Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: Radio New Zealand

Oil and water famously don’t mix – until surfactants get involved. These molecules act as tiny brokers between two opposites, one end binding to the oil and the other to water, allowing shampoos, detergents, creams and paints to form smooth, stable blends.

But most of the world’s surfactants come from sources with an environmental cost. “Currently 95 percent of surfactants are either derived from the petrochemical industry, so from fossil fuels, or from palm oil,” says Dr Jack Chen, associate professor of chemistry at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). “The rest are derived from food crops, which we want to avoid because it competes with food production.”

Chen and his team have found a new way to make surfactants from cellulose – the fibre found in plants – and in 2024 they launched a start-up, Dot Ingredients, to take their discovery beyond the lab.

Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts

Currently, the nine-employee company is based in a lab at AUT. The particles are made here by first dissolving the cellulose, coaxing it into tiny spheres called nanoparticles, coating these nanoparticles in plant oil, and then finally peeling the oil from one half of the sphere to leave part of it oil-loving and the other water-loving.

Once a batch is made the team test them in the lab for their ability to form an emulsion – a stable mixture of oil and water.

Chen and the team have high hopes for their ‘celluspheres’ (their name for these cellulose particle surfactants) to be used in many different products and industries, but to start they are focused on the cosmetic industry.

“There’s a lot more demand, both from the surfactant producers, from the cosmetic brands, as well as consumers themselves, for greener and more sustainable ingredients,” says Chen. The industry’s higher margins also make it an ideal testing ground before scaling up for cheaper, higher-volume products like paints or detergents.

Even though they are tiny – a human hair is 50-100,000 times wider than a nanoparticle – these new particle surfactants are still larger than existing surfactant molecules.

Head of product Dr Victor Yim has been putting the particles to test in the lab by creating serums and lotions. Having previously worked in product development in a skin care company, Victor knows what to look for, and he’s interested in the differences between traditional surfactants, and their new, larger particle surfactants. “There’s a lot of exciting applications,” he says. “We can make something milky thin that molecular surfactants can’t really do as well.”

For now, they are sourcing cellulose from wood pulp – which is made from wood chips and used to make paper. Something they are investigating, with researchers at the University of Auckland, is whether they might be able to use waste from other industries instead. For example, could they use the cellulose in ‘grape marc’ – the leftover grape skins and stems from winemaking – thereby turning wine waste into a sellable sustainable surfactant.

Currently Dot Ingredients has funding support to get to March 2026, and scaling up production is the next challenge. “We’re still very small-scale, so 100 gram batches, but with the capacity to go up to one kilogram,” says Chen. “Our goal is that in two years’ time we’d be able to make 20 kilogram batches, and that’s enough to serve a couple of product lines in a cosmetic brand.”

They are also experimenting with different types of surfactants – positively or negatively charged, or both, and exploring temperature-responsive variations that could adapt their properties on demand.

While Chen describes himself as “primarily an academic with lots of ideas”, this start-up opportunity to bring something out of the lab into “reality” has energised him “I’m really, really enjoying this journey and it’s kind of sparked our creativity and we think we might have even other startups in the pipeline.”

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

WARNING: This story includes content that may be disturbing to some readers.

One Rotorua women’s refuge says it has been shocked at the increase in those needing to escape abusive homes over the past 18 months.

But the rise in those affected by family violence isn’t just a Rotorua problem – one Auckland provider told RNZ the economic situation in New Zealand over the last year and a half has compounded the problem.

Jonathon Hagger is on the board of Waiariki Women’s Refuge in Rotorua.

He said they had a feeling more women and their families were needing help, but it was still a shock to see their numbers from the last financial year.

“Our crisis line, which is where they will reach out and ring to say they need help, had a 30 percent increase in volume during the last financial year,” Hagger said.

That ended in June.

“What we are seeing is a trend upwards again, of even greater number of requests for assistance and help for women and families who are experiencing violence or unsafe living circumstances.”

Chief executive of the refuge Sarah Small said it knew the numbers would only increase as the year came to an end.

“And if we are experiencing those numbers I hate to think what other organisations are experiencing as well,” she said.

However, she said she felt lucky that in Rotorua, community services worked together to help people in need.

Further north in Auckland, specialist family violence service provider Shine said it saw a 58 percent increase in women needing to use its refuges over the last financial year.

The general manager of social services at Presbyterian support northern (of which Shine is a part), Grenville Hendricks, said these women had no other safe option and it was difficult to find space and money to support all those in need.

“We rely a lot on our sponsors and our donors to supplement money that we get from government,” he said.

Shine’s refuge manager Sophie Maclaren said food and housing insecurity, job loss, increased meth use and addiction had all contributed to the rise.

She said it was seeing families where violence had not been a problem before.

“Which tells us that all of these stresses are actually adding to [the country’s] problem of family violence,” she said.

Both organisations said more funding and easier access to government support would help as they struggle with the increased demand.

“There’s no extra funding and there’s no recognition for those extra costs so our refuge is at the point where we are considering where do we go from here and what choices do we make,” Hagger said.

Hendricks said bureaucracy could get in the way of quickly supporting families leaving violence.

“To get emergency accommodation for women that need that for safety reasons, often that’s a huge challenge and there’s a lot of bureaucracy we need to go through to try and get that emergency accommodation for them,” he said.

The Ministry of Social Development’s group general manager of enablement, Karen Hocking, said emergency housing continued to be available as a last resort.

“We are concerned to hear a women’s refuge is having difficulties helping vulnerable whānau to access accommodation,” she said.

Hocking said when someone approached the ministry with an urgent housing need, it considered all options to avoid homelessness including financial assistance to start a new tenancy or a referral to transitional housing provider.

“Where possible we refer people escaping violence to transitional housing providers because it offers more stability and tailored support.”

Anti-family violence white ribbon day is on 25 November.

Where to get help

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357.
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202.
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666.
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz.
• What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds.
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254.
• Healthline: 0800 611 116.
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155.
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463.

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Sexual Violence

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The deputy prime minister says several hundred schools and childhood centres have contacted the Ministry of Education after the discovery of asbestos in a range of coloured play sand.

Rainbow sand from Educational Colours and coloured sand from Creatistics has been recalled because Tremolite (a naturally occurring asbestos in quartz) has been found in samples during lab testing.

David Seymour said as of Monday night, about 16 early childhood centres had closed.

“There’s been enormous amounts of phoning and emailing, several hundred early childhood centres have been in touch with the Ministry of Education on suspicion they might have this sand and many more primary schools.

He told First Up instructions had been sent out, advising that the sand should be isolated if possible and to isolate the area if the sand had already been spread around.

There were about 200 asbestos removal specialists staff throughout New Zealand that they could seek guidance from and that list had been provided to schools and early childhood centres, he said.

“We’ll continue to assist, you know for a lot of parents this is deeply distressing but what does need to be said is we understand the problem, we’ve put in place a procedure for dealing with it where there’s a suspicion of it.”

Seymour said the goal was to clean it up if necessary and to get centres re-opened as soon as possible.

“It’s a massive disturbance to people in their daily life when you have a sudden unexpected closure of a daycare centre.”

There were millions of products brought into New Zealand and purchased every year, he said.

“We could put in a regime that nothing could be sold unless it had been tested in some way but I think people know deep down that that would not be realistic and chances are we’d miss something totally unexpected.”

Sand recall shows lack of due diligence from businesses, Eco Choice Aotearoa says

But a New Zealand product certification organisation said the discovery of asbestos in brands of play sand showed a lack of due diligence from businesses.

Laura Gemmell from Eco Choice Aotearoa told Morning Report there was a high trust model for product safety in New Zealand.

“My own son’s school was affected by this so I was surprised to get an email saying his class would be closed today, his whole school will be closed today.”

But she said from a professional stand point she was not surprised it had happened.

“We see so many everyday products that New Zealanders buy that have really gnarly ingredients in them and they’re none the wiser.”

In Australia and New Zealand the importer really had the primary responsibility to ensure their products were safe, she said.

“But it’s almost sort of like an honesty system, importers are sort of trusted to verify safety but they’re not actually required to prove it.

“So I think this is a really good example of why something like mandatory due diligence for high risk products, like those that are used by children, could potentially be a partial solution.”

Although even that would not catch everything, she said.

“I’m a parent and I see people, you know other parents buy things from other retailers, online retailers, and bring things in and you know having no visibility of what’s in them.”

People did not realise what a big problem that was and it really paid to check, she said.

There were standards that people could look for in terms of toys and art products, she said.

“There’s the European toy safety standard which is represented by an EN71 on the side of products, that’s a really good one to look at, and secondly they have something called Reach and that sort of excludes chemicals of concern, ingredients of concern.”

Gemmell said she would encourage people to work out which standards and certifications they trusted and look for them for products for children or that were used routinely in the home.

In the coloured sand case there was no indication that the asbestos had been intentionally added, she said.

“Asbestos occurs naturally so it could be in a quarry where they got this sand, through equipment or storage containers that were also contaminated.”

Businesses really needed to understand their product, “they need to know what’s in that product otherwise they shouldn’t be selling it”, she said.

Several large Australian retailers were selling the sand, but so far Kmart was the only one identified as selling it in New Zealand, she said.

“But these are companies that should know their supply chain, they should know their source, they should be requiring independent testing, they should be auditing their supply chain and they should have things like supplier agreements in place with really clear expectations around health and safety and things like that.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police have been keeping guard overnight at the scene of a house fire in Manawatū on Saturday, where three children and their father died.

The deaths at Sanson are being treated as a murder-suicide, RNZ understands, although police are yet to confirm that.

Manawatū Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham said the father was not burned – but his three children, aged 1, 5 and 7, were.

It is understood the father was Dean Field, and the children have been named in the Givealittle campaign for their mother as August, Hugo and Goldie.

Do you know more? Get in touch with sam.sherwood@rnz.co.nz

The bodies of two children were recovered on Sunday night and were blessed by the family with karakia. The body of the father was removed earlier.

The third child’s body was recovered on Monday morning, Grantham said, by investigators supported by a forensic pathologist.

The children’s family were present as the child was taken from the scene, he said.

Grantham said the next few days will be a “hard grind” for police examining the site, and talking to witnesses and whānau.

He said police will stay at the house as long as it takes to determine what happened.

Meanwhile, more than $250,000 has been raised for the mother of the children as she deals with the “unimaginable loss”.

“They were the light and love of her life, and her entire world has been shattered,” the Givealittle page said.

“In the midst of this unimaginable grief, she also lost her home and everything she owned. She is facing the hardest journey possible, stripped of her physical security, while navigating the deepest emotional pain.”

The creator of the Givealittle page posted a thank you to “what felt like the whole of Aotearoa” on Monday for the donations raised.

“No amount of money will ever be enough to heal the wounds left in her heart and soul, but to have this safety net to rebuild her life, knowing what feels like the whole of Aotearoa is with her, and how you have all contributed to this outpouring of love in so many ways is more than we could’ve ever hoped for.”

Speaking to media on Monday, Grantham said it was too early to tell if the fire was deliberately started.

“It’s pretty risky with the part of the structure still there and the the dust that’s generated from the fire, so it will take us some time just to go through and establish what’s happened.”

Grantham said police were not seeking information from the public at this stage, but if anyone knew anything, they could “reach out”.

He said it was “unusual” for a house fire to begin in the afternoon.

Police would remain at the property for “as long as it takes”, Grantham said.

Where to get help:

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357.
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202.
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666.
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz.
• What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787. This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds.
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254.
• Healthline: 0800 611 116.
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155.
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463.

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand