Conditions on Florida tomato farms improve thanks to the Fair Food Program; federal officials are developing a protective inhalation screening level for the West Virginia chemical spill region; and a Government Accountability Project expert testifies on whistleblower protections in observance of Workers Memorial Day.
Denver Post reporters explore psychotropic-drug prescriptions to Colorado foster kids; the US spends more on teen pregnancy than family planning; and five million US workers have stopped looking for jobs.
When President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law in 2011, it was described as the most sweeping reform of the nation’s food safety laws in nearly a century. Public health advocates hailed the law for shifting regulatory authority from reaction to prevention. What received less attention was a first-of-its-kind provision that protects workers who expose food safety lawbreakers.
Cancer
Will farm workers be better protected? EPA proposes new pesticide protection standards but farm worker advocates see some steps backward
“For us it’s personal,” said Jeannie Economos, Farmworker Association of Florida Pesticide Safety and Environmental Health Project Coordinator. “It’s a daily issue for us. Every day with a weaker protection standard is another day a worker is exposed to pesticides,” she said. On February 20th the EPA proposed revisions to its Worker Protection Standard for agricultural pesticides. Farm worker advocates are welcoming the proposal – the first update since 1992 – but see both improvements and what some are calling “steps backward.”
Public Health Practice
Worth reading: West Virginia chemical release, antibiotics in agriculture, and using statistics to tackle substance abuse
Reporters and bloggers delve into the chemical release that tainted tap water for thousands of West Virginians; the problem of antibiotic overuse by livestock producers, and what to do about it; how one statistician is working to advance effective treatments for substance abuse; and more.
On average, eating healthy costs about $1.50 more per day than the least healthy diets, according to a new study. The extra cost seems insignificant at first — a small cup of coffee often costs more — but it all adds up to be a considerable barrier for many low-income families.
The owner of a factory where an explosion killed two workers is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10-20 years in prison; a reporter investigates deaths of young farmworkers since the Obama administration withdrew its proposed rule on child agricultural workers; and retailers have improved their Black Friday crowd control in the five years since Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death at a Long Island Walmart.
Environmental Health
Thanksgiving turkey gets Presidential pardon – Turkey workers, however, can’t get a break
As Americans prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday and the White House gets ready for President Obama to pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey in a Rose Garden ceremony on Wednesday November 27 that will “reflect upon the time-honored traditions of Thanksgiving,” let us take a moment to reflect upon the welfare of the men and women […]
Environmental Health
Labor Day assessment of federal efforts to improve (or impede) worker safety protections
The second annual report on US worker health and safety offers a review of activities and new policies at the federal scene, and a recap on the best reporting about it by the nation’s journalists.
Environmental Health
Study: Industrial food-animal workers test positive for livestock-associated MRSA
In a recent study comparing workers at industrial livestock operations and those employed at antibiotic-free livestock operations, researchers found that industrial workers were much more likely to carry livestock-associated strains of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, more commonly and scarily known as MRSA.