As I’ve previously written, a minor revision to the form on which some U.S. employers are required to record work-related injuries remains stuck in the office of the White House’s regulatory czar. His review has now extended for 145 days. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects a sample of these forms annually to estimate […]
Environmental Health
Feeding the Hungry Cities: Backyard Chickens, Rooftop Gardens, and Vertical Farming
As I mentioned yesterday, Sharon Astyk of Casaubon’s Book and I are spending this week focusing on urbanization issues. Sharon is a farmer and has been writing for a long time about sustainable food production, particularly as it relates to climate change and a dwindling supply of fossil fuels. In her post yesterday, she linked […]
The Pump Handle and Casaubon’s Book are writing posts this week about the global trend of urbanization. More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and this shift has implications for the health of the planet. I grew up in suburban Delaware, and my first experience with urban living came in college […]
A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: Robin Fields at ProPublica: In Dialysis, Life-Saving Care at Great Risk and Cost Timothy Noah at Slate: McSurance on Trial: A Senate committee puts the spotlight on the crap health insurance given fast-food workers EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the WSJ: The EPA Turns 40 Kristen Lombardi […]
Mary Kay Magistad of PRI’s The World surveys the cost of China’s huge appetite for coal and reports that it’s harmful to workers as well as air quality. She interviews 37-year-old coal miner Zhong Guangwei, who developed a severe case of pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease, after just 10 months of working in a coal […]
Today, is World AIDS Day, and while the pandemic continues to devastate millions of lives, we can also honor some achievements. CDC reports that when PEPFAR (the US President’s Plan for AIDS Relief) started in 2003, fewer than 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were getting antiretroviral drugs; now, thanks to a global collaboration, more than […]
Nearly a month ago, I made predictions about what we might read in OSHA’s and MSHA’s regulatory agendas. The Administration’s regulatory plan is supposed to be published in October; it’s been an annual requirement since 1993 (see Executive Order 12866.) When I wrote my post last month, the Obama Administration was already a few days […]