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April 12, 2009
Whirligig beetles inhabit the interface between air and water. The series below depicts Dineutes sublineatus, a large species common in the mountain streams of Arizona. Whirligigs are named for their habit of swimming in frenetic loops along the water's surface, a behavior that makes them…
April 11, 2009
by Ken Ward, Jr., cross-posted from Sustained Outrage: A Gazette Watchdog blog Last August, Kanawha Valley residents lived through the spectacle of their public safety officials practically begging the folks who run the Bayer CropScience chemical plant to tell them what was on fire, and what toxic…
April 10, 2009
In Argentina, an ant-decapitating fly (Pseudacteon sp.) attempts to separate a fire ant (Solenopsis sp.) from her nestmates: More photos- and the story behind them- below. An ant burdened with prey is the easiest target of all: The ants aren't defenseless. The classic "run-and-hide" works well…
April 10, 2009
The ways drugs are tested and marketed are under the spotlight these days: Liz Kowalczyk at White Coat Notes reports that doctors at Massachusetts Partners HealthCare hospitals will  no longer be allowed to accept gifts, meals, or "speakers bureau" travel from drug companies. Sarah Rubenstein at…
April 10, 2009
Bill 167's purpose is quite simple: "to prevent pollution and protect human health and the environment by reducing the use and creation of toxic substances, and to inform Ontarians about toxic substances" The bill, introduced on April 7 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, is compared…
April 10, 2009
A screen capture in Google Earth reveals a pattern of pasture freckles in Entre Rios, Argentina. How about a closer look? I drove past the site last week, and the landscape at ground level sports an array of domed mounds, each about half a meter in height: And the little engineer behind the…
April 9, 2009
McDonaldâs is the largest purchaser of potatoes in this country, so anything it does to reduce the use of pesticides on these crops will have a big impact on potato workers (as well as the environment). Thanks to pressure from shareholder advocates, McDonaldâs has now committed to: (1) survey its…
April 9, 2009
Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) worker and queen Córdoba, Argentina photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, twin flash diffused through tracing paper
April 9, 2009
Hello Science Blogs! I am Alex Wild, and insofar as Photo Synthesis is concerned, Mr. April. No centerfolds, fortunately for you. I normally blog elsewhere, but I am here at Photo Synthesis for the month and honored that the Science Blogs crew chose me as their inaugural photoblogger. I became a…
April 8, 2009
April 8, 2009
We got some very exciting news today! The Pump Handle has obtained an email sent to OSHA staff announcing that Jordan Barab will be Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA and Acting Assistant Secretary.  Blog readers may be familiar with Jordan because his Confined Space blog was for several years…
April 8, 2009
It's National Public Health Week, and the American Public Health Association is encouraging people to recognize public health's contributions and get involved in advancing public health. This year's theme is "the healthiest nation in one generation" - in other words, the U.S. is currently far from…
April 7, 2009
The lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans came to be called âpopcorn workers lungâ because this once-rare disease started afflicting workers from microwave popcorn plants with an alarming frequency. Scientists traced the disease, which destroys sufferersâ lungs, to the butter-flavoring chemical…
April 7, 2009
by Alison Bass (cross-posted) Martin Keller is finally stepping down as the long time chief of psychiatry at Brown University. Brown University officials made the announcement in a Dear Colleagues letter dated today from Edward J. Wing, Brown's new Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences. While…
April 6, 2009
For four days last month, the staff working on OSHA's cranes and derricks rule listened to testimony and exchanged information with witnesses during the agency's public hearing on the proposed safety standard.   The hearing concluded on March 20, yet another step in the now five-year process…
April 6, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure When an Ebola virus related lab accident in German occurred, special pathogens researchers girded themselves for bad news. Working with agents for which there is currently no treatment of vaccine requires high containment laboratories, often touted as…
April 3, 2009
There's new climate legislation in the House (Waxman-Markey), and bloggers have a lot to say about it: David Doniger at NRDC's Switchboard explains what's in each of the bill's four titles. Also at Switchboard, Melanie Nakagawa examines what the bill does for clean technology in developing…
April 3, 2009
The Associated Press is reporting that last month MSHA inspectors found tremolite asbestos at a quarry owned by the Ash Grove Cement Company, part of its Kaiser plant in Jefferson County, Montana.  The article quotes MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere saying that asbestos is present in the pit…
April 3, 2009
by Madison Hardee Studying public health over the last two years, drinking water in the US and in the developing world is a regular topic of conversation.  In my studies, I was surprised to learn that only 1% of the worldâs fresh water is available for human use (drinking, sanitation crops, etc…
April 2, 2009
The Dept of Labor's Inspector General issued not one, but two reports yesterday criticizing OSHA's management practices, and fueling calls for the prompt appointment of competent, worker-safety committed leaders to get the agency back on track.  The first IG report concerns the "consulting…
April 2, 2009
By Nalini Padmanabhan, cross-posted from Target Population Anyone whoâs ever taken a psychology class would be able to tell the story of Kitty Genovese and the societal observation it gave birth to, known as the Genovese effect or the bystander effect. Her story is not easily forgotten. According…
April 1, 2009
âThe Cruelest Cuts,â the Charlotte Observerâs excellent series about âthe human cost of bringing poultry to your table,â has won five journalism awards for the Observer. Reporters Ames Alexander, Kerry Hall, Franco Ordoñez, Ted Mellnik, and Peter St. Onge undertook a 22-month investigation to get…
April 1, 2009
We spend a lot of time writing about all of the things that are going wrong, so it's nice to highlight some promising news periodically. In particular, it seems like there have been a lot of positive news stories about hospitals lately. The Washington Post's Ceci Connolly profiles Pennsylvania's…
March 31, 2009
I'm currently teaching Introduction to Psychology which has a number of university honors students who are required to do extra work in a certain number of their courses each semester in order to get 'honors credit.' The University leaves it up to me as to what they students should do to get this…
March 31, 2009
The New York Times' R.N. Kleinfield and Steven Greenhouse offer us a glimpse of the nightmare known as the workers' compensation system.  In their article A World of Hurt: For Injured Workers, a Costly Legal Swamp,* they report from the Queens NY office of the NY State Workers' Compensation…
March 31, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure Tufts University is the latest institution to step in the Conflict of Interest mess and come out with shoes that smell. The University had organized a conference on conflict of interest in medicine and research, with Iowa's Republican Senator Charles…
March 30, 2009
Trust For Americaâs Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have released a report on improving food safety, and one of the chief problems they identify with the current system is a lack of centralized food-safety authority: The report calls for the immediate consolidation of food safety…
March 30, 2009
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure A little over a week ago the Environmental Protection Agency sent the White House its finding that global warming endangers public health and welfare. This doesn't sound like news, and except for a minority of scientists out there it is very, very old…
March 27, 2009
Bloggers weigh in on some of the questions in US healthcare reform: Ezra Klein explains what a public insurance option is, and describes three different forms it could take. Maggie Mahar at Health Beat asks whether health insurers are really giving up much ground when they promise community ratings…
March 27, 2009
DuPontâs Washington Works plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia used a chemical called perfulorooctampic acid â abbreviated as PFOA or C8 â to manufacture Teflon. A group of Parkersburg-area residents sued DuPont over PFOA contamination in their drinking water, and they eventually reached a $107.6-…