angrytoxicologist | February 1, 2008There's something rotten in Bethesda
Public Citizen released, and the WaPo reported on, findings that the CPSC manytimes takes six months or more to alert the public of dangerous products. Never fear, says the National Association of Manufacturers, the CPSC only looked at the cases that were in the public record. Oh, well, okay then; I'm sure your secret files make you look great.
The CPSC itself says that 90% of recalls are done within 20 days. First, if something is truely harmful, why does it take 20 days? There doesn't seem to be a good reason for that (I can see a week so the company…
angrytoxicologist | January 31, 2008Everyone knows by now that the show Eli Stone misrepresents the facts about thimerosal and autism in it's fictional story of a lawyer going after a pharmaceutical after they put "mercuritol" in vaccines. It's clear that the story is supposed to mimic the thimerosal issue but as some defenders of the show say, hey, it's fiction.
So, when is fiction allowed to be fiction and when is it not? For example, look at The Da Vinci Code. Most of it is made up crap but even though it's fiction, people believed the 'facts' used in the book. Should that be permisible? The Dan Brown book is different in…
angrytoxicologist | January 29, 2008Two things got me thinking about the upcoming topic.
1) I saw "Into the Woods" recently and there's a part where the old hermit asks the baker how much $ a son would be worth (he's trying to have a kid). The baker first thinks this is a insane question, but you can see a small bit of wheel turning going on in his head.
2) These posts on drug development and cost.
The huge profits that drug companies make mostly get plowed back into R&D to develop the new drugs. When profits start drying up, as they are doing now, less $ goes into R&D and therefore, new drugs are less likely to come by…
angrytoxicologist | January 28, 2008In an Slate article critiquing Marian Burros' story about mercury levels in fish, Jack Shafer takes issue with the omission of any discussion of a review published in 2000 in Environmental Research entitled "Twenty-seven Years Studying the Human Neurotoxicity of Methylmercury Exposure". Mr Shafer goes on for a while about the findings of this paper, but I find that his argument, on the face of it, to be very odd. Unless the review is a seminal piece of work, or the most up to date analysis, why should it be discussed? Hundreds of papers come out on mercury every year, and several discussing…
angrytoxicologist | January 25, 2008Warning: Rambling screed approaching.
More mean? Maybe, but only if you can empower and inspire people to make a change. Let me give you a three good examples:
1) Breastfeeding is best. By miles. Still, not everyone really knows about the benefits. So there are intense campaigns around to pressure mothers to breast feed. The consequence is that more mothers breast feed, which is great, but also that mothers who can't for one reason or another (sometimes medical but usually logistical, a problem disproportionally besetting the poor) feel like they are bad mothers; that they aren't taking care…
angrytoxicologist | January 18, 2008Okay so it's a sort of sciency Friday. I had a bit of fun reading the Washington Post this morning.
EPA or EWTIFUBARTFSA?
First up, this article on the largest mining fine in EPA history: 20 million dollars! Now, $20 million isn't all that much for a huge company like Massey but forget that, let's look at what they did: Massey Energy contmainated streams in 4,500 instances for 7 years. That's only $634/instance/year. But don't be fooled, this is great work says EPA lead attorney Richard Klepp:
This is a signal that, you know, EPA is on the job.
Yes Americans, if some company near you…
angrytoxicologist | January 16, 2008So the FDA says that cloned meat is safe and this is making big news. Well, this isn't much of a surprise, it's unlikely that a clone would be unsafe (it's a clone of a naturally healthy animal!). What sucks is the media's take on this (and the government's complicity in them getting it wrong). Almost all the outlets take the line: Gov't says no problems with cloned beef. What they actually said was cloned meat isn't any different from a safety and nutrition perspective. There's a big gap there.
For one, this is a long term mistake for the ag community. The already small gene pool for cattle…
angrytoxicologist | January 10, 2008A reader asked me for some help choosing a water bottle because of concerns about antimony, bisphenol A, and phthalates (BPA is really the only risk worth thinking about in this trifecta). She read this NYTimes article about plastic bottles and risks,...etc. She was rather confused by the article. No doubt, it's more stream of consciousness than helpfulness. So here's your simple, practical advice, Amy:
Get this bottle.
It's the HDPE or the #2 that you are looking for (the milky looking plastic). It's cheap, reusable, sturdy, dishwasher safe, and people safe.
(No, I don't get any money from…
angrytoxicologist | January 8, 2008A reader sent an article from The Pink Sheet (an industry rag focused on Pharma). If you've never read industry-specific news publications, you're really missing out. They're really facinating and instructive. Sometimes you get early knowledge about industry trends and others, if you're lucky, that are not so subtle messages to other readers. This is one of the latter($ required, sorry).
The article is entitled "FDA Staffing Problems Extend Beyond Funding Shortfalls; Culture Shift Sought." I was expecting an article about what changes employees saw as need to change the culture. I was wrong.…
angrytoxicologist | January 7, 2008Okay first: Where have I been? It's too complicated to answer and retain anonymity, so suffice it to say: "away". Thanks for all the e-mails over the past month asking for posts again.
An item in Science caught my eye yesterday: Revolutionizing China's Environmental Protection. I'm sure you all know about China's problems. If you don't, click on that link and read on (it's only two pages). It is the following sentence that caught my eye, though:
Economic performance is still China's main or sole criterion for selecting and promoting government leaders
And that's different from here how?…
angrytoxicologist | November 9, 2007Elizabeth "never met a toxic chemical I didn't like" Whelan of ACSH fame posted on HuffPo Wed. an interesting little post that ripped the EPA for funding a study to figure out if/what environmental factors among children, over their childhood, contributed to their disease. To sum up her argument, there is no link so why are we wasting the money. Now, isn't that putting the cart before the horse. She also says there is no toxicological evidence that children are more susceptable to toxicants. Um, ozone? breathing particulate matter? Phthalates? Cough and cold medicine to be up to the minute?…
angrytoxicologist | November 7, 2007A couple of weeks ago, as I'm sure you heard, the FDA held an advisory committee meeting that concluded that there should be no use of cough/cold products for children under 6. There is a good amount of evidence that the drugs (including antitussive, expectorant, nasal decongestant, antihistamine and combination products) were not effective and are harmful in some cases. Now what happens?
A couple of signs: Most manufacturers took all under 2 cough/cold medicines off the shelf. Many, like Wyeth who makes Dimetapp and Robitussin have recalled Children's Dimetapp and some Robitussin to replace…
angrytoxicologist | November 5, 2007After the dust up last week about violent anti-animal testing groups (coast down through the comments on the linked Denialism post to get the short version of my take), two things stuck in my head. One, the Dalai Lama says my karma's okay as long as I'm following what looks like a version of the Society of Toxicology's Principles of Animal Use. Two, what would be of practical use to researchers who deal with this problem? Here's my advice:
1) Have compassion for animals in research.
2) Strive to make your research a benefit for humanity.
3) Get this free karmic pass and put it on your lab…
angrytoxicologist | November 2, 2007
Let's redo the lungs, shall we? They are toxicologist's nightmare. First, let's point out what's great about our airway systems: the filtration provided by our nose, nasopharynx, pharynx and larynx; the clearance of foreign substances by dual layer of mucous in the airways (a thin layer in underneath the thick so the cilia can beat in the thin and move the thick layer up and out); and the generally competent immune function of the lungs. Let's see how things go wrong.
Gravity isn't much help here, when you breathe particles that are around 5 ´m in diameter as it helps to keep them down in…
angrytoxicologist | November 2, 2007There are so many things I could write about today but this is just sitting in my head this morning: There are alot of crazies out there. By that I mean not people who are mentally ill, which deserve compassion, but those who are sane and act in crazy ways.
This was spurred by this post over at Enviroblog on a question they got regarding whether you should eat salt with iodine (i.e. is iodine a problem). This seemed like a bit of an obvious answer and while trying to be helpful I think they were using it as an vehicle to talk about the importance of getting enough iodine in light of the…
angrytoxicologist | November 2, 2007As promised yesterday, here's how I make breakfast sausage (I do it for taste but it will also lower your nitrate intake). And as to the old saying, I'd much rather make sausage than make laws.
You'll need a meat grinder. I like the food grinder that attaches to a Kitchen Aid mixer since I can use it with the strainer for other things (making applesause, applebutter,...ETC). How to Cook Everything says you can use a food processor but I highly doubt you could do it acceptably without smearing things.
Throw the small hole die and the rest of the grinder parts in the freezer.
Mix together
2-2.5…
angrytoxicologist | November 1, 2007Or so says USA Today on the front page, paragraph two (regarding sausage, bacon and lunchmeat). Of course they are contradicted on paragraph 8 by someone who says that "you can still occasionally have a hot dog". The no safe level of bacon sounded fishy to me so I dug through the report (all 517 pages are here).
Cutting right to the chase, here's what they found, the consumption of processed meat increased the risk mainly for colorectal cancer. We'll get to the data in a second. They also found that salt caused cancer, particularly of the stomach.
Processed Meat
First, they don't specify what…
angrytoxicologist | October 31, 2007If you haven't seen it yet, USA Today is doing a series called "toxic legacy". First was lead, then mercury, and today, plastics. Well, really it's about BPA. We've dicussed BPA here before and I'm not going to rehash it. The article is good but doesn't give a lot of new information if you have been following this issue. One of the things that most people what to know is who to believe. And when you have two committees (NIEHS & CERHR) coming up with different takes on it, you don't know who to trust. You know how I feel about it. A great look into how the different panels reached their…
angrytoxicologist | October 30, 2007(Alternate title: jerks aren't always wrong).
Over at Moms Speak Up, Cristina shares her angerat a doctor that doesn't want to go along with a "modified" vaccine schedule that she made up herself. Over at Enviroblog (which I usually like) they chime in with a "good for you". While I share the loathing of doctors with a "how dare you question my good sense" attitude, in this case, he sounded much better than most do when questioned about their practices. And secondly, Christina's wrong. Now, people are wrong all the time, but ini this case, I can't let it sit in the open on a well-read website…
angrytoxicologist | October 16, 2007So cancer death rates are going down. This is good. What's left out of all the news coverage is the question: So what's going up. Face it, we all die. The all cause, all age mortality rate isn't changing as fast as cancer, stroke, and heart disease. What's going up then? Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Hypertensive Disease among others. Now, the increases in these diseases aren't as large as the decreases for the others (our life expectancy is going up), but it's the other side of the coin that you rarely see in news coverage.
Cancer is down, so is quality of life.
By getting better at…