The US Senate passed today the Food Safety Modernization Act on a by a 73 to 25 vote. More than a dozen Republican Senators broke ranks with their leadership and voted in favor of the bill: Alexander (TN), Brown (MA), Burr (NC), Collins (ME), Enzi (WY), Grassley (IA), Gregg (NH), Johanns (NE), Kirk (IL), LeMieux […]
Cancer
“It’s on our website”: an insufficient response to asbestos danger lurking in millons of attics
No doubt that a federal agency’s website can be a useful public relations tool. We all have much better access now to government data, reports and other records. That’s certainly a good thing. But even the most content-rich website cannot substitute for other forms of communication and information sharing. Yet more and more lately I’m […]
Infectious Diseases & Vaccines
Cholera in Haiti: Elections, Need for Nurses, and the Vaccine Question
Given that Haiti is suffering from the devastation of a major earthquake and a cholera epidemic, it’s not surprising that voters yesterday encountered disorganized polling places where many were told their names weren’t on the rolls. But there were also reports of violence and intimidation, polling places being ransacked and ballot boxes ripped open, and […]
Our friend and APHA OHS colleague Mark Catlin has assembled on YouTube an amazing collection of more than 500 environmental health and safety film clips. The video collection contain footage dating back to the 1920’s, with loads WWII-era films produced by the U.S. military, Public Health Service and companies promoting tires, asbestos, oil, steel, tetraethyl […]
The most prominent occupational health news this week is the tragic deaths of 29 workers from New Zealand’s Pike River coal mine. Celeste has already written about this, so I’ll just add my encourgement to visit the New Zealand Herald’s photos and short profiles of the 29 miners: Conrad Adams, Malcolm Campbell, Glen Cruse, Allan […]
A second, more powerful explosion today rocked the Pike River coal mine in Greymouth, New Zealand. This event forced government and company officials to declare that the 29 miners are surely dead. The initial blast occurred on Friday, Nov 19 deep in the mine and rescue attempts had been thwarted by dangerous gas levels. The […]
APHA Annual Meeting
Protecting health by eliminating hazards: New APHA policy statements take proactive approach to preventing illness and injury
by Elizabeth Grossman At this year’s American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting that took place in Denver November 7-11, the APHA’s Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety sections proposed new policy statements that recommend proactive strategies for preventing illness and injury by reducing exposure to hazardous chemicals and through design that promotes workplace safety. […]
Turkey Day is on the way. Workers employed in U.S. turkey processing plants are asking for your help to secure safer working conditions. These workers handle about 30 turkeys per minute—30 turkeys per minute—on the production line. The faster the production line moves, the faster the workers have to move to make their cuts. If […]
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has released a new Food Outlook, and the news isn’t great. Global wheat and rice production have both suffered setbacks this year as Russia has suffered from drought and Pakistan from floods. Poor cassava harvests in Asia are also a concern, given that cassava is the staple food of […]
Last week at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Denver, APHA’s Occupational Health and Safety section held its awards luncheon – always one of the highlights of the meeting thanks to its combination of stellar awardees and creative musical skit. This year’s award winners won well-deserved recognition for the many ways in which […]