By David Michaels In my post Monday, I wrote that breathing diacetyl, the chemical in artificial butter flavor, is killing and crippling workers around the country. It is now more than six years since the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was first notified that workers in a popcorn plant in Missouri had developed […]
While Indiaâs population has been growing, its rice harvests have been declining. Two of the culprits, reports the BBC (citing a study from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), are particulate and greenhouse-gas pollution.
by PotomacFeverish The Washington Post announced what we already knew. That the lame duck sessions of Congress (one already past, one this week) will not accomplish much. So what, you say? They hadnât accomplished much for the last year, why should we care now? Jonathan Weisman reports: Congress will convene on Tuesday for what some […]
By David Michaels Every year, Marion Ohio (nickname: âpopcorn capital of the worldâ) hosts the largest popcorn festival in the world, with 250,000 attendees. The Orville Redenbacher Parade is one of the festivalsâ highlights. Redenbacher, who developed the hybrid corn strain that pops so uniformly, was actually from Indiana, but ConAgra Foods manufactures the best […]
Today is World AIDS Day, and thereâs no shortage of coverage in the blogosphere. Christy Hardin Smith at Firedoglake combines links to news stories with her own reflections, and Izzy at Unbossed remembers 1982, before they called it AIDS. Michael Bernstein and Nandini Oomman of Global Health Policy report from the World AIDS Day Event […]
by OSHAL It is worthwhile reading the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (report PDF here; Jordan Barabâs take here) that recommends a review of the effectiveness of current strategies for workplace safety and health. Of particular interest to me is the attitude and direction of this Administrationâs OSHA, in particular for those workplaces with the […]
by Susan F. Wood After the recent post here on KETEK, both the Wall Street Journal and Senator Grassley are on the move. The WSJ reports today on another antibiotic Cubicin which has been seeking approval for use in endocarditis and discusses the competing issues of data quality and high standards, with the push for […]
By David Michaels The Bush Administration is manufacturing uncertainty about global warming, even as its allies in the carbon producing industries are abandoning it. Last week, the Washington Postâs Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin reported that âtop executives at many of the nation’s largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and […]