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Huge math error corrected in black plastic study; authors say it doesn’t matter

✇Latest Tech News from Ars Technica
By: Beth Mole

Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching correction to a study reporting toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen utensils. The study sparked a flurry of media reports a few weeks ago that urgently implored people to ditch their kitchen spatulas and spoons. Wirecutter even offered a buying guide for what to replace them with.

The correction, posted Sunday, will likely take some heat off the beleaguered utensils. The authors made a math error that put the estimated risk from kitchen utensils off by an order of magnitude.

Specifically, the authors estimated that if a kitchen utensil contained middling levels of a key toxic flame retardant (BDE-209), the utensil would transfer 34,700 nanograms of the contaminant a day based on regular use while cooking and serving hot food. The authors then compared that estimate to a reference level of BDE-209 considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's safe level is 7,000 ng—per kilogram of body weight—per day, and the authors used 60 kg as the adult weight (about 132 pounds) for their estimate. So, the safe EPA limit would be 7,000 multiplied by 60, yielding 420,000 ng per day. That's 12 times more than the estimated exposure of 34,700 ng per day.

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© Getty | Grace Cary

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London is taking action against reckless e-bike parking

✇Latest Tech News From Engadget
By: Sarah Fielding

I experienced a few adjustments when I moved to London two years ago: how noisy the tube can be, how spread out the city is and how many e-bikes are strewn everywhere, blocking the sidewalk and access ramps. Now, Transport for London (TfL) is attempting to improve the latter, announcing new steps to regulate parking for Lime, Forest and other companies' 40,000-plus e-bikes across the city. Rental e-scooters in London already operate with more rigorous parking restrictions. 

The initiative will impact red roads, a networks of major streets TfL manages. Red roads make up about five percent of London's streets, but about 30 percent of its traffic. Namely, TfL will hold operators responsible "who allow their bikes to be parked outside of designated places on red routes and on TfL land, which includes areas such as station forecourts and bus garages," the announcement reads. 

It's unclear just how TfL plans to do this, though, whether it be by fines or restricting access. TFL simply states that it will take "a proportionate and pragmatic approach" to enforcement, focusing its efforts on areas where the e-bikes cause the greatest safety and access risks. 

"The right long-term solution is new legislation, setting out fair and consistent rules that all operators have to abide by. However ahead of that, it is clear the current operators could and should be doing much more to address these problems," says councillor Kieron Williams, London Councils Executive Member for Climate, Transport and Environment. TfL seems acutely aware of its dependence on the operators and has requested the government consider new powers for the transport organization that allow it to better regulate e-bike services. 

TfL is also working with the boroughs to increase e-bike parking compliance. London is notably made up of 32 boroughs plus the city of London, requiring widespread collaboration and enforcement. According to TfL, London's boroughs have created 2,000 parking bays this year, while the transport organization has allocated nearly £1 million ($1.3 million) this year to fund 7,500 parking spaces. It also plans to make at least 800 spaces before next summer and to reach 3,000 in total by 2026's end.

TfL separately offers Santander-sponsored bikes with designated parking docking terminals, one in six of which are electric. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/london-is-taking-action-against-reckless-e-bike-parking-134626744.html?src=rss

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© Carl Court via Getty Images

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 27: Lime bikes lay in the road on March 27, 2024 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
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Fitness app Strava is tightening third-party access to user data

✇Latest Tech News from Ars Technica
By: Kevin Purdy

The Strava app is one of the most popular ways for cyclists, runners, hikers, and other distance sports enthusiasts to track their performance and grab some bragging rights. Because most athletic types will have the app installed already—and because it's hard or impossible to run two tracking apps at once—many apps use Strava's API as a go-between for workout data.

Strava emailed its more than 100 million users earlier this week to notify them about "important updates on how Strava data can be displayed, accessed, and used by third-party apps." In the update, Strava noted that third-party apps "are no longer able to display your Strava activity data on their surfaces to other users," that Strava's API data cannot be used "in artificial intelligence models or other similar applications," and that third-party apps must be designed so as to "complement" Strava's look and feel "rather than replicating it."

What does this actually mean? It depends on which apps you're using. DC Rainmaker, a longtime fitness tech blogger, sees the "other users" clause as something that "immediately break[s] almost all coaching apps that have connections to Strava." If an app needs to see your Strava workout to provide insights on performance or connect you to a group, Strava's API seems to block it now. A manager at the training app Intervals posted on the app's official forum that the API change would break Intervals' ability to use Strava as its data source.

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