Blog roundup
sb admin | July 11, 2008Bloggers consider the disappointing results from the G8 summit:
Kate Sheppard at Gristmill explains why the G8 climate agreement is not so great (especially when considered in light of goals set in 1992).
Richard Littlemore at DeSmogBlog lays the blame for the G8âs climate standstill on three men.
Angelique van Engelen at Triple Pundit takes on the issue of Chinaâs emissions (one of the summit sticking points), and suggests a new method for emissions accounting.
Jill Sheffield at RH Reality Check reminds us that the G8 meeting was also addressing maternal and child health issues, and gives…
sb admin | July 5, 2008The big healthcare news this week was the scheduled 10% cut to Medicare physician fees, which Congress almost managed to avert. Instead, implementation of the cuts has been put on hold for two more weeks. Bloggers have more:
Sarah Rubenstein at WSJâs Health Blog gives a quick summary of the situation and explains the implications of a two-week freeze on Medicare claims processing.
Robert Laszewski at Health Affairs explores the political forces at work in this âgame of chicken.â
Jacob Goldstein at WSJâs Health Blog warns that we can expect to be bombarded with issue ads from both doctors and…
sb admin | June 27, 2008Bloggers help us stay on top of environmental news:
Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth brings us the grim news from a new federal report on climate change impacts: thereâs a 90-percent likelihood that the frequency and intensity of heat waves and heavy downpours will rise.
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients reports that the Supreme Court has rejected appeals by asbestos giant W.R. Grace, clearing the way for company officials to stand trial for knowingly endangering the lives of its workers and residents of Libby, Montana.
Kate Sheppard at Gristmill keeps tabs on a flurry of fuel-related…
sb admin | June 20, 2008Bloggers turn their attention to the floods in the Midwest:
Tara C. Smith of Aetiology is in the thick of the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids floods. She reminds us that preparedness can pay off for floods as well as flu, and that residents need to consider several health issues as the flood waters recede. We wish Tara and her neighbors the best of luck in the weeks ahead.
Shirley S. Wang at WSJ's Health Blog considers the challenges facing the Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, which had to evacuate nearly 200 patients and now has an ambitious goal of getting cleanup up and fully operational in…
sb admin | June 13, 2008FDA has been in the spotlight this week, and often not in a good way.
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients tracks the ongoing saga of the salmonella-tainted tomatoes.
At WSJâs Health Blog, Alicia Mundy reports that Congress has pressed more money on the FDA, and Theo Francis describes Senator Arlen Spectorâs dissatisfaction with the agencyâs funding requests.
Jennifer Nelson at Science Progress explores the FDAâs decision not to hold pharmaceutical companies to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki when conducting human drug trials.
Amie Newman at RH Reality Check explains why more…
sb admin | June 6, 2008Bloggers have a lot of food worries:
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients reports that most U.S. government agencies arenât checking meat for the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA â but University of Iowa assistant professor Tara Smith (of the blog Aetiology) and her researchers found MRSA in 70% of the pigs they tested at 10 Iowa and Illinois farms.Â
Revere at Effect Measure warns of salmonella infections â 70 cases in 9 states â linked to uncooked tomatoes.
Matt Madia at Reg Watch checks up on registry to track food contamination, which FDA probably wonât have launched by their…
sb admin | May 30, 2008As rising oil prices continue to grab headlines, the spotlight turns to what politicians are and arenât doing to solve our energy problems.
David Roberts at Gristmill is outraged that Senator McCain will miss the vote on the Climate Security Act (true to his pattern of missing 2007 environmental votes).
Also at Gristmill, Kate Sheppard reports on the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act just unveiled by Representative Ed Markey.
And with yet another Gristmill post, James Hansen takes three âGovernors Greenwashâ to task over their failure to deal appropriately with coal-burning…
sb admin | May 23, 2008Senator Edward Kennedyâs diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor is terrible news on multiple levels. While our thoughts go out to the Senator and his family, itâs also difficult to imagine Congress tackling the many important health-related issues before it without Senator Kennedy.
Ezra Klein calls Kennedy âone of the few Senators who is genuinely irreplaceable, whose absence would degrade the nation's social policy, and thus the life chances and economic security of millions of its disadvantaged residents.â
Mike Lux at Open Left reminds us of the many accomplishments in which Kennedy has been…
sb admin | May 16, 2008What's new at the FDA?
Ed Silverman at Pharmalot reports on FDA plans to spend some of its user-fee money on post-marketing safety activities.
Merrill Goozner at GoozNews warns that the FDA is scrapping the Helsinki Declaration on protecting human subjects.
Jacob Goldstein at WSJ's Health Blog wonders whether pharmaceutical groups' proposals to pay user fees to fund inspections of foreign drug factories is a good idea.
Elsewhere:
Roy M. Poses MD at Health Care Renewal describes a terrible lack of conflict-of-interest disclosure in an NPR program on antidepressants.
Elizabeth Cooney at White…
sb admin | May 9, 2008Bloggers are keeping us up to date on some of the many proposals for spending federal dollars on health and environmental issues:
Tom Philpott at Gristmill brings us the latest on the farm bill, which has been delayed due to disputes over subsidy reform.
Hank Green at EnviroWonk explains why and how the Department of Energy will be spending $60 million over the next five years on solar thermal technology.
Elizabeth Cooney at White Coat Notes conveys advice from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute President Dr. Edward Benz on improving cancer research; increasing NIH funding levels is a crucial step…
sb admin | May 2, 2008Bloggers had a lot to say about the health, safety, and healthcare of workers:
Christine Rampolla at AFL-CIO Weblog explains how 12 years of work by union members culminated in New Jerseyâs paid family leave act, which the governor just signed into law.
What if ⦠America Had a Healthcare System That Worked? explores the problems with veteransâ healthcare and proposes three solutions (via Health Beat).
Ernest Delmazzo at BlueOregon criticizes Oregon OSHAâs record on workplace inspections and penalties, and Oregon OSHA Administrator Michael Wood responds in the comments section.
Kane at…
sb admin | April 25, 2008Thereâs a lot going on right now with the FDA and drug regulation:
The Health Affairs Blog has posts by Scott Gottlieb (a former FDA official now at the American Enterprise Institute) and Jerome Kassirer (a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal now at the Tufts University School of Medicine) giving two contrasting responses to FDAâs recently issued draft guidance that would let drug and device manufacturers give doctors journal articles about off-label uses of their products.
Ed Silverman at Pharmalot lets us know that more than half of the post-marketing studies pharamaceutical…
sb admin | April 18, 2008Bloggers approach food issues from a variety of angles:
At Gristmill, Aimee Witteman and Tom Philpott discuss the prospects for the Farm Bill and Sharon Astyk looks at the many costs of food.
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients shares the frightening things he learned at a food safety conference.
Barbara Fisher at Tigers & Strawberries explains why restaurants discard so much food and how they can reduce the waste.
Revere at Effect Measure considers the prospects for growing meat in tissue cultures.
Elsewhere:
Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth provides an annotated version of Bushâs climate-…
sb admin | April 11, 2008Itâs been a while since I highlighted some of the great blogging on healthcare topics:
Anna Wilde Matthews at the WSJâs Health Blog reports on a new analysis that finds the U.S. wastes more than half of our health spending.
Merrill Goozner at GoozNews explains why comparative effectiveness agencies are important and considers the hurdles to setting one up in the U.S.Â
Maggie Mahar at Health Beat investigates whatâs behind the large and growing amount we spend on hospital bills ($648 billion in 2006).
Rob Cunningham at the Health Affairs Blog considers the reasons why mental health treatment…
sb admin | April 4, 2008Several bloggers have addressed occupational health and safety issues this week:
Revere at Effect Measure considers the factors affecting healthcare worker behavior during a pandemic, and whether itâs advisable for state authorities to order HCWs to work. Â
John Astad at OSHA Underground describes three combustible-dust explosions and fires that occurred in a single day, and one way stakeholders can address the combustible-dust problem.
James Parks at AFL-CIO Weblog reports on a rally by Indian guest workers, who seek alterations to the US guest worker program and an investigation into an…
sb admin | March 28, 2008Bloggers had a lot to say about food this week:
Tom Philpott at Gristmill contrasts the U.S. and Canadian approaches to regulating the use of ethanol distillers grains in cattle feed. Guess which countryâs regulators think the important thing is leaving cattle owners free to feed their animals whatever they please, even if the substance in question has been linked to beef being tainted with a deadly strain of E. coli?
Elanor at The Ethicurian (via Enviroblog) warns that EPA wants to deny communities information about the toxic gases coming out of confined animal feeding operations.
Lisa…
sb admin | March 21, 2008This 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 Appalachian coal will be mined anyway â and shipped to China.
Keith Johnson at Environmental Capital explains how Kansas has become Big Coalâs new battlefield, and the role of state courts and officials in determining who wins.
At Appalachian Voices, jdub reacts to Hillary Clintonâs remarks about…
sb admin | March 14, 2008A group of concerned universities put out a statement about how flat funding for the National Institute of Health âputs a generation of science at risk,â and the House Committee on Science and technology has been holding hearings. Naturally, science bloggers have some thoughts on this:
Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science explains why non-researchers should care about this issue.
DrugMoneky argues that the pipeline problem isnât just due to funding amounts â cultural biases against younger investigators during grant review also play a role.
At Respectful Insolence, NIH-…
sb admin | March 7, 2008Itâs been a particularly busy week in global warming news:
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients reports that unions representing EPA staff have cut off future discussion with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Although the unions cite numerous problems with Johnson ignoring scientific and legal staffsâ advice, the release of Johnsonâs ridiculous rationale for denying Californiaâs waiver request seemed to be the last straw. (Frank OâDonnell at Gristmill has more on that ridiculousness.)
DeSmog Blogâs Kevin Grandia and Richard Littlemore report on the Heartland Instituteâs International…
sb admin | February 29, 2008The safety and sustainability of the worldâs food supply has been on peopleâs minds lately.
Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients reminds us of the tainted food problems weâve had here over the past several years, from E.Coli-contaminated spinach and salmonella-tainted pot pies to the latest record-breaking beef recall.
Tom Philpott at Gristmill brings us up to date on the Farm Bill, and explains why President Bush is winning praised for his stance on it.
Andrew Leonard at How the World Works considers what rising bakery-product prices mean for the biotech industry and African farmers.…