Medicaid is an important program that would suffer if the federal government cut its contributions.
Environmental Health
New DOT policy promises better health and safety protections for flight attendants
After three decades, the FAA has finally acknowledged that its regulations to protect the health and safety of flight attendants are not adequate. A new policy—barring major objections from the airlines—-will extend OSHA protections to airline flight attendants.
Injury Control & Violence
First-of-its-kind survey compiles the experience of domestic workers, highlights the grim nature of an unregulated industry
The collective experience of domestic workers — house cleaners, nannies and caregivers — often remains hidden from view. But a new survey has pulled back the curtain on the conditions and experiences domestic workers face, documenting issues such as wage exploitation, preventable on-the-job injuries and the little — if any — power domestic workers have in improving their work environments.
The Bangladesh factory where 112 workers died in a fire last month had not gotten its fire department certification renewed; two West Virginia miners at separate mines were killed on the same day; and the Whistleblower Protection Act will extend whistleblower protections to many federal employees.
Environmental Health
An incident almost every day: Louisiana Bucket Brigade reports on 2011 refinery accidents
The good news is that in 2011 there were 53 fewer reported refinery accidents in Louisiana than there were in 2010. The bad news is that the 301 refinery accidents reported to the state in 2011 released nearly 50,000 pounds more air pollutants and nearly 1 million gallons more contaminants to soil and water than did the 354 accidents reported in 2010 – this according to a new report released Monday by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and United Steelworkers.
“If you really look at how pain affects people and what it means to have pain…you start to view it more as a social phenomenon.” These are words from Dr. Daniel Carr, who says the time for a population-based approach doesn’t begin with misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers; it begins, in fact, with how we interpret the contributors to pain in the first place.
Environmental Health
Worker remain missing four days after failure of West Virginia coal slurry impoundment
After four days, one worker remains unaccounted for after being caught in the collapse of an embankment at a WV coal slurry impoundment. The 788 acre pond of coal waste and chemical-laced water is owned by CONSOL Energy, and is just one of hundreds like it located in U.S. coal mining States.
December 1 was World AIDS Day, and this year’s theme is “Working Together for an AIDS-Free Generation.”
Drug Safety
Public health takes on the opioid abuse and overdose problem, building on strengths as conveners, educators
A decade ago, only about 10 percent of the patients at Cincinnati’s Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment were admitted for opioid addiction and abuse. During the treatment center’s last fiscal year, that number was up to 64 percent. The numbers reflect a startling trend in Ohio and throughout the nation — a trend that public health workers are taking to task.
A new study finds that one-third of the subjects whose diabetes went into remission following gastric bypass surgery developed the disease again within five years.