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July 29, 2008
I frequently get questions by email or by comment. If it's simple, I might fire off an answer. If it's about a personal medical problem, I either don't answer, or send a standard disclaimer to seek medical care. If it's a really interesting question, I blog. Today, I blog.
The question regarded…
July 28, 2008
This comes up every day. Everyone's afraid of the big "C", and they should be. Smoking increases a person's risk of dying of lung cancer by about 12-20 times (whatever that means, but it's significant).
And while cancer may be scary, other diseases are just as bad. Lung cancers attributable to…
July 28, 2008
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
As we noted two days ago in a post about how the produce industry is now interested in tracking regulations they previously opposed after being whacked with billions of dollars in losses because of a protracted Salmonella outbreak whose source was…
July 27, 2008
What could be more important than a good old-fashioned flame war? I'll get to that in a moment, so please stick with me.
The recent imbroglio between some of our doctor bloggers and non-physician scientists got me thinking (so it couldn't be all bad).
As a quick summary, PhysioProf of the…
July 25, 2008
The EPA comes under scrutiny this week:
Jennifer Sass at NRDCâs Switchboard applauds the agencyâs proposals to cancel all uses of the pesticide carbofuran.
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients warns of EPA moves to water down regulations determining the cancer-causing danger of asbestos exposure…
July 25, 2008
"Destined to fail." That is the troubling conclusion of MSHA's 12-month investigation of the coal mine disaster at the Crandall Canyon coal mine that killed nine men last August. They were: Kerry Allred, 58; Dale Black, 48; Don Erickson, 50; MSHA's Gary Jensen, 53; Brandon Kimber, 29; Luis…
July 25, 2008
My Scibling DrugMonkey brought up a half-valid point. The half that was valid was that none of the medical bloggers spoke out about the surgeon who assaulted a patient. The half that was insane was where this is used as further evidence that doctors are arrogant pricks. Based on this comment and…
July 24, 2008
Our Scibling PhysioProf has launched the opening salvo in what may turn out to be a rather bloody flame war. In the interest of actually gaining something from this other than venting my own anger and frustration, I will beg your indulgence here as I explain why my colleague is so utterly…
July 24, 2008
Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have strongly urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to withdraw the proposed rule on occupational health risk assessment which her Department submitted to OMB on July 7.  Their letter says:
"we are deeply disappointed that the…
July 23, 2008
DROP YOUR CELL PHONE NOW!!!!111!
(don't send me the bill for the replacement)
I'm sure others will cover more of the scientific details, but science aside, we should examine why today's statement on cell phones out of Pittsburgh is so ridiculous. Setting aside the lack of data connecting cell…
July 23, 2008
The folks at bloggingheads.tv whoring for some link love sent me an interesting link. They had a talking heads session ("diavlog"---damn, that's hard to say) between John Horgan and some other guy (sorry, "Some Other Guy"). Horgan is the guy who brought us The End of Science, a book which was…
July 23, 2008
Following The Pump Handle's July 8 post "Secret Rule on OSHA Risk Assessment" (and July 10 here), a front-page Washington Post article provides more details on the Bush Administration's plan to "reform" the system used by OSHA and MSHA to assess workers' risk from toxic materials. In U.S…
July 22, 2008
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
The tomatoes-peppers-cilantro-? Salmonella story is starting to break, although which way is hard to say at this moment. Beginning about 3 pm yesterday afternoon newswire stories began to report that the FDA had found a single jalapeno pepper in a small…
July 22, 2008
Radovan Karadzic, one of the worst mass-murders of the post-WWII era, has been captured, or, perhaps more properly, has been allowed to be captured. Karadzic was responsible for orchestrating the murders of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan Wars.
A close friend of my family…
July 21, 2008
The American Geriatric Society has announced that falls are a leading cause of serious injury and death among the U.S. elderly. HealthDay News reports:
Each year, about one in three Americans aged 65 and older suffers a fall, and 30 percent of those falls cause injuries that require medical…
July 21, 2008
Here and in other venues, we've written quite a bit about the tactics used in the anti-vaccination movement (or as I like to call it, the "infectious disease promotion movement (IDPM)"). Let's examine some less subtle tactics.
The disease promoters are good---very good. Take this, for instance:…
July 21, 2008
Who has the moral high ground in the vaccination wars?
My initial response is that I do, "I" meaning the medical and public health fields---those of us who prevent disease, disability, and death.
But it's much more complicated. Many anti-vaccine activists are "true believers". They really…
July 19, 2008
The Houston Chronicle has reporters covering the devastating crane collapse which occurred on Friday, July 18 at 1:20 pm local time. The crane was owned and operated by Deep South Crane & Rigging which has official statements posted on the company website.  The Chronicle reports that the…
July 19, 2008
I've had a bit of writer's block lately, but I've learned to take my own advice and just wait it out. And so I did. Then, today, I read Orac's piece on framing the vaccine problem. It set my mind a-whirring, so I've put the coffee on, and I'm setting fingers to keyboard.
I don't care about the…
July 18, 2008
Bloggers have alarming stories of diseases reappearing:
Mike Lizza at The Lede (NYT) explores the reappearance of polio in tribal Pakistan.
Tara C. Smith at Aetiology describes the hemorrhagic-fever-causing Marburg virus, which just killed a Dutch woman who traveled to Uganda.
Katharine…
July 17, 2008
Right now, I'm looking out my window to see the spreading pall of burning stupid rising over Channel 7's tower in Southfield. And the stupid isn't just for Steve Wilson anymore. What reporter Carolyn Clifford lacks in adiposity, she easily makes up for in credulity. Her "investigative report"…
July 17, 2008
by Susan F. Wood, PhD
Recently the New York Times and RHRealityCheck reported on a leaked internal proposed regulation that calls for more and different enforcement of anti-discrimination provisions for health care providers. The provisions are forms of conscience clauses that do not allow…
July 17, 2008
By Michael Stebbins, orginally published at Scientists & Engineers for America Action Fund
As the sweat-soaked crowd entered the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall, to hear Al Goreâs energy challenge they were greeted by a blast of air conditioning. Relief! Sweet ironic…
July 17, 2008
Tonight on WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit, the station that brought us the irresponsible health reporting of Steve Wilson, there will be a report on the HPV vaccine Gardasil. Given this station's recent history, I'm not very optimistic.
The Gardasil issue has been a unique crank-magnet. It has…
July 16, 2008
The Central Valley Business Times reports on another apparent farmworker heat death:
Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez, 48, a father of two and employed by a farm labor contractor, died in Selma Thursday afternoon after working all day in a Reedley vineyard.
Mr. Ramiro complained being sick from the heat…
July 16, 2008
How bad is the economy?
Really fucking bad. My patients are losing their jobs, the restaurants are empty, businesses are shuttered, houses empty.
Really, really fucking bad.
What does the government have to say about it? Not so bad. Chill.
There are some good reasons for this. As the recent…
July 15, 2008
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
What's a little sodium dichromate, anyway? So it's a known human carcinogen and can do a lot of other nasty things. No big deal. Not for Iraq war contractor, KBR, anyway. At the time KBR was a subsidiary of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's Vice President Dick…
July 15, 2008
When Iâm teaching a class or speaking to a group about the "funding effect" â the close correlation between the results desired by a studyâs funders and those reported by the researchers â people often ask how researchers do it. How is it that researchers paid by a sponsor usually get results…
July 14, 2008
I take care of my own patients in the hospital. I say that because it is not a given for internists. For a number of reasons, many having to do with time management and money, most internists utilize hospitalists, internal medicine docs who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients.…