Christopher Thomas needed to make some extra money. The 51-year old welderâalso a husband and father of twoâhad begun work in the GMD Shipyard in Brooklyn Navy Yard about a week before. It was mid-morning on a Saturdayâhis day offâbut Thomas had come into work anyway.
By Anthony Robbins It has been many years, 26 in fact, since I left NIOSH, victim of the Reagan landslide of 1980. It is fair to say that I have spent little time engaged in worker health issues since then. Yet Michael Silversteinâs future oriented document offered surprisingly few new or unexpected insights as it […]
By Dick Clapp This week, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued preliminary health-based guidance to local water companies on levels of perflurooctanoic acid (PFOA) in drinking water (PDF). Based on current knowledge of cancer and non-cancer effects of this chemical, they recommended a limit of 0.04 parts per billion, and they say this […]
By David Michaels âSunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.â – Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (1914) According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Lisa B. Jackson, Commissioner of New Jerseyâs Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has just issued a tough new standard for removing chromium 6 (a powerful […]
By Celeste Monforton Last month, David Michaels wrote about a newly amended executive order from President Bush that gives the executive branch (through the Office of Management & Budget) more control over the work of federal agencies. This order seems designed to constrain the regulatory activities of federal agencies like EPA, FDA, and OSHA in […]
By David A. Sonnenfeld It is rare that public health professionals, labor advocates, community activists, and university scholars come together at one place and time to discuss the past, present, and future of health and environmental challenges of a major industrial sector. It is even rarer that we manage to sustain a years-long collaboration in […]
Environmental Health
The Institute for Energy Security, Competitiveness and American Jobs: New Name, Same Bad Ideas
Facing growing public concern about global warming, the US Chamber of Commerce is setting up another yet front group to oppose regulations that will limit greenhouse gases. The Chamber has tentatively named the new group the Institute for Energy Security, Competitiveness and American Jobs. It will be bankrolled by oil companies, electric utilities and automakers, […]
Environmental Health
New European Chemicals Policy Overhaul Begins to Take the Handle Off the Toxics Pump
By Joel Tickner The European Union (EU) recently issued new regulations requiring chemical firms to develop health and environmental data on chemicals used to make everyday products and provide reasonable assurances of safety. What a novel concept. The sad truth is that it is.  Despite the fact that most public surveys find that people believe (and expect) industrial […]
By Dick Clapp Late last month, there was a series of news stories about the drop in cancer deaths reported in 2004 as compared to 2003. The Washington Post story ran under the headline âCancer Deaths Decline for Second Straight Year,â and the New York Times headline read âSecond Drop in Cancer Deaths Could Point […]
Friday, February 2, 2007 (3:30 AM EST): Tune in to listen to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) webcast announcing the Working Group I’s approval of their Fourth Asssessment Report. There’s no doubt the global warming naysayers will critique the IPCC’s report with gusto. But, as Naomi Oreskes writes in “Undeniable Global Warming” in todayâs Washington Post “the chatter of skeptics is distracting us from the real issue: […]