Driverless backup: Lawrence Ulrich of The New York Times explains how we may be tapping the brakes on the any-day-now dream of driverless cars. Driver-assistance technology is becoming more common. Major carmakers have pledged to make automated emergency braking standard on all vehicles by 2022, for example. But technical challenges and state regulations, plus the general unease of consumers, make full automation a farther reach, despite what Elon Musk may say. “We’ve tried to turn down the hype and make people understand how hard this is,” said Gill Pratt, director of the Toyota Research Institute. “A growing consensus holds that driver-free transport will begin with a trickle, not a flood,” Ulrich writes. And Christopher Mims of The Wall Street Journal explores a fascinating paradox: Those automated components are making human-driven cars safer, which could ultimately delay the rollout of driverless cars by making it harder for them to compete on safety. “These new systems marry the best machines capabilities—360-degree sensing and millisecond reflexes—with the best of the human brain, such as our ability to come up with novel solutions to unique problems,” he writes.

• Also: Meanwhile in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill clearing the way for driverless vehicles to be tested on the road without a human occupant providing backup. 

Beyond (or within) the plastic bag: If you, like me, have written to your local grocery chain (more than once, in my case) to complain about the fact that they wrap every individual cucumber in plastic, this story offers validation. It also may compound the rage you feel over lemons in plastic netting. The Guardian, as part of its just-launched “United States of Plastic” series, shopped at five New York City grocery stores to take an informal survey of the plastic packaging used. What they found is absurd: Individual salmon filets wrapped in plastic then bagged in plastic in the freezer aisle at Whole Foods. Butternut squash sold individually in plastic netting at H-Mart. Husked corn and boiled eggs wrapped in plastic, and endless tubs of salad greens in plastic clamshells. “In many cases, the plastic was not recyclable,” Jessica Glenza writes. “But even if it could be, history proves it probably won’t be: only 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled.”

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‘As desperate as we are’: Eli Saslow in The Washington Post tells the story of Lisa and Stevie Crider – poor, living in rural Tennessee and desperately lacking in medical attention. In searing detail, he illustrates a difficult truth facing millions of people like them: “The federal government now estimates that a record 50 million rural Americans live in what it calls ‘health care shortage areas,’ where the number of hospitals, family doctors, surgeons and paramedics has declined to 20-year lows.”

A ‘terrible smell’: Dozens of people pruning and tying grape vines were doused with an insecticide  when winds blew the chemical into the vineyard in Central California from an orchard where it was being applied by a truck with a spray rig. Two of the 63 people exposed were taken to a hospital with moderate to severe symptoms, including vomiting, the Visalia Times Delta reports. All went through a showering and decontamination process with emergency responders. The pesticide, Hexythiazox, has not been linked to adverse effects in epidemiological studies but is classified as a possible human carcinogen.

• Also: Woodgrain Distribution faces proposed penalties of $125,466 for failing to provide workers at its Lawrenceville, Georgia facility with eye, face and hand protection to guard against chemical exposure, and for safety issues with its powered industrial trucks, according to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration press release. –– Two contractors, GA&L Construction and The Rinaldi Group of Florida, face penalties of $87,327 after a 35-year-old man working on the redevelopment of a Miami Beach hotel was killed when he fell from the third story to the second and onto some rebar. Investigators found the companies did not provide fall protection or regularly inspect the worksite. –– OSHA has cited Ohio Gratings for 17 serious violations after investigators found that the Canton factory that makes aluminum, stainless steel, and carbon products lacked adequate ventilation, fire protection and other safety measures around a dip tank containing flammable liquid. The agency also found the company, which faces proposed penalties of $183,748, failed to make sure workers used personal protective equipment.

Peer-reviewed and under wraps: The Trump administration has buried the work of government scientists demonstrating how the climate crisis is changing agriculture, and in some cases it has tried to block outside researchers and their universities from talking about their own work, Helena Bottemiller Evich of Politico reports. She identified dozens of studies that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has refused to publicize, despite a longstanding practice of promoting its research for the education of farmers and consumers. Among them are studies that found the allergy season already may be getting worse across the northern hemisphere and that rice loses nutritional value in a carbon-rich environment. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue declined to comment for the story. He has previously expressed skepticism about climate science–and about the work of scientists in general. Several Senate Democrats responded with criticism.

• Also: The administration last week ordered each federal agency to cut at least a third of its advisory committees by the end of September. The order raised  alarm among scientists and public health advocates concerned that it’s another move to distance the experts that can hold the government to account on matters such as clean air rules and limits on toxic chemical exposure, InsideClimate News reports.

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A question of influence: Public health experts have reacted in anger to news that the historically black Meharry Medical College accepted a $7.5 million grant from Juul Labs to study health issues affecting African Americans, including use of tobacco and e-cigarettes, Sheila Kaplan of The New York Times reports. Juul is the largest producer of e-cigarettes and is partly owned by Altria, the largest U.S. cigarette maker. Meharry officials say they approached Juul for support of the school’s research, and that scientist will work without direct influence from the company. But public health leaders were skeptical, given the history of cigarette companies targeting African American customers and working for decades to hide the risks of tobacco from consumers at large. “Juul doesn’t have African-Americans’ best interests in mind,” LaTroya Hester, a spokeswoman for the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, told The Times. “The truth is that Juul is a tobacco product, not much unlike its demon predecessors.”

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‘Overly speculative’: A White House directive gives federal agencies broad latitude to ignore the long-term climate impacts of a project under review, unless “a sufficiently close causal relationship exists” between the project and an increase in carbon emissions, Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post reports. The chairman of the White House council that issued the guidance said it would speed infrastructure projects, making their review “more efficient, timely and effective.” Critics said it may not survive a court challenge and will minimize accounting for climate impacts that will affect Americans.

• Also: The Trump administration finalized its replacement for the Clean Power Act, called the Affordable Clean Energy rule. The plan puts more power in states’ hands for setting carbon emission targets and gives coal-fired power plants a list of EPA-approved options for extending their life, ABC News reports. –– Brad Plumer of The New York Times reports that red and blue states are taking dramatically different approaches to greenhouse gas emissions, creating what one public policy professor called “a tale of two climate nations.” –– Much of Europe is experiencing a potentially historic heat wave, and researchers say that the Earth’s heat wave epidemic is clearly linked to human-induced warming, The Washington Post reports.  

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Personal data on the loose: Vermont has tried to return to its residents some power over how their personal data is collected and sold among big data brokers. Doing so has proven difficult, Douglas MacMillan of The Washington Post reports. The state passed a law last year requiring all companies that buy and sell data on Vermont residents to register with the state and provide information about how they do business. “Dozens of firms registered,” MacMillan writes, “but few offered clear answers about what they do with data and whether users may remove themselves from databases.” He offers some tips for keeping your data to yourself.

• Also: Post technology columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler recently explained how your phone may be broadcasting your personal information while you sleep. Last week, Fowler explored how Google Chrome “has become spy software.” 

Chelsea Conaboy is a FairWarning contributor and freelance writer and editor specializing in health care. Find more of her work at chelseaconaboy.com.