Family members of the April 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster say they are still in the dark. The latest example is Alpha Natural Resources failure to make public a progress report required in its non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Several more experts have addressed the Supreme Court’s decision to make the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion optional for states.
A special edition of Health Wonk Review collects several different perspectives on the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision.
One of the admirable things about the Affordable Care Act is that its greatest benefits go to those who are most disadvantaged under the current system. The Medicaid portion of the Supreme Court’s decision once again leaves the most impoverished uninsured people with uncertain health-insurance prospects.
There were few better places to hear about today’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act and its individual insurance mandate than at a meeting of the American Public Health Association.
Not a single Republican member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee voted in support of a resolution calling for the Committee to “consider and report legislation to improve safety and whistleblower protections for miners, and increase accountability for dangerous mine operators.” The 29 families of the Upper Big Branch miners now know who is standing with them and who is against them.
Researchers at Michigan State University offer more evidence that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual estimate of occupational injury and illnesses grossly misses the mark on the actual count of work-related health harm. How many more studies are needed before the Secretary of Labor addresses the problem?
Just a few years ago in Butte County, Calif., it wasn’t unusual for public health workers to administer more than 1,000 free HIV tests every year. In true public health fashion, they’d bring screening services to the people, setting up in neighborhoods, parks and bars, at special community events and visiting the local drug treatment facility and jail. The goal was prevention and education, and no one got turned away.
Environmental Health News’ “Pollution, Poverty, People of Color” series documents the continued struggle of the environmental justice movement in communities across the country.
Following reports of high levels of worker exposure to crystalline silica due to the extensive use of sand at hydrofracking operations, two agencies that focus on occupational health have issued a hazard alert urging employers to protect workers from this respiratory hazard.