Cancer Screening behind Invention of Dissolving Wet Wipes

A man holds a wet wipe in the air with a toilet in the background. (AP)
A man holds a wet wipe in the air with a toilet in the background. (AP)
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Cancer Screening behind Invention of Dissolving Wet Wipes

A man holds a wet wipe in the air with a toilet in the background. (AP)
A man holds a wet wipe in the air with a toilet in the background. (AP)

When Brian McCormack, 65, started using a home testing kit to screen for bowel cancer, he found the process awkward and inconvenient.

He felt there had to be a better way to make sampling easier, especially when it came to disposing of the collector. So, Brian headed to his kitchen - or his "lab", as he now calls it - and began experimenting with materials and household chemicals.

The decision six years ago was to turn him into an inventor of soluble products, including wet wipes.

His first foray into the world of invention did not exactly go according to plan. "During my experiments, I managed to blow up my microwave, but I didn't give up," he told the BBC.

Acknowledging his lack of chemistry skills, he was to seek and find an Ohio-based soluble paper specialist which developed, under his design patent, a stool collector that was flushable. His product was picked up by Swedish authorities but turned down by the NHS in the UK on the grounds of cost.

The setback might have put others off, but it was to kick-start a series of inventions from Brian, who now has a suite of patents under his belt. And he has now signed significant deals with cosmetics and healthcare companies in the UK and beyond.

"After a lot of hard work, I discovered I could venture into making a dissolving wipe - one that was wet that could do the job that needed done and dissolve without harming the environment," he said. "That was not easy. It must have taken me a year-and-a-half to get that perfect."

The wet wipes his company McCormack Innovation has since patented have been accredited with Water UK's "Fine to Flush" standard.

Just recently, he signed a licensing agreement with an Australian cosmetics company for a range of products, including soluble make-up removal wipes. He has also a contract with a UK-based firm to use his company's soluble wipe technology for the international stoma care market.



Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Mexico Awaits New Response from Google on Dispute Over Gulf of Mexico Name Before Filing Lawsuit 

The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)
The Gulf of Mexico branded as Gulf of America is pictured through a magnifying glass on the Google Maps app on a computer in Bogota on February 11, 2025. (AFP)

Mexico said Monday it is awaiting a new response from Google to its request that the tech company fully restore the name “Gulf of Mexico” to its Google Maps service before filing a lawsuit.

President Claudia Sheinbaum shared a letter addressed to her government from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy. It says that Google will not change the policy it outlined after US President Donald Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” Sheinbaum said Monday during a morning press briefing.

As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as “Gulf of America” within the United States, as “Gulf of Mexico” within Mexico and “Gulf of Mexico” (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using “Gulf of America” to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions” and that the company was willing to meet in person with the Mexican government.

“While international treaties and conventions are not intended to regulate how private mapping providers represent geographic features, it is our consistent policy to consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up to date and accurate representation of the world,” he wrote.

Mexico has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the US only has jurisdiction over around 46% of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls 49% and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name “Gulf of Mexico” dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations.

In response to Google's letter, Mexican authorities said they would take legal action, writing that “under no circumstance will Mexico accept the renaming of a geographic zone within its own territory and under its jurisdiction.”

The renaming of the body of water by Trump has flared tensions between Mexico and the US at a pivotal time for the neighboring allies.

Sheinbaum has had to walk a fine line with Trump amid threats of tariffs and Mexico and other Latin American countries have braced themselves for promised mass deportations, the brunt of which has still not been felt.

Along with the legal threat to Google, the Mexican president also announced Monday that Mexico and the US would hold high-level meetings this week on trade and security in an effort to maintain a “long-term plan of collaboration” between the two countries.

It's the latest round of talks between the two countries in which Mexico hopes to hold off a larger geopolitical crisis.