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. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin Rules, Post reporter Carol Leonnig obtained a draft copy of the […]
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 distribution center in McAllen, Texas, contaminated with the […]
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 treatment. In 2005, almost 16,000 older […]
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 four deceased and the seven injured workers were contractor-employees at the LyondellBasell […]
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 Mieszkowski at Broadsheet reports on the resurgence of measles in the U.S., and […]
Regulation
We may have won some battles, but the War on Contraception and on Science is still going strong
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 discrimination in hiring or promotion of health care workers who do […]
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 relief! DC is obscenely hot today, yet, thousands of people were lined […]
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 and was taken home by his foreman. […]
Worker Health & Safety
KBR and DoD expose workers and soldiers to a carcinogen but it’s not a big deal
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 Cheney’s former company, Halliburton. […]
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 favorable to the […]