Latest news with #Ohayon
Global News
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Global News
Montreal lawyer turned actress set to make her off-Broadway debut
A lawyer from Montreal who left her profession to pursue her childhood passion says that after three years, her leap of faith seems to be paying off. Jill Ohayon, a former human rights lawyer based in Ottawa, will make her Off-Broadway debut when her show, The Garden Bridge, is performed as part of the SheNYC summer festival in New York this summer. 'We're really lucky and grateful that we were selected for this festival and now we get to share it with more people,' she told Global News from New York, where she lives. She said hers is one of four musicals selected from over 400 submissions, adding that her two-hour show has been performed in a number of venues already and has been well received. Ohayon, originally from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, left her law practice in 2022 and moved to the Big Apple to pursue a two-year master's degree in musical theatre at New York University. Story continues below advertisement During her second year, Ohayon, a writer, was paired with another student who writes music. In the process of working together, the two learned something about their ancestral histories and decided to produce a show based on it. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We created a piece about a Jewish family and a Chinese family who end up as next-door neighbours in this area of Shanghai that they were kinda forced into,' she explained. Ohayon is Jewish. Her collaborator, Andy Li, is Chinese American. The play is fiction but based on the story of Jews who fled the Holocaust to Shanghai. 'It was a part of history that neither of us knew anything about,' she told Global News. 'About 20,000 European Jews did that, many of whom survived the Holocaust that way.' Shanghai was eventually occupied by the Japanese who made life difficult for both the Jewish and Chinese people. The Garden Bridge, based on this story of forced migration and persecution, is timely, Ohayon believes, given the recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiments and racism. 'Just every form of racism, of hatred, of lack of safety, lack of security in the most basic sense, has come about,' she pointed out. Even a synagogue attached to her childhood school in Dollard-des-Ormeaux was attacked twice, most recently in December. A 19-year-old man faces multiple arson charges. Story continues below advertisement At her childhood home, Ohayon's mother, Lisa Struzer-Ohayon, said there were early signs of her daughter's passion. 'That's music notes,' she laughs, pointing to a framed illustration on a wall in her daughter's childhood bedroom that hasn't changed since Ohayon moved out. 'That's a music note treble clef,' she said, referring to a sculpture behind the door. Ohayon's Off-Broadway is quite an achievement for someone who, just three years ago, was a human rights lawyer in Ottawa, her dad, Robert Ohayon, said. But, it also doesn't surprise him. 'She's always loved theatre,' he said. 'As a child, we had her in children[s] theatre. She always loved it.' He smiled when he was told that his daughter credits him for her love of music and performing. He studied acting but never pursued that passion. 'I was too chicken,' he laughed. He's glad that Ohayon is still a member of the Ontario Bar so that she has something to fall back on in case a career in theatre fails. Given her achievements so far, though, her parents are optimistic she'll succeed.
Scientific American
13-05-2025
- Business
- Scientific American
California Told Companies to Label Toxic Chemicals. Instead They're Quietly Dropping Them
Requiring warning labels on products with potentially toxic ingredients can obviously help keep them out of a careful consumer's shopping cart. But a recent study shows that these 'right-to-know' laws may also halt such formulations long before they hit the shelves or are released into the air—and can even protect people outside a law's geographic range. One of the most significant such laws ever passed in the U.S., California's Proposition 65, requires businesses to post a warning when chemical exposures, whether through product ingredients or air emissions, exceed a safe standard. For the recent study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, researchers interviewed business leaders and found that California's rule has caused many companies to reformulate their products by reducing amounts of flagged ingredients to safer levels—or by dropping them entirely. The interviews covered dozens of industries such as cleaning products, electronics and home improvement. They included top-earning brands across all sectors as well as leading green cleaning brands—although the companies remain anonymous in the study, says lead author Jennifer Ohayon, a scientist at the nonprofit research organization Silent Spring Institute. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Ohayon and her colleagues found that companies commonly replaced the warning-requiring ingredients altogether, in part to avoid possible litigation. Michael Freund is a lawyer who spent decades representing groups aiming to stop toxic chemical emissions; he says the California proposition's incentives can help fill a key gap. In the cases he worked on, 'every one of those companies had permits that allowed them to do what they were doing,' he says. 'And that's where Prop 65 comes into play.' Although the 1986 law is specific to California, the study results suggest its effects cross state borders as manufacturers reformulate their products nationally. A parallel study published last year by the Silent Spring Institute backs this idea up with data. That study looked at levels of 37 chemicals in blood and urine samples among both Californians and non-Californians. Of the chemicals, 26 were listed in Prop 65, and samples from before and after listing were available for 11 of those, which allowed for a comparison. For most of the chemicals, levels in people's bodies decreased after listing—both in California residents and across the nation. Megan Schwarzman, a researcher involved in both studies, says sample data exist for only a tiny fraction of the 900 Prop 65 chemicals. In a metaphorical game of Twister, the researchers had to figure out what publicly available data could be matched to Prop 65 chemicals because 'the data weren't collected for that purpose,' Schwarzman says. Monitoring all listed chemicals over time in future work would show any patterns much more clearly. The new study notes that Prop 65 is sometimes criticized for leaving Californians 'over-warned' and 'under-informed.' But the research so far suggests that regardless of consumer effects, the policy has guided at least some businesses' choices—raising the bar for everyone.
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
California's chemical warning labels are everywhere. A study finds they're working.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, Proposition 65 lists more than 900 harmful chemicals. Advertisement "Companies don't want to have to label their product as containing an ingredient that can cause cancer or reproductive harm, " said Ohayon, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts. Companies also removed toxic ingredients to protect themselves from litigation. Researchers interviewed 32 businesses from a variety of sectors including personal care, clothing and health care, concluding that the law has led manufacturers to remove toxic chemicals from their products. And the impact is significant: 78 percent of interviewees said Proposition 65 prompted them to reformulate their ingredients; 81 percent of manufacturers said the law tells them which chemicals to avoid; 69 percent said it promotes transparency about ingredients and the supply chain. Critics of the measure have cautioned that over-labeling could lead consumers to ignore product warnings, Ohayon said. Andrew Fasoli, a spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement that the group and its members are ready to work with state lawmakers to address concerns while also allowing for the important uses and benefits of modern chemistry. 'ACC strongly believes that regulations should be based on the best available science, which is a risk-based approach and not, as is the case with Prop 65, hazard based,' Fasoli said. 'The mere presence of a chemical in a product does not necessarily mean there is a potential for harm.' Advertisement Many of the manufacturers who participated in the study said they removed harmful ingredients from all their products, not only from those sold in California. 'This shows that state laws can be really effective, and they're effective beyond just the borders of the state,' Ohayon said. Ohayon's findings are supported by other research from the Silent Spring Institute. A study published last year, which was funded under the same grant, found that Californians' exposure to chemicals listed under Proposition 65 has decreased in recent years — and that chemical exposure also went down for people across the country. 'All of the studies that came out of this broader Prop 65 research question really concluded that, yes, Prop 65 has an impact,' said Kristin Knox, the lead author on the chemical exposure study. Joel Tickner, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, said Proposition 65 was a pioneer in disclosure-based state policy in the '80s, influencing many other state laws. 'The states have always been the innovators in environmental policy. The US federal government has always been a laggard when it comes to moving the bar on environmental policy, particularly chemicals,' Tickner said. 'That's the power of it: forcing companies to reckon with what's in their supply chains or what they are working with,' he added. 'Ignorance is not bliss.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California disclosure law prompting manufacturers to shift away from toxic compounds: Study
Manufacturers have been quietly abandoning the use of toxic ingredients in their products, in response to California's strict chemical disclosure rules, a new study has found. By promoting increased transparency about the presence of harmful substances in consumer goods, the Golden State's right-to-know law — called Proposition 65, or 'Prop 65' — has helped shift markets toward safer items, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Environmental Science & Technology. Under Prop 65, California maintains a list of about 900 chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive issues. Products that contain any of these ingredients and that are sold in the state must include potential exposure warnings for consumers. Whether the law has been effective at curbing the use of such substances — many of which are under no such microscope in other states — has thus far remained under debate. Aiming to understand the impact, researchers from the University of California Berkeley and the Massachusetts-based Silent Spring Institute explored Prop 65's contribution to corporate behaviors. 'What we found was that companies, rather than consumers, may be most affected by the law's warning requirements,' lead author Jennifer Ohayon, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute, said in a statement. 'By increasing businesses' awareness of chemicals in the supply chain, Prop 65 has caused them to shift away from using toxic substances, and that's a positive step for public health,' Ohayon added. To draw these conclusions, the researchers conducted 32 interviews with business leaders at major international manufacturers and retailers — spanning more than a dozen sectors, such as home improvement, apparel, personal care, healthcare and cleaning. Of the participants, about 78 percent cited Prop 65 as having prompted product reformulations, according to the report. 'Companies consistently told us they would rather eliminate a Prop 65 chemical altogether than post a warning,' corresponding author Meg Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at Berkeley's School of Public Health, said in a statement. 'By doing that, they avoid the threat of litigation, but they also reduce the risk to consumers and workers using the products,' Schwarzman added. Meanwhile, around 81 percent of manufacturers said they referred to Prop 65 when purchasing raw materials or developing products, to know which chemicals to avoid. 'Companies are incredibly reluctant to put a label on a product that says it contains a chemical that causes cancer,' Ohayon said. 'That was the biggest driving force behind their decisions to reformulate.' Although manufacturers could technically circumvent the law by retooling their products to include Prop 65-listed ingredients at just below their designated safe harbor levels, the researchers found that most companies chose to distance themselves from those substances entirely. The authors noted, however, that when Prop 65 has prompted companies to reformulate their products, they tend to do so without evaluating the safety of the alternative compounds — aside from typically avoiding the use of other substances on the list. And that force has had far-reaching impacts not just in California, but also in the rest of the United States — even in the absence of comparable state-level laws akin to Prop 65. Some 63 percent of manufacturers credited Prop 65 for propelling the reformulation of their products sold outside the Golden State, according to the study. This finding is in keeping with previous research conducted by the Silent Spring and Berkeley team, which previously determined that blood levels of certain compounds decreased nationwide in the years following Prop 65 listings. 'In the absence of federal regulations, these findings underscore the important role that states, especially large ones like California, can play in protecting the broader public from chemicals that could harm their health,' Ohayon said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
