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July 2, 2008
For PBS, Bill Moyersâ Journal and Exposé: Americaâs Investigative Reports went to the Charlotte Observer to learn more about their excellent series on injured poultry workers, The Cruelest Cuts. Reporters actually stumbled on the story in 2005, when they were reporting on avian influenza. Poultry…
July 2, 2008
The State of Rhode Island's efforts, which began in 1999, to force lead-paint manufacturers to clean-up contaminated homes received a mortal blow when the State's Supreme Court reversed a lower court's 2006 decision. (Full decision from 7/1/2008)  This early ruling was a result of the longest…
July 2, 2008
Those words look vaguely familiar. It's a little odd, especially since I was just working on a major expansion and revision of that essay.
(I'm also curious to see if that title survives translation here.)
July 1, 2008
I hadn't realized that Vermont has passed a law requiring insurers to cover naturopathic care.
We've covered extensively the quackery that is naturopathy, but really, if a patient chooses to see a quack, it's their business. But with health care costs soaring, requiring insurers to pay for…
July 1, 2008
Did Brush Wellman, the worldâs largest producer of beryllium products, hire Hill and Knowlton, the public relations giant behind Big Tobaccoâs campaign to fool the public about the hazards of smoking, to help Brush refute reports of berylliumâs toxicity? Brush says no, but we have the smoking guns…
July 1, 2008
Update: 7/1 (4:00 pm): The link is fixed! It was two reps of the National Association of Home Builders, four staff of OMB and one from the Dept of Labor's Solicitor's Office. Hmmm...no one from OSHA attended the meeting.Â
On June 18 we reported here that OSHA had submitted to OMB's Office of…
July 1, 2008
by revere, cross posted at Effect Measure
As the tomato Salmonella outbreak heads past the 800 case level, it's time to ask some questions about why we don't know the source of what is the largest produce associated disease outbreak on record. CDC has its own explanation, namely, that figuring out…
June 30, 2008
Just a quick note---check out Ames's live blogging of David Kirby's appearance in New York. The talk contains some of the usual gems, and also a few surprises, such as (if reported correctly) that homosexuals are sick but can't admit it.
June 30, 2008
In recent months, weâve learned about the Department of Defense hampering EPAâs chemical risk assessments and slowing the study of health effects from the TCE contaminating Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
Now, the Washington Postâs Lyndsey Layton reports that DoD is refusing comply with EPA orders to…
June 29, 2008
I've just returned from one of the world's great treasures, Algonquin Provincial Park, in Ontario, Canada. I have very little skepticism to offer---sure, I could talk about Park management, the Master Plan, logging, First Nations, etc. but then I'd lose an opportunity to share some of the natural…
June 27, 2008
Bloggers help us stay on top of environmental news:
Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth brings us the grim news from a new federal report on climate change impacts: thereâs a 90-percent likelihood that the frequency and intensity of heat waves and heavy downpours will rise.
Andrew Schneider at Secret…
June 27, 2008
Earlier this month, William Scott Hill, 33, of Staffordsville, KY was killed while cutting trees to prepare for a surface coal mine for the Premier Elkhorn Coal Company (TECO Energy). Mr. Hill was employed by Gopher Contracting of Jackson, KY. His death on June 3 reminded me of other…
June 27, 2008
Remember the excellent Charlotte Observer series on poultry workers? If you missed it the first time, it's well worth a read. After a 22-month investigation, reporters conveyed a grim picture: poultry-plant workers suffer high rates of crippling injuries, but fear losing their jobs if they…
June 26, 2008
The American News Project â a new nonprofit project producing âonline journalism that mattersâ and offering their content for free â turns its cameras to the problem of hunger in the U.S. Garland McLaurin reports that 28 million people will use food stamps in 2009, but the low benefit amounts mean…
June 25, 2008
Susan announced this project a few weeks ago, and itâs worth repeating. At the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at George Washington University School of Public Health, weâve launched a multi-part study to understand the current policies surrounding scientistsâ work at government…
June 25, 2008
Back in March, a Boston Globe article by Farah Stockman broke the news that workers whoâd been cleaning up the Qarmat Ali water injection plant in Iraq had been exposed to something that they were told was only a mild irritant â but which was, in fact, the dangerous substance sodium dichromate.…
June 24, 2008
As weâve noted before, research on nanotechnology safety has lagged behind the use of nanomaterials in consumer products. Three recent stories describe the potential rewards and risks of nanotechnology and some of the efforts to learn more about nanomaterialsâ effects on humans and our environment…
June 24, 2008
By Michael Stebbins, originally published at Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund
Last month I wrote about the White Houseâs apparent involvement in the denial of Californiaâs request for exemption from the Clean Air Act to set their own guidelines for the regulation of auto emissions…
June 23, 2008
On Saturday, Firedoglake hosted an online discussion on David Michaelsâ Doubt is Their Product: How Industryâs Assault on Science Threatens Your Health â and David was lucky to have the chat hosted by Jordan Barab, whose wonderful Confined Space blog provided so much inspiration for The Pump…
June 20, 2008
Bloggers turn their attention to the floods in the Midwest:
Tara C. Smith of Aetiology is in the thick of the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids floods. She reminds us that preparedness can pay off for floods as well as flu, and that residents need to consider several health issues as the flood waters recede…
June 20, 2008
On Saturday June 21st, Iâll be the guest on the Firedoglake Book Salon, talking about my new book âDoubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health.â Please join me from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM Eastern time, for what promises to be an interesting conversation.
Doubt…
June 20, 2008
...but I'm pretty sure Jimmy knows his way around there.
HT Archeaoporn, Cectic
June 19, 2008
...instead of focusing on innovation. I've written about Pfizer and Lipitor a few times in the last year. Now, Pfizer has found a way to extend its patent on Lipitor, a very profitable drug used in the management of heart disease and high cholesterol.
Lipitor's a great drug. It treats high…
June 19, 2008
This time from Africa! (Which doesn't help explain the blog's name at all, but it's good.)
June 19, 2008
Weâve written before about how important it is for the presidential candidates to let the public know where they stand on science issues. Now, the Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund, in partnership with 15 prominent scientific and engineering societies, is asking Congressional…
June 19, 2008
Salmonella-tainted tomatoes have sickened at least 277, although the Seattle PIâs Andrew Schneider cites a CDC estimate of 8,600 people whoâve become ill during this outbreak. Congress has reacted to this and other food and drug safety problems by forcing additional funding on the FDA, which isnât…
June 18, 2008
A number of years ago, I saw an older physician reading a book with an intriguing title---God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan Spence. Like most Americans, I know very little about Chinese history. I certainly had no idea that there was a massive civil war…
June 18, 2008
Updated (6/19/08)Â below
Just before last year's holiday season, Charles Budds Bolchoz, 48; best friends Karey Renard Henry, 35, and Parish Lamar Ashley, 36; and company owner Robert Scott Gallagher, 49, lost their lives in a violent explosion at T2 Laboratories in Jacksonville, Florida (…
June 18, 2008
On Saturday, I'll be heading up north. Way up north. To the north where the precious intertubes do not reach, where pagers are for skipping across the water, and cellphones are coasters. It's that far north.
I'm going to take pictures, and take notes, and my plan is to have a bunch of non-…
June 18, 2008
Mr. Robert Carey, 45, an athracite coal miner from Shamokin, Pennsylvania was killed on Monday by falling rock/coal at the Harmony Mine. So far this year, 26 workers at U.S. mining operations have died on-the-job. Just this past Sunday, former MSHA chief J. Davitt McAteer had an Op-Ed in the…