by Jose Fermoso –
Microsoft today leapfrogged the Apple Watch to market by launching the Microsoft Band wearable device, which tracks activity and sleep patterns and provides alerts from smartphones.
The Redmond, Washington-based company set the Microsoft Band’s price at $200, which is $150 below that of the least expensive Apple Watch. The Apple Watch won’t hit stores until spring.
The Band is also $50 less than the Fitbit Surge, which offers similar features such as heart-rate tracking.
The Microsoft Band will pair with smartphones, notifying users of email messages, calendar notes, phone calls, texts and social network updates. Its applications work on Windows, iOS and Android mobile operating systems.
The Band also offers a payment system for Starbucks purchases, allowing people to get their quick cup of java without taking out a wallet.
The Band also integrates with Windows Phone’s Cortana voice application, allowing users to record voice notes and task reminders.
The Band’s software, called Microsoft Health, is already available for download and is compatible with wearable and phone hardware from competing companies.
Enabling the Microsoft Health app to collect data from competing smartphones, bands and smartwatches helps to future-proof Microsoft’s technology against new-product releases from rivals. It may also make potential users more willing to share their information on Microsoft’s platform instead of others, like Apple’s HealthKit.
Yet Microsoft isn’t the only company offering a software health platform that can be used with rival trackers. Jawbone announced last month that it had opened its highly rated health software to other wearable trackers. Jawbone originally offered that software for its UP device.
According to Microsoft, the Band can be worn for 48 consecutive hours without charging. It has 10 sensors to track heart rate and sun exposure, and even comes with a galvanic skin response measurement that Microsoft says can help a user recognize high stress levels.
Microsoft is making the Band immediately available at all Microsoft Stores around the country. All stores will offer demos and giveaways today and 12 of them will have mini-fitness classes led by personal trainers.
Microsoft faces a difficult challenge in the wearables market because it’s already a crowded field, and many of the Band’s features are also offered by competitors.
Some smartbands also offer features that Microsoft’s Band does not. For example, swimmers won’t be able to use the Band, Apple Watch or the Moto 360 watch to accurately track their pool workouts, but the Misfit Flash and the Basis Peak can.
Microsoft executives say the band will use smart software to provide more accurate tracking information than competing hardware. The software will combine data picked up from the steps tracked by the accelerometer, the heart-rate monitor on the band and the built-in GPS on the band to figure out stride length.
Stride length is considered by health professionals to be a more accurate measurement to find out how many calories a user burns. Until now, no major wearable has offered stride-length measurement.
The company says it has been working with fitness professionals to offer custom workouts called Guided Workouts, which can be accessed through the wearable and its software.
Forbes revealed Oct. 19 that Microsoft would announce a wearable device with a focus on health tracking along with communications features. Many were excited to see what the company would come up with, especially since wearables are a rising market in electronics. According to Juniper Research analyst Nitin Bhas, projected 2018 revenue for smart wearable devices, including smart watches and glasses, will be $19 billion.
Although Microsoft may have already flopped in the smartphone market, there are a couple of reasons to think the Band device will be successful.
Microsoft is still capable of making market-leading, exciting technology like the Kinect Xbox accessory. Kinect is one of the leading consumer sensor systems in the world and has smart tech features, like gestures and spoken command control, that are arguably better than those of other competitors.
The sleek, flat design of its Windows Phone operating system is included in the Band wearable, and that’s also a good sign. Over the last few years, Windows Phone design has grown into an attractive package of bold colors and sleek typography. It includes flat font and icon gradients that produce excellent visual contrasts that are easy to see in small displays.
Other watches offer high-quality displays, including bright OLEDs, but there is no underlying, dominant smartband or watch UI or OS quite yet.
If Microsoft plays the Band launch right and manages to get it on the wrists of many customers, it’s not out of the question that it could put itself in good position. But with the Apple Watch coming to market next year, that is admittedly still a big if.
Hackers believed to have Russian government backing broke into unclassified White House computer networks, leading to some disruptions as cybersecurity experts and federal agencies investigated the intrusion, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Secret Service and National Security Agency are investigating the incident, which happened in recent weeks, according to the Post.
Though the Obama administration remained tight-lipped about the breach, people familiar with the matter told the Post that the incident is considered an intrusion by hackers working for the Russian government.
The sources, who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, said there is no evidence that the White House’s classified network was hacked.
While the intruders reportedly haven’t damaged the system, some of the network’s services have experienced temporary disruptions, unnamed White House officials told the Post.
“In the course of assessing recent threats, we identified activity of concern on the unclassified Executive Office of the President network,” an official told the newspaper. “We took immediate measures to evaluate and mitigate the activity.”
The White House officials did not comment on who was behind the intrusion or what, if anything, was stolen.
In a separate report released yesterday by FireEye Inc., the Milpitas-based cybersecurity firm profiled a team of Russian coders — possibly sponsored by the Russian government — that has purportedly shown interest in data held by defense and geopolitical intelligence targets. Those included the Republic of Georgia, Eastern European governments and militaries, and European security organizations.
FireEye said that details in its report likely link the group of skilled Russian developers and operators to “a government sponsor based in Moscow, exposing long-standing, focused operations that indicate government backing.”
Earlier this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, FireEye discovered what it called a sophisticated cyberweapon that could evade detection, despite movements between computers “walled off from the Internet.”
The UpTake: The payments space is not going to be easily disrupted, no matter how attractive the products might seem. Sides are already forming that indicate the deep loyalty users have for their favorite brands.
Last week Applelaunched Apple Pay, a platform that lets hundreds of thousands of companies accept major credit cards using near field communication (NFC) technology. But even as the product went live a consortium of other businesses was discreetly working on its own payments platform designed to completely remove fees associated with accepting credit cards using little more than a QR code.
The stage is set for what will likely be an ugly battle. In Apple’s camp, which is already supported by 200,000 retail locations, are supporters of an NFC-enabled future with seamless credit card transactions. In the consortium’s camp, known as Current C, originally spearheaded by Walmart but now incorporated as a separate entity, the credit card companies are removed altogether, as is NFC-technology.
Then, this weekend, CVS and Rite-Aid, partners in the Current C project, pulled the plug on all NFC-enabled technology in their stores, effectively killing Apple Pay, and interestingly, all other tap-to-pay platforms, including Apple’s arch nemesis, GoogleWallet, and Softcard, according to a Bloomberg report yesterday.
It didn’t take long for what one protestor described on Reddit as the “unholy alliance” to form: users of the Apple SubReddit and the Android SubReddit are joining forces to protest Current C’s partners—which according to a TechCrunch report now consists of 110,000 retail stores representing $1 trillion.
“Let’s invite /r/Android to help us boycott retailers that are disabling NFC readers,” reads the boycott call posted by Apple supporters. “We can unite to put pressure on them, since it affects us both!” And in the Android SubReddit, a mirror post. “We wanted to invite you to /r/apple to help support us boycotting retailers that are disabling NFC. It affects us both!”
How big could such a boycott end up being? Versus the Current C gang, which not only includes Walmart, CVS, and RiteAid, but other behemoths such as Shell, Exxon Mobil, Bed Bath and Beyond, and SouthWest Airlines, is an estimated 1 billion Android users and 470 million Apple users, though not all of those phones are currently NFC-enabled, and certainly not all of them are using mobile wallets as payments, yet.
The Current C app is expected to go live sometime next year, and though the details of the partnerships are unclear, based on the CVS and Rite-Aid move to kill NFC tech, it appears at least some of the contracts are exclusive.
Author Jeffrey Robinson argues that the bitcoin movement will end in tears for the little guy.
Jeffrey Robinson has made a name for himself investigating fraud on the grandest scales.
His books on international money laundering and the pharmaceutical industry pulled back the curtain on the nefarious behavior of some in the banking and pharmaceuticals industries. Now, he is turning his attention to bitcoin, with a new polemic called Bit Con: The Naked Truth About Bitcoin.
Of course, unlike the schemes of felonious bankers, bitcoin—the technology and the currency—wasn’t conceived as a malicious scam. But Robinson is convinced that when all is said and done, it will become the vehicle for hucksters to trick both innocents and bitcoin’s ideological backers out of millions.
Fortune spoke with Robinson about the year he spent researching bitcoin and why he thinks the currency will ultimately dissolve into worthlessness. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Fortune: What drew your interest to bitcoin?
Robinson: About two years ago, given the books I’ve written about money laundering, people kept telling me that bitcoin was the next big thing in money laundering. So I thought I really should find out about it, and I looked at everything that was being said, and none of it added up. Actually, it’s not good for money laundering to start, but it’s also not what it claims to be in other ways. It’s not a real currency and it’s not a real commodity. When you heard the hype coming from the community, and … that people were spending money on this stuff, they needed to know the truth.
Your career has been spent writing about various frauds and cons. If bitcoin is a con, who is the con man?
It’s a con in that it’s not a real currency, but let me back up. There are actually two bitcoins. There’s the blockchain-technology bitcoin, which I think is fantastic, and the future, and all sorts of businesses are investing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in Silicon Valley and around the world to build businesses on the back of the blockchain technology because it’s so wonderful and can move assets frictionlessly. But then there is this aspect of the pretend currency and the pretend commodity. Part of the con is in the pretend commodity, because this is a completely shallow, liquidless market. When you know that there’s, what, 13 million coins in circulation, and more than 50% of the them are owned and managed by about 950 people, you realize how shallow the market it is and how subject the market is to manipulation.
It’s essentially a pump and dump scam. And then I see these snake oil salesmen like the Winklevoss twins get on TV and tell people that bitcoin is going to be worth $40,000 per coin. And nobody is challenging them, asking, “What are you smoking?” Bitcoin isn’t an investment, it’s a slot machine. Or, more accurately, a loaded roulette wheel.
But it’s not a classic pump and dump because there is a base of ideological support for bitcoin. At the very least, there is a motivated group of people who want bitcoin to succeed, and aren’t just speculating.
Right, there is the libertarian faction that drives the support for bitcoin. For example, Jon Matonis of the Bitcoin Foundation has suggested that bitcoin is signaling the start of a post-legal-tender era. Where? In what country? It’s not accepted as legal currency anywhere on the planet. There’s not a legitimate economist of any note on the planet that thinks it’s a real currency. The anarchist, libertarian wing of the bitcoin party tend to believe in Austrian economics, but the three most prominent descendants of [Austrian economists Ludwig von] Mises and [Friedrich] Hayek, say it’s not currency. So while the most enthusiastic supporters of bitcoin say Austrian economics matters, actual Austrian economists say that bitcoin doesn’t matter.
Furthermore, these people are very attached to the concept of decentralization as a matter of ideology. But I would guess if you walk down the street and ask 100 people if they care about decentralization, they’d say, “What are you talking about?” The ideologues say it should matter, that you don’t want the government or corporations in the middle. But what evidence is there that anybody besides a small, small group of people care about this kind of stuff?
Do you think someone like Marc Andreessen, who has been a vocal public advocate for bitcoin, is acting in bad faith?
I think Andreessen is not terribly interested in the currency. He has no interest at all in the delusional wing. He says that he’s interested in practical solutions to real problems.
But it’s not as if Andreessen is taking your position, which is that bitcoin is a terrible currency but an interesting technology.
People believe you cannot separate the two. Of course you can. There are businesses that are trying to use blockchain technology to create smart contracts, the idea of putting copyrights on the blockchain: suddenly there’s an irrefutable copyright worldwide. And with the speed of technology, we really should be expecting not that bitcoin will solve our problems, but that bitcoin is a stepping stone to something better. If you talk to people in Silicon Valley, that’s how they think, that this is all just a process. The blockchain will develop, but bitcoin as a currency is just a step along the way.
What will be the end game for bitcoin?
Businesses will continue to experiment with the blockchain, proving that that innovation is separable from the bitcoin the currency. At the same time, there’s all these people out there who bought into bitcoin as a tinker toy, thinking they might make some money on it. Maybe they bought $100 when it was worth $10 bucks a coin, and now they’re sitting on $4,000. Many of them will treat themselves to a vacation or a new computer with their bitcoins, and they don’t buy back in. There’s no evidence that people who spend down their wallets buy back in. Little by little it will just atrophy, because nobody is really using it. The big kids will get out, and the little guy sitting on one, two, or, sadly, many more bitcoins will lose it all.
A nurse who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has criticized her treatment under a mandatory 21-day quarantine policy implemented by three US states, in an article written in a New Jersey hospital where she remained in isolation despite testing negative for the virus on Saturday.
Kaci Hickox was placed in quarantine under a policy announced on Friday by New Jersey governor Chris Christie and New York governor Andrew Cuomo, which requires anyone flying into the states after having contact with Ebola sufferers in west Africa to be subject to mandatory isolation for 21 days, thought to be the disease’s maximum incubation period.
The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, told reporters on Saturday that Cuomo had not informed city officials before announcing the new quarantine plans. He declined to offer an opinion on the new rules, but said the city would co-operate with them. The Illinois department of public health imposed similar restrictions.
Cuomo and Christie acted after a New York doctor, Craig Spencer, who worked with Ebola patients in Guinea, tested positive for the disease. He remained in stable condition at Bellevue hospital in New York on Saturday.
As officials sought to allay public concerns about the disease, Barack Obama used his presidential address to urge Americans to base their response to domestic Ebola cases on “facts, not fear”.
The restrictions imposed on health workers returning from Africa exposes a dilemma for authorities who are keen for American experts to help staunch the disease in Africa but mindful of public concerns at home.
In a first-person account published by the Dallas Morning News, Hickox had sharp criticisms of the additional restrictions. She wrote: “This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me.”
Hickox, a volunteer nurse with Doctors Without Borders, was stopped at Newark airport in New Jersey, where she told an immigration official she had travelled from Sierra Leone. She endured several hours of questioning from officials wearing protective coveralls, gloves, masks and face shields. Her temperature was taken, and registered 98F. Then, she said, her temperature was taken a second time.
“Four hours after I landed at the airport, an official approached me with a forehead scanner. My cheeks were flushed, I was upset at being held with no explanation. The scanner recorded my temperature as 101,” she wrote.
Hickox said she was left alone in a room for another three hours before being taken to the hospital, where her temperature was again recorded. This time it was 98.6F.
“I sat alone in the isolation tent and thought of many colleagues who will return home to America and face the same ordeal,” she wrote. “Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?”
The New Jersey department of health said Hickox would remain in isolation for the time being. Speaking on Friday, Christie said the state’s health department had determined a quarantine order should be issued; it was not clear on Saturday if it would be issued in New York, where Hickox was traveling to, or New Jersey, where she is in hospital. Hickox is not from the area, Christie said.
Civil liberties activists raised concerns about the constitutionality of the new rules, warning they could discourage health workers from volunteering to fight Ebola in Africa.
“We understand the importance of protecting the public from an Ebola outbreak,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement reported by the New York Times, adding that the mandatory orders for isolation “raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its police powers by detaining people who are exhibiting no Ebola symptoms”.
Aid groups have expressed concerns about the effect of the new rules on a region where more doctors and nurses are desperately needed to fight a virus that the World Health Organisation said on Saturday has now infected more than 10,000 people. Almost 5,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, have died.
The restrictions imposed by New York, New Jersey and Illinois go beyond recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the agency managing the federal response to Ebola in the US. The CDC said in a statement that it “sets the baseline recommended standards, but state and local officials have the prerogative to tighten the regimen as they see fit”.
On Friday night Mary Bassett, New York City’s health commissioner, sounded a cautious note. “People who go and volunteer, we have to look at how the new quarantine policy would impact them,” she said on Twitter.
Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned against a mandatory quarantine on medics returning from Ebola-stricken countries, saying it would be an “excessive measure”.
The Obama administration is understood to be considering the effectiveness of imposing a nationwide policy of quarantining health workers returning from west Africa. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, declined to rule it out during a briefing on Friday.
Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, told Reuters: “There are a number of options being discussed pertaining to the monitoring and mobility of healthcare workers who are returning to the United States from affected countries.”
Spencer, 33, finished his work in Guinea on 12 October and left the country on 14 October, flying home to John F Kennedy airport in New York via Europe. He arrived in New York on 17 October. He checked his temperature twice a day, but despite feeling fatigued, visited the High Line park on Tuesday, and on Wednesday took a three-mile jog and went bowling in Brooklyn. As soon as he recorded a fever on Thursday, he contacted MSF in New York.
Guidelines set out by MSF state that returning medics should stay within four hours of a hospital with isolation facilities, but do not require that they avoid crowds so long as they do not display symptoms.
“As long as a returned staff member does not experience any symptoms, normal life can proceed,” the organisation says. “Family, friends, and neighbors can be assured that a returned staff person who does not present symptoms is not contagious and does not put them at risk. Self-quarantine is neither warranted nor recommended when a person is not displaying Ebola-like symptoms.”
At a Friday press conference, Bassett, the New York health chief, praised Spencer’s actions in volunteering to help Ebola victims in west Africa and said he had followed protocols on his return. “There’s this young guy who went over there, really doing the right thing, the courageous thing, and he handled himself really well,” Bassett said. “I don’t want anyone portraying him as reckless.”
De Blasio told the same press conference that American medical professionals helping to tackle the outbreak in west Africa “are the people who will end this crisis”. He said: “We have to make sure that that flow of medical personnel can continue.”
On Saturday, Obama urged calm. “We have to be guided by the science – we have to be guided by the facts, not fear,” the president said in his weekly address to the nation.
“Yesterday, New Yorkers showed us the way. They did what they do every day – jumping on buses, riding the subway, crowding into elevators, heading into work, gathering in parks. That spirit – that determination to carry on – is part of what makes New York one of the great cities in the world.
“And that’s the spirit all of us can draw upon, as Americans, as we meet this challenge together.”
In a conspicuous attempt to allay public fear, on Friday Obama was photographed hugging Nina Pham, the first of two Texas nurses to recover from the disease after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who contracted Ebola in Liberia and died in Dallas earlier this month. Pham returned home shortly before midnight on Friday, accompanied by her mother and sister.
Before the latest Ebola case in New York, the CDC had tightened its monitoring requirements for those arriving in the US from the three west African countries hardest hit by the outbreak. The new monitoring system goes into effect on Monday in six states – New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia – and will eventually be expanded across the country.
The new guidelines will require anyone who flies from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea – regardless of whether they are exhibiting symptoms – to check in daily with state and local health officials. They will be required to report their temperatures and the any appearance of Ebola-like symptoms, such as severe headaches, fatigue and diarrhoea. They will also be required to consult with health officials if they need, or want, to travel.
If an affected individual fails to check in, the CDC said health officials would take immediate action to track the person down and ensure the proper monitoring is carried out. Concern has been raised over the feasibility of such proposed action.
I have done lot of irresponsible things throughout my life.
In high school I cut a social studies class for weeks at a time, threw parties at my house (sorry, Mom and Dad!), got stoned, and had sex – all before I was 16. When I was in college I got so drunk that I slipped on some ice outside my apartment and decided to lay there for an hour. One of my roommates – who shall remain nameless – got so trashed once that she walked into the wrong dorm room, got into a bed, and peed in it. It was reckless, stupid and hilarious.
Youthful transgressions may not be our best moments, but they’re also part of growing up. And let’s face it – a lot of them were really fun too. So I can’t help but be put off by the neverending stream of “advice” thrown at young women about how to be “safe” or “respect ourselves” – advice that boys of the same age never hear.
Equality is about politics and economics … but it’s also about the ability to be a damn fool every once in a while if we want to. As Rebecca Traister wrote in Big Girls Don’t Cry, true equality “would involve as many Sarah Palins as it would Hillary Clintons.”
Young women need to be able to move around the world with the same amount of stupid that men do because, if women are held to a higher standard of behavior, and we’re inevitably blamed if – and when – we don’t adhere to it.
Take Caroline Kitchens of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, for example. Kitchens, who previously characterized concern over rape culture as “hysteria”, recently published a video in which she suggests that, if women don’t want to be raped, they shouldn’t get drunk. It’s not a new line of thinking – last year Slate’s Emily Yoffe came under fire for writing that the “common denominator” in rapes is alcohol instead of, you know, rapists.
In addition to just being ineffective – women get raped drunk and sober, in skirts and in sweatpants – warnings to avoid alcohol in order to avoid being raped send a clear message to women: you can never make a mistake, or any crime committed against you will be at least partially your fault.
Do we really believe that women shouldn’t have the freedom to get drunk and be stupid? That they can’t partake in the silly, fun, dumb behavior that we’ve come to expect of young people – young men – on the brink of adulthood? That one bad decision and they could “get themselves” raped, but that never making a bad one will protect them?
Do we really believe that only women can stop rapists?
And if we spent even a fraction of the time and energy teaching affirmative consent, fighting rape and punishing rapists that we normally squander on chastising women for not being good boring girls, it wouldn’t have to be. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a drink.
Because the natural reservoir host of Ebola viruses has not yet been identified, the manner in which the virus first appears in a human at the start of an outbreak is unknown. However, researchers believe that the first patient becomes infected through contact with an infected animal.
When an infection does occur in humans, the virus can be spread in several ways to others. Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with
blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola
objects (like needles and syringes) that have been contaminated with the virus
infected animals
Ebola is not spread through the air or by water, or in general, by food. However, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat (wild animals hunted for food) and contact with infected bats. There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys, and apes) have shown the ability to become infected with and spread Ebola virus.
Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and the family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected blood or body fluids of sick patients.
During outbreaks of Ebola, the disease can spread quickly within healthcare settings (such as a clinic or hospital). Exposure to Ebola can occur in healthcare settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, including masks, gowns, and gloves and eye protection.
Dedicated medical equipment (preferable disposable, when possible) should be used by healthcare personnel providing patient care. Proper cleaning and disposal of instruments, such as needles and syringes, is also important. If instruments are not disposable, they must be sterilized before being used again. Without adequate sterilization of the instruments, virus transmission can continue and amplify an outbreak.
Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus. However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. Abstinence from sex (including oral sex) is recommended for at least 3 months. If abstinence is not possible, condoms may help prevent the spread of disease.
In response to growing concerns about the introduction of the deadly Ebola virus into the United States, California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and its Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) today announced interim guidance for workers who may be exposed to those who are infected. The guidance is geared toward workers and their employers in six general categories based upon potential risks identified by the federal government. Those categories include health care workers, emergency responders, laboratory staff, mortuary workers, airline flight crews and airport staff, and quarantine operations staff.
The new guidelines are an outgrowth of previous California regulations related to infectious diseases such as Ebola. Known as the Aerosol Transmissable Diseases Standard, the regulations were adopted in 2009 to address infections that may be spread by small liquid droplets that may come in contact with mucous membranes. Ebola is one of those diseases and can be spread by contact with an infected person’s blood, feces, and other body fluids.
Cal/OSHA also reminded employers and workers to promptly report any suspected cases of Ebola to the local public health department.
Although the risk of a full blown outbreak of Ebola in the United States is low according to most experts, many in the public have expressed fear and concern, especially after recent events related to the treatment of a patient in Dallas, Texas, who later died of the disease and infected at least two other medical professionals who cared for him. Additionally, residents of Bakersfield and Kern County who are familiar with local oilfield operations, know that some oil companies, including local energy giant Chevron, have operations in West Africa, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Those operations have employed staff who have transferred from Kern County to Africa. Therefore, local hospitals, airport staff, and emergency responders need to pay close attention to the new guidelines in the event that a transferred worker returns home and displays symptoms.
“California’s workplace safety and health standards go further than national standards in protecting workers from hazards such as Ebola,” said Juliann Sum, Acting Chief of Cal/OSHA. “We urge employers and their workers who may be at risk to pay careful attention to our guidance and check for updates as new information becomes available.”
With the new interim guidance, Cal/OSHA advises employers to do the following to protect at risk workers:
Ensure that they wear gloves, impermeable body coverings, face shields or other eye and face protection, and appropriate respiratory protection. All personal protective equipment (PPE) must be adequate to prevent the passage of bodily fluids to the employee’s clothing and skin. NIOSH-approved respirators must be used where infectious aerosols are likely to be present.
Train employees in the use of all applicable protective equipment, including respirators. Employees must be clearly instructed on how to safely put on and take off equipment.
Give employees opportunities to practice with the respirators and other equipment they will use.
Provide dedicated, separate areas for the donning and removing of protective gear.
Use either a buddy system or other means of assisting employees in donning and removing PPE. Employees who assist in removing contaminated equipment must also use PPE.
Provide additional protective gear, such as double gloves and disposable shoe and leg coverings, in environments where copious amounts of blood, vomit, feces or other bodily fluids are present.
Ensure that workers conducting aerosol-generating procedures such as intubation or bronchoscopy perform the procedures in an airborne infection isolation room, if feasible, or at least in a private room with the door closed.
Employees exposed to these procedures must use NIOSH-approved respirators.
Additional information about Ebola and recommendation safety and protection advice may be found at the following links:
Anti-Slavery Day is celebrated on October 18th. Yet, over 200 years since William Wilberforce was responsible for its abolition, 29.8 million people are still estimated to be enslaved world-wide. Slavery in corporate supply chains conflicts with running a responsible business, one that is based on ethical values such as dignity, justice, fairness, equality, integrity, respect, and responsibility.
Those in modern slavery are ‘owned’ by their employers. They may also be controlled through a variety of means including large recruitment debts that they are unable to pay back, or threats of harm if they try to leave. Victims are frequently moved from one country to another, in a practice known as ‘human trafficking’, an equivalent of the slave trade of the past. This sometimes involved being deceived into believing that they are heading towards a better life, whereas the reality is cruelly different. The business role in slavery
There are many NGOs which work to combat the slavery and human trafficking, especially of children. But business has a role to play. While slavery is illegal globally, evidence suggests that it still occurs in every country, with certain sectors of even developed economies remaining particularly vulnerable. The risks affect most industries, however electronics and high-tech, steel and automobiles, agriculture and seafood, mining and minerals, garments and textiles, and shipping and transportation are all especially vulnerable.
Underpaying workers can encourage slavery
The ILO estimates forced labour leads to $150 billion in profits every year – more than the annual profits of the entire US banking industry or Google. And while certain countries are more at risk to slavery than others no country is immune to the problem, with the Global Slavery Index 2013 suggesting that “between 4,200 – 4,600 people in modern slavery in the United Kingdom alone”.
Business has a role to play in negating the tolerance of slavery. Complex labour supply chains can allow forced labour to thrive. Whether knowingly or not, some companies with significant presence in the UK, rely on people working in slavery to produce the goods they sell, or have supply chains that can encourage traffickers. Complex sub-contracting and supply chains managed by agents often obscure this involvement.
Of course, no company condones slavery. Many have a human rights policy or a code of ethics (or equivalent) specifically for their suppliers which gives guidance on the expected behaviours based on ethical values. This often formalises the requirement that they do not support slavery or forced labour.
However, a written commitment is not enough. When companies with long supply chains do not make sufficient checks or ask enough questions far enough down the system, it is more likely slavery will go undetected. Supply chain audits are one possible solution for increasing supply chain transparency. But even when auditing does occur, it can be insufficient. One problem is that audit pathways follow products, not people, so they tend to miss the areas of the labour supply chain that pose the most risk.
Business is culpable
The way in which companies operate can affect the likelihood of slavery. For example, a large order combined with a short turnaround time, beyond the supplier’s capacity, could increase the risk of slavery as they may feel forced to subcontract work to factories or workers not regulated by the same standards as themselves. Such time-sensitive situations are most evident with agricultural harvest or imminent construction deadlines.
Underpaying workers in the supply chain can also encourage slavery practices. In 2014 the Guardian released a documentary revealing the working conditions on tea plantations in India that supply Tata Global Beverages, producer of Tetley in the UK. The report claimed workers who were paid significantly below the local minimum wage were consequently vulnerable to being targeted by traffickers who would lure them with promises of a better life whereas the intention was to sell them into slavery.
Slavery by its very nature is a covert practice, and so may be difficult to uncover in formal audits. But there are circumstances where it may be wise to dig deeper. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply states that modern slavery is more likely to flourish in the following instances:
Workers have fewer protections through inadequate laws and regulations, weak or non-existent enforcement, and poor business and government accountability
There are high levels of poverty among workers
There is widespread discrimination against certain types of workers (e.g. women and ethnic groups)
There is widespread use of migrant/ casual workers
Conflict zones
In some specific high risk industries (typically industries involving raw materials).
The risk to business
The reputational damage which organisations face if exposed as having slavery within their supply chain has been well documented. Companies risk losing consumer confidence and market share if they are found to be sourcing from suppliers which use exploitative labour. It has been suggested that such consumer action against companies linked to slavery costs those implicated £2.6bn a year.
Forced labour is more common in conflict zones
Companies and individual employees may also face legal repercussions if their suppliers are involved in illegal conduct, even if it happens abroad. With the Modern Slavery Bill, the UK government is creating new responsibilities for businesses to ensure that their supply chains are free of forced labour. This means that businesses could be required to disclose steps they have taken to eradicate modern slavery from their supply chains.
A track record which indicates that procurement is based on ethical as well as commercial considerations can encourage investment in a company. It can also improve employee morale as well as exceed legal requirements. Beyond the reputational and legal risks, companies need to address this problem for ethical reasons: it is the right thing to do. No brand wishes to include bonded labour as its USP.
An ethical approach
NGO Anti-Slavery International suggest that rather than focusing solely on auditing and compliance, companies should work with their suppliers and take a genuine approach to partnership. An ethical approach would be to make it clear to suppliers that if forced labour is identified at their sites the contract will not necessarily be terminated immediately. Instead companies could offer to work with their suppliers to build their skills in identifying and addressing forced labour issues. This would help combat the problem rather than just pushing it deeper underground.
Customers – whether large businesses or consumers – have a responsibility to those enslaved. Our desire for more, cheaper, quicker and ‘no questions asked’ products may mean someone, somewhere, loses their right to freedom.