The Pump Handle

Friday Blog Roundup

Posted by on May 18, 2007
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With all the interesting new research coming out, it’s good that we have bloggers to help us stay on top of it all. The Olive Ridley Crawl explains the basics behind the reports on chemicals linked to breast cancer; Corpus Callosum looks at a Health Affairs article that helps put drug risks in perspective; Andrew Leonard at How the World Works highlights a paper on undocumented migrant berry pickers in the Pacific Northwest and Oaxaca; Kate Shepard at Gristmill summarizes new thinking on the long-cherished “the dose makes the poison” idea; and Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily describes a study that attempts to separate health from social influences on brain development.

Meanwhile, Revere at Effect Measure and Angry Toxicologist report that Coca-Cola has promised to get the benzene out of its products. (Two ingredients – ascorbic acid and either sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate – that are found in several popular beverages can mix and form benzene; Environmental Working Group has been pressuring companies to reformulate beverages that contain these ingredients.)

Elsewhere in the blogosphere …

Four U.S. members of Congress are living on food stamps for a week to draw attention to the hunger and poor nutrition that millions of families face. Congressman Jim McGovern, with his wife Lisa McGovern, and Congressman Tim Ryan are blogging about the experience (hat tip to DCist).

Jessica Gottlieb at Global Health Policy reports that some African countries are considering “paying for performance” in health.

Ross Gelbspan at DeSmogBlog alerts us that ExxonMobil hasn’t kept up with its promise to stop funding think tanks that try to cast doubt on global warming.

Gavin at RealClimate checks back in on the climate change projections that Jim Hansen made back in 1988.

Matt Madia at Reg Watch reports on Senators’ reaction to Bush’s Consumer Products Safety Council nominee, who has a record of opposing safety regulation in his role as a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers.

 Leave additional reading suggestions in the comments.

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Comments

  1. #1 martha woods, WFSE local 53 member
    May 20, 2007

    Thank you for reporting on these things. Here’s one you missed.

    Workplace Bullying or Workplace Psychological Abuse: So far, nothing, or very little is being done for us. Workers Compensation laws in most states exclude claims made for even the most extreme cases. My employer has a supervisor who reaches out and grabs her female subordinates breasts – and still nothing is done about it. She says she was only adjusting their blouses! This is just the tip of the iceberg.

    Dr. Heinz Leymann has demonstrated that 15% of suicides are related to workplace emotional abuse. He called it Mobbing. It’s also called Workplace Bullying. Both are good words for it. Please post an article and get some discussion on it. Dr. Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute is a good resource for information.

    Thank you.

    It’s getting worse. 1 in 6 American workers is Targeted for expulsion or mistreatment every two years.

    Some people become so sick with PTSD, stomach ulcers and pathophysiological hypertension/cardiovascular problems (and more) that they never, I mean N*E*V*E*R can work again.

    This abuse can take the form of verbal abuse, intimidation, both verbal and physical, humiliation in front of others, gratuitous sabotage or interfering with one’s ability to do one’s job, and falsified “documentation” It tends to happen to people with tenure who have a good work record.

    If anybody reading this has been the victim of workplace emotional abuse, we’d like to hear from you. Our email is stopthebullies (at) comcast (dot) net, or stopthebullies (at) yahoo (dot) com.

  2. #2 susan paulllus- hart
    June 12, 2007

    need to get in touch with martha woods and/or laura garcia re public disclosure request from washington state DOC, am involved in two
    year battle to clear me of falsified discrimination claim by the biggest bully
    of them all,a male coworker……