lborkowski | December 10, 2010It's been an interesting week of discussing urban issues, and I want to thank Sharon Astyk of Casaubon's Book and all of our commenters for making it so fun. I learned some interesting things from the comments - especially that vertical agriculture probably doesn't make sense, even if it sounds like a great idea to a non-expert urban reader (and page after page of Google results have nothing but praise for it).
I started off my first post explaining how I decided I wanted to live in the city, and several of the comments make points about why urban living might or might not be such a good…
lborkowski | December 9, 2010Yesterday I mentioned sewer systems as an indispensable part of urban infrastructure, and today I want to focus on the more visible issue of transportation. The efficiency with which people and goods move into and within cities has a huge impact on both energy use and air quality. And the availability of non-driving modes of transportation can improve people's lives in a lot of ways.
I read a few blogs that address transportation issues (Greater Greater Washington is indispensible for DC-area transportation nerds), and I'd like to address an assumption that I see a lot of commenters making:…
lborkowski | December 8, 2010In Monday's post I mentioned how much I loved London when I visited - but London wasn't always such an appealing place. During the Industrial Revolution, it was filthy and polluted. The stench was appalling, and an episode of particularly foul smells from the Thames River in 1858 was known as the "Great Stink." Life expectancy in England's urban areas was markedly lower than in the countryside.
This filthy environment was the site of a public health breakthrough. During the 1854 cholera epidemic in London, the physician John Snow mapped the cholera cases from an outbreak in the Soho district…
cmonforton | December 7, 2010As I've previously written, a minor revision to the form on which some U.S. employers are required to record work-related injuries remains stuck in the office of the White House's regulatory czar. His review has now extended for 145 days.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects a sample of these forms annually to estimate national rates of work-related injuries. The change proposed by OSHA involves adding a column to the form so that work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) would be distinguished from other conditions like amputations, burns, fractures, etc. After soliciting…
lborkowski | December 7, 2010As I mentioned yesterday, Sharon Astyk of Casaubon's Book and I are spending this week focusing on urbanization issues. Sharon is a farmer and has been writing for a long time about sustainable food production, particularly as it relates to climate change and a dwindling supply of fossil fuels. In her post yesterday, she linked to some of her past writing about urban issues, and the theme that ties them together is rural-urban collaboration. Cities can't grow enough food to feed all their residents, and rural areas need the durable goods that cities produce, so a reciprocal relationship is…
lborkowski | December 6, 2010The Pump Handle and Casaubon's Book are writing posts this week about the global trend of urbanization. More than half of the world's population now lives in cities, and this shift has implications for the health of the planet.
I grew up in suburban Delaware, and my first experience with urban living came in college when I spent a month on a study abroad trip to London. I fell in love with the Tube, the neighborhood markets and pubs, the profusion of cuisines, and the array of theatrical performances listed in Time Out magazine (it was the nineties, and we relied on the paper version). I…
lborkowski | December 3, 2010A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Robin Fields at ProPublica: In Dialysis, Life-Saving Care at Great Risk and Cost
Timothy Noah at Slate: McSurance on Trial: A Senate committee puts the spotlight on the crap health insurance given fast-food workers
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in the WSJ: The EPA Turns 40
Kristen Lombardi and John Solomon at The Center for Public Integrity: Big Polluters Freed From Environmental Oversight by Stimulus
Jonathan Chait in The New Republic: How Chipotle is Like the Federal Government
lborkowski | December 2, 2010Mary Kay Magistad of PRI's The World surveys the cost of China's huge appetite for coal and reports that it's harmful to workers as well as air quality. She interviews 37-year-old coal miner Zhong Guangwei, who developed a severe case of pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease, after just 10 months of working in a coal mine in the Shanxi province.
"Down in the mine, the coal dust was so thick, we couldn't even see people who were four or five feet away," Zhong says. "We had to just shout out to each other, to see who was around. There were no safety precautions, and the ventilation was terrible…
lborkowski | December 1, 2010Today, is World AIDS Day, and while the pandemic continues to devastate millions of lives, we can also honor some achievements. CDC reports that when PEPFAR (the US President's Plan for AIDS Relief) started in 2003, fewer than 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were getting antiretroviral drugs; now, thanks to a global collaboration, more than 5 million people in low- and middle-income countries receive this treatment. We've also seen some encouraging results from research on vaginal microbicidal gel and daily antiretrovirals to prevent new infections.
Care for the 33.4 million people living…
cmonforton | December 1, 2010Nearly a month ago, I made predictions about what we might read in OSHA's and MSHA's regulatory agendas. The Administration's regulatory plan is supposed to be published in October; it's been an annual requirement since 1993 (see Executive Order 12866.) When I wrote my post last month, the Obama Administration was already a few days late releasing their plan. Today is December 1 and the President's regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, the director of the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has still not issued it.
The regulatory plan gives the public a sense of…
cmonforton | November 30, 2010The US Senate passed today the Food Safety Modernization Act on a by a 73 to 25 vote. More than a dozen Republican Senators broke ranks with their leadership and voted in favor of the bill: Alexander (TN), Brown (MA), Burr (NC), Collins (ME), Enzi (WY), Grassley (IA), Gregg (NH), Johanns (NE), Kirk (IL), LeMieux (FL), Lugar (IN), Murkowski (AK), Snowe (ME), Vitter (LA), and Voinovich (OH). Supporters of the bill are calling it a milestone that will provide better protection for consumers from foodborne illness (here, here, here.)
Section 103 of the food safety bill (S.510), will require…
cmonforton | November 30, 2010No doubt that a federal agency's website can be a useful public relations tool. We all have much better access now to government data, reports and other records. That's certainly a good thing. But even the most content-rich website cannot substitute for other forms of communication and information sharing. Yet more and more lately I'm hearing reporters recount a different experience in their conversations with Obama Administration public affairs offices. During the peak of Deepwater Horizon disaster, for example, reporters were frequently told "looked at our website," "it's probably on…
lborkowski | November 29, 2010Given that Haiti is suffering from the devastation of a major earthquake and a cholera epidemic, it's not surprising that voters yesterday encountered disorganized polling places where many were told their names weren't on the rolls. But there were also reports of violence and intimidation, polling places being ransacked and ballot boxes ripped open, and ballot-stuffing. In the afternoon, 12 of the 19 candiates for president joined together and called for the election to be canceled.
Meanwhile, the cholera epidemic continues. Haitian authorities report that more than 1,600 people have died…
cmonforton | November 26, 2010Our friend and APHA OHS colleague Mark Catlin has assembled on YouTube an amazing collection of more than 500 environmental health and safety film clips. The video collection contain footage dating back to the 1920's, with loads WWII-era films produced by the U.S. military, Public Health Service and companies promoting tires, asbestos, oil, steel, tetraethyl lead, and more. The collection has already had a million hits this year.
One of my favorites, Safety Styles, features WWII pin-up model Veronica Lake. The actress, known for her flowing long blonde peakapoo hair style, encourages…
lborkowski | November 24, 2010The most prominent occupational health news this week is the tragic deaths of 29 workers from New Zealand's Pike River coal mine. Celeste has already written about this, so I'll just add my encourgement to visit the New Zealand Herald's photos and short profiles of the 29 miners:
Conrad Adams, Malcolm Campbell, Glen Cruse, Allan Dixon, Zen Drew, Christopher Duggan, Joseph Dunbar, John Hale, Daniel Herk, David Hoggart, Richard Holling, Andrew Hurren, Koos Jonker, William Joynson, Riki Keane, Terry Kitchin, Francis Marden, Samuel Mackie, Michael Monk, Stuart Mudge, Kane Nieper, Peter O'Neill,…
cmonforton | November 24, 2010A second, more powerful explosion today rocked the Pike River coal mine in Greymouth, New Zealand. This event forced government and company officials to declare that the 29 miners are surely dead. The initial blast occurred on Friday, Nov 19 deep in the mine and rescue attempts had been thwarted by dangerous gas levels. The country's prime minister John Key said, "This has been the news that all of New Zealand has been dreading. From the moment of the first explosion, [mine rescuers] have spent every waking hour tirelessly working, searching for a way to bring these men home alive. That…
egrossman | November 23, 2010by Elizabeth Grossman
At this year's American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting that took place in Denver November 7-11, the APHA's Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety sections proposed new policy statements that recommend proactive strategies for preventing illness and injury by reducing exposure to hazardous chemicals and through design that promotes workplace safety. All five policy statements presented at public hearings on November 7 have now been approved. Two additional policy proposals - one that addresses the public health impact of U.S immigration policy…
cmonforton | November 22, 2010Turkey Day is on the way. Workers employed in U.S. turkey processing plants are asking for your help to secure safer working conditions. These workers handle about 30 turkeys per minute---30 turkeys per minute---on the production line. The faster the production line moves, the faster the workers have to move to make their cuts. If they can't keep up, they won't be working there for long. Over a 10-hour shift, workers have to make more than 20,000 cuts on the turkey carcasses---20,000 cuts. At that pace, it's easy to imagine the opportunities for contamination of the meat----the…
lborkowski | November 19, 2010The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has released a new Food Outlook, and the news isn't great.
Global wheat and rice production have both suffered setbacks this year as Russia has suffered from drought and Pakistan from floods. Poor cassava harvests in Asia are also a concern, given that cassava is the staple food of nearly a billion people. Tight supply has caused prices to rise for these and other food commodities.
The fear is that we'll face another global food crisis like the one that caused riots in several countries in 2008. The FAO suggests it's not time to panic yet, but a little…
lborkowski | November 18, 2010Last week at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Denver, APHA's Occupational Health and Safety section held its awards luncheon - always one of the highlights of the meeting thanks to its combination of stellar awardees and creative musical skit. This year's award winners won well-deserved recognition for the many ways in which they advance occupational health and safety.
Sherry Baron won the 2010 Alice Hamilton Award, which "recognizes the life-long contributions of individuals who have distinguished themselves through a career of hard work and dedication to improve…