Latest news with #Reade
The Journal
04-07-2025
- Health
- The Journal
'Laughing gas' leak reported at Limerick hospital months before faulty system was shut down
A SUBSTANTIAL, ONGOING leak of nitrous oxide was detected at St. John's Hospital in Limerick last year – months before it was announced that the system was being decommissioned 'as a response to global warming'. Long-term exposure to nitrous oxide or 'laughing gas' can damage the body's nervous system and red blood cells, leading to a number of serious neurological conditions, as well as increasing the risk of certain liver and kidney diseases. During a seven-month audit carried out at the hospital last year, a substantial depletion of nitrous oxide supplies was recorded, despite the fact that there had been no clinical use of the gas in that period. A spokesman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) claimed that a leak in the piped supply of the anaesthetic gas was first detected in October 2024. However, records released under freedom of information laws show that management was informed of 'an ongoing leak' by a consultant anaesthetist in an email dated 2 September. In the same correspondence, the consultant also suggested that a nitrous oxide leak was also ongoing at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). On 31 October, the consultant described the leak as 'substantial' and said it was hoped to switch off the piped supply over Christmas, transitioning to the use of mobile nitrous oxide cylinders attached directly to anaesthetic machines. Advertisement On 11 November, another consultant anaesthetist advised management that the piped nitrous oxide supply should be turned off, 'keeping in mind the losses that have been reported'. The piped supply was finally decommissioned on 16 April, 2025, according to the HSE. This was celebrated as part of an environmental strategy in a press release by the HSE in May, which said St. John's Hospital was 'in the vanguard of the global effort to reduce global emissions'. Nitrous oxide is commonly used as pain relief during childbirth, though recreational use of the drug has risen in recent years, with the HSE Adolescent Addiction Service reporting a 175% increase in a recent 12-month period. However, a HSE spokesman said there was 'no evidence' that the loss of nitrous oxide at St. John's Hospital had been used or taken off site for recreational purposes. He said the hospital was among the first in the country to discontinue the use of piped nitrous oxide as a response to global warming. 'Detected initially in October 2024, [the leak] was in line with expectations for piped systems in hospitals, and there is no evidence to suggest that it posed any risk to patients or staff,' he added. 'There was no leak detected in clinical spaces where nitrous oxide was used. The HSE's Climate Action Strategy has targeted a 50% decrease in emissions from anaesthetic gases by 2030. 'While nitrous oxide is safe to use, the piped infrastructure traditionally used to deliver it inevitably results in waste, hence the global effort to reduce emissions, of which St. John's Hospital has been in the vanguard,' added the spokesman. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
The Herald Scotland
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Did the government forget to 'island-proof' the ferry fund?
The compensation pot, which opened for applications on Tuesday, offers grants of between £3,000 and £35,000 to firms on South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran. Mull, Iona, Coll, Tiree, Islay and others who've seen serious disruption get nothing. To qualify, the islands had to have suffered from over 15% ferry service cancellations across three seasons — far above the 7% CalMac network average. That's left businesses — and campaigners like Joe Reade from the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee — fuming. Although they don't reach the threshold set out by the government, he says his community is still experiencing a 22% cut in ferry capacity this summer. They've already lost around 7,000 passenger visits — a clear blow to a local economy reliant on tourism. But because these are classed as capacity cuts rather than cancellations, they're ignored by the fund's formula. As Reade puts it, it's 'astonishing and bemusing' that ministers have chosen such a narrow and 'arbitrary' way to measure hardship. It also, he believes, breaks the law. READ MORE FROM UNSPUN Passed with cross-party support, the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 was meant to ensure that the specific needs of Scotland's island communities were not just recognised, but respected in law. It places a clear duty on public bodies — including Scottish ministers — to 'have regard to island communities' when exercising their functions. In other words: island-proof your policy. Part 3 of the Act says the government must carry out an Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) when a policy is 'likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities (including other island communities).' The ferry support fund clearly triggers that requirement. It's a policy about islands, aimed specifically at businesses on islands, that offers money to some and excludes others. Reade says there's a wider issue here around the Islands Act. 'It is routinely ignored by governments at all levels, or just paid lip-service,' he tells me. Herald readers will be familiar with my colleague James McEnaney's reporting on the row over the new school on Mull. A petition for a Judicial Review has been lodged with the Court of Session in Edinburgh in an attempt to reverse Argyll and Bute Council's decision to build the school in Tobermory — a move that means kids from the south of Mull remain excluded from the only high school on their island. 'The ICIA the council were supposed to undertake was done far too late and without proper consultation,' Reade says. The Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP), the central government funding scheme paying for the school, has also not been assessed against the Act. Technically, that's because it pre-dates the law — although it was announced a year after the Act passed. 'Scottish Government certainly had a moral obligation to 'island-proof' the LEIP programme,' Reade argues. 'But they did not.' There's scant information about the IBRF. The first many island businesses heard about it was when journalists got in touch for comment on the Scottish Government's press release. The Islands Act was supposed to be ground-breaking and promised meaningful change — but for many islanders, that promise remains unfulfilled.
Russia Today
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
‘Russophobia' behind Romania's expulsion of RT reporter – Tara Reade (VIDEO)
The recent detention and deportation of RT correspondent Chay Bowes from Romania highlights growing 'Russophobia' in the West, particularly in Western media, according to Tara Reade, an RT contributor and a former US Senate aide. The incident 'says volumes' about Romania's upcoming presidential election, Reade claimed, and questioned why the country would prevent international observers from attending. Bowes, an Irish journalist and EU citizen, was detained on Thursday after arriving in Bucharest to cover the election re-run, but was later deported to Istanbul. According to Bowes, Romanian authorities labeled him 'a security threat' – a notion Reade said she finds alarming. 'I'm shocked that they have detained him… what does Romania have to hide? It makes you wonder, what is going on,' Reade said, speaking to RT on air following the news of Bowes' detention. She tied the move to what she described as 'Russophobia' and efforts by Western governments to suppress Russian-affiliated voices. 'Russophobia has now spread so much to Western media, and has fueled this fear of any kind of journalist that might even work for [Russia]… It's seeped through to every fabric of international conversations… it's ridiculous, the Russophobia,' she said, calling the trend 'really concerning, because we are living in a multipolar world and there's no room for Russophobia anymore.' Romania's presidential election re-run was ordered after last year's results were annulled over alleged violations. NATO critic Calin Georgescu won the first round, but the Constitutional Court invalidated the result, citing campaign irregularities and accusations of Russian interference – claims Moscow has denied. It later emerged that the controversial campaign in question had been funded not by Moscow, but by Romania's pro-EU National Liberal Party, which was reportedly targeting a rival but inadvertently boosted Georgescu instead. The re-run is set for May 4 and May 18.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WSL contributes £37.5m less to UK economy due to ban on women's football
The Women's Super League contributes £37.5million less to the UK economy as a consequence of the historical 50-year ban on women's football in England, a new study has estimated. The Football Association banned women's matches from its venues from December 1921, calling football 'quite unsuitable for females'. The decision was not reversed until 1971 and The Play Gap report sets out to quantify where the women's game would be now without the ban. It showed WSL figures 'closely resemble attendances historically in (men's) League One' and modelled a range of growth scenarios. Estimating the rise in attendances, supply chains, TV revenue and a projected £24.5m overall increase in wages produced the conclusion that, without the ban, the WSL would now be worth £123.2m in wage contribution to the economy, compared to the current estimate of £85.7m. Co-author Dr James Reade, a sports economist at the University of Reading, told the PA news agency: 'We tried to position where the women's game is and felt it is something like 20 years behind (men's football). 'You can look at that on a very positive side, because of course that shows the progress in a very short time since the Women's Super League was formed (in 2010).' The most optimistic projection mirrored a mix of the Premier League and Championship's growth over the last 20-30 years, with the lower end matching the lack of growth in League Two. 'Given these different scenarios, what would we expect the women's game to look like?' said Dr Reade. 'Of course we can say it would just have grown exponentially – but the men's game didn't over that 50-year period, it had a big dip before the Premier League came around. 'In the women's game, using 20 per cent per year growth in attendances, TV deals have grown significantly as well – still nothing like the Premier League, but then most of football is nothing like what the Premier League has. But the women's game's had incredible growth.' 60,160 💫 Emirates Stadium sold out for the first time in @BarclaysWSL history. Another league record. Another historic moment. Thank you, Gooners ❤️ — Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) February 17, 2024 The ability to switch matches to Premier League grounds, with Arsenal repeatedly selling out the Emirates Stadium for WSL matches, was identified as a unique advantage over even the most upwardly-mobile men's teams. Dr Reade said: 'Wrexham are great example of a team with investment and going places but they've had to expand their stadium, that's taken a long time and constrained a lot of their potential. Whereas women's teams like Arsenal, Man United, City can switch to the men's stadium and they've got a huge increase in capacity. 'Over five years, the average (attendance) has gone from below 1,000 to over 7,000. The men's game never showed that kind of growth because it couldn't, they had to build the stadiums and that takes time.' The report is accompanied by a survey for Three's #WeSeeYou Network and an interview with an AI recreation of Lily Parr, the highest-profile player affected by the ban, by England star turned broadcaster Karen Carney. Remarkably, 44 per cent of survey respondents could not name a single professional female footballer while 65 per cent believed female players are not promoted as role models like their male counterparts. 'We've talked about an economic imprint but it's cultural as well,' said Dr Reade. 'The men's game isn't profit-making – they pat themselves on the back for losing only £105m over three years – so why would there be any expectation of the same for the women's game? 'But it is about investment. There's something wonderful about seeing the women's teams selling out the Emirates and the big stadiums and having put on great games. This is often talked about in financial markets, 'what's the sentiment like?'. 'It's fantastic now that there's always a female presenter or pundit, where you go back only five or 10 years and there was none of that. And yes, there'll be some criticism of that, but this is raising the profile. 'We all know who Gary Lineker is but a kid today, why does he know who Gary Lineker is? Because of his media profile. So why don't we help these women also gain those profiles and become the role models we want them to be?'
The Independent
08-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
WSL contributes £37.5m less to UK economy due to ban on women's football
The Women's Super League contributes £37.5million less to the UK economy as a consequence of the historical 50-year ban on women's football in England, a new study has estimated. The Football Association banned women's matches from its venues from December 1921, calling football 'quite unsuitable for females'. The decision was not reversed until 1971 and The Play Gap report sets out to quantify where the women's game would be now without the ban. It showed WSL figures 'closely resemble attendances historically in (men's) League One' and modelled a range of growth scenarios. Estimating the rise in attendances, supply chains, TV revenue and a projected £24.5m overall increase in wages produced the conclusion that, without the ban, the WSL would now be worth £123.2m in wage contribution to the economy, compared to the current estimate of £85.7m. Co-author Dr James Reade, a sports economist at the University of Reading, told the PA news agency: 'We tried to position where the women's game is and felt it is something like 20 years behind (men's football). 'You can look at that on a very positive side, because of course that shows the progress in a very short time since the Women's Super League was formed (in 2010).' The most optimistic projection mirrored a mix of the Premier League and Championship's growth over the last 20-30 years, with the lower end matching the lack of growth in League Two. 'Given these different scenarios, what would we expect the women's game to look like?' said Dr Reade. 'Of course we can say it would just have grown exponentially – but the men's game didn't over that 50-year period, it had a big dip before the Premier League came around. 'In the women's game, using 20 per cent per year growth in attendances, TV deals have grown significantly as well – still nothing like the Premier League, but then most of football is nothing like what the Premier League has. But the women's game's had incredible growth.' The ability to switch matches to Premier League grounds, with Arsenal repeatedly selling out the Emirates Stadium for WSL matches, was identified as a unique advantage over even the most upwardly-mobile men's teams. Dr Reade said: 'Wrexham are great example of a team with investment and going places but they've had to expand their stadium, that's taken a long time and constrained a lot of their potential. Whereas women's teams like Arsenal, Man United, City can switch to the men's stadium and they've got a huge increase in capacity. 'Over five years, the average (attendance) has gone from below 1,000 to over 7,000. The men's game never showed that kind of growth because it couldn't, they had to build the stadiums and that takes time.' The report is accompanied by a survey for Three's #WeSeeYou Network and an interview with an AI recreation of Lily Parr, the highest-profile player affected by the ban, by England star turned broadcaster Karen Carney. Remarkably, 44 per cent of survey respondents could not name a single professional female footballer while 65 per cent believed female players are not promoted as role models like their male counterparts. 'We've talked about an economic imprint but it's cultural as well,' said Dr Reade. 'The men's game isn't profit-making – they pat themselves on the back for losing only £105m over three years – so why would there be any expectation of the same for the women's game? 'But it is about investment. There's something wonderful about seeing the women's teams selling out the Emirates and the big stadiums and having put on great games. This is often talked about in financial markets, 'what's the sentiment like?'. 'It's fantastic now that there's always a female presenter or pundit, where you go back only five or 10 years and there was none of that. And yes, there'll be some criticism of that, but this is raising the profile. 'We all know who Gary Lineker is but a kid today, why does he know who Gary Lineker is? Because of his media profile. So why don't we help these women also gain those profiles and become the role models we want them to be?'
