Liz Borkowski
lborkowski
Posts by this author
August 23, 2011
As those of you who read other ScienceBlogs are probably already aware, the ScienceBlogs overlords have decided that all bloggers on this network must blog under their own names -- no more pseudonyms. I don't understand or agree with this policy. Some of my favorite ScienceBlogs are written by…
August 22, 2011
By Kim Krisberg
Public health director Kerran Vigroux sounds almost matter-of-fact when she talks about having to shut down her department's screening services for sexually transmitted diseases. As she talks about the prevention and education opportunities that packed up and left along with the…
August 19, 2011
A few of the recent pieces I've liked (or, in the case of the first item, found horribly disturbing but important):
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Ringing the Warning Bell: Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella
J. Malcolm Garcia in Guernica: Smoke Screen ("In Afghanistan, the U.S. military disposes of garbage…
August 17, 2011
In a new New York Times Magazine piece, John Tierney pulls together the results of several studies that suggest willpower is finite and decisionmaking exhausting. While these findings are important in many ways (Tierney leads off with an example from the criminal justice system), I was especially…
August 16, 2011
I somehow missed this when it first happened, but the state of Connecticut made history last month when Governor Dan Malloy signed legislation requiring up to five paid sick days per year for service workers at businesses with 50 or more employees. Christopher Keating gave these details in the…
August 12, 2011
The US spends far more per capita on healthcare than any other developed country -- $7,538 per person, compared to $3,129 in the UK, $4,079 in Canada, and $5,003 in Norway (the second-biggest spender), according to 2008 totals compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. One contributor to our high…
August 10, 2011
Jim Salter of the Associated Press reports that many law enforcement agencies are reducing their attempts to shut down methamphetamine manufacturing because they can no longer afford to clean up the labs.
Brian Freskos of North Carolina's Star News reported back in May that Congress has generally…
August 9, 2011
Last week, I was fortunate to be able to attend the opening of a Smithsonian Museum of Natural History exhibit dedicated to the rescue of 33 miners from the San José mine in Chile, and meet two of miners whose story captivated the world as they endured 69 days underground following a mine…
August 5, 2011
By Anthony Robbins
According to the New York Times, President Obama will create an Atrocities Prevention Board. You might well ask, what has this to do with public health? I might have had the same thought except for a Commentary that my co-editor and I published in the Journal of Public Health…
August 4, 2011
By Anthony Robbins
Natural gas producers are battling public concerns over the public-health effects of their extraction techniques. Does injection of water and toxic chemicals deep into the ground to release natural gas contaminate ground water, potentially drinking water? Now it appears that a…
August 4, 2011
A strain of salmonella, Salmonella Heidelberg, has sickened at least 77 people in 26 states and killed one in California. The outbreak has been linked to ground turkey produced at an Arkansas plant, and Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation has announced a recall of about 36 million pounds of the meat…
August 2, 2011
I wrote last month about the Institute of Medicine recommendations regarding preventive health services for women that should be covered by all new health plans without requiring co-payments or other cost sharing. Like many other supporters of women's health, I was especially interested in the…
August 1, 2011
A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Brad Plumer at Ezra Klein's blog: Will the new fuel economy rules actually work?
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Is Polio Eradication Slipping Out of Reach?
David Bornstein at the New York Times' Opinionator: Treating the Cause, Not the Illness
John Culhane at…
July 29, 2011
by Rebecca Reindel
Holidays are interesting times of the year. Many of us fill our schedule with time to visit friends and family across the nation, and even across the globe. When our plans involve air travel, many of us line-up alongside the baggage carousel station while we wait for our prized…
July 28, 2011
Months of a severe drought in East Africa have led to famine in two regions in Southern Somalia. According to the UN's definition, famines can only be declared under the following conditions:
At least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope;…
July 27, 2011
Though the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant has faded from the headlines, cleanup work continues amid high radiation levels. TIME's Krista Mahr reports that Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has just released a document that includes an April estimate that 1600…
July 25, 2011
By Kim Krisberg
We're talking about it all wrong. Health reform, that is. We (reformers) think we're answering the questions that will change opponents' minds, when there's no answer that will ever satisfy. My head hurts just thinking about it (though a giant, energy-efficient light bulb flickered…
July 21, 2011
This post is part of the Birth Control Blog Carnival put on by the National Women's Law Center.
Yesterday I wrote about new Institute of Medicine recommendations regarding preventive health services for women that should be covered by all new health plans without requiring cost-sharing. One of the…
July 20, 2011
One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act is a requirement that new health plans cover preventive services for women without deductibles or co-payments. The Department of Health and Human Services asked the Institute of Medicine to review what preventive services are important to women's…
July 18, 2011
As debt-ceiling negotiations continue and members of both parties express a desire for "leaner" government, James Kwak at The Atlantic offers an important reminder: Measuring the size of the US government by how much money it spends can be misleading. Social Security and Medicare, both of which are…
July 15, 2011
Yan Jie of China Daily reports that four mine disasters have occurred in China during July alone - and we don't yet know how many miners and rescuers will survive. Three rescuers have died already, and hope dims for the remaining miners the longer they remain trapped by high water and collapsed…
July 14, 2011
Sharon Astyk at Casaubon's Book has a great post up about the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, or WIC, which is now on the budgetary chopping block. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that an appropriations bill approved by the House would result in WIC turning…
July 13, 2011
On the afternoon of Saturday, January 23, 2010, Carl "Danny" Fish, a 32-year employee of the DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia was performing a routine operation when a hose carrying phosgene (a chemical so toxic it was used as a weapon during World War I) ruptured, spraying him in the face and…
July 11, 2011
This weekend, Los Angeles will close a 10-mile stretch of the 405 freeway for 53 hours so work crews can conduct demolition that will enable widening of the freeway. Locals are referring to the planned closure as "Carmageddon," anticipating gridlock on nearby roadways that remain open. The hope is…
July 8, 2011
A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science: The disease trackers
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: How Much Is a Drug-Resistance Death Worth? Less Than $600
Michele Norris at NPR: Why Black Women, Infants Lag in Birth Outcomes
Fred Pearce at Yale Environment 360:…
July 7, 2011
Update below (7/8/2011)
Just a few months after the Obama Administration took office, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a scathing report on OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). The program is supposed to recognize workplaces with exceptional safety programs, but GAO's…
July 5, 2011
One of the disturbing aspects of the recent E. coli outbreak in Germany was the apparent lack of sufficient hospital surge capacity to handle a sudden influx of seriously ill patients. Der Spiegel reported:
On Monday, hospitals all over northern Germany struggled to treat thousands of patients…
July 1, 2011
The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has released additional results from its ongoing investigation into the disaster at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine, which killed 29 miners last year in West Virginia. Like the independent investigation team, MSHA investigators cite poorly…
June 30, 2011
NPR's Melissa Block traveled to Mozambique, where poverty and a shortage of both healthcare providers and facilities contribute to a high maternal mortality rate, for the first segment of the "Beginnings" series that will air throughout the summer on All Things Considered. She starts off with some…
June 29, 2011
Hui Min Neo reports for AFP that 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are affected by the region's worst drought in 60 years. Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda are suffering severe food shortages, and malnutrition rates are rising.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian…