Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.
Residual and potentially dangerous chemicals in food and drinking water have been in the news lately (see this month’s Manufacturing News for an update on PFAS) as one such report found that 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults in the U.S. contained glyphosate. FOOD ENGINEERING has also had its share of news on heavy metals in food and baby food. Why are we seeing so much contamination?
When we recently surveyed architectural and engineering/construction firms (A&E/Cs) and asked what trends or forces they see driving automation projects, every firm mentioned “labor” or “workforce availability” in its initial response.