January 30, 2009 The Pump Handle 2Comment

Bloggers have a lot of thoughts about the stimulus package: Sarah Rubenstein at WSJ’s Health Blog explains plans to divide extra Medicaid funds among states. Cristina Page at RH Reality Check explains the alleged $200 million for contraceptive coverage. Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority investigates the Weatherization Assistance Program money and decides it’s a good […]

January 29, 2009 The Pump Handle

This post is part of a “global health blog carnival” effort that Christine Gorman at Global Health Report has just launched. The theme for today’s posts is “prevention vs. treatment” – visit this post for links all participating posts. Although my post focuses largely on the U.S. experience, it’s an example of a universal difficulty in […]

January 29, 2009 The Pump Handle

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure A powerful Editorial in today’s Nature (the world’s premier science publication) shines a strong light on a tragic violation of human rights in Iran involving two leading AIDS physicians, brothers Arash and Kamiar Alaei. We’ve posted about it twice (here and here). Declan Butler, a senior correspondent at Nature […]

January 28, 2009 The Pump Handle 3Comment

By Jerome Paulson Starting on February 10th, companies won’t be able to sell children’s products that contain more than 600 parts per million total lead. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently clarified the requirements under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and put to rest the fear that thrift stores and consignment stores would have to […]

January 28, 2009 The Pump Handle

We’re delighted to learn that The Pump Handle’s own David Michaels has won the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi, the international honor society of research scientists and engineers. The award honors people who are highly visible and prominent spokespersons for the public understanding and appreciation of science. Our regular readers […]

January 28, 2009 The Pump Handle 2Comment

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Even as the the peanut cum salmonella recall spreads (sorry, couldn’t resist), we learn that the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia thought to be its source has a history of “problems”:

January 27, 2009 The Pump Handle 2Comment

The influential left-wing blog Daily Kos has been running a series called “Flu and You” by health blogger DemFromCT, and this week’s installment features an interview with one of the reveres from Effect Measure, who often cross-post here. The whole thing is worth reading (as are the first and second parts of the series), but […]

January 26, 2009 The Pump Handle 1Comment

Legal scholars with the Center for Progressive Reform issued today “The Choices Facing Cass Sunstein,” an assessment of the writings of President Obama’s nominee for the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).  The authors reviewed Prof. Sunstein’s writing and report specifically on his staunch support for cost-benefit analysis and the “centralization of […]

January 26, 2009 The Pump Handle

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure The peanut butter/peanut paste ingredient based salmonella outbreak has been in the news lately and we’ve discussed it here (and here, here, here, here, here). There are now about 500 reported cases and six deaths. That’s a case fatality ratio of just over 1%. So what if there were […]

January 26, 2009 The Pump Handle

Back in July, a 300-foot crane collapsed at a Houston refinery and killed four workers: Marion “Scooter” Hubert Odom III, 41; John D. Henry, 33; Daniel “DJ” Lee Johnson, 30; and Rocky Dale Strength, 30. Now, federal regulators have reported that the crane’s operator, who was among those killed, had never been in the machine’s […]