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Occupational Health News Roundup

The "Brazilian Blowout" is a popular treatment administered by salons to smooth their clients' hair. The Oregonian's Katy Muldoon explores the experience of one hairstylist who worried about the effects of the chemicals contained in the treatment. After a few months of administering Brazilian Blowouts, Portland hairstylist Molly Scrutton began experiencing throat and chest pain. When she and salon owner Pauline Steiner called the treatment's distributor, the company refused to tell them what the ingredients were -- so Scrutton decided to stop offering the service. She wrote a memo to her…

Who Put BP in Charge?

It's only right that BP bear the cleanup costs in the Gulf - but their cleanup responsibilities shouldn't interfere with federal agencies doing their jobs. Two recent news accounts paint a disturbing picture of federal employees taking orders from the multinational corporation that's turned an already hard-hit part of our coastline into a disaster zone. McClatchy Newspapers' Marisa Taylor and Renee Schoof report that BP has released little information about how much oil is gushing out of its damaged well, and it will not make public the results of air sampling for cleanup workers. As…

Send Chao's Secret Rule to the BAD IDEA GRAVEYARD

Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) have strongly urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to withdraw the proposed rule on occupational health risk assessment which her Department submitted to OMB on July 7.  Their letter says: "we are deeply disappointed that the Department of Labor is working to slip through a rule that may have a profound negative impact on the health and safety of American workers." The Secretary's policy chief, Leon R. Sequeira, and press officer, David James, dismiss claims that this rulemaking is being done in "secret."  (Never mind…

Tree Cutter Deaths: Chance for Joint OSHA-MSHA Rule??

Earlier this month, William Scott Hill, 33, of Staffordsville, KY was killed while cutting trees to prepare for a surface coal mine for the Premier Elkhorn Coal Company (TECO Energy).  Mr. Hill was employed by Gopher Contracting of Jackson, KY.  His death on June 3 reminded me of other fatalities involving tree cutters working at mining operations, including Lawrence Payne, 32, who was killed in March 2004  and William S. Woods, 44, who was killed in December 2004.**   Just as I was reading about Mr. Hill's death, OSHA sent an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on June 19 to OMB…

Remember the Dec 19 T2 Lab Explosion?

Updated (6/19/08) below Just before last year's holiday season,  Charles Budds Bolchoz, 48; best friends Karey Renard Henry, 35, and Parish Lamar Ashley, 36; and company owner Robert Scott Gallagher, 49, lost their lives in a violent explosion at T2 Laboratories in Jacksonville, Florida (previous posts here, here).  The firm manufacturered Ecotane®, a gasoline additive âmethylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonylâ (i.e.,  MMT® or MCMT), which increases the octane rating of gasoline.  Both OSHA and the CSB began their investigations, with CSB providing several updates in the early…

No Apologies for Standing Up for Workers

Yesterday we learned that former Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH) passed away at age 90.  His former colleague, Sentor Edward Kennedy issued a statement, saying: "He was the conscience of the Senate, who never shied away from the difficult fights, and never apologized for standing up for workers." I had the unforgettable opportunity to watch Senator Metzenbaum in action at numerous congressional hearings on worker safety and health topics.  Whether the topic was right-to-know, protections for hazardous waste clean-up workers or inadequate OSHA penalties, he was always well-prepared and…

IEDG2008: Model systems are dead, long live model systems

I've discovered a couple of important things at this meeting. One, late night sessions at west coast meetings are deadly for any of us coming from more eastern time zones. At least the morning sessions are low stress. Two, I haven't heard one Drosophila talk yet, and the message is clear: we're now in the stage of evo-devo in which everyone is diversifying and chasing down a wide array of species. There was a bit of model-system bashing, but at the same time, everyone is acknowledging the crucial role of those traditional, but weird and derived, lab critters in providing a point of comparison…

CalOSHA inspectors demand change

A group of 47 H&S inspectors, supervisors and managers from California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) sent a pointed letter to the three-person OSH Appeals Board demanding they "cease and desist" their destructive practices.  This Appeals Board is equivalent to the OSH and MSH Review Commissions; it exists because California is one of the 23 States that operates its own OSHA program.   The CalOSHA employees wrote, we:  "strongly protest Board policies and practices that have significantly undermined our ability to do our job of protecting the lives, health and safety of California's workers." It's…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Home health workers who care for the elderly and disabled are an indispensable part of our healthcare workforce â but the Bush Administrationâs Department of Labor decided that they shouldnât be covered by the same wage and hour laws that protect most workers. The Associated Pressâs Sam Hananel explains that the administration based this determination on their interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that was amended in 1974 to exempt babysitters and companions to the elderly and sick. Earlier this week, a group of 15 Democratic Senators, headed by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, urged…

Beginning the Detox of Canada

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 favorably to the 1989 Massachusetts' Toxics Reduction Act (TURA).  Under the Massachusetts' program, hundreds of companies have reduced their use of highly hazardous compounds like anhydrous ammonia, cyanide, trichloroethylene and lead and saved millions of dollars in the process.  The Ontario…

You Taught Us Something, Kitty Genovese

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 to Michael Dorman of NewsDay, her 1964 murder in Queens - witnessed by 38 neighbors, none of whom acted to help her - became âa symbol of Americansâ failure to get involved.â Two weeks after the murder, the New York Timesâ Martin Gansberg described that failure to get involved as an example of the…

More Alarming Nanotube Findings

Weâve written before about the way that use of nanomaterials in consumer products is outpacing research on the materialsâ occupational and environmental health effects. So, itâs good to see that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is contributing a piece to the puzzle, and getting the word out to the public about their research. NIOSH scientists Vincent Castranova, Ann Hubbs, Dale Porter, and Robert Mercer conducted a study in which laboratory mice inhaled liquid containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Attendees at last weekâs Society for Toxicology meeting…

Mixed bag for public health in new spending bill

by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure There is a good summary by Robert Roos at CIDRAP News about the $420 billion spending bill signed by President Obama this week to cover the next six months. The good news edges out the bad news, so the net is positive, a welcome change from the kind of deeply depressing budget news to which we became accustomed during the Bush years. Bush took a teetering public health system whose decline started with Reagan and continued through Clinton and put it on life support. Now a couple of items in the spending bill have upped the oxygen slightly but don'…

Obama Elevates Science's Role in Government

Today, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies regarding scientific integrity. It begins: Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration on a wide range of issues, including improvement of public health, protection of the environment, increased efficiency in the use of energy and other resources, mitigation of the threat of climate change, and protection of national security. Itâs wonderful to have an administration committing so clearly to the use of science to inform health and environmental…

Annals of peanut butter: tiptoe through the peanuts

by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure Nothing like a massive food contamination outbreak from a plant in your state to concentrate the minds of state legislators (more here and links therein). Especially when an important industry is involved. We're talking Georgia peanuts, of course. Peanuts employ an estimated 50,000 workers in Georgia, accounting for some $2.5 billion in the state's economy. So yesterday the Georgia Senate unanimously passed a food safety bill and sent it on to the Georgia House. On the surface it seems like a good move, but its chief sponsor was a Republican, so…

Choices facing Obama's regulatory czar

Legal scholars with the Center for Progressive Reform issued today "The Choices Facing Cass Sunstein," an assessment of the writings of President Obama's nominee for the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).  The authors reviewed Prof. Sunstein's writing and report specifically on his staunch support for cost-benefit analysis and the "centralization of authority over regulatory decisionmaking in OIRA."  They conclude: "The Obama Administration has a unique opportunity to fix the [regulatory] system, by recognizing the failings of cost-benefit.  But Cass Sunstein…

UCS Reports on Agenciesâ Media Policies

The Union of Concerned Scientists has just released a report on the media policies at federal agencies, in order to assess âthe degree of freedom with which science is communicated at federal agencies.â The nonprofit organization analyzed 15 regulatory and science agenciesâ policies governing communication with the media and the public, and then surveyed a cross-section of federal scientists to learn how the policies are implemented. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was the only agency to earn an âAâ grade from UCS for its policy (though its performance is rated âneeds…

President's Panel Examines Cancer and the Environment

In 1971 under the National Cancer Act, Congresss authorized the 3-person President's Cancer Panel which is charged with monitoring the "development and execution of the National Cancer Program" and preparing periodic progress reports for the President.  Over the years, the Panel has examined quality of life for cancer patients, access to care issues, and lifestyle risk factors related to cancer.  The Panel's focus for 2008-2009 is "Cancer and the Environment," a topic endorsed by The Collaborative on Health and Environment (CHE) and the topic of a draft consensus statement released by CHE…

A worker safety hero: Carolyn Merritt

On Friday, August 29, Carolyn Merritt, 61, the former chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (2002-2007) passed away after a valiant battle against metastic breast cancer.  Advocates for workers' safety will remember Ms. Merritt as an outspoken expert who minced no words when she insisted that work-related injuries and fatalities are PREVENTABLE. Tammy Miser of United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities (USMWF) came to know the CSB chairwoman after Tammy lost her brother, Shawn Boone, in an aluminum dust explosion at his workplace in Huntington,…

Pay Now or Pay More Later

Public health values prevention. In many cases, this means spending a relatively small amount of money up front (on things like water treatment and vaccination) to avoid spending a lot more money later (on medical care, lost productivity, and reduced earning potential - not to mention quality of life). In the past few days, I've come across two examples of governments facing a stark choice between paying for something now, or paying a lot more later. It at least one case, it looks like the elected officials will stick with boneheaded option. Here's Lynda Waddington at RH Reality Check,…

Hazardous Waste Makes Cities Miserable

Forbes has created a âMisery Measureâ to rank the countryâs 150 biggest metro areas, and I wasnât surprised to see Detroit awarded the title of Most Miserable City. What did surprise me, though, was one of the factors Forbes considered: number of Superfund sites. Kudos to them for acknowledging that hazardous waste has a way of interfering with residentsâ happiness. The article doesnât go into detail about Superfund misery; for that, we can look at an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, which discovered that site cleanups are dragging, companies are forking over less to clean up…

Goodbye to MSHA's Stickler

Yesterday afternoon, if you happened to MSHA's website and click on the Asst. Secretary's button, you'd see this, with the ominous caption: "The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable." That was a tell-tale sign that Richard Stickler's recess-appointment tenure as MSHA's chief has come to an end.  Ken Ward of The Charleston Gazette reports today in "Stickler out at MSHA" that a political appointee named John Pallasch is now the acting Assistant Secretary for MSHA. Ward reports: "...on Thursday, MSHA officials revealed that…

Protecting Healthcare Workers

At the request of the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (which is part of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health), an Institute of Medicine committee studied personal protective equipment that healthcare workers would need in the event of an influenza pandemic. They conclude that we're not adequately prepared. But they have some ideas about how to remedy that. There are 13 million healthcare workers in the U.S. who will need protection if a pandemic strikes. Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is designed to protect the wearer from exposure to hazardous…

"Mine Disaster Family Assistance Act" proposed in Senate

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) introduced a bill (S. 2127) to see that family members of miners involved in disasters like the 2006 Sago and 2007 Crandall tragedies receive accurate information about the rescue operations and appropriate post-accident support. At a Senate Appropriations' subcommittee hearing on Sept. 5, Senator Murray suggested that she was examining the family-assistance program in place at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a model for mining disasters (See previous post here).  At an October 2 hearing of the Senate HELP Committee, members heard a bit…

Scientific American addresses denialism in politics - says it jeopardizes democracy

Scientific American evaluates the candidates on their answers to Sciencedebate 2012 and evaluates ideology-based denialism as a whole: Today's denial of inconvenient science comes from partisans on both ends of the political spectrum. Science denialism among Democrats tends to be motivated by unsupported suspicions of hidden dangers to health and the environment. Common examples include the belief that cell phones cause brain cancer (high school physics shows why this is impossible) or that vaccines cause autism (science has shown no link whatsoever). Republican science denialism tends to be…

Marketing, Autonomy, and Dignity

In years as working as a privacy advocate, I developed the theme that the private sector, particularly marketing companies, was an equal threat to information privacy as the government. After all, the largest providers of personal information to the government now are big marketing companies, like Acxiom and Choicepoint. At a more base level, I thought privacy may be instrumental in fostering autonomy and shielding individuals from (what I believe to be) the indignities that marketing perpetuates on our culture (think billboards, for instance). This is a very difficult argument to make.…

Science is politics

No, this isn't some post-modernist rant on the inherent non-objectivity of science. On the contrary---this is a much simpler, grittier point, that science actually is the most accurate way of describing reality, and because of this, politics (the job of manipulating and controlling group's social reality) and science will always be roommates. This comes up because we get complaints---regular complaints about science blogging failing to stick to "science". I gotta say that this complaint always seems to come from those who find reality to be a bit too liberal, but maybe that's just my bias…

How we know what we know

Over the last few decades, the nature of medical knowledge has changed significantly. Before the revolution in evidence-based medicine, clinical medicine was practiced as more of an art (in the "artisan" sense). Individuals were treated empirically with a strong knowledge of medical biology, and the guidance of "The Giants", or particularly skilled and respected practitioners. While the opinions of skilled practitioners is still valued, EBM adds a new value---one of "show me the evidence". Evidence-based medicine refers to the entire practice of gathering and applying medical knowledge.…

Galileo, Semmelweis, and YOU!

To wear the mantle of Galileo, it is not enough to be persecuted: you must also be right. --Robert Park I used to spend a lot of time on the websites of Joe Mercola and Gary Null, the most influential medical cranks of the internets (to call them "quacks" would imply that they are real doctors, but bad ones---I will no longer dignify them with the title of "quack"). I've kept away from them for a while in the interest of preserving my sanity. Unfortunately, Orac reminded me this week of the level searingly stupid and dangerous idiocy presented by these woo-meisters. In light of this, it…

More from a local "alternatician"

I recently posted an article on a particular "holistic" doctor's take on salt--the bottom line is the bottom line; more expensive is better. You'd think I'd call it a day. However, if someone is going to advertise widely, he's leaving himself open for criticism. How can one family physician have so many answers? He sells books and DVDs purporting to cure and treat a remarkable number of diseases from arthritis to thyroid disorders to fibromyalgia. These works are not available for free, so I can't evaluate their validity. They may contain harmful advice, helpful advice, or none at all.…

War Games!

One of the problems with medical education is that while you are intellectually trained to deal with medical problems and emergencies, actual experience with how to respond to emergent clinical situations is difficult to teach and usually only comes with experience. Further, real clinical experts make medical decisions almost by reflex. You see this in medical school that while you as a medical student have to actively think about what is going on in any given situation, medical experts act more by pattern recognition and have an instant reflexive response to clinical situations. And how…

It Is Time For A Presidential Debate On Science - Part II

Reiterating our previous call for this debate, I'd like to point out two articles that have come out in the past day, that may address some of the negative commentary here. The first is Chris Mooney and Lawrence Krauss at LA Times. The second, by Sheril Kirshenbaum and Matthew Chapman at HuffPo. Note, I consider the Huffington Post a den of denialist iniquity, supporting the lies of Chopra, Kirby and various other conspiracy mongers. But I will consider this an act of saint-like walking amongst the sinners to spread the good word of science. Further, she does a pretty good job addressing…

If you're going to cherry pick, don't provide a link

It just makes it too easy to show your dishonesty. UD continues to harp endlessly about Gonzalez' tenure case as they have nothing else to do, like original research. But I have to give them a piece of advice. If you're going to cherry pick, either don't cherry pick the first line of an article, or don't provide a link, or worse, don't then quote in full the paragraph you've just misread. It just gets too easy to show you're full of it. Here's DaveScot's quote from this Chronicle of Higher Ed article in his post "The Chronicle says of Gonzalez 'a clear case of discrimination'": At first…

Who are the denialists? (Part I)

"It's just murder...It's really just that simple." -Anthony Fauci on the HIV/AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg I think that one of the clearest examples of denialism, and of the harm that anti-scientific attitudes can have, is in HIV/AIDS denialism. But who in this day and age can continue to promote such a thoroughly absurd idea that HIV doesn't cause AIDS, and worse yet, actively discourage those infected with the virus from pursuing treatments that have been proven to extend life? I'll tell you who. The denialists. Any discussion of HIV/AIDS denialists has to start with Peter Duesberg who…

Reading Comprehension - it's important

Not to harp on Uncommon Descent today, but their seeming inability to see words that they don't like gives the appearance of no reading comprehension skills whatsoever. Take for example their read of this New Scientist article on cute little marsupials. Let's first quote from the article: From the genome sequences of placental mammals such as humans, mice and chimpanzees, the researchers identified a set of sequences that are relatively unchanged (conserved) in all placental mammals and are therefore likely to be of some functional significance. About one-third of these sequences lay within…

Another "Frontiers In" journal steps in it

Almost a year ago, I wrote about a terrible article that was published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health. FiPH is a legitimate, peer-reviewed journal, and they had just published a manuscript that was straight-up HIV denial, titled "Questioning the HIV-AIDS hypothesis: 30 years of dissent." At the time, it was listed as a regular review article; after much outrage, it was re-titled into an "opinion" statement, but not retracted. Now another "Frontiers In" journal has stepped in it, publishing a paper that has the anti-vaccine groupies frothing at the mouth. Published in Frontiers in…

"Fool Me Twice" by Shawn Lawrence Otto

Science denial, I fear, is here to stay. Almost half of Americans believe in creationism. Anti-vaccination sentiment is going strong, despite record pertussis outbreaks. Academics are even leaving their jobs, in part, because of the terrible anti-intellectual attitude in this country. It's depressing and demoralizing--so what does one do about it? Shawn Lawrence Otto's "Fool Me Twice" offers an analysis. Otto's book is good stuff. He devotes the first quarter or so of the book to understanding how we got to where we are regarding science denial and anti-science attitudes. It's a nice…

The case of the missing smoking sprouts

Maryn McKenna has a great update today on the E. coli situation, looking at where we are as far as unanswered questions about the outbreak and the strain. It's been a messy day; more evidence seems to point to the sprout farm, but CIDRAP also notes that another contaminated cucumber was found in the compost bin of a family sickened by the bacterium (this one had the correct serotype--O104), but it's impossible to tell at this point whether the cucumber was the source of that bacterium or it ended up there from one of the sickened family members. Twists and turns abound in this investigation…

The dish that changed the world

Speaking of microbiology basics, along comes an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the petri dish, a staple of microbiology labs everywhere: Before 1877, scientists exploring the nature and mechanics of microscopic life had a real problem. Bacteria used for study were typically cultured or grown in bottles or bowls of broth. Koch greatly improved the situation by developing ways to grow microbes in gel, which allowed researchers to separate and investigate individual types of bacteria. But practical problems remained. It was hard to manipulate bacterial colonies through the small…

Pandemic influenza awareness week: It's that time again

Flu shots are rolling out, and there should be no shortage this year. A few new articles remind the public of the importance of these vaccinations, especially in high-risk groups (something that I touched on here regarding data showing that vaccination during pregnancy can help protect the newborn). You can find the guidelines for target vaccination groups here. Essentially, it includes anyone immunocompromised or with conditions that make them increasingly susceptible to serious complications of influenza; those 50 years of age and older; and children from 6 months to five years old.…

Unions and Industry Agree: Time for an OSHA Diacetyl Standard

By David Michaels Over a year ago, unions petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt an emergency temporary standard for diacetyl (PDF). More than 40 leading occupational health physicians and scientists sent a supporting letter (PDF) to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao summarizing the strong scientific evidence linking exposure to the artificial butter flavoring chemical diacetyl to the lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans. In the more than 13 months during which OSHA has failed to act on this urgent request, further information been published in the peer-reviewed…

Companies Should Stop Toying with Children's Health

By Harrison Newton, National Nursing Centers Consortium (Lead Safe DC) The recent recall of top-selling toys made by Mattel Inc. because they âcouldâ contain the neurotoxin lead should cause government, academia and the public to consider why we are still allowing lead to harm our communities. Canât we do better? Of course we can, and the industries that have spent the last 100 years pushing lead into our homes could be doing a lot more to help. In the Washington D.C. area, hundreds of children this year will suffer the effects of lead, which has been proven to decrease IQ, ability to…

Haunting Tale from an MSHA Inspector

"That mine scared me to death," is the headline for the Charleston Gazette's story by stellar reporter Ken Ward.  He relays the experience of MSHA inspector, Minness Justice, who was responsible for inspecting A.T. Massey's Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine in the three month's preceding the coal mine fire on January 19, 2006, which killed miners Don Bragg, 33 and Ellery Hatfield, 46.  The inspector admits he didn't see a missing ventilation wall which likely would have prevented some of the smoke from the conveyor belt fire from penetrating into the miners' escapeway.  Ward's interview reveals…

OSHA at Thirty Five - More Discussion

Thanks to those of you who have responded so far to the draft paper, âGetting Home Safe and Sound? OSHA at Thirty Five,â which was posted here several days ago.  Many people have agreed with the need for this dialogue and indicated the intent to contribute to it.  Comments so far have supported the need for a generic safety and health program rule; raised cautions about whatâs said in a public forum; urged stricter penalties when employers negligently violate OSHA rules; expressed the need to de-politicize OSHA; endorsed the idea of third party inspections and proposed examining the SEC…

Emerging disease and zoonoses #20--subclinical infections with avian influenza

I've mentioned previously the potential role that mild or asymptomatic infections with influenza may play in transmission and evolution of the virus. Right now, most of our reports of H5N1 have been due to serious infections that caused a patient to seek medical care. These cases are the tip of the iceberg in a normal influenza outbreak, when most of us don't have physician-diagnosed influenza. Instead, we recognize the signs and symptoms, and stay at home to ride it out. Is this happening in Indonesia, Thailand, and elsewhere? For every person who shows symptoms of H5N1 infection, are…

Followup to "dragons and microbes" post

[From the archives; originally posted November 25, 2005] I discussed here new research on venom evolution that topples some old conventional wisdom. It seems this and another study are already making large waves in that field. Genealogy of Scaly Reptiles Rewritten by New Research The most comprehensive analysis ever performed of the genetic relationships among all the major groups of snakes, lizards, and other scaly reptiles has resulted in a radical reorganization of the family tree of these animals, requiring new names for many of the tree's new branches. The research, reported in the…

Lab coat idol

I've written before that teaching good science is really my utmost concern. This gets to the heart of the anti-evolution movement, the AIDS denialists, the vaccine/autism "controversy", the abortion-breast cancer "connection", and probably a dozen other topics in science that are largely misunderstood by the general public. Having a population better educated in science, who understand the scientific method, evidence, hypothesis generation and testing, and theory formulation would be a nice start. When I wrote about this Time article, I missed this one in the same issue, discussing the…

Denialism in the news

Alert readers have brought to my attention two articles of interest to the study of denialism. First a big fat article in Newsweek entitled The Truth About Denial is a good overview of the anti-scientific crusade of conservative crank tanks to dispute global warming. It has a nice timeline of the development of the denialist movement in response to the unwanted science, examples of the cranks in congress that have latched onto and internalized the arguments that confirm what they want to hear, and their classic tactics of cherry-picking and confusing climate with weather. The second, and I'…

Is Michael Moore headed for 9/11 Troof?

The troofers seem to think so and based on the interview they have a video of after a screening they may be right. Here's his reasoning for why we need to investigate 9/11 more. "I've filmed there before down at the Pentagon-- before 9/11-- there's got to be at least 100 cameras, ringing that building, in the trees, everywhere. They've got that plane coming in with 100 angles. How come with haven't seen the straight-- I'm not talking about stop-action photos, I'm talking about the video. I want to see the video; I want to see 100 videos that exist of this," Moore said. "Why don't they want us…

Science Covers AidsTruth.org

Tara points out that we missed a nice little article in Science last week about our friends at AidsTruth. They discuss their ongoing efforts to counter HIV/AIDS denialism on the Web. Launched by AIDS researchers, clinicians, and activists from several countries, AIDSTruth.org offers more than 100 links to scientific reports to "debunk denialist myths" and "expose the denialist propaganda campaign for what it is ... to prevent further harm being done to individual and public health." The site also has a section that names denialists and unsparingly critiques their writings, variously accusing…