Environmental health
revere | November 15, 2008You probably never heard of the EPA Appeals Board, but they have just handed down a ruling that will affect scores of power plants using coal. Affect them how? Not clear at the moment:
The uncertainty resulted when an Environmental Protection Agency appeals panel on Thursday rejected a federal permit for a Utah plant, leaving the issue for the Obama administration to resolve.
The panel said the EPA's Denver office failed to adequately support its decision to issue a permit for the Bonanza plant without requiring controls on carbon dioxide, the leading pollutant linked to global warming.
The…
revere | November 13, 2008If there's an influenza pandemic in the near future all bets are off when it comes to unplanned for consequences. Well, maybe not all bets. Right now the only oral antiviral likely to have any effectiveness in a pandemic is oseltamivir (Tamiflu), although how effective and how long it would retain any effectiveness is in question. But there's a lot of it out there and it will be taken in high volume and, either in its capsule form [oseltamivir ethylester-phosphate (OE-P)] or its active form [oseltamivir carboxylate (OC)], excreted into the sewer system in massive quantities (discussed here…
sb admin | November 10, 2008A former Department of Labor career employee who is expert in administrative law offers three simple steps for the Obama Administration to revitalize the federal rulemaking system. Pete Galvin's open letter to President-elect Obama provides thoughtful insight and recommendations that, if implemented, would go a long way to get our public health agencies (OSHA, MSHA, EPA) back on track for the common good. One in particular might be most difficult for the Obama team to swallow is:
"...trust your appointees to do their jobs without direct oversight by the White House staff.  …
sb admin | November 6, 2008In "DuPont finds high levels of C8 in Chinese workers," Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette writes that workers at the Changshu, China plant had average blood concentration of about 2,250 ppb of perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), an agent used to make the non-stick compound Teflon. Ward writes:
"DuPont Co. has found high levels of the toxic chemical C8 in the blood of workers at a new Teflon plant in China, despite company promises to greatly reduce exposures and emissions.  ...DuPont installed its new Echelon technology. DuPont says this technology allows it to make 'low-PFOA' products. The…
sb admin | October 31, 2008Celeste and other bloggers have noted that the Bush administration seems to be ignoring the Bolten memo, which told agency heads not to engage in the traditional end-of-administration rush to regulate. Now, a front-page story in todayâs Washington Post confirms that this administration is racing to enact several new regulations before Bushâs term ends â and, as you might expect, the list includes multiple changes that will weaken consumer and environmental protections. The Washington Postâs R. Jeffrey Smith explains:
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of…
sb admin | October 30, 2008By Sarah Vogel
The Science Board Subcommittee on Food Contact Applications of BPA (Bisphenol A), the expert panel assigned to evaluate the FDAâs Draft Assessment on BPA, released a report Wednesday, October 29, 2008, highlighting a number of severe limitations of the agencyâs assessment. Although judiciously written, the Subcommittee unequivocally gave the agency failing marks on the scientific quality and rigor of its recent assessment. The Subcommitteeâs evaluation of what was by all accounts a poorly prepared report deserves considerable praise and attention.
Without going through the…
sb admin | October 28, 2008The Rotterdam Convention is an agreement addressing international movement of hazardous substances, but of course thereâs a great deal of debate about what qualifies as a hazardous substance. As convention parties met this week, several developing nations spoke up against adding asbestos to this list â and, according to one Canadian MP who attended the meeting as an observer, they did so at Canadaâs behest. For CanWest News Service, Katie Daubs reports:
Chrysotile asbestos will remain off a watch list of dangerous UN chemicals for at least another two years, say observers attending the…
revere | October 28, 2008Most people know that a good place to pick up an antibiotic resistant infection is in a hospital. Lots of pathogenic bugs there living (often) happily in a sea of antimicrobial agents. Better to stay away from hospitals, somewhere nice. But apparently, not at the beach:
A drug-resistant germ linked to surgical wound and urinary tract infections was found on five U.S. West Coast beaches, according to scientists who said the bacteria isn't usually seen outside of hospitals.
Samples of sand and water were taken from seven public beaches and a fishing pier in the state of Washington and southern…
sb admin | October 24, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Everyone knows newspapers are struggling, which means cutting back on everything, including investigative reporting. So it is nice to acknowledge that there is still some wonderful reporting going on. A particular standout has been Susanne Rust and her colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, whose investigation of FDA's handling of the bispheonal A (BPA) episode has been superlative. Yesterday they hit paydirt again. The FDA is currently considering an August draft report of a task force convened last April to re-examine the safety of BPA. The…
sb admin | October 22, 2008The FDA, already under fire in the wake of widespread food- and drug-contamination problems, is now facing criticism for its failure to adequately guard against conflicts of interest in its assessment of the safety of bisphenol A.
FDAâs draft assessment of the chemicalâs safety placed more weight on industry science â Sarah Vogel critiques the agencyâs approach here â and upheld the current safety standard for human exposure to the BPA in food. Now a bisphenol A subcommittee is about to advise the agency on whether to accept or amend that draft assessment, and it turns out that its chair has…
sb admin | October 21, 2008By Ruth Long
We, in the United States, generally feel safe when it comes to our water. Most people turn on their faucets at home without so much as a thought to where the water comes from or whether it is safe to use (consume). It would baffle us to no end if, for whatever reason, the water simply did not come out of the faucet when it was turned on.Â
Yesterday, in the Washington Post, Kari Lydersen brought the topic of our water to the forefront. It is a good article expressing concerns that we, even here in the United States, need to consider with the changes in our environment and…
sb admin | October 20, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Here's some public health man-bites-dog news. George Bush's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something right:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday set stringent new standards for airborne lead particles, following the recommendations of its science advisers and cutting the maximum allowable concentrations to a tenth of the previous standard. It was the first change in federal lead standards in three decades.[snip]
The new standards set the limits for exposure at 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from 1.5 micrograms, and…
revere | October 18, 2008Here's some public health man-bites-dog news. George Bush's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something right:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday set stringent new standards for airborne lead particles, following the recommendations of its science advisers and cutting the maximum allowable concentrations to a tenth of the previous standard. It was the first change in federal lead standards in three decades.
[snip]
The new standards set the limits for exposure at 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from 1.5 micrograms, and well within the outer limit of 0.2…
revere | October 17, 2008If Mrs. R. is typical, it's a good thing there are no atomic bug bombs or thermonuclear mouse traps or our neighborhood would be a radioactive dead zone. In our case her malevolent vibrations are sufficient to sterilize the area of vermin (that and our dog) but many people resort to chemical bug bombs, called total release foggers (TRFs). These are canisters that release enough pesticide to fill a living area with chemical fog that kills bugs like cockroaches, fleas and flying insects. The pesticides are usually relatively non-toxic to humans, primarily pyrethrins, derived from chrysanthemums…
sb admin | October 13, 2008Mr. Bill Oxley was working at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, WV on August 28. At about 10:25 pm, a massive fireball erupted at the facility, killing his co-worker, Barry Withrow, 45. The dramatic facts surrounding this explosion included that plant officials told the dispatchers that an emergency situation was in progress, but as far as giving the 911 operator further details: "I'm only allowed to tell you we have an emergency."Â
When I originally wrote about this disaster, I only knew this about Mr. Bill Oxley:
"A second worker was seriously injured in the explosion and…
sb admin | October 10, 2008The Mayor of Houston, Texas Bill White wants the Lyondell Chemical Refinery to justify and defend its practice of emitting tons of benzene annually into the air. (In 2007, the refinery reported emissions of 39 tons, which they proudly noted was below their 58 ton annual cap.) The Houston Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue reports that the Mayor's office send a 96-page letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) requesting a public hearing on Lyondell's request for a 10-year extension of its toxic air emissions permit.
"The refinery is in the city's cross hairs because…
sb admin | October 10, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Every parent's or grandparent's nightmare is to have their darling little one suddenly carried off by illness. Flu isn't on the radar screen of most parents but in recent years the public health community is taking notice. The first alarm occurred in the bad flu season of 2003 - 2004 when a retrospective tally showed over 150 pediatric deaths associated with flu. That was more than half again as much as we thought were occurring, although data was not very good. So a new pediatric surveillance system was put in place. One of the things it is showing…
revere | October 10, 2008The health concerns about bisphenol-A (BPA), a component of hard polycarbonate plastic, has been extended once again (see here, here, here for previous posts on BPA). BPA, a ubiquitous contaminant of human bodies, leaches from water and baby bottles, the lining of tin cans, dental sealants and many other sources. BPA also looks a lot like potent hormones, like estradiol and the synthetic estrogenic agent, diethylstilbesterol (DES), the cause of transplacental carcinogenesis in humans. So there have been plausible concerns that BPA might increase the risk of cancer in humans, especially in…
sb admin | October 8, 2008By Nathan Fetty
Every so often, my wife and I take our daughter, whoâs now two-and-a-half, on one of our favorite walks in the country here in central West Virginia. To get there, unfortunately, we have to pass by torrents of orange acid mine drainage (photo examples here and here) and through a landscape brutalized by mining. But the woods and streams beyond this devastation are as prime as any in West Virginia. Thatâs why we keep going there. We want our child to know these kinds of special places.
Our daughterâs becoming more and more verbal. She loves to point out things as sheâs…
sb admin | October 7, 2008Today, October 7, is World Day for Decent Work, an initiative led by the International Trade Union Confederation, the Global Progressive Forum, Social Alert and Solidar.  What is "Decent Work"?
"Decent Work is a strategy to achieve sustainable development that is centered on people. Decent Work is a key element to build fair, equitable and inclusive societies being based around the principles of employment creation, workers' rights, equity between men and women, social connection and social dialogue."
The Decent Work Decent Life offers ideas for taking action, as well as a growing…