Business

Paul Brodeur, Reporter Who Exposed the Hazards of Asbestos, Dies at 92

Published

1 year ago

August 17, 2023

Paul Brodeur, Reporter Who Exposed the Hazards of Asbestos, Dies at 92

Paul Brodeur, whose deeply reported articles in The New Yorker brought national attention to subjects like the toxic hazards of asbestos and the destructive impact of chlorofluorocarbons on the ozone layer, died on Aug. 2 in Hyannis, Mass. He was 92.

His death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of pneumonia and hip replacement surgery, said his daughter, the novelist and memoirist Adrienne Brodeur.

Mr. Brodeur’s first long-form article for The New Yorker, “The Magic Mineral,” published in 1968, described at great length the history of asbestos, a heat-resistant fiber with a history of being used in thousands of products — including building and insulation materials, rugs, potholders, roofing, military helmets and gas masks — and its connection to cancer, particularly mesothelioma, among workers who had been exposed to it.

“There is not an automobile, airplane, train, ship, missile or engine of any sort that does not contain asbestos in some form or other, and it has found its way into literally every building, factory, home and farm across the land,” he wrote. “And, because its minuscule fibers are eminently respirable, asbestos has also found its way into the lungs of man, where, by remaining as indestructible as it does in nature, it can wreak terrible havoc.”

It was the sort of exposé that called to mind the groundbreaking work of Rachel Carson, whose book “Silent Spring,” about the devastating ecological impact of pesticides and insecticides like DDT, had been serialized in three parts in The New Yorker in 1962.

William Shawn, the editor of the magazine at the time, had encouraged Ms. Carson, and then Mr. Brodeur, to write about the environment. Mr. Brodeur continued to write about asbestos, most notably in two series over the next two decades.

The first, spread over five parts in 1973, examined the impact of asbestos on workers and the failure of federal agencies to keep companies from exposing employees to myriad health consequences. It won The New Yorker a National Magazine Award.

The second series, in 1985, was about lawsuits filed by victims against asbestos companies, including the Manville Corporation, the world’s largest producer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1982.

“He wrote in such a way that people learned what asbestos was, where it was found and how people could be exposed to it,” Dr. Richard Lemen, a former assistant United States surgeon general, said in a phone interview. He added, “I think his reporting had a big impact on the industry; it took notice, and it had to clean up its act.”

At the beginning of the first series, Mr. Brodeur described a conversation he had with Clarence Holder, an assistant regional administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Dallas, about the unsafe conditions at a recently shuttered asbestos insulation plant in Tyler, Texas, where dust was so thick that workers could not see across the building.

“I asked Holder if he knew that asbestos inhalation could raise not only pulmonary scarring but lung cancer, mesothelioma and other malignancies,” Mr. Brodeur wrote. “He replied that he had never heard of mesothelioma and that he doubted if there was any real proof that asbestos could cause cancer.”

The Environmental Protection Agency tried to ban the use of asbestos use in 1989. The effort was overturned by a federal court two years later, but the ruling retained prohibitions against new uses of asbestos. It is still used in the manufacture of household bleach, bulletproof vests, electrical insulation and automotive products.

Paul Adrian Brodeur Jr. was born on May 16, 1931, in Boston and grew up in nearby Arlington, Mass. His father, who fought as an artillery officer in the French Army during World War I, was an orthodontist and a sculptor of bronze bas-relief portraits. His mother, Sarah (Smith) Brodeur, was an actress who became a professor of early childhood education at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.

After graduating from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., Mr. Brodeur attended Harvard, where he majored in English and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1953. He then served for two years as an Army counterintelligence agent in Europe.

He stayed in Paris for a year after his discharge and sold a short story, “The Sick Fox,” an allegory about the postwar mood in Germany, to The New Yorker in 1957. He turned it into his first novel, published in 1963.

After joining the magazine’s staff in 1958, Mr. Brodeur initially wrote Talk of the Town pieces, commentaries and short stories.

He had a reputation at The New Yorker as a tough, punctilious and pugnacious reporter.

“He’s a feisty individual,” Anthony Bailey, another staff writer, told The New York Observer (now known simply as Observer) in 2014. “He reminds me, in many ways, of the French writers of the 19th century — people like Zola, who got very worked up about justice.”

In addition to asbestos, Mr. Brodeur got worked up about hazards like aerosol sprays and air-conditioners that emitted chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which has led to a breakdown in the ozone layer. In 1975, he was among the first to report, on the ozone layer’s depletion. In a second article, in 1986, he described the impacts of a hole in the ozone layer, including changes in crop yields, higher skin cancer rates and the killing of the larvae of seafood species, including shrimp and crab.

A. Karim Ahmed, a former research director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that Mr. Brodeur’s 1975 article influenced federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission as CFCs began to be phased out well before a 1987 international treaty, the Montreal Protocol, started to regulate the production and consumption of chemicals that damage the ozone layer.

“His article and our work helped give the U.S. a head start in phasing out CFCs over everyone else,” Dr. Ahmed said in a phone interview.

Mr. Brodeur also reported on the possible dangers of radiation from microwave ovens, computer terminals and electromagnetic power lines. But this reporting was not as widely accepted as his work on asbestos and CFCs.

In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences found little to no evidence of any risk from power-line radiation. Other studies have been far from conclusive. (Mr. Brodeur noted, however, that the World Health Organization classified microwave radiation from cellphones to be a possible carcinogen.)

And in 2019, the science journalist William J. Broad of The Times found that in his 1977 book, “The Zapping of America: Microwaves, Their Deadly Risk, and the Cover-Up,” Mr. Brodeur had relied on “suggestive but often ambiguous evidence to argue” that the growing use of the high frequencies of microwaves could endanger human health.

Like “The Zapping of America,” many of Mr. Brodeur’s nonfiction books grew out of his reporting for The New Yorker. Among them were “Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial” (1985); “Currents of Death” (1989); and “The Great Power-Line Cover-Up: How the Utilities and the Government Are Trying to Hide the Cancer Hazard Posed by Electromagnetic Fields” (1993).

He also wrote another novel, “The Stunt Man” (1970), about a young Army deserter who becomes a stuntman for a tyrannical director. It was adapted into a film in 1980 starring Peter O’Toole as the director and Steve Railsback as the title character.

Mr. Brodeur published a memoir, “Secrets: A Writer in the Cold War,” in 1997.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his son, Stephen; three grandchildren; and his sister, Valjeanne Paxton. His marriages to Malabar Schleiter and Margaret Staats ended in divorce. He had separated from his third wife, Milane Christiansen, before her death in 2013. His brother, David, died in 2019. Another son, Alan, died in infancy.

Mr. Brodeur learned when he was in college that he had another brother, Adrian Paul Brodeur, from his father’s earlier marriage. He died in 1992. Paul and Adrian never met.

Mr. Brodeur left The New Yorker shortly after Tina Brown took over as editor in 1992.

His final article was, fittingly, a reminder of Rachel Carson’s legacy.

After citing the implications for breast cancer prevention found in a recent study that showed that women with the greatest exposure to DDT were four times more likely to develop breast cancer than women with the least exposure, he concluded:

“Rachel Carson lives.”

Business

SEC probes B. Riley loan to founder, deals with franchise group

Published

50 minutes ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

SEC probes B. Riley loan to founder, deals with franchise group

B. Riley Financial Inc. received more demands for information from federal regulators about its dealings with now-bankrupt Franchise Group as well as a personal loan for Chairman and co-founder Bryant Riley.

The Los Angeles-based investment firm and Riley each received additional subpoenas in November from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking documents and information about Franchise Group, or FRG, the retail company that was once one of its biggest investments before its collapse last year, according to a long-delayed quarterly filing. The agency also wants to know more about Riley’s pledge of B. Riley shares as collateral for a personal loan, the filing shows.

B. Riley previously received SEC subpoenas in July for information about its dealings with ex-FRG chief executive Brian Kahn, part of a long-running probe that has rocked B. Riley and helped push its shares to their lowest in more than a decade. Bryant Riley, who founded the company in 1997 and built it into one of the biggest U.S. investment firms beyond Wall Street, has been forced to sell assets and raise cash to ease creditors’ concerns.

The firm and Riley “are responding to the subpoenas and are fully cooperating with the SEC,” according to the filing. The company said the subpoenas don’t mean the SEC has determined any violations of law have occurred.

Shares in B. Riley jumped more than 25% in New York trading after the company’s overdue quarterly filing gave investors their first formal look at the firm’s performance in more than half a year. The data included a net loss of more than $435 million for the three months ended June 30. The shares through Monday had plunged more than 80% in the past 12 months, trading for less than $4 each.

B. Riley and Kahn — a longstanding client and friend of Riley’s — teamed up in 2023 to take FRG private in a $2.8-billion deal. The transaction soon came under pressure when Kahn was tagged as an unindicted co-conspirator by authorities in the collapse of an unrelated hedge fund called Prophecy Asset Management, which led to a fraud conviction for one of the fund’s executives.

Kahn has said he didn’t do anything wrong, that he wasn’t aware of any fraud at Prophecy and that he was among those who lost money in the collapse. But federal investigations into his role have spilled over into his dealings with B. Riley and its chairman, who have said internal probes found they “had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any alleged misconduct concerning Mr. Kahn or any of his affiliates.”

FRG filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, a move that led to hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for B. Riley. The collapse made Riley “personally sick,” he said at the time.

One of the biggest financial problems to arise from the FRG deal was a loan that B. Riley made to Kahn for about $200 million, which was secured against FRG shares. With that company’s collapse into bankruptcy in November wiping out equity holders, the value of the remaining collateral for this debt has now dwindled to only about $2 million, the filing shows.

Griffin writes for Bloomberg.

Business

Starbucks Reverses Its Open-Door Policy for Bathroom Use and Lounging

Published

8 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Starbucks Reverses Its Open-Door Policy for Bathroom Use and Lounging

Starbucks will require people visiting its coffee shops to buy something in order to stay or to use its bathrooms, the company announced in a letter sent to store managers on Monday.

The new policy, outlined in a Code of Conduct, will be enacted later this month and applies to the company’s cafes, patios and bathrooms.

“Implementing a Coffeehouse Code of Conduct is something most retailers already have and is a practical step that helps us prioritize our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafes or need to use the restroom during their visit,” Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

Ms. Anderson said that by outlining expectations for customers the company “can create a better environment for everyone.”

The Code of Conduct will be displayed in every store and prohibit behaviors including discrimination, harassment, smoking and panhandling.

People who violate the rules will be asked to leave the store, and employees may call law enforcement, the policy says.

Before implementation of the new policy begins on Jan. 27, store managers will be given 40 hours to prepare stores and workers, according to the company. There will also be training sessions for staff.

This training time will be used to prepare for other new practices, too, including asking customers if they want their drink to stay or to go and offering unlimited free refills of hot or iced coffee to customers who order a drink to stay.

The changes are part of an attempt by the company to prioritize customers and make the stores more inviting, Sara Trilling, the president of Starbucks North America, said in a letter to store managers.

“We know from customers that access to comfortable seating and a clean, safe environment is critical to the Starbucks experience they love,” she wrote. “We’ve also heard from you, our partners, that there is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them.”

The changes come as the company responds to declining sales, falling stock prices and grumbling from activist investors. In August, the company appointed a new chief executive, Brian Niccol.

Mr. Niccol outlined changes the company needed to make in a video in October. “We will simplify our overly complex menu, fix our pricing architecture and ensure that every customer feels Starbucks is worth it every single time they visit,” he said.

The new purchase requirement reverses a policy Starbucks instituted in 2018 that said people could use its cafes and bathrooms even if they had not bought something.

The earlier policy was introduced a month after two Black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting to meet another man for a business meeting.

Officials said that the men had asked to use the bathroom, but that an employee had refused the request because they had not purchased anything. An employee then called the police, and part of the ensuing encounter was recorded on video and viewed by millions of people online, prompting boycotts and protests.

In 2022, Howard Schultz, the Starbucks chief executive at the time, said that the company was reconsidering the open-bathroom policy.

Business

'TikTok refugees' unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms

Published

9 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

'TikTok refugees' unexpectedly turn to Chinese alternative as ban looms

TAIPEI, Taiwan — TikTok users concerned about a looming ban are finding solace in a strange place.

Days ahead of a Supreme Court decision that could determine whether the popular short-video app shuts down starting Sunday, a number of users appear to be turning to an app called RedNote — more commonly known to its majority-Chinese audience by its Chinese name, Xiaohongshu.

It’s a surprising choice since Xiaohongshu is Chinese-owned, and such ties are the reason U.S. lawmakers moved to ban TikTok in the U.S., citing privacy and national security concerns.

Also Xiaohongshu is dominated by Chinese language, and its content is subject to censorship by Chinese government officials, something alien to most U.S. users.

But by embracing a Chinese social media and lifestyle app similar to Instagram, some U.S. TikTok users say they are protesting what they believe is the unfair ban of the ubiquitous app.

“I think America is trying to bully China into selling to an American owner. A lot of us just don’t want to give in to them,” said Samantha Manassero, a 39-year-old nurse in L.A. who downloaded Xiaohongshu on Sunday night after watching content creators on TikTok pitch it as a comparable app. “I think some of it is literally just pettiness.”

Last year, Congress passed a bill that requires TikTok’s owner, Bytedance, to sell the app to a U.S.-approved owner or face a nationwide ban. As soon as Wednesday, the Supreme Court is expected to uphold the legality of the ban.

It was unclear whether Xiaohongshu, which was started in 2013, would become a viable alternative to TikTok or if the recent migration to the Chinese platform accounts for a significant share of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users.

But a surge in new users made Xiaohongshu the top free download on Apple’s App Store this week. No. 2 on the charts was another social media app developed by Bytedance, Lemon8. It’s unclear whether either app will be subjected to the same U.S. government scrutiny as TikTok.

It is also difficult to determine exactly how many U.S. TikTok users have created accounts on Xiaohongshu or how many will stay on it. While many Xiaohongshu regulars have welcomed the influx of Americans identifying themselves as “TikTok refugees,” the app’s interface is largely in Chinese, making it difficult to navigate for non-native speakers.

Chinese apps are subject to stringent censorship on discussions that the Chinese government deems politically sensitive. These topics can range from illegal activities to LGBTQ+ rights to Winnie the Pooh, images of which have been used to mock Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, has different content restrictions and is only available for mobile download in China. Bytedance has argued that TikTok, which is used by the rest of the world, is a separate entity from Douyin and not beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.

That did not stop President-elect Donald Trump from proposing a ban of TikTok in 2020, or President Biden from signing it into law in 2024.

The legality of such a ban has been questioned several times. Last month, in an about-face, Trump, who has 14.8 million followers on TikTok, filed a legal brief requesting to stay the ban so he can negotiate a deal once he takes office.

As TikTok faces an uncertain future, Xiaohongshu’s latest arrivals were eager to try out the new app despite its foreign nature.

Manassero, who posts videos about healthcare and power lifting to about 7,000 followers on TikTok, said she already has a much larger audience of 26,000 on Instagram. However, she was motivated to create an account on Xiaohongshu partly out of frustration at the U.S. government’s determination to outlaw TikTok.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what I’m reading, I’m just pressing buttons,” Manassero said in her first video post. The next morning, her account had received 5,000 views and 3,500 new followers. By Tuesday, the hashtag “Tiktok refugee” had received more than 90 million views and 2 million comments.

TikTokers sought each other out with introductions, follow requests and shared tips on how to navigate the app’s Chinese functions. On Monday, more than 190,000 viewers joined a live chat named “TikTok Refugees Club,” and held discussions in English about what a TikTok ban would mean and future plans for social media content. In the comments, users greeted new arrivals and lamented they could not understand each other.

“Maybe you can learn how to speak Chinese,” one user wrote in English.

“Where’s the translator?” another viewer asked in Chinese.

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese officials had discussed the possibility of selling TikTok to a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk, who already owns social media platform X. However, analysts said that Bytedance is unlikely to agree to a sale of the underlying algorithm that powers the app, meaning the platform under a new owner could still look drastically different.

Manassero and other TikTokers expressed distaste at the prospect of migrating to U.S. tech platforms such as Instagram or X that could benefit from an influx of users if TikTok shuts down.

“We don’t want to turn around and make a bunch of billionaires even more rich,” she said. “I would honestly rather the app get shut down than be owned by Elon Musk.”

Though she is still trying to figure out how to use Xiaohongshu and message people back, Manassero said she would likely stay on the Chinese lifestyle app regardless of whether the TikTok ban goes through.

“The response has been so friendly and nice. It’s good energy,” she said. “This feels like the early TikTok days: a little more organic, so it’s fun.”