August 8, 2011 Elizabeth Grossman 4Comment

By Elizabeth Grossman While the rest of the country has been experiencing an epic heat wave, in the Pacific Northwest where I live, thus far the summer has been unusually cool. One consequence of the cool weather is a slow-to-appear local tomato crop, made evident to consumers by some remarkably high prices. A pint of […]

August 5, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

Earlier this week, I reported on the death of Margarito Guardado Resinos, 34, at a construction project in my hometown of San Marcos, TX. Mr. Resinos employer, Jetka Steel Erectors, had been inspected by OSHA in December 2010, at a different construction site, and received citations in May 2011 for four serious violations of safety […]

August 5, 2011 The Pump Handle 2Comment

By Anthony Robbins According to the New York Times, President Obama will create an Atrocities Prevention Board. You might well ask, what has this to do with public health? I might have had the same thought except for a Commentary that my co-editor and I published in the Journal of Public Health Policy. Elihu Richter, […]

August 4, 2011 The Pump Handle 13Comment

By Anthony Robbins Natural gas producers are battling public concerns over the public-health effects of their extraction techniques. Does injection of water and toxic chemicals deep into the ground to release natural gas contaminate ground water, potentially drinking water? Now it appears that a strategy we have discussed before, settled lawsuits and confidentiality agreements, has […]

August 4, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 3Comment

A strain of salmonella, Salmonella Heidelberg, has sickened at least 77 people in 26 states and killed one in California. The outbreak has been linked to ground turkey produced at an Arkansas plant, and Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation has announced a recall of about 36 million pounds of the meat. The meat is sold under […]

August 3, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

Margarito Guardado Resinos, 34, and Nelson Pineda were working together to erect a pre-engineered steel building frame at a construction site in San Marcos, TX. The two were employed by Jetka Steel Erectors of Katy, TX, a firm hired by Bailey Elliot Construction of Austin to erect a new building for Thermon Manufacturing at the […]

August 2, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH

I wrote last month about the Institute of Medicine recommendations regarding preventive health services for women that should be covered by all new health plans without requiring co-payments or other cost sharing. Like many other supporters of women’s health, I was especially interested in the proposal that contraceptives be covered at no charge to women. […]

August 1, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH

A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: Brad Plumer at Ezra Klein’s blog: Will the new fuel economy rules actually work? Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Is Polio Eradication Slipping Out of Reach? David Bornstein at the New York Times’ Opinionator: Treating the Cause, Not the Illness John Culhane at Slate: Concussions and Cigarettes (“A […]