WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 29, 2025--
Assent Inc. (Assent), the leading supply chain sustainability management solution provider, announced findings from its analysis of data gathered from manufacturers on usage of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals.’
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250129015115/en/
In the lead-up to the over 100 enacted or proposed PFAS regulations coming into effect globally – some as early as this month – manufacturers are collecting supply chain data using Assent’s end-to-end PFAS solution. The solution empowers manufacturers to identify usage of over 7,000 PFAS chemicals in scope of these various regulations across global supply chains to gain insight into regulatory, financial, and parts obsolescence risks.
Based on 3 million declarations received from manufacturers, Assent’s analysis reveals that while thousands of potential PFAS exist, less than 500 have been confirmed to be commercially used. Of these, 10 are most commonly found, accounting for 70% of PFAS identified in global supply chains. Manufacturers can use this data to evaluate where risk occurs and address and prioritize substitutions to streamline their compliance efforts.
Summary of Assent’s key findings:
With Canada’s PFAS reporting deadline today, U.S. requirements mandating disclosure of PFAS usage by January 2026 for in-scope companies, and a surge in global and state-level requirements, manufacturers must urgently prioritize supply chain visibility.
“PFAS chemicals have been used so broadly for decades that it’s hard to imagine any manufacturer that won’t be critically impacted by federal and state regulations in 2025,” said Cally Edgren, vice president of regulatory and sustainability at Assent. “Achieving supply chain visibility doesn’t happen overnight. Manufacturers that haven’t yet started to engage their supply chain to track and manage PFAS data are behind and need to get started now to mitigate operational, regulatory, and financial risks.”
Assent’s PFAS Solution provides manufacturers with the enhanced supply chain visibility needed to meet reporting requirements. This new analysis provides valuable information for manufacturers on where to focus their efforts, with supply chain risks frequently occurring from the same PFAS.
Additional data and interviews with Assent’s PFAS experts are available upon request.
About Assent Inc.
Assent provides the leading supply chain sustainability management solution that supports manufacturers across the globe in addressing their product compliance and ESG needs. Founded in 2010, the company helps manufacturers collect and manage the supply chain data needed to meet environmentally and socially responsible product standards. With advanced technology and deep regulatory expertise, Assent enables companies to collect data that is aligned with regulations and industry standards to manage risks, accelerate market access, and foster sustainable practices. For more information, visit: www.assent.com.
Assent Data Unveils the Top 10 PFAS Found in Supply Chains, Empowering Manufacturers to Mitigate Risks More Effectively (Graphic: Business Wire)
CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — A Maryland court on Tuesday ordered a blogger known as Ziz who leads a cultlike group connected to six killings held without bail.
The blogger, Jack LaSota, 34, of Berkeley, California, was arrested Sunday along with Michelle Zajko, 32, of Media, Pennsylvania, and Daniel Blank, 26, of Sacramento, California. They face charges including trespassing, obstructing and hindering and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
The Zizians have been tied to the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland near the Canadian border in January and five other killings in three states.
LaSota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in Frostburg, Maryland, on Sunday afternoon.
The judge in the case ordered LaSota held without bail citing concerns about her being a flight risk and a danger to public safety. Prosecutors said LaSota “appears to be the leader of an extremist group known as Zizians” that has been linked to killings.
The three were expected to appear remotely for a bail hearing Tuesday at Allegany District Court in Cumberland, Maryland, court officials said.
The Zizians have been tied to the death of a woman during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord's subsequent slaying in January, the December 2022 deaths of Zajko's parents in Pennsylvania and a highway shootout last month in Vermont that left U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland and a car passenger dead.
A Frostburg resident told police he wanted three “suspicious” people off his property after they’d parked two box trucks there and asked to camp for a month, according to police documents.
They were dressed in black and two wore gun belts holding ammunition, according to police. Officers found a rifle in the back of one truck and a handgun on the front floorboard. Zajko, who refused to put her hands behind her back and was taken to the ground, also was carrying a handgun, police said.
Maland, 44, was killed in a Jan. 20 shootout following a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont, a small town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the Canadian border. Felix Bauckholt, a passenger in the car, also died, and the driver, Teresa Youngblut, has pleaded not guilty to federal firearms charges.
Officials have said the guns they were carrying were bought by a person of interest in the Dec. 31, 2022, deaths of Richard and Rita Zajko in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, and that Youngblut had been in close contact with a person of interest in a homicide in Vallejo, California.
Maximilian Snyder, who applied for a marriage license with Youngblut in November, is charged with the Jan. 17 stabbing death of Curtis Lind, a Vallejo landlord who had survived an earlier attack by members of the Zizian group and was set to testify against them.
Officials have offered few details of the cross-country investigation, but Associated Press interviews and a review of court records and online postings tell the story of how a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, most of them in their 20s and 30s, met online, shared anarchist beliefs, and became increasingly violent.
Their goals aren’t clear, but online writings included topics such as radical veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
At the middle of it all is “Ziz,” the leader of the strange group whose members are sometimes called “Zizians” in online forums.
LaSota published a dark and sometimes violent blog under the name Ziz and, in one section, described her theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.”
LaSota, who used she/her pronouns, and in her writings says she is a transgender woman, railed against perceived enemies, including so-called rationalist groups, which operate mostly online and seek to understand human cognition through reason and knowledge. Some are concerned with the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
LaSota has not responded to emails from the AP in recent weeks, and her attorney Daniel McGarrigle declined to comment on whether she is connected to any of the deaths. She’s wanted for arrest in two states for missing court appearances.
McGarrigle would only confirm Monday that he has represented LaSota and wouldn't confirm her arrest or any details of the latest case. Attempts to reach attorneys for Zajko and Blank were not successful.
Pennsylvania state police records describe Daniel Blank as Michelle Zajko’s housemate in Vermont. In January 2023, police investigating the shooting deaths of Zajko’s parents detained both LaSota and Blank at a hotel where Zajko was staying. Blank was not charged. LaSota was charged with obstructing law enforcement and disorderly conduct.
Associated Press writer Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this story.
This image provided by the Allegany County Sheriff's Office shows Michelle Zajko. (Allegany County Sheriff's Office via AP)
This image provided by the Allegany County Sheriff's Office shows Jack Lasota. (Allegany County Sheriff's Office via AP)
This image provided by the Allegany County Sheriff's Office shows Michelle Zajko. (Allegany County Sheriff's Office via AP)
This image provided by the Allegany County Sheriff's Office shows Jack Lasota. (Allegany County Sheriff's Office via AP)
FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood, their landlord told The Associated Press. (WRAL-TV via AP)
FILE - In this undated and unknown location photo released by the Department of Homeland Security shows Border Patrol Agent David Maland posing with a service dog. (Department of Homeland Security via AP, File)
FBI agents search a neighborhood in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, where Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt, who were involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, had been renting homes in the neighborhood, their landlord told The Associated Press. (WRAL-TV via AP)
FILE - In this Jan., 2023 booking photo provided by the Delaware County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney's Office, Jack LaSota refused to speak and kept her eyes closed while being photographed after being detained in a hotel in suburban Pennsylvania on Jan. 23, 2023. (Delaware County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney's Office via AP, file)
FILE - This image taken from video provided by WCAX shows police cars closing off a road after a shooting involving a U.S. Border Patrol agent on Interstate 91 near Coventry, Vt., on Jan. 20, 2025. (WCAX via AP, File)