sb admin
Posts by this author
December 27, 2008
You know, we catch a lot of flack around these parts for being too "political", and for straying away from "science". Well, that's a big load of crap, and two posts by Isis show why. It is impossible to separate politics from science from personal life, at least on one level. Now, perhaps I've…
December 26, 2008
My father-in-law wore his nickname without irony. His was the kind of nickname that would be tough to bear on the playground, but despite being a teacher for decades, any juvenile thoughts wouldn't have crossed his mind. I don't think he knew how to be insulted.
And while he may not have been…
December 25, 2008
As many of you may know, I'm not a Christian. That's right, the whole Jesus thing kinda passed my by. It's not that I have anything against your Lord, I just don't give him much thought.
Except now. This is the time of year when people wish me a Merry Christmas, then back peddle, embarrassed,…
December 24, 2008
OK, this is a meme that I've always wanted to do (at least since this morning). It will involve no tagging, no involuntary contributions, just some cool info sharing.
We all have favorite restaurants, places we can drop in for a favorite meal. What I'm interested in is not the best gourmet places…
December 24, 2008
The Pump Handle will be on vacation for the remainder of the year. Comments are still welcome, especially on Progressive Public Health posts.
We wish all of our readers and friends a healthy, peaceful 2009.
December 24, 2008
Arrogance. It's always about arrogance. Arrogance is the Great Distractor in science. It is a half-a-dozen logical/rhetorical fallacies rolled into one---argumentum ad ignorantium, non sequitur, tu quoque, ad hominem, straw man (yes, that's not six yet, but I gotta give myself some flexibility…
December 23, 2008
Updated below ( 12/24/2008 )
Here are just some of the reports coming out of Harriman, Tennessee:
"Millions of yards of ashy sludge broke through a dike at the TVA's (Tennessee Valley Authority) Kingston coal-fired plant, covering hundreds of acres, knocking one home off its foundation, and putting…
December 23, 2008
It's another cold, snowy day in Michigan, and while I was busy stamping out disease, PalMom was looking out her window at the snow. Perching on a branch was this beauty, which I believe to be a red-tailed hawk. Please correct me if I'm wrong.This raptor is no dummy. There's a bird feeder a few…
December 22, 2008
President-elect Obama's news release on Sunday, Dec 21 said that VP-elect Joe Biden will be chairing a new White House Taskforce on Working Families.  I was surprised, but thrilled to see that workplace safety standards are part of this group's charge.  I am not kidding. Seriously, it says…
December 22, 2008
Recently, USA Today published a series of alarming articles about air pollution near schools. It plotted school locations against results from an EPA model, and found that 435 were likely to have dangerous levels of pollution; then, it took air samples near 95 schools and found elevated levels of…
December 22, 2008
Susanne Rust, Meg Kissinger and Cary Spivak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel were awarded last week the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism from Columbia University. The three journalists close-out their excellent year of reporting with "EPA Veils Hazardous…
December 21, 2008
OK, we've got a second episode up, with much better ones to come, including, hopefully, some rather heated discussions with a few interesting guests. Interestingly, if you click on the link above in Firefox, you are taken to the rss feed. If you do it in IE, you get an error. So, either use…
December 21, 2008
"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," ... [my opponent could opt to waive the recount.]
"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," He said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in [his opponent's] position...
Oh. No, wait, sorry. I…
December 21, 2008
"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," ... [my opponent could opt to waive the recount.]
"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," He said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in [his opponent's] position...
Oh. No, wait, sorry. I…
December 21, 2008
"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," ... [my opponent could opt to waive the recount.]
"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," He said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in [his opponent's] position...
Oh. No, wait, sorry. I…
December 21, 2008
"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," ... [my opponent could opt to waive the recount.]
"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," He said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in [his opponent's] position...
Oh. No, wait, sorry. I…
December 19, 2008
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is thrilled by President-elect Obama's selection of Cong. Hilda Solis to serve as Secretary of Labor.
"Rep. Solis has been a leader in fighting for healthier communities, a cleaner environment, and economic justice for the most…
December 19, 2008
Bloggers are anticipating some new activities from the Obama administration´s Health and Human Services team, while still keeping a close eye on what the Bush administration HHS is up to:
Jeff Goldsmith at the Health Affairs Blog considers what we can expect from Tom Daschle, who Obama has picked…
December 19, 2008
Weâve written before (here, here, and here) about National Guard troops exposed to an orange, sand-like dust at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq. Soldiers complained of health problems, including burning eyes, nosebleeds, and rashes. They were told that the orange dust was just a mild…
December 18, 2008
I received an email today from Leo Gerard, the Int'l President of the United Steelworkers, the 850,000 person-strong union of men and women employed in Canada and the U.S. who work in the metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service industries. His email simply read:…
December 18, 2008
On December 12th, the Washington Post reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not be altering their current stance on the usage of the plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) in food and drug products. Â
"The agency has been reviewing its risk assessments for bisphenol A, a…
December 18, 2008
A (long) while back, I gave you a brief explanation of what an "internist" is. I later gave you a personal view of primary care medicine and some of the challenges involved in creating an infrastructure of primary care (only 2% of American medical grads are going into primary care). We also had a…
December 18, 2008
by revere cross-posted at Effect Measure
The Holiday Season is upon us so we won't post daily on the Public Health Conversation series. But you can join in at any time, in two ways. Effect Measure and The Pump Handle, the two blog sites hosting the discussion, have comment threads for each post.…
December 17, 2008
In late November, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments on the two petitions for review of OSHA's health standard on hexavalent chromium (CrVI).  The transcript of the proceeding (52-page PDF) reveal that these judges did their homework.…
December 17, 2008
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
A couple of ideas are floating around in the comment threads as part of an initial conversation about public health. I'm not surprised they seem to be on different topics and have the feel of talking past each other. We are not used to discussing basic…
December 17, 2008
Larry Moran points to a couple of posts critical of microarrays (The Problem with Microarrays):
Why microarray study conclusions are so often wrong
Three reasons to distrust microarray results
Microarrays are small chips that are covered with short stretches of single stranded DNA. People hybridize…
December 16, 2008
[See update at end of post]
The OMB website which lists those rules currently under review by OIRA has a new item today: something from OSHA on Diacetyl.  (See this screenshot for the OMB listing, and this reference to the rule on Regs.gov.) You'll recall this is the butter-flavoring…
December 16, 2008
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
I'm (more than) pleased to say the public health conversation is starting. I assume it was already going on but not where we could all hear what others were saying. So let me continue by responding to a point raised at The Pump Handle (TPH) that was also…
December 16, 2008
There's been a lot of talk about the work hours of resident physicians. Given that sleep deprivation has been shown to impair various aspects of human performance, it certainly seems reasonable to limit the level of "resident impairment". But we have surprisingly little data to work from. And,…
December 15, 2008
OSHA issued a good final rule on Friday, Dec 12 designed to clarify employers' duty to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and train employees on the proper use of the PPE (link here). It will take effect on January 12, 2009. The rule was necessary because of some down-right awful …