal, Zuckerberg has been building up a stockpile of Nvidia's chips, which can be used to train and deploy AI models.
Zuckerberg revealed in an interview with The Verge in January that Meta would own more than 340,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs by the end of 2024.
"We have built up the capacity to do this at a scale that may be larger than any other individual company. I think a lot of people may not appreciate that," Zuckerberg told the outlet.
The relentless race toward AI domination by companies like Meta has also placed Huang's Nvidia in an enviable position.
Last month, Nvidia's valuation reached $2 trillion, beating out Amazon and Alphabet. Nvidia's worth now also rivals the entire Chinese stock market.
Representatives for Nvidia declined to comment on Zuckerberg's remarks on Huang when approached by BI.
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling had a 'non-verbal agreement' about who stays home with the kids. That's probably not going to work for you, experts say.
Sonia Recchia/Getty Images
Eva Mendes says she had a "non-verbal agreement" with Ryan Gosling to step back from acting when they had kids."It was like a no-brainer," Mendes said on the "Today" show, adding she was "lucky" to have that time with her kids.However, experts say it's better for partners to have an open discussion and make decisions on equal standing.Eva Mendes says she and Ryan Gosling had a "non-verbal agreement" that she would step back from her acting career to stay at home with their children when they decided to have kids.
"It was like a no-brainer," Mendes, 50, said on the "Today" show on Tuesday when asked about transitioning from being an actor to a full-time mom. "I'm so lucky if I could have this time with my children."
Mendes and Gosling started dating in 2011 after meeting on set while filming "The Place Beyond the Pines." They've maintained a private relationship ever since and share two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada.
"It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, 'Ok, he's going to work and I'm going to work, I'm just going to work here,'" Mendes said.
She also clarified that while still works, she prefers not to act.
"I still worked, I just didn't act because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away," she added.
According to her IMDB page, Mendes hasn't acted in a show since 2014's "Lost River," which was written and directed by Gosling. However, she did some voiceover work for Bluey, a kid's television series, in 2021.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Mendes also said she doesn't really miss acting and is focused on "keeping it in the home" with her kids.
Since 2022, Mendes has also been the co-owner and brand ambassador of a cleaning product company, Skura Style.
Meeting in the middle
Mendes and Gosling's approach to childcare isn't one that can be well replicated among ordinary couples, Mu Zheng, an assistant professor at the department of sociology and anthropology at the National University of Singapore, told Business Insider.
"First of all, it's very likely Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling reached the agreement based on a fair, egalitarian discussion and decision-making," she said. "But in more regular scenarios, it may be a very gendered situation where women, most of the time, are expected to make such a choice."
The best way for couples to navigate childcare arrangements is to be open to discussion and make decisions on an equal standing, experts say.
"Eva and Ryan seem to have an amazing connection, and their intuition may have been aligned on how to raise their family, hence why they were able to have the 'non-verbal agreement,'" relationship coach Amie Leadingham told BI.
"However, not all couples naturally have this type of connection, and being communicative about their needs can help create clarity and a structure that makes both people happy," she added.
It's important for partners to discuss the arrangement with each other so that they know they're both on the same page. This can help avoid resentment, Leadingham said.
Every couple is different
However, not everyone can afford to be like Mendes and Gosling, and have one partner focus almost entirely on raising kids.
"I believe a wise strategy for any couple is the one that is agreed upon by both and that is applicable to the couple themselves and the circumstances they are in," Kenneth Tan, an assistant professor of psychology at the Singapore Management University, told BI.
This includes factors such as in-law support, finances, as well as their actual careers, he said.
"Some couples might want the 'traditional' arrangement, whereas others do not," Tan said. "It should not be prescriptive in a way where we merely follow social roles or follow how others have done it."
In the end, there is no wrong or right way to approach this matter, Leadingham said: "Every family gets to create their own structure that works for them."
When communicating, partners need to listen to understand each other's point of view rather than defend, Leadingham said. And when dealing with conflict, creating an environment with a win-win solution for both people is essential.
"Remember, it's not only love that keeps a couple together, it's how they fight and resolve their problems," she added.
More than anything else, it's about being a team.
"Ultimately, these discussions should take place in a context where partners feel safe and secure in each other, and trust that the other is looking out for each other and that they are strong in their couplehood," Tan said. "A marital couple that thinks in terms of 'you' and 'I,' instead of 'we,' is less likely to be committed in the first place."
Safety investigators likely to look into whether 'dirty fuel' contributed to Baltimore Bridge collapse
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Contaminated fuel may have contributed to the Baltimore Bridge disaster, industry experts say.A large container ship ran into the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning.Officials will probe whether dirty fuel played a part in the incident, per The Wall Street Journal.Safety officials are likely to investigate if contaminated fuel played a role in the Baltimore bridge collapse, causing the ship to lose power before it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to reports.
The Dali, a large container ship, ran into a section of the decades-old bridge early Tuesday morning, leading to six deaths and millions of dollars in damage.
Federal, state, and local authorities have launched a probe into what went wrong. Part of the investigation will examine whether "dirty fuel" contributed to the ship's initial loss of power, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
An officer on board the boat told the outlet that the lights started flickering about an hour after The Dali departed. Soon, the smell of burning fuel had filled the engine room, the officer said. Crew members issued a mayday call but the ship wasn't able to drop anchors before it drifted toward the bridge, according to The Journal.
Marine experts say contaminated fuel is a long-standing industry issue and a possible factor in the Baltimore port crash.
Business Insider reached out to Dali's owner, Grace Ocean PTE and Dali's manager, Synergy Marine, for comment.
"We are closely following the investigations conducted by authorities and the vessel operator as well as conducting our own investigation," a representative for Maersk, Dali's charterer, told BI.
A 2018 report from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank, found that marine fuel can often be tainted with a slew of industrial products that end up in the mix, leading to engine failures and power outages on ships.
Gerald Scoggins, a veteran chief engineer in the oil and gas industry, told The Washington Post that dirty fuel can clog a ship's filters leading to its main generator. If a ship's main generator goes down, the boat can end up in total blackout, leading to a potential catastrophe at sea.
Ships typically use different fuels for different parts of their voyage, Scoggins told the outlet. When ships are still in port like the Dali was at the time of the crash, boats typically depend on light diesel fuel, which can also be contaminated with water, dirt, and algae, Scoggins said.
John Catsimatidis, CEO of United Refining Company, told Fox News that it's not unusual for oil companies to sell ships contaminated fuel.
"You give them 80% real fuel and 20% garbage," Catsimatidis told the outlet.
The fuel that goes into ships while at port is typically mixed with something known as cutter stock, which can frequently include unregulated contaminants, Ian Dalby, one of the authors of the Atlantic Council report, told the Post.
Inspections into merchant ships have uncovered fuel mixed with motor oil and by-products from plastics, rubber, and fertilizers, according to the Atlantic Council report.
While it's still too early to determine what led to the Baltimore Bridge collapse, industry experts say "dirty fuel" would be one of multiple possible factors in the incident.
The investigation will look into The Dali's operations and safety record, Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a news conference this week.
The ship underwent more than 20 port inspections since it was built in 2015, according to data from international shipping database Equasis. The Dali was cited for propulsion and auxiliary machinery deficiencies in June 2023. The vessel reported a loss of propulsion before the Tuesday crash, though it's unclear if it was related to the same issue flagged in June.
2 bodies recovered from the Baltimore bridge collapse were 'trapped' inside a submerged pickup truck
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Two victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse were recovered from the Patapsco River Wednesday.Police said divers located a red pickup trick that the men were "trapped" inside.Four men who were working on the bridge when it collapsed are presumed dead and have not been found.Two of the victims of the Baltimore bridge collapse on Tuesday were recovered from a submerged red pickup truck, authorities said during a news conference on Wednesday.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was struck by the container ship Dali in the early morning hours on Tuesday while construction workers were doing overnight work on the bridge.
Shortly after the collapse, two people were rescued from the water. Six people who were missing were presumed dead by late Tuesday evening, with search and rescue operations transitioning into a recovery operation.
The bodies of two of the missing people were recovered on Wednesday morning after divers found a red pickup truck submerged about 25 feet underwater in the Patapsco River near the middle section of the bridge, police said during a press conference Wednesday.
"Divers recovered two victims of this tragedy trapped within the vehicle," Col. Roland Butler of the Maryland State Police said.
The victims were identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes of Baltimore and 26-year-old Dorlian Castillo Cabrera of Dundalk, Maryland.
Police said responders were now moving from a recovery mode to a salvage operation. He said divers are no longer able to access the area where they believe more vehicles and victims may be because of the surrounding structures and debris.
"Based on sonar scans, we firmly believe that the vehicles are encased in the superstructure and concrete that we tragically saw come down," Butler said.
The bodies of four men who are presumed dead remain missing.
Seven of the eight men who were working on the bridge at the time of the collapse were employees of Brawner Builders. The company said Tuesday only one of their employees survived, while the six others were presumed dead.
Jesus Campos, a coworker of the men, told media outlets all six of them were migrants from Mexico and Central America and that they had spouses and children.
"We're low-income families," Campos told The New York Times. "Our relatives are waiting for our help back in our home countries."
Cities are at war with rats. Flaco the owl and other animals pay the price.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis/Getty Images
Flaco, the loose Central Park Zoo owl, died with lethal levels of rat poison in his system.Rodenticides used in cities like New York also poison other wildlife, especially birds of prey.The problem could become worse as cities ramp up their efforts to combat rats.Flaco, the owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo last year and transitioned to life as a free New Yorker, had lethal levels of rat poison in his system when he died last month — a problem that impacts non-famous birds of prey and other animals as well.
The Eurasian eagle-owl got loose in February 2023; the mesh of his enclosure was found tampered with. Police have said the investigation is ongoing, but no information about potential suspects has been released. After over a year flying wild, Flaco collided with a building on the Upper West Side and died on February 23.
The Central Park Zoo said in a statement Monday the necropsy showed Flaco had two underlying conditions: severe pigeon virus, from preying on Manhattan pigeons, and exposure to four different kinds of rat poison that the city employs to combat its rodent problem.
"These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building," the zoo said.
The zoo noted the contributing factors that caused Flaco's early death "underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting."
Indeed, many birds and other wildlife are regularly poisoned by rodenticides that are meant for rats — an occurrence that could become increasingly likely as cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston up the ante on their rat-fighting efforts.
Anticoagulant rodenticides — which prevent blood from clotting and cause animals to bleed to death internally — used to target rats have inadvertently poisoned other species worldwide, with birds of prey being most impacted.
A 2018 literature review published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Science found rat poison was detected in 60% of various raptor species globally, which can include owls, falcons, hawks, and eagles.
The birds can be exposed to rat poison in several ways: by directly coming into contact with it or by eating poisoned prey, which could be rats or mice, or even a non-rodent species, like small mammals and reptiles, that were also unintentionally exposed to it. Because the rat poison does not kill the animal for several days, there's time for an owl to prey on it and also injest the poison. Even once the animals are dead, they still maintain levels of poison that can transfer to scavengers.
A 2020 study authored by Maureen Murray, director of Tufts Wildlife Clinic in Massachusetts, found that 100% of the 43 red-tailed hawks sampled at the clinic between 2017 and 2019 had been exposed to rat poison. Murray told Tufts Now that the numbers of raptors with rat poison seen by the clinic had steadily increased.
"The ability of these rodenticides to permeate the food chain and ecosystems is pretty remarkable," Murray said, adding, "Red-tailed hawks eat a lot of small mammals, but they also eat birds, reptiles, or amphibians; they might scavenge. Ultimately, their prey base is very contaminated."
Another study from 2018 conducted in California found 70% of northern spotted owls, a protected threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, tested positive for rat poison, while 40% of barred owls tested positive.
But the poisoning is not just an issue for birds of prey. A 2018 analysis by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation found 85% of mountain lions, bobcats, and fishers that were tested had been poisoned by rodenticides. Raccoons, foxes, skunks, coyotes, and house pets can also be exposed to rat poison, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
While some cities are amping up the use of rat poison, others are addressing the threat posed to wildlife. The use of rat poison has been restricted in California for years, though the rodenticides continued to show up in animals that were not being targeted.
In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill expanding the moratorium on certain rat poisons.
"We really needed these protections to ease the needless suffering of pumas, foxes and owls," Tiffany Yap, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release, adding: "Rat poison indiscriminately harms animals up and down the food chain."
With Quiet-STaR, language models learn to think before speaking
Container ships growing in size are no match for older infrastructure like Baltimore bridge
Dispatchers recorded the moment Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge fell, and experts weigh in on why these crashes could become more common.
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WHAT THEY SAYTESTIMONIALSOUR GREAT CLIENTS
“The involvement of iStart Valley in the startup community has provided an outlet for people to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship. Without their efforts, I would not have met my current co-founder. A catalyst would be how I see them within the startup ecosystem.”
“iStart Valley is an incredible resource for anyone with an early stage start up to gain some technical knowledge revolving around business model and commercializing your product. Their weekly session will give you the vocabulary you need to speak with authority to clients, customers, and in.”
“The road was not an easy one. I had to keep my day job for two years, which slowed me down considerably. Three important things kept me going: first, ending second at Startup Weekend validated my project. Second, iStart Valley gave me invaluable moral support, and its educational workshops and.”
“iStart Valley has a completely revolutionary process as to how to assist start-ups in getting started and be prepared for success. They bring you some of the best resources and as long as you bring a good ethic, you will be set up for success. They introduce you to some of the most seasoned.”
“iWe are making significant progress continuing to work with iStart.”
“The workshops & educational resources at iStart Valley will help you to create a successful business from a simple idea. Their invaluable source of contacts is instrumental to any startuper in the North Florida area. I highly recommend all entrepreneurs to get in touch with them. It rea.”
“MomentStrong feels very fortunate to be associated with the iStart Valley team. We participated in workshops, training sessions and other events. They even helped connect us to potential investors. I think my favorite part has been the camaraderie and sense of team with all the other entrep.”
“The personal attention, guidance and mentoring from iStart Valley helped us in understanding the startup ecosystem and coming up with the best strategy to develop a world-class enterprise level product. We are fortunate to collaborate with them in our journey towards success and look forward.”
“iStart Valley program has a one-of-a-kind schedule flexibility that's perfect for bootstrapped and early-stage startups. Their structure helped me fit the meetings and online assignments around my day job, family, and other responsibilities. It's covers all the best practices you.”