Alison Bass, an award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee, will be here at George Washington University tomorrow to speak about why the system of drug research and development in the United States is seriously flawed and what reforms are needed. Wednesday, March 18, 4:30pm GWU-SPHHS Health Policy Department 2021 K St. NW, Ste. 800, Washington, […]
With an announcement today in the Federal Register, Labor Secretary Solis’ OSHA is moving in a new direction to address occupational exposure to diacetyl. The butter-flavoring agent is associated with respiratory harm, including bronchiolitis obliterans. Just six days ago, Ronald Kuiper, 69, a former American Pop Corn Co succumbed to the disease. OSHA announced it is withdrawing the advanced notice […]
Updated 3/17 and 3/19 (see below) The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s newsroom heard the announcement this morning: The Heart Corporation, which owns the paper, will cease printing after tomorrow’s edition. The official word is that the P-I won’t be going away, but transitioning to an online-only format with the goal of being “the leading news and information […]
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure There is an attitude toward the prospects of an influenza pandemic and what, or what not, to do about it that I have little patience with. We saw examples a couple of years ago with the writings of Wendy Orent and Marc Siegel and now it is surfacing again […]
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure There is a good summary by Robert Roos at CIDRAP News about the $420 billion spending bill signed by President Obama this week to cover the next six months. The good news edges out the bad news, so the net is positive, a welcome change from the kind of deeply depressing […]
Bloggers are reacting to the news of major scientific fraud: Massachusetts anesthesiologist Dr. Scott Reuben falsified data in his published studies for more than a decade. Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science explores the effects of Dr. Reubenâs duplicity on anesthesiology and surgical patients. Orac at Respectful Insolence considers how Dr. Reuben was […]
The Washington Postâs Juliet Eilperin reports that a âlittle-noticedâ provision in the spending bill signed into law this week will reverse the Bush administrationâs loosening of Toxics Release Inventory reporting requirements. (Check out our past posts on the watered-down requirements and the TRIâs importance for background.) The TRI is important because it lets community members, lawmakers, […]
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure I’m just getting around to reading the Brief Report by Blachere et al., “Measurement of airborne influenza virus in a hospital emergency department” (Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009:48:483-440) but it’s quite interesting. We’ve noted fairly often here that we still don’t know for sure what the main modes of transmission […]
In today’s New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof turns his attention to a problem that’s been worrying the public health community for the past several years: MRSA, or methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. The bacteria’s antibiotic resistance makes it hard to fight, and it’s responsible for a growing toll of deaths over the past year – including […]
A lot of our coverage of bisphenol A, the endocrine-disrupting chemical present in a host of plastic products, has focused on the FDAâs outdated stance. The agency has insisted that BPA is safe at levels currently found in food and liquid containers, even though its own panel of science advisors has determined that the FDAâs […]