Topics in This Issue:

-Sudden Cardiac Death

-Plastic Program 

-PFAS

-Beyond – Remembering Gun Violence Victims

-Gun Safety Class

-Trafficking Forum

-Sink Twice

-Environmental Services Fees

-Homeless Outreach

-Housing Affordability

-2023 Gem and Mineral Show

-Refugee Donations

-Plan Tucson

-Butterfly Project

-COVID

Sudden Cardiac Death

Throughout the week the news has had stories on the recovery process Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin is going through. In the first quarter of a game played 2 weekends ago he was involved with a tackle that involved a blunt trauma to his chest. He collapsed and they had to resuscitate him more than once while he lay on the field. A week after the incident he’s still on the critical list, but he appears to be on the road to recovery. 

This is Steven Gootter and his two young kids.

The picture was taken in 2005. At that time Steven was a healthy 42-year-old guy. He headed out one morning for his morning jog and never came home. He suffered a sudden cardiac event during the morning run and wasn’t as fortunate as Damar Hamlin was – nobody was around with an AED or to conduct CPR.

The Steven M. Gootter Foundation was formed by his family in the aftermath of the incident. Since his passing the Foundation has donated hundreds of AEDs to businesses, schools and to the city and county. If you’re involved with a business, school, non-profit – any organization that does not have an AED on site, please consider reaching out the the Gootter Foundation. They can work with you on getting units placed and training conducted. You can find them through this link: https://stevenmgootterfoundation.org/ 

As these two examples demonstrate, otherwise very healthy people can be an unaware ticking time bomb for sudden cardiac death. Preventing that is what the Gootter’s are all about.

Plastic Program 

The plastic reuse program continues to gather national interest. We know several other cities across the nation are watching how we scale up the program. In addition, ByFusion continues to gain national notice as an innovator. Fast Company is a business trade journal. Their focus is on world changing ideas and creativity in all sorts of business endeavors. In their self-description Fast Company says they ‘inspire readers to think expansively, lead with purpose, embrace change, and shape the future of business.

In last week’s edition, FC ranked 2022’s ‘best bricks of the year.’ It’s not just a list of bricks you see on walls around town. Remember, the journal is about creativity. The list included building materials that use roof tiles, toilet bowls, bits of steel, refuse from construction sites and even the waste agave left over from the fermentation process used in making tequila. They rated them all and chose one as the best for 2022.

ByFusion’s ByBlock was ranked the #1 ‘brick’ in the 2022 list of building materials rated by Fast Company. They noted a substantial lack of processing centers for plastic, a poor market price, and the reality that so many of us have recognized throughout this project that most plastic never gets recycled. So far ByFusion has turned over 100 tons of plastic into blocks. The city of Tucson residents have contributed roughly 20% of that total just since August. I’m in regular touch with them, working on the details of how we get the production capability up and running in Tucson. Here’s the intro to the ratings FC published last week:

If you’d like to read their full article, here’s the link.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90822326/the-best-bricks-of-the-year

Each week I include a piece that speaks to the difficulty the international community is having disposing of all the plastic waste being created. There’s a group of nearly 100 nations that formed just ahead of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. They call their group the High Ambition Coalition. They set several goals all aimed at the 1.5C temperature increase standard and a net zero global emissions direction by the second half of the century. Some major fossil fuel-producing nations have not joined the HAC group. We’re one of those who chose to opt out of being a part of the ambitious goal setting. Here are a few of the HAC concerns related to plastic:

The nearly 40 tons of plastic we’ve collected since August 1^st isn’t going to move any of those needles, but our participation on a regional level can certainly signal to others how a plastic-reduction approach can be made to work. That’s my hope for steps the M&C will take later this month.

Every bag of plastic you toss into the roll off is a step in the right direction. The total collected so far is 38.67 tons since the pilot program started. Let’s translate that into pounds.

As of last weekend we’ve gathered over 77,000 pounds of plastic since August. So, what would that look like if it was bananas? Del Monte put together a 77,000 pound ‘fruit display’ using 211,000 bananas. I can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the picture. It’s 118 feet long and 11 feet high. Our plastic pile is larger than that.

Here are some pictures of thousands of pounds of plastic – just to give you a visual of what your bags going into the roll off at the ward 6 office are preventing downstream if we were not collecting your stuff.

Piles of plastic waste
Southeast Asia is awash in plastic. This guy is trying to avoid getting buried under a plastic avalanche. What a way to go.

A guy in the huge pile of plastic
Nicole Ludden wrote a very nice piece about the status of the program. It appeared in the Sunday Star.

PFAS
PFAS contamination continues to be a critical environmental concern, not only in Tucson and Pima County, but internationally. On Sunday Tony Davis had a good article in the Star about our current efforts to control PFAS.

And there was some interesting news last week on 3M and litigation they’re facing related to their involvement with production and marketing of products containing PFAS. That’s the pollutant we’re working hard to prevent from contaminating our central well field. So far, the only partner we’ve got who’s stepping up with cash to help in the effort has been the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ.) They’ve helped us fund testing centers and a pilot treatment plant that’s located north of the Randolph golf course.

Back when Jonathan Rothschild was mayor, I initiated a meeting that included him, our city attorney, city manager, water director and a group of attorneys who were already beginning litigation against 3M and other PFAS manufacturers. The outcome of that first meeting was Tucson joining into what is now a lawsuit that includes over 80 other jurisdictions. Investors have finally gotten the message that continuing to produce toxic PFAS is going to hurt their bottom line, and therefore the investments these high rollers have made. They’re pressuring 3M and others to stop producing the chemical.

In response to that pressure 3M has made a public decision to stop making the chemicals by the end of 2025. In fact, they should pull the plug now. We don’t need another 3 years of ‘forever chemicals’ being spread into the environment. Erik Olson is the senior strategic director with the National Resources Defense Council. When talking about the liability for PFAS contamination he noted the pollution is affecting ‘the entire planet’ and is expanding.

So, what is 3M’s potential financial exposure? Their 2021 annual report shows about $1.3B in PFAS sales. It also shows dozens of lawsuits it’s facing – ours being one of them. In fact, 3M was named in an average of 3+ PFAS-related lawsuits every day last year. The estimated legal liability could reach $30B.

They’ve already settled some PFAS litigation. In 2019 they agreed to pay the state of Minnesota over $850M for the pollution they caused. They settled for another $50M in Delaware in 2020. The lawsuits are not going away. Unfortunately, neither is the contamination they’ve already caused. PFAS does not simply go away over time or become diluted into a harmless substance. The current EPA health advisory for the stuff is below our ability to even test for it. 3M faces both the financial piece, but also new regulatory controls if the change in administration in D.C. is serious about environmental issues.

3M’s CEO, Mike Roman was interviewed by Bloomberg about their decision to stop producing the stuff. Speaking of the regulatory pressure and the litigation he said “when we look forward at some of those factors, we don’t see a viable business in the future. This is a portfolio decision that allows us to move into other, higher growth opportunities.”

For Roman and the investors, it’s all about the bottom line. Our part in the litigation against 3M is therefore an important piece of both funding our own remediation efforts, but also in compelling them to get out of the business of producing a toxic chemical that previously looked like a ‘growth opportunity’ helping their profit picture.

When I look back someday on having served on the city council, I’ll consider being the catalyst for the 3M litigation one of the high points.

Beyond – Remembering Gun Violence Victims
Last weekend marked 12 years since the tragic January 8th shooting that took place during Gabby Giffords’ Congress on the Corner event. There were spontaneous memorials that popped up throughout the region in the aftermath. There have been annual remembrances. And a year after the shooting, to honor their son Gabe Zimmerman who was killed in that Safeway parking lot, the parents and family members began Beyond – a series of events that encourage a healthy lifestyle. That’s exercise, a good diet and staying connected together. Beyond events include jogging, hiking, biking, and all sorts of other opportunities to share time with others outdoors and in community. One of those events is happening this weekend in the park named to remember Christina-Taylor Green. At 9 years of age Christina was the youngest person killed in the Safeway shooting. In partnership with Mom’s Demand Action Beyond will host the 2023 “Gather to Remember” walk/hike/jog.

Moms Demand Action sign
The park is located at the NW corner of Magee and Shannon – out on the northwest side. The event is happening on Saturday, January 14th beginning at 10am. This is not a race – unless you just want to. You’re invited to bring your running shoes, baby stroller, wheelchair, roller skates, bike – mostly bring yourself and enjoy the multi-purpose trail at Christina-Taylor Green Park. This is a popular event so you will need to find extra parking; you can use the Pima Community College NW parking lot that’s directly across the street.

This is of course a free event. They’d like you to register, so please use the link below to do that. It also contains directions to the park.

https://act.everytown.org/event/moms-demand-action-event/50878/signup/?_gl=1*1i0gi86*_ga*MTk1NjMxMDAxNy4xNjczMjg3NzAz*_ga_LT0FWV3EK3*MTY3MzI4NzcwNC4xLjEuMTY3MzI4Nzc1OS4wLjAuMA..

And how about that New Orleans federal appellate court that said last week the Trump ban on bump stocks was illegal. Sure, every gun owner needs to have the ability to turn a gun into an automatic weapon. That’s how the Las Vegas mass killing was facilitated. That case is likely headed for the Trump Supreme Court.

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