The Pump Handle - A Water Cooler for the Public Health Crowd

Environmental Health Acid mine outrage: How South African communities are affected by government and industry neglect

May 31, 2010 The Pump Handle 3Comment

New Solutions: The Drawing Board is a monthly feature produced by the journal New Solutions. Read more about it here. Note from the editor of New Solutions: The Drawing Board: In the spirit of international solidarity, The Drawing Board has begun featuring articles from activists, researchers, and workers from around the world. It is our […]

Environmental Health “This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t stop this well,” – BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, May 29, 2010: More oil-spill responders hospitalized and exposure information gaps persist

May 30, 2010 Elizabeth Grossman 12Comment

by Elizabeth Grossman As of Saturday afternoon, May 29th, ten oil spill clean-up workers had been admitted to West Jefferson Medical Center (WJMC) in Marrero, Louisiana. All but two have been hospitalized suffering from chest pains, dizziness, headaches, and nausea. One crewmember admitted on the 29th had fallen and hit his head on a stair […]

Environmental Health “All the data shows no toxic air concentrations” – but response workers are stricken

May 28, 2010 Elizabeth Grossman 13Comment

By Elizabeth Grossman “All the data shows no toxic air concentrations from the oil spill where work is being performed,” is what OSHA spokesperson Jason Surbey told me on Friday, May 21st. But on the afternoon of May 26th, after crew members of three “vessels of opportunity” working in the Breton Sound area of the […]

Public Health Practice Advice to the G8: Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality

May 28, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 1Comment

Officials from G8 countries will be gathering in Toronto next month, and scientific bodies from the eight countries (e.g., the Royal Society of Canada and US National Academy of Science) have developed a joint statement about what the G8 should do improve the health of women in children. They begin by citing the Millennium Development […]

US Healthcare System Reducing Hospital Readmissions Key to Cutting Healthcare Costs

May 27, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 21Comment

A New York Times article by Jane Gross highlights a costly healthcare problem: avoidable hospital readmissions, which affect one in five patients and account for $17.4 billion of the current $102.6 billion Medicare budget. (When people talk about readmissions, they’re generally referring to an admission within 30 days of the previous admission for the same […]

OSHA Snookered by OSHA’s Weekly Fatality Report Site

May 26, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 9Comment

In a blog post seven months ago, I gave federal OSHA credit for placing worker fatality information front-and-center on its homepage. The sobering feature deserving kudos was the scrolling list of fatal-injury incidents in which men and women died recently at US workplaces. I remarked that the change by OSHA was a good start, and […]

Environmental Health Remembering 11 Oil Rig Victims

May 26, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 2Comment

On today’s Morning Edition, Russell Lewis reported on the memorial service held in Jackson, Mississippi for the 11 workers who died when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20th. Host David Greene noted that they’ve been called the “Forgotten 11,” because so much attention has been focused on the oil leak rather than […]

Public Health Practice Could the Smallpox Vaccine Protect Against HIV?

May 25, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 5Comment

A study published in the open-access journal BMC Immunology suggests an intriguing hypothesis: The explosion of spread of HIV in Africa and then worldwide in the 1950s might be partially explained by the eradication of smallpox and the discontinuation of smallpox vaccination campaigns. The researchers – Raymond S. Weinstein, Michael M. Weinstein, Kenneth Alibek, Michael […]

Environmental Health Trying to keep track of the Gulf Investigations

May 25, 2010 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 3Comment

I began writing this post as an open letter to Senator Graham and Administrator Reilly as they embarked in their work as co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe. I planned to urge them to read investigation reports on the BP Texas City disaster because both the US Chemical […]

Worker Health & Safety Occupational Health News Roundup

May 24, 2010 Liz Borkowski, MPH 1Comment

The New York Times’ Clifford J. Levy reports on violence against at journalists investigating corruption in the Moscow suburbs: Mikhail Beketov had been warned, but would not stop writing. About dubious land deals. Crooked loans. Under-the-table hush money. All evidence, he argued in his newspaper, of rampant corruption in this Moscow suburb. “Last spring, I […]