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June 26, 2007
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 rationale…
June 25, 2007
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 within 24 hours they'd …
June 25, 2007
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.…
June 25, 2007
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 EPA administrator…
June 24, 2007
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 compelling…
June 22, 2007
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…
June 22, 2007
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 nucleus at…
June 21, 2007
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…
June 21, 2007
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…
June 21, 2007
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:
Whatâs…
June 21, 2007
By David Michaels
Lifelines Online, the safety and health publication of the Laborersâ Health and Safety Fund of North America, is publicizing some important videos â dealing with the history of occupational health and safety in the U.S., industrial hygiene pioneer Alice Hamilton, and the lung…
June 20, 2007
Following up on their investigative series on conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Washington Postâs Dana Priest and Anne Hull have written a series of wrenching articles on veterans returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder. Bureaucratic confusion and a shortage of…
June 20, 2007
âAs fire fighters, we know the risks of answering the call, but it does not lessen our pain when the worst happens,â said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the Int'l Association of Fire Fighters.
Nine fire fighters, aged 27 to 56, died on June 18 battling a blaze at a furniture warehouse…
June 19, 2007
Several members of the U.S. House and Senate introduced bills today to strengthen mine safety and health protections.  A  statement issued by Congressman George Miller (D-CA) says the bill builds upon the legislation passed in June 2006 called the MINER Act.Â
The House bills are HR 2768 and…
June 19, 2007
In this post at the blog "This Week in Evolution", R. Ford Denison hits the nail squarely on the head.
Why should you go to grad school? Because you want to do grad school.
If you are viewing grad school as something you have to grind through in order to get the faculty job you covet, don't go.…
June 19, 2007
Most public health advocates are probably already aware that U.S. funds for international AIDS relief come with counterproductive strings attached â specifically, requirements that one-third of HIV prevention money go to abstinence-only education and that entities receiving PEPFAR grants explicitly…
June 18, 2007
by Revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
If you've ever been to Duluth, Minnesota in the wintertime, at the top of the state on Lake Superior, you know how cold it can get. And if you go another 50 miles up the shore you'll come to Silver Bay. Also cold. And dangerous in another way. It is a…
June 18, 2007
Federal Judge Robert C. Chambers, US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, ruled in favor of environmental groups in their claim against coal mine operators and practices related to mountaintop removal mining.* This form of surface mining involves blasting off the top of…
June 18, 2007
By David Michaels
Seventy years ago, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandchildrenâs generation would enjoy three-hour workdays. Instead, a new study reports, one in five workers worldwide logs âexcessiveâ hours.
The study, Working Time Around the World, reviews global working time…
June 17, 2007
I'm just back from Hypericon, the Nashville area science fiction convention where, as I mentioned previously, I gave a couple of talks about science stuff— although one was about science in science fiction movies.
I was also on a panel with two other guys, Jim Messer and Fred Grimm, where we each…
June 15, 2007
This week, Congress has been wrestling with the reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act; Merrill Goozner at GoozNews reports from Capitol Hill about the questions that FDA Acting Deputy Commissioner for Policy Randall Lutter couldnât answer at a hearing and about the provisions that…
June 15, 2007
By David Michaels
The National Football League, like many trade associations, has been disputing the long-term risks associated with employment in that industry. Weâve written about the leagueâs Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, supposedly independent but in fact dominated by individuals…
June 15, 2007
MSHA issued a news release yesterday announcing that eight mine operators have been put on notice for potential enforcement under the "pattern of violation" provisions of the Mine Act.  MSHA's release does not list the names of the mining operations, but the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward is…
June 14, 2007
This weekend I will be hanging out at Hypericon, a small Nashville science-fiction convention that is in its third years. I've met a number of people and made local friends there. I have also managed to finagle myself free admission by doing work in kind....
I'll be giving two talks:
Why "Was…
June 14, 2007
By Ruthann Rudel and Dick Clapp
Two recent papers by Ruthann Rudel and Julia Brody published in the journal Cancer compiled a list of 216 chemicals shown to cause mammary gland tumors in animal studies and presented a comprehensive state-of-the-science review of environmental factors in breast…
June 13, 2007
As David Michaels reported earlier today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue standards for occupational exposure to diacetyl (an interim standard within 90 days and a final standard within two years). This artificial butter-flavoring substance has…
June 13, 2007
By David Michaels
The simple, powerful statement on the website of FEMA, The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, summarizing the trade association's position:
The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States supports H.R.2693, legislation to…
June 13, 2007
By David Michaels
Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of the many workplace hazards that OSHA has failed to address, including silica, beryllium, and, of course, diacetyl â the artificial butter-flavoring chemical thatâs associated with severe lung disease in workers at flavoring, food…
June 13, 2007
Anybody who's been reading my blog for a while knows that I'm aware of, very concerned about, and even active in the plight of women and minorities in science. See, for example:
"Be nice to Shelly! She's cute and she likes birds!"
The Myth of the Meritocracy
A tale of egregious scientific male…
June 12, 2007
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that over the next two years, OSHA will be sending 300 federal inspectors to petroleum refineries to evaluate operators processes for handling hazardous chemicals. This announcement comes after the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) issued its comprehensive…