You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March, 2007.
By David Michaels
The Center for Public Integrity has launched an exciting project examining the work of the federal advisory committees. It’s been named “The Shadow Government,” and it is directed by veteran journalist Jim Morris. The project’s first report focuses on the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, a panel that provides advice related to the program that compensates civilian nuclear weapons workers who developed occupational illnesses following exposure to radiation, beryllium and other toxic materials encountered in the production and clean up of nuclear weapons. (I’ll come back to that report in a later post.)
Since the beginning of the Bush Administration, federal advisory panels have been the subject of a great deal of controversy. These panels, set up under the “Federal Advisory Committee Act” (FACA), play a vitally important role in assisting federal decision-makers grapple with complex and difficult policy issues, especially in science policy. Since the first reports of the Bush Administration stacking advisory committees (one early outcry was an editorial in Science Magazine which I wrote with several colleagues associated with the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy, or SKAPP), scientists and science organizations have been have been outspoken in their objections to appointments of individuals selected for their allegiance to special interests rather than for their scientific qualifications.
For those who’ve been following the investigations into how the Bush Administration interfered with government climate science, the news about political interference into Interior Department science had a familiar ring.
Chris Mooney sums it up well: “Substitute for Philip Cooney an Interior Department official named Julie MacDonald, and it’s basically the same story as it was with climate change: A political appointee, friendly with industry, overruling the determinations of agency scientists.” (Cooney was chief of staff on the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality – previously with the American Petroleum Institute – who altered government climate science reports.)
Viewed next to the details that came out of the latest hearing into the politicization of climate science, though, MacDonald’s misdeeds are less appalling.
U.S. environmental regulations were on several bloggers’ minds this week. Frank O’Donnell at Blog for Clean Air explains that EPA’s new rule on particle soot is terrible, while Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority warns that Bush administration is about to release a set of administrative rules changes that would completely eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. At least The Olive Ridley Crawl has some good news: the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing stronger regulations to reduce sea turtle bycatch.
Infectious diseases were a hot topic, too. Tara C. Smith at Aetiology observed World TB Day with a post on the global tuberculosis situation; Mike the Mad Biologist reminds us that annual flu deaths are preventable; and Revere at Effect Measure delves into a paper that uses a mathematical model to investigate the spread of antiviral resistance in the control of pandemic influenza (the first post at the series is here; find links to all of the previous installments at the end of the most recent post).
In fact, this week brought blog posts galore on environmental and medical topics, including:
By David Michaels
Every month, more workers exposed to artificial butter flavor are being diagnosed with lung disease. Last July, two unions, with the help of the Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy Project, petitioned OSHA for an Emergency Temporary Standards to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl, a flavoring chemical that causes bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Nine months have passed, several workers have died, and, as far as I can tell, OSHA has done NOTHING. This continues to be a case study in regulatory failure.
Meanwhile, things are heating up in California. Earlier this week, at an Assembly hearing on a bill to ban diacetyl from workplaces in the state by 2010, legislators were informed that 22 more young workers employed in the California flavoring industry have been diagnosed with decreased lung capacity. Yesterday, the bill, proposed by California Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Sally Leiber, passed out of the Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee. It now moves to the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials.
Read the rest of this entry »
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced a record $1.5 million penalty against Massey Energy Company for violations related to the January 19, 2006 deaths of Ellery Hatfield, 46 and Don Bragg, 33 at the Aracoma Alma #1 Mine in Stollings, WV. The investigators, led by MSHA district manager Kenny Murray of Pikeville, KY, found more than two dozen violations of MSHA standards. Twenty-one of the 25 violations were classified as ”reckless disregard,” the most severe category of negligence under MSHA’s penalty structure. In a prepared statement, the company said that it “respects the views of MSHA and will fully consider the agency’s findings as part of the Company’s own investigation of the incident.” Recall, this is the same company that obstructed MSHA’s investigation of the disaster by failing to provide documents requested by the investigators. Read the rest of this entry »
Hearings, proposed legislation, and lawsuits have followed the the Chemical Safety Board’s release of its 2005 Texas City refinery blast report, which faulted BP’s broken safety culture and criticized OSHA for lax inspections and enforcement:
Houston Chronicle: At a House of Representatives hearing on the disaster, lawmakers blasted OSHA for its lax enforcement of safety rules.
AP: OSHA announced that it will nearly double the number of workers trained to perform the advanced inspections called for in the CSB report.
Houston Chronicle: On the anniversary of the blast, families of the 15 refinery workers who died gathered to remember their loved ones and to call for stronger safety legislation. The Remember the 15 campaign has details on the legislation and a page for emailing lawmakers.
AP: A timeline details major events from the blast to the CSB’s report.
Galveston County Daily News: An estimated 600 new legal claims have been filed in relation to the blast over the past two weeks.
LA Times: Refinery accidents are up nationwide, largely due to “the hard use of aging equipment, a shortage of trained workers, corporate cost cutting and ownership changes.”
In other news:
By Eula Bingham
It was 30 years ago this month that I was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. I vividly remember my visits to Capitol Hill and the questions of lawmakers regarding my vision for worker health and safety. Perhaps it was because I had been a teacher for 20 years; or had accompanied members of the United Auto Workers to Sweden to witness first-hand a model worker training program; or perhaps it was the influence of Selikoff, Mazzocchi and Samuels (who all knew the value of providing workers with information) that caused me to respond: ”Worker education is my highest priority.” Read the rest of this entry »
OMB Watch is reporting that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Chaired by Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) will soon hold a confirmation hearing on Susan E. Dudley. nominated to be Administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The office, part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), oversees all of the Administration’s regulatory (or anti-regulatory) activities.
There’s lot’s more information on Ms. Dudley, and on OMB’s latest shenanigans, at OMB Watch’s website Dudley Watch. Genevieve Smith, at the American Prospect Online, dubbed Ms. Dudley “The Anti-Regulator,” in a profile you had better read if the rumors are true:
Dudley’s public comments written during her time at Mercatus [a free market policy advocacy group] reveal a hostility towards environmental, health, and safety regulations that is ideological and virtually total. As Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Action has said, “Susan Dudley makes John Graham [previous head of OIRA] look like Ralph Nader.” Laura MacCleery of Public Citizen’s CongressWatch, who helped spearhead the campaign against Graham’s nomination, put the matter even more bluntly: “John Graham has an anti-regulatory bias, but Susan Dudley is an anti-regulatory crusader. This is like trading in a scalpel for a sledge hammer.”
A few weeks ago, we detailed some of the concerns about the review of the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) coordinated by the contractor Sciences International for the National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR). The story broke shortly before an expert panel on BPA was scheduled to meet, when Environmental Working Group reported that Sciences International has worked closely with tobacco and chemical companies – including Dow Chemical, a BPA manufacturer. We noted that these were evidently previous clients of Sciences International, which is under new management and no longer works for the tobacco industry or BPA manufacturers, but that the NTP does not have an adequate process in place to identify and deal with such potential conflicts among its contractors.
After hearing from public health advocates about their concerns, the NTP announced that it would postpone the BPA decision and review the ties between CERHR and Sciences International. On Saturday, the News & Observer (NC) reported that NTP has suspended its work with Sciences International:
Al Gore’s appearance on Capitol Hill prompted several blog posts. David Roberts at Gristmill liveblogged Gore’s testimony in both the House and the Senate; he and Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority both devoted blog posts to a memorable encounter between Gore and Senator Inhofe, too. Kevin Vranes at Prometheus weighed in on Gore’s specific proposals and summarized exchanges between Gore and various Senators.
When the sad news about Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer was reported, Orac at Respectful Insolence and Craig Hildreth at The Cheerful Oncologist were quick to provide additional medical context.
In addition:
By David Michaels
It is starting to feel like a groundswell. Last week, a group of 22 experts on drug safety and regulation issued an open letter to lawmakers asking Congress not to reauthorize the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), the system that funds the Food and Drug Administration’s drug review process. In that letter, we wrote “user fees may appear to save the taxpayers money, but at an unacceptable cost to public health.”
Yesterday, at a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) , several members suggested PDUFA should be eliminated. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) referenced a public meeting at which four former FDA commissioners agreed that the nation would be better served if Congress directly appropriated the money rather than relying on user fees and the accompanying constraints imposed by PDUFA. And Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds the FDA, asserted that the balance between federal funds and user fees must be reconsidered.
The lead editorial in today’s New York Times also gets it right: Read the rest of this entry »
By David Michaels
It seems to happen almost by instinct. When a worker dies in a workplace accident, the employer responds by expressing sadness but making it clear it was the worker’s own damn fault (and the employer is faultless, of course). The management of BP initially blamed worker mistakes for the Texas City refinery blast that killed 15 and injured 170 workers. (Numerous investigations have proved that to be incorrect, of course.)
Here’s the latest example: On March 6th, At a Oklahoma City commercial laundry run by Cintas, the national laundry company, Eleazar Torres-Gomez, was killed when he was dragged by a conveyor into a dryer that reaches temperatures of 300 degrees and became trapped for at least 20 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
Today is World Water Day, and this year’s theme is “Coping with Water Scarcity.” In its WWD report (PDF), UN-Water (the official United Nations mechanism for follow-up of the Millennium Development Goals), warns that water scarcity will increase in the coming decades, driven by four main factors:
The death toll from the tragic mine disaster in Siberia has reached 107, the Associated Press reports today. About 200 mineworkers were underground when a methane gas explosion occurred nearly 900 feet below the surface. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared today a national day of mourning for the victims of this disaster and a deadly nursing home fire that claimed 62 lives in the city of Kamyshevatskaya.
By David Michaels
The Chemical Safety Board isn’t pulling its punches. Its report on the March 2005 BP refinery explosion which killed 15 workers is scathing in its criticism of BP, concluding that “organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation” caused the explosion.
More surprisingly, CSB also went after OSHA for falling down on the job. OSHA, according to the CSB didn’t have enough trained inspectors, didn’t make enough inspections, and didn’t bother enforcing the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard aimed at preventing explosions of this sort:
only 0.2% of the approximately 2,816 facilities in targeted, high-hazard industries received a planned OSHA process safety inspection each year. That’s about one planned inspection per 500 facilities
By David Michaels
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is holding a public meeting tonight in Texas City, Texas, to release the final report of its investigation into the explosion at the BP refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170 more in March, 2005. Thursday, the House Education and Labor Committee will be holding a hearing on the disaster.
Both these events will focus on ways to prevent more explosions in the future. There are many lessons to be learned from the explosion, but its clear to me that the one lesson managers of other firms will take home from the BP disaster is that the subsequent law suits are what really hurt the company’s bottom line.
What’s to stop this from occurring again, elsewhere? Not OSHA, that’s for sure. More than anything else, fear of lawsuits has replaced formal regulation as the best means to encourage good corporate behavior.
More than 14,000 workplaces received unwelcome letters in the mail last week from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The agency used data from a survey of 80,000 workplaces to identify those sites with injury rates that were more than twice the national average, and notified them with a personal letter. Recipients of the OSHA letter include: Lowe’s, Home Depot, United Parcel Service, Wal-Mart, Harley-Davidson, and two Jelly Belly candy factories, with the highest percentage of letters (23 percent) sent to residential nursing care facilities. Read the rest of this entry »
In continuation of the tradition begun at Jordan Barab’s Confined Space blog, Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 73 workplace deaths, including the following:
- Alejandro Gonzalez, 25, who was working on hurricane-damaged homes in New Orleans and was killed when a home being raised and shifted fell and trapped him beneath it.
- Tom Kreinbrink, 64, a farmer in Leipsic, Ohio who was pulled into a grain auger when his pant leg got caught in the machine.
- Jacquelynn Devney, 18, who was struck by a car while weeding a sidewalk trail in Framington, Minnesota.
Read the full descriptions of these and other workplace deaths here. It’s an excellent reminder of how much work we still have to do on occupational health and safety.
By David Michaels
OMB Watch has just released its newest report on the recent changes President Bush has made to the federal regulatory process. The report A Failure to Govern: Bush’s Attack on the Regulatory Process explains in clear, compelling language how two arcane but pernicious documents, one amended the other new, threaten to significantly reduce the ability of government agencies to protect our health and environment. The two documents are:
Executive Order 13422 (amending the way the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reviews the rules issued by EPA, FDA, OSHA, MSHA and other agencies; and
OIRA’s Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices, which dictates the policies and procedures agencies must follow internally when formulating guidance documents. Read the rest of this entry »
Hotel workers in Boston voted 1,013 to 27 to authorize a boycott and strike at the Sheraton Boston, Boston Park Plaza, Westin Waterfront Hotel, and Westin Copley Place. The housekeepers, bellmen and other hotel workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 26 and they’ve been in talks with Starwood Hotels since last November to negotiate a new contract. Key issues in dispute are annual wage increases, a pension plan, and workload, which currently requires housekeepers to clean 16 rooms per shift. (See here and here for more on hazards for housekeepers.)
William Broad’s NYT piece on Al Gore’s global warming science has been causing a stir in the blogosphere this week (original article here). Michael Mann and Gavin Schmidt at RealClimate write, “It is rather ironic then that William Broad’s latest piece on Al Gore plays just as loose with [the facts] as he accuses Gore of doing;” David Roberts at Gristmill says it’s “the worst, sloppiest, most dishonest piece of reporting I’ve ever seen in the NYT.” Tim Lambert at Deltoid faults Broad for failing to check out claims made by climate change skeptics and for misrepresenting scientific reports. Chris Mooney at The Intersection takes a different view, since he’s found the science in Gore’s movie to be less than 100% accurate. Matthew C. Nisbet at Framing Science considers the article in the context of how journalists operate.
Moving on to other topics …
Congressman George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, will hold on hearing on March 22 on the explosion at the BP refinery in Texas City, TX which killed 15 workers and injured 180 others. Read the rest of this entry »
Diacetyl is a commonly used food additive made to give a buttery flavor to breads, cookies, candy and other goods. For decades, the chemical has been classified as “GRAS” (generally recognized as safe) by the US Food and Drug Administration. But for workers exposed to the chemical in food production factories, there is compelling scientific evidence that exposure to diacetyl is associated with a range of respiratory conditions, including the bronchiolitis obliterans.
The most publicized cases of this occupational illness have been among workers in microwave popcorn packing plants. (SKAPP has been following this issue for several years; read a full case study on diacetyl on our website.) In September of 2006, SKAPP petitioned the FDA to revoke diacetyl’s GRAS status. In a reply dated March 6, 2007, the Director of FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, said
“we have not reached a decision on your petition within the 180 days of the filing of the petition because of the limited availability of resources and other agency priorities.” Read the rest of this entry »
By David Michaels
In the wake of the debacles involving Vioxx, Ketek, and other dangerous drugs that should never have been approved in the first place, Congress is about to take up reauthorization of the user fee system that funds the Food and Drug Administration’s drug review process. The system is governed by the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which will expire this year. The FDA has asked Congress to reauthorize the program for five more years.
Yesterday, a group of 22 experts on drug safety and regulation issued an open letter to lawmakers asking them not to reauthorize the PDUFA because, as we write “user fees may appear to save the taxpayers money, but at an unacceptable cost to public health.”
The United Mineworkers of America (UMWA) will be issuing tomorrow (March 15) a report on the January 2006 Sago Mine disaster. West Virginia Senators Byrd and Rockefeller are expected to join UMWA President Cecil Roberts in the Senate Dirksen Building at 11:00 am (EST) for a news conference releasing the report. The UMWA will likely offer their own theory for the cause of the explosion. Read the rest of this entry »
Kristin Collins of The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) reports that some produce growers in North Carolina aren no longer content with the Mexican farmworkers who come to the the U.S. on temporary visas. Some of these workers have unionized and begun demanding better wages and work schedules. So, when a labor contracting company began offering “workers so indebted that they would abide almost any working conditions,” some companies took them up on the offer. The workers came from Thailand and other South Asian countries, and some of them are now suing the labor contractor for stealing their money, failing to pay them for their work, and holding them captive with threats of violence.
More occupational health news below the fold.
By David Michaels
Dr. David Healy is the probably the single person most responsible for identifying the link between anti-depression drugs like Zoloft and suicide risk. His work led to the FDA to require the addition of a “black box” to the label of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), warning of the increased risk for “suicidality.” A few years before the FDA instituted this policy, Dr. Healy was asked to testify about the effects of Zoloft in a lawsuit filed by the parents of Matthew Miller, a teenager who hanged himself soon after starting taking the drug for depression. Healy never took the stand. As Barry Yeoman’s important article Science in the Dock in this week’s issue of The Nation explains, the judge hearing the case refused to allow Dr. Healy to testify, ruling that his belief in the SSRI-suicide link is a “distinctly minority view.”
Dr. Healy was “Dauberted”. The same thing has happened to other respected scientists. Yeoman describes in alarming detail how the Supreme Court’s 1993 ruling in Daubert v. Merrell-Dow has had troubling consequences.
Several months ago, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao published the Department’s regulatory agenda. This document lists all of the regulations the Department “expects to have under active consideration for promulgation, proposal, or review during the coming 1-year period.” The notice published in the December 12, 2006 Federal Register (71 FR 73539) stated that the “agencies have carefully assessed their available resources” and the agenda reflects “what they can accomplish in the next 12 months.”
Does this mean that OSHA’s list is more realistic than previous year’s agendas? If so, the target dates will help us guage OSHA’s progress on these important rules. Now that 3 months have passed since the agenda was published, let’s see how OSHA is doing. Read the rest of this entry »
By Jennifer Sass and Sarah Janssen
As described in earlier posts (here and here), the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has contracted the work of the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) out to the consulting company Sciences International. This issue received public attention just as CERHR’s scheduled review of the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) was taking place.
We submitted comments to CERHR detailing concerns about the content and the process of the BPA review. Our concerns include:
By David Michaels
Since my post on privatizing federal science, I have learned more about Sciences International and owe them an apology. I said in my post, “Sciences International is not a hack company; it employs some very respected scientists who do excellent work.” But that was buried in the post.
Since writing the post, I have been assured that Sciences International no longer works for chemical manufacturers involved in producing bisphenol A (BPA). I noted in the post that the previous head of Sciences International, who had been involved in work for the tobacco industry, has left the company. In addition, I am told that the statement the company works for chemical manufacturers who produce BPA came from an out-of-date web post, and that the scientists involved in that work have all left Sciences International.
I remain concerned, however, with the potential effects of conflicted interests, and the way that questions about conflict undermine public confidence in the quality and credibility of government science. Which is exactly what has happened here.
We in the science community need to continue to wrestle with the potential effects of conflict on interest when the government privatizes science, as it does more and more. Certainly, disclosure and transparency are the beginning, but more is needed. To begin with, federal agencies like NIEHS should prohibit contracting work to conflicted scientists and consulting firms. If prohibitions like this were in place, we wouldn’t have to debate whether any particular contract was appropriate.
David Michaels heads the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) and is Professor and Associate Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.
One of the great things about the blogosphere is that even when several bloggers are writing about the same story, they’re covering different angles. Here are a couple of examples of posts that complement our posts from the past week:
As a complement to Revere’s post on the FDA’s cefquinome decision, check out The Olive Ridley Crawl for a list of five reasons the approval is unnecessary and Mike the Mad Biologist to learn why cefepime-resistant salmonella is only the tip of an infection iceberg.
As a complement to David Michaels’s post on antioxidants and cancer, learn how antioxidants might be increasing cancer (if the findings of the recent article are true) from Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata.
On a less TPH-centric note, here are other blog highlights from the past week:
CBS News correspodent Bob Simon traveled to eastern Kentucky to investigate the hazards faced by underground coal miners. His conversation with women who lost their husbands in the May 2006 Darby Mine disaster will air on this Sunday, March 11 at 7:00 PM (EST). Read the rest of this entry »
by Les Boden
For the past several years, Nevada employers and insurers could avoid paying workers’ compensation benefits to workers who had positive drug tests. According to an article in Occupational Hazards, this led to the denial of 10%-12% of claims filed in Nevada. But there’s a loophole that the Nevada legislature is considering closing. Workers have the right to refuse drug testing. The Insurance Journal reports that proposed legislation would require all injured workers to submit to drug tests if they apply for workers’ compensation.
What a good idea!
by Liz Borkowski
It’s International Women’s Day, and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women is holding its 51st session with the theme of “the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.” Elisha Dunn-Georgiou at RH Reality Check reports that this theme, which you’d expect to get broad support, is under attack from some groups because it’s linked to sexual and reproductive health.
For those who don’t believe that it’s a moral imperative for women to have control over their reproductive lives, there’s another compelling argument in favor of improving sexual and reproductive health (SRH) worldwide: We can’t reduce poverty, violence, and disease without improving SRH.
by Liz Borkowski
On Sunday, Marla Cone of the LA Times wrote about a federal health center contracting out the work of assessing potentially dangerous chemicals to a company with chemical-industry ties (see David Michaels’s post for reasons to be wary of this particular contractor). Her story in today’s paper shows that shining a light on such shady ties can sometimes have an effect.
Worker issues were in the spotlight on Capitol Hill this past week.
Senator Patty Murray of Washington state introduced legislation to ban asbestos, and the hearing on the bill featured testimony from John Thayer, head of a crew that works in the tunnels running beneath the U.S. Capitol. He explained that he and his crew members are regularly exposed to asbestos fibers from the aging structures, that respirators were not required until 2006, and that he and his colleagues now suffer from asbestos-related illnesses.
The Senate passed a bill that includes collective bargaining and whistleblower protection for airport security screeners, who are reported to have unusually high workplace injury rates compared to other government employees. The House passed a bill that will allow workplace unions to be certified once a majority of employees sign cards requesting a union; its future in the Senate and White House is uncertain.
Elsewhere in occupational health news:
by Revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
While finishing drafting a series of posts on how Tamiflu resistant virus might spread as a result of intense use for influenza control, Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway posted this to remind us that drug resistant organisms spread for reasons much less useful than trying to stop people from dying. Like treating cows so they can be killed later and we can eat them and make money for agribusiness:
An article in yesterday’s Financial Times reveals that prior to the deadly explosion at its Texas City refinery, BP successfully lobbied against environmental regulations that could have mitigated– if not prevented– the catastrophe from having taken place in the first place.
Read the rest of this entry »
In continuation of the tradition begun at Jordan Barab’s Confined Space blog, Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 81 workplace deaths, including the following:
- Eric Jones, a 34-year-old Burlington, Wisconsin resident who fell 90 feet from the basket of a utility truck while repairing ice-damaged transmission lines.
- Mahendrabhai Gordham Omar Patela, 48, who was shot during a robbery of his Fort Mills, South Carolina store.
- Admont J. Znotin, a 43-year-old carpenter from Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts who died from carbon monoxide fumes.
Read the full descriptions of these and other workplace deaths here. It’s an excellent reminder of how much work we still have to do on occupational health and safety.
By David Michaels
Marla Cone, in the Los Angeles Times, reports on a complaint raised by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that the National Toxicology Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) is being run not by federal scientists but by a consulting firm that also works for manufacturers of chemicals CECHR is charged with evaluating.
By David Michaels
The state of Pennsylvania has filed lawsuits against three drug manufacturers, claiming the firms fraudulently marketed antipsychotic drugs. According to Bloomberg News, the state alleges that Eli Lilly & Co. “hid the risks and exaggerated the benefits of its antipsychotic medication Zyprexa while persuading doctors to prescribe it for unapproved uses.” AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical are accused of doing the same for other drugs:
The defendants cost Pennsylvania’s Medicaid and drug assistance for the elderly program millions of dollars for “reimbursing for non-medically accepted indications and non- medically necessary uses of Zyprexa, Seroquel and Risperdal,” as well as “significant sums of money for the care and treatment” of patients injured by the drugs, the state said in a complaint.
State law suits (Louisiana, West Virginia, Alaska and Mississippi have filed similar suits against Eli Lilly) are an important component of the ongoing saga of the anti-psychotic drugs that cost too much and are more dangerous than their manufacturers like to admit.
It looks like we’re not the only ones scrutinizing the FDA. Merrill Goozner at GoozNews takes on the agency’s prescription drug user fees, conflicted advisory committee members, and guidance for manufacturers, while Revere examines food safety and an experimental bird flu vaccine.
Also on the topic of pharmaceuticals, Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata reported that the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists has developed a policy recognizing pharmacists’ right to decline to participate in therapies they find morally troubling. This set off a host of other posts: Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science examined the tensions between personal conscience and professional duties and personal integrity and professional integrity, as well as the issue of dissent in professional communities. Kevin Beck at Dr. Joan Bushwell’s Chimpanzee Refuge weighed in with his own views on the matter. Abel Pharmboy summarized some of the points raised in the debate and introduced a new question, and provided the Oath of a Pharmacist and APhA Code of Pharmacist Ethics.
And, of course, there’s plenty of great blogging on topics other than the FDA and pharmacists:
At today’s Senate hearing on Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) proposal to ban asbestos in the U.S., Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) said some very interesting things. (Audio here) His opening statement began predictably:
There is no debate that certain forms of asbestos are toxic and deadly. (Oh yeah, I know where this is going. It’s the same old debate about amphibole v. serpentine fibers.) We will hear today that there are several types of asbestos. Different forms of asbestos pose different health risks. (I knew it. I know where he’s going now. Another defender of chrysotile.) Any ban passed by Congress should recognize those differences.
(For more on the asbestos industry’s campaign to convince us that chrysotile is the ”safe form of asbestos,” read Egilman et al’s “Exposing the Myth of ABC.”)
But then the Senator made a U-turn in his statement, or at least I think he did.
