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Four Nigerian states are suing British American Tobacco and Philip Morris to recover costs of treating smoking-related diseases. The plaintiffs charge that the companies aimed to recruit more smokers by targeting minors, using sponsorship of concerts and sporting events and free cigarette giveaways…
After a contractor was rescued from a collapsed construction trench in Desert Hot Springs, California, Eric Solvig of The Desert Sun reported on how common it is for trench work in California to violate safety guidelines â and for workers to be killed or injured as a result:
State officials issued…
By Liz Borkowski
Finally, hereâs some good news in the power struggle between the Bush administration and Congress: The House has voted to prohibit the White Houseâs Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) from spending any money on an executive order that gives political appointees…
At first, the FOIA request for workplace inspection data seemed straight forward.  The requester asked for all records contained in OSHA's database of industrial hygiene samples for the contaminant beryllium during the period 1979 to 2005.  Previously, OSHA had…
Michael Mooreâs Sicko brought in $4.5 million in its opening weekend, and it seems like anyone whoâs seen it has an opinion about the film and its subject. The WSJ health blog has compiled reviews from major newspapers; if youâre interested in blogger reactions, too, we have a few suggestions:…
Chad notes, in response to PZ's rather absurd assertion that biology is the only Dumped Upon science, and that physics is so well treated in movies and TV, that "Most of the SF movies I see are lucky if they can get Newton's Laws right, let alone any of the finer points of astrophysics."
Indeed,…
When I heard Christie Whitman was going to testify before the House Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties subcommittee , I hoped that if she were pressured by the Bush administration to hide her concerns about the air quality at Ground Zero and in lower Manhattan, that today might…
The current way we fund astronomy research in this country is
horribly flawed. There must be a better way. Let me suggest one that I
believe that we should consider.
Now, yes, you are all going to be cynical and say, "Rob thinks it's
flawed because he's had trouble getting funding, and the main…
The Newmont Mining Company reports that the body of gold miner Dan Shaw, 30, was recovered on June 30 after an 11-day rescue effort. The federal agency responsible for miners' safety and health, MSHA, has zero, zilch, nada on its website about the accident, the rescue or the recovery…
Second Life isn't a game, exactly. Some call it that, and indeed it is sometimes compared to various massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs). Really, though, Second Life is a virtual online world— it's not really a game, and there aren't a lot of default "gameplay" elements. Some…
Every day, reading the newspapers or listen to the radio, we are barraged with reminders of how screwed up our society, our country is. We see these things, and have a realization that there is little to no hope that they will change any time soon.
I can only take so much despair. I can only take…
Climate change is a big issue in DC these days, and the folks at Gristmill are following the drama. David Roberts updates us on some of the recent developments in Congress, Kate Sheppard tracks efforts to eliminate tax breaks for Hummer purchases, and Van Jones applauds the House Education and…
NGC 7331 is a spiral galaxy, probably not too dissimilar from our own (except that it lacks a bar), which is relatively nearby. (At a mere 49 million light-years, it's not in our own back yard, but it's just down the block.)
Image: Paul Mortfield and Dietmar Kupke/Flynn Haase/NOAO/AURA/NSF…
MSHA's Assistant Secretary announced that he is creating an Office of Accountability to provide
"enhanced oversight, at the highest level in the agency, to ensure that we are doing our utmost to enforce safety and health laws in our nation's mines."
The announcement came with the release of three…
My colleague Celeste Monforton has just posted a new case study at DefendingScience.org, and itâs worth a read for anyone interested in industry attempts to bury information about productsâ potential harmful effects.
The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) is a private…
As Dick Clapp wrote earlier this month, Rachel Carsonâs critics have used the 100th anniversary of her birth as an occasion to attack the influential environmental author. In the New York Times, columnist John Tierney (sub only) called Carsonâs classic work Silent Spring âa hodgepodge of science…
In the Chinese provinces of Henan and Shanxi, police have raided 7,500 brick kilns and rescued hundreds of slave laborers, many of them children. Victims were kidnapped or entrapped with offers of work and then sold into slavery; officials report arresting 250 people for the crimes. Jane Macartney…
By Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, Deputy Director, Public Citizenâs Health Research Group
Dr. Lurie is a contributor to Public Citizenâs drug newsletter, available at www.worstpills.org. He will present testimony on state doctor gift disclosure laws before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Wednesday…
By Liz Borkowski
When EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson announced last week that the agency would lower the limit for ground-level ozone pollution, he acknowledged that the current standard of 0.08 parts per million was insufficiently protective of public health. This was an appropriate …
Last Wednesday, June 20, I learned from a newspaper reporter that a gold miner was missing at the Newmont company's Midas mine near Winnemucca, Nevada. I checked MSHA's website, but nothing was posted about the accident. No problem, I'll cut them some slack. Maybe…
It occurred to me this morning that recently I've been living like a college student. I don't mean that I've been going to beer-saturated frat parties, having meals made for me at a cafeteria, and futilely trying to sleep through the thump-thump-thump of stereos playing too loud in the dorm.…
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)  will chair a hearing today (June 25) on the federal government's failure to protect workers' and residents' health from the toxic dust cloud created in NYC after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The premiere witness will be Christine Todd Whitman, who was …
Louisville-Courier Journal reporters Laura Unger and Ralph Dunlop offer us the voices and faces of miners who are suffering from coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Their special report, Black Lung: Dust Hasn't Settled on Deadly Disease, includes an on-line version which features five…
Declan Butler, Reporter updates us on the situation of the six health workers facing death in Libya. The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian medic were sentenced to death on the charge of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV, despite scientific evidence that the infections resulted…
NGC 5135 is a barred spiral, similar in some ways to NGC 1365. Both galaxies are members of the IRAS "Bright Galaxy Sample," meaning that they are very luminous in the infrared as a result of vigorous star-forming activity. Both have very strong bars. Both harbor an active galactic…
by Les Boden
Iâm going to answer this question. But before I do, Iâm going to have to explain a few things about (ugh!) insurance.
If something bad happens to an insured person or company, the insurer is supposed to help soften the financial blow. You need a $50,000 operation and your medical…
In a recent post, I expressed frustration with the observation that those who sometimes question the tactics and language of some fighting for gender-equality then get lumped in with "everybody else who is clueless and oppressive," even if we care deeply about the issue. One of my complaints was…
With a bipartisan voice vote yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill that would force OSHA to regulate workers' exposure to diacetyl. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections and chief sponsor of the legislation, commented:…