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March 26, 2008
Workers repairing the Qarmat Ali water injection plant in Iraq were told that the orange substance strewn around the facility was only a mild irritant â but after two-and-a-half months of exposure to it, many workers felt ill. Farah Stockman reports in the Boston Globe: But the chemical turned out…
March 26, 2008
The Palm Beach (Florida) Post is reporting that Ag-Mart has settled a civil suit filed by a migrant farmworker family who alleged their son's serious birth defects were associated with the company's improper handling of pesticides.  Earlier reporting in March 2005 by the PB Post exposed the …
March 26, 2008
Science is the investigation of reality. Reality is, by definition, everything. It is all we can see, all we can measure. It is, for all practical purposes, a god; it is omnipresent, omnipotent. The only tool that successfully measures and describes reality is science (including mathematics…
March 26, 2008
I recently started a new job, and since I donât know the surrounding neighborhood well yet, Iâve been taking different routes through it every morning on my way to the office. Yesterday, steps from the White House, I approached a small construction site, shuffling to escape the unmistakable roar of…
March 26, 2008
So-called alternative medicine beliefs are an interesting and perhaps inevitable phenomenon. They make use of uniquely human qualities such as our intelligence, our pattern-recognition abilities, and our tendency to over-estimate how well we understand things. Most "science", including medicine,…
March 25, 2008
I gotta admit, this is one of my favorites. I was browsing around the alternative health corners of the web when I came across a lovely site peddling "alternative" remedies. My gaze was immediately drawn to a link for "shock and emergency: rescue remedies". For a physician, shock means something…
March 25, 2008
Rachel Nugent at Global Health Policy reminds us that itâs World TB Day. Sheâs got good news and bad news about tuberculosis around the globe. On the plus side, tuberculosis control funding has reached an all-time high, and the number of TB cases per capita has dropped. On the minus side, the…
March 25, 2008
The Senate HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, chaired by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), will hold a hearing on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 entitled "Serious OSHA Violations: Strategies for Breaking Dangerous Patterns."  The subcomittee has not yet released a witness list, but I'd…
March 25, 2008
Once again, I'm migrating more popular posts from the old blog. If this is a repeat for you, sorry. --PalMD Wow. I mean, wow. I was googling some flu information, and one of the first hits was so fundamentally wrong about all matters medical that I actually felt ill. The dangerous title is "…
March 24, 2008
It means nothing to those who have lost someone. One is the only number that matters. The one brother my friend lost. The one son my patient lost. The one child a nameless Iraqi mother lost. People say they find solace in God. Bullshit. People say they find solace in heroism and valor. Bull-…
March 24, 2008
With the six-month deadline approaching for issuing citations and monetary penalties, OSHA announced today 13 willful and 25 serious violations against RPI Coatings, the employer of five workers who died in early October at the Excel Energy Cabin Creek Station hydroelectric plant near Georgetown…
March 24, 2008
In todayâs Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Williamson links the housing-market crisis to recent problems with food, drug, and toy safety and suggests that the combination of these problems spells more regulation on the horizon: The idea that less regulation is better for the economy has held sway in…
March 24, 2008
This idea is so bad that I might even agree with a Scientologist about it (OK, not really). A company I will not name or link to has developed a home genetic test for bipolar disorder. What could be so horrible about making it easier for people to diagnose diseases? Well, first there is a problem…
March 24, 2008
"These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." This "Quack Miranda Warning" is on every just about every woo-meister's website. I see dozens of patients every day, and I never Mirandize…
March 24, 2008
By Adam Finkel I am always on the lookout for examples of how laypeople and/or experts fail to appreciate the enormity of the risks workers face.  As someone who came to OSHA from a background in environmental health policy, where an excess lifetime fatality risk greater than one chance per…
March 24, 2008
Teaching facts is easy. Medical students eat facts like Cheetos, and regurgitate them like...well, use your imagination. Ask them the details of the Krebs cycle, they deliver. Ask them the attachments of the extensor pollicis brevis, and they're likely to describe the entire hand to you. Facts…
March 23, 2008
Often in the discussion of cult medicines such as homeopathy, acupuncture, and reiki, supporters fall back on "the wisdom of the ancients". This raises a question. Since "the ancients" had it wrong (i.e. their belief systems could not effectively treat disease), were they just stupid? Any of my…
March 23, 2008
I'm trying to understand "morgellons syndrome". Based on Morgellons Research Foundation reports, there are a lot of people out there who believe they have this so-called disease. But what is it? I decided to dig deeper on the research end of things. I went to the MRF website, and to MedLine,…
March 23, 2008
When I use the word "scientist", I mean something pretty specific---someone actually doing experiments and publishing the results. Some physicians are scientists. In fact, the MSTP that Mark H is a part of exists specifically to train doctors to do research and bring the results to the bedside.…
March 22, 2008
This is another one migrated from my old blog. It is the first in a series that generated an unusually large number of comments. Thanks, PalMD This particular woo-encounter was non-fatal. A patient came to see me. He's middle-aged, generally quite healthy, and physically active. After a recent…
March 21, 2008
Most of us around here know about internet memes, hoax emails, and other sources of scientific and medical rumor. After all, we're geeks (or at least, I am). My wife, however, is not. She is a typical (and wonderful) woman, from a particular ethnic group, and particular part of town (and well-…
March 21, 2008
There's a new facebook group set up to protest Expelled. I am ambivalent for the usual reasons---protest, and you give the reactionary religious cults more publicity, and an illusion of power. Fail to protest, and you appear to consent to their insanity. I figure there will be protests either way…
March 21, 2008
This week, bloggers look at whoâs making decisions about coal: At Gristmill (home of David âcoal is the enemy of the human raceâ Roberts), Ted Nace explains how a bureaucratâs change of one number in a spreadsheet can lead to 132 fewer new coal plants being built, but Tom Philpott warns that…
March 21, 2008
A coal miner from eastern Kentucky filed a law suit yesterday requesting a federal court judge to compel MSHA to issue a health standard to prevent miners from developing black lung disease.  The Petition for Writ of Mandamus (Howard v. Chao) argues that Congress intended, through the Federal…
March 21, 2008
OK, I never really liked Joe Mercola, but when I read about this story on his website, I was encouraged. Boy, do I feel like a sucker. He started out so well, telling us about the tragic case of a child who died of influenza this year, and how health officials rapidly responded by increasing…
March 21, 2008
It's national Sunshine Week---an effort "to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger."   A great way to celebrate the public's right-to-know what its…
March 21, 2008
You don't have to be stupid to join a cult (although it helps), but once you're in... You see, PZ went to see Expelled. With some friends. No one of note really, just THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ATHEIST!!!111! And which one got tossed at the door? Take that, Dawkins! We grow good atheists right…
March 20, 2008
Continuing my series from WhiteCoat Underground, here is the latest influenza update. While still widespread, numbers are finally starting to drop. I'm ready to drop myself. It's been a terrible season---the worst I've ever seen. This is probably due, at least in part, to this year's flu…
March 20, 2008
Last updated 09 October 2008 When writing on medical topics, a few issues are important to address directly, conveniently laid out by the Health on the Net Foundation. Medical authority and complementarity, or, "I'm not your doctor" We don't give advice here. Our posts represent our own opinions,…
March 20, 2008
Back in December, Andrew Schneider reported in the Seattle PI that the use of diacetyl-containing cooking oils could be putting professional cooks at risk for the same severe lung disease thatâs struck workers in microwave-popcorn and flavor factories. After his article came out, the Unite-Here…