January 29, 2007 The Pump Handle

One of the best ways that mothers, fathers, grandparents, and caregivers can find out about hazardous agents in their homes, communities, and workplaces is by reading the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).  EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an agency created in 1966 by the Surgeon General as part of […]

January 19, 2007 The Pump Handle

Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth reports on the newest research on PBDEs (levels of this flame retardant in household dust correlate to levels in breast milk) and gives an update on Washington state’s proposed PBDE ban. Jake Young at Pure Pedantry has an update on Eli Lilly’s attempts to block the online distribution of documents […]

January 18, 2007 The Pump Handle 1Comment

By David Michaels Earlier today, President Bush took another step to limit the ability of regulatory agencies to protect the nation’s health and environment. The President signed amendments to Executive Order (E.O.) 12866, further centralizing the control the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has over agency activities, and making it more difficult for public […]

January 12, 2007 The Pump Handle

By David Michaels “Risk assessment data can be like a captured spy: if you torture it long enough, it will tell you anything you want to know.” – William Ruckelshaus, first EPA Administrator, Risk assessment, explicit and implicit, is the motor that drives regulation. It can be a valuable tool for assisting regulatory agencies in […]

January 8, 2007 The Pump Handle 2Comment

by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz Mr. Milkey (for the State of Massachusetts): Respectfully, Your Honor. It is not the stratosphere. It’s the troposphere. Justice Scalia: Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I’m not a scientist. (Laughter) Justice Scalia: That’s why I don’t want to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth. [PDF […]

December 22, 2006 The Pump Handle 1Comment

The biggest news in science and public health was the tragic, though not unexpected, guilty verdict in the Libyan trial of six medics accused of deliberately infecting patients with HIV. Several members of the scientific community, mobilized by Nature reporter Declan Butler and several bloggers, drew attention to the scientific evidence demonstrating the medics´ innocence […]

December 15, 2006 The Pump Handle

Ruth Levine of Global Health Policy offers the AIDS-Malaria link as a reason disease-by-disease thinking isn’t the way to go. Richard Littlemore at DeSmogBlog reports on which US publishers don’t think their audiences can handle George Monbiot’s book “Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.” Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily describes research into improving […]

December 13, 2006 The Pump Handle 2Comment

Could anyone besides the Economist dare to think it could overturn three of green shoppers’ sacred labels in a mere three pages? Its 12/7/06 article “Voting with Your Trolley” tries to debunk organic, Fair Trade, and local foods all at once. I didn’t find it very convincing.