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For the Christian Science Monitor, Marilyn Gardner writes about pregnant women who stay on the job until the day their babies are due (or even until the minute they go into labor) and start working again soon after their babies’ births, because they’re unable to take more time off. The Family Medical Leave Act allows new parents 12 weeks of leave - but it’s unpaid leave, and the requirement only applies to companies with 50 or more employees. Gardner explains:
Call it the American way of maternity. Eighty percent of pregnant women who work remained on the job until one month or less before their child’s birth, according to newly released Census data for 2003. In 1965 that figure was 35 percent.
Most women work until close to their due date for two reasons: They need the income and they want to use their maternity leave after the baby arrives. …
Europeans take a different approach. In France, expectant mothers receive six weeks of maternity leave before the birth and 10 weeks after. They are required to take at least two weeks before and six after. In Finland, women receive 17.5 weeks of maternity leave. They can begin as early as eight weeks before their due date or as late as two weeks before the expected date. Other European countries offer similar policies.
And speaking of the Family Medical Leave Act, this year is its 15th anniversary. The Washington Post’s Nancy Trejos looks at some of the changes to the law that workers and employers are pushing for.
In other news:
Bloggers 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.
- DrugMoneky rails against the NIH grant-revision process, saying it wastes researchers’ time and NIH dollars.
- Ed Silverman at Pharmalot reports on a new bill that would provide $200 million annually to research new treatments for nervous system disorders and injuries.
Elsewhere:
Past roundups have emphasized the many things wrong with veterans’ health and safety, so this week seems like a good time to highlight some of the efforts that the military and the Veterans Administration are making to address the problems.
- The WSJ’s Theo Francis reports that the Defense Department is giving the Brain Trauma Foundation $4.6 million to develop a device that can assess traumatic brain injuries in seconds on the battlefield.
- For the Associated Press, Pauline Jelinek and Lolita Baldor describe a new Pentagon campaign that aims to get troops with mental health problems into counseling; one important change is that mental health treatment will no longer count against them in future applications for security clearance.
- NPR’s Joseph Shapiro explains the changes the Army has made at military hospitals to prevent accidental drug overdoses like the one that killed Sgt. Robert Nichols.
In other news:
Despite worsening problems with climate disruption and air pollution, politicians and individuals have kept making bad transportation choices for decades. As a result, we’ve got an unsustainable transportation system full of single-passenger gas-guzzling vehicles, and the only “solution” that politicians have been able to unite around is ethanol, which worsens global hunger and nutrient runoff without producing net energy savings.
There’s a little bit of good news, though. Recent stories suggest that the negative consequences of bad gas choices are finally starting to steer consumers and politicians towards better options:
The May 12th issue of Newsweek contains Sharon Begley’s excellent review of Doubt is Their Product (which should now be available in your local bookstore). Naturally, we like it because it says nice things about David’s book, but we also think Begley does a terrific job describing the kinds of abuses the book chronicles. It’s not surprising to see her giving a pithy summary of how polluters manufacture uncertainty, since she wrote last year’s Newsweek cover story “Global-Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine,” which provides one of the best overviews of the global warming denial movement I’ve seen.
The review is well worth a read; here’s a taste:
Bloggers 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 Jersey’s paid family leave act, which the governor just signed into law.
- What if … America Had a Healthcare System That Worked? explores the problems with veterans’ healthcare and proposes three solutions (via Health Beat).
- Ernest Delmazzo at BlueOregon criticizes Oregon OSHA’s record on workplace inspections and penalties, and Oregon OSHA Administrator Michael Wood responds in the comments section.
- Kane at OSHA Underground offers an insider’s perspective on whether and why OSHA’s Compliance Safety and Health Officers stick around.
- Theo Francis at WSJ’s Health Blog reports that every percentage-point increase in unemployment translates to another $3.4 billion in state and federal healthcare spending as workers lose health insurance along with their jobs.
Elsewhere:
Companies have evidently realized that marketing anti-bacterial products to U.S. consumers is a good way to make money, and are pushing a wide array of products that claim to have bacteria-fighting properties. (I’ve seen socks, computer products, toys … and even a handy hook you can use to avoid touching a potentially germ-ridden door handle.) This might seem like a good thing - bacteria cause some pretty nasty diseases, after all - except that they’re using nano-sized silver particles to fight the bacteria, and we don’t know nearly enough about the effects of all the nano-sized particles that are entering our environment as we wash, wear, use, and dispose of the hundreds of nano-containing products now on the market.
In the latest issue of The New Republic, Carole Bass provides an excellent overview the issue and why we should be concerned:
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted 247-165 to approve the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fires Act (H.R. 5522), which requires OSHA to issue an interim final combustible dust standard within 90 days and a final standard within 18 months.
This legislation wouldn’t be necessary if OSHA were doing its job. Combustible dust is a serious workplace hazard; according to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005 killed 119 workers and injured 718. In fact, the CSB recommended in 2006 that OSHA issue a new national regulatory standard designed to prevent combustible dust fires and explosions in general industry.
OSHA failed to act, though, even as more combustible dust incidents occurred. Since CSB made its recommendation, there have been 67 combustible dust explosions that injured 75 workers and killed 14, including the February sugar dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar Company refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, which killed nine workers and injured many more. Georgia Representative John Barrow, along with House Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller, introduced the legislation.
The Chicago Tribune has just reported that Mary Gade, the Bush administration’s top environmental regulator in the Midwest, has been forced to quit her job after months of efforts to get Dow Chemicals to clean up dioxin contamination around its Michigan headquarters. The Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne explains:
The Washington Post is running a series on the global food crisis, and if you haven’t read it yet, it’s worth a look.
In The New Economics of Hunger, Anthony Faiola explains how what started as an apparent blip in wheat prices has mushroomed into widespread hunger and unrest:
After so many stories about tainted drugs and food, here’s some good news for a change: The FDA plans to hire hundreds of new employees to help it fulfill its responsibilities to assure the safety of food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.
They’ve identified a critical need for “medical officers, consumer safety officers, chemists, nurse consultants, biologists, microbiologists, health/regulatory/general health scientists, mathematical statisticians, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and veterinary medical officers” in their DC-area office as well as U.S. regional and district offices and their newly created overseas office. Here’s their complete press release:
In Congo, an estimated two million artisanal miners account for as much of 90% of the country’s mineral exports. The Washington Post’s Stephanie McCrummen reports on how this unofficial economy works:
The diggers usually work in groups of three, heaving out bags of ore. The haphazard tunneling undermines the stability of the earth above, which often collapses. Every week, about 10 miners die in accidents, provincial officials said.
[Freelance miner Innocent] Luamba’s three-man team can produce perhaps two 220-pound sacks of copper ore a day, a bounty quickly consumed by a slew of dubious taxes, fees and prices.
After those costs, each miner ends the day with about $4, perhaps a fifth of the value of one 220-pound sack. The going rate for a decent loaf of bread is $1.50.
A middleman sells the ore to buyers such as Daniel Tam, a British citizen from Hong Kong who declined to give his company’s name. Though he has his own mining concession, Tam said he buys only from diggers working other spots, “because it is cheaper.” With a single phone call, he can find a buyer abroad.
“The Chinese, the Indians, the South Africans,” he said, naming all the buyers. “The selling is easy.”
The diggers are not the only ones suffering in such transactions. Congo is also losing out on taxes and jobs as the less-valuable raw ore is hauled out of the country before being processed into a final product worth four times as much.
Congo’s government is trying to build a modern, mechanized industry to extract copper and cobalt, but it’s a difficult transition given how entrenched the artisanal mining system is. Crews hired by foreign mining companies often arrive at their new concessions and find thousands of diggers already there – which in some cases leads to riots, or growing militancy among diggers who’ve been chased from sites they feel they have a might to mine.
In other news:
On the heels of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ report on political interference with EPA scientists, the Government Accountability Office reports that the White House Office of Management and Budget is taking a major and non-transparent role in EPA toxic chemical assessments.
At issue is the agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), which contains EPA’s scientific position on the potential human health effects of chemicals. There are 540 chemicals in the system now, but the process of adding them has slowed in recent years, and now there’s a backlog of 70 chemicals. This slowdown has serious consequences, because IRIS assessments inform federal environmental standards and many environmental protection programs at the local, state, and even international level. NRDC’s Jennifer Sass notes that the IRIS database received an average of roughly 600 requests a day this month.
The GAO cites multiple reasons for the slowdown, including the growing complexity and scope of risk assessments, but the “interagency review process” requested and managed by the OMB is at the top of the list of problems. In this process, agencies that might be affected by the assessments get a chance to provide comments and questions to EPA. The GAO explains why OMB instituted this policy in the first place:
Today is Workers’ Memorial Day, when we remember the victims of workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses. According to the International Labor Organization, 2.2 million people die from work-related accidents and diseases every year, and another 430 million suffer from work-related illnesses or nonfatal accidents. These are preventable deaths, as the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia emphasizes:
Millions of work related accidents, injury and disease annually take their toll on human lives, businesses, the economy and the environment. We know that by assessing risks and hazards, combating them at source and promoting a culture of prevention we can significantly reduce workplace illness and injuries.
In the U.S., an estimated 49,000 deaths each year are attributed to work-related disease; in 2006, 5,840 workers died from injuries sustained on the job. Workers have successfully fought for many improvements since the days of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire; in fact, the CDC has recognized “Safer workplaces” as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. But workers are still losing their lives in workplaces here and around the world, and the ILO reports that work-related deaths are on the rise. On Saturday, a massive fire in a Casablanca mattress factory killed 55 workers. Accounts bring the Triangle disaster to mind: inflammable fabrics, blocked exit doors, and women sewing on an upper floor trapped by the blaze.
Yesterday, Celeste pointed us to Ken Ward’s excellent article on the Willow Island disaster that took 30 construction workers’ lives, and suggested that we thank Ken Ward and his Charleston Gazette editors for their consistently top-notch coverage of worker health and safety issues. On that note, I’d like to link to some of the excellent special reports on workplace hazards that have been published over the past year:
There’s 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 FDA’s 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 companies promised FDA they’d undertake haven’t even begun.
Sarah Rubenstein at WSJ’s Health Blog reports that the 2004 settlement over off-label marketing of Pfizer’s Neurontin (a pain and epilepsy drug) will be funding projects that advise prescribers and patients about the safety, efficacy, and costs of pharmaceuticals.
Elsewhere:
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released another disturbing report about political interference with government science. For Interference at the EPA, they surveyed EPA scientists from all of the agency’s scientific program offices and 10 regional offices, and from more than a dozen research laboratories, to learn about the extent and type of political interference with EPA science. Like UCS’s previous investigations on the Food and Drug Administration, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and federal climate scientists, this one found significant administration manipulation of science that is supposed to serve our health and environment.
I’m sure none of our regular readers will be surprised to hear that 889 scientists (60% of the 1,586 who completed surveys) personally experienced at least one incident of political interference during the past five years, or that 516 scientists knew of “many or some” cases in which EPA political appointees inappropriately involved themselves in scientific decisions. The survey did turn up a few things that were less predictable, though – and the report is well worth reading in any case, because it’s an excellent compilation of what ought to be going wrong at EPA, where the problems are, and how to fix them.
The longer fighting in Iraq continues, the more disturbing news we get about the troops’ mental health.
The latest and most comprehensive study on veterans’ mental health to date (by the Rand Corporation) finds that nearly one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is suffering from depression or stress disorders, and that half of those suffering aren’t getting adequate care. Some avoid seeking care because of the stigma sometimes associated with it, or because they fear having treatment on their record will prevent redeployment. Another problem is an insufficient supply of healthcare providers with expertise in war-related mental disorders, which leads to long waits for treatment.
Over the next two years, the economic costs associated with veterans’ PTSD and depression are likely to range from $4 – 6 billion.
Senators Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Patty Murray (D-Washington) say that the Veterans Administration’s mental health director, Dr. Ira Katz, tried to cover up the rising rate of veteran suicides and should resign.
In other news:
Angry Toxicologist makes a good point about Earth Day:
What’s wrong with Earth Day?
The name, for one. Earth day. Protecting mother earth. Saving the environment. What’s wrong with these? They’re all about the earth. No humans mentioned. For a day that’s supposed to highlight the damage we are doing and to energize some action, it’s woefully off the mark. The degredation of the environment is harmful for people, this is what matters. Doubtless, there are those who care about the environment for the environment’s sake. You are entitled to your value but let me tell you that the majority of humanity does not share your outlook. They majority may, however, agree with the same means and ends with different a different ‘why’. Concerns for human health, recreation, and preservation of our natural heritage for culture’s sake can cover the same ground and the tent of ‘environmentalists’ can pretty much be expanded to include a vast majority of Americans.
I expect that most of us who consider ourselves environmentalists care about the condition of water, air, and ecosystems because we know people’s lives depend on them. Maybe we should rename this annual holiday Health Day, in recognition of the fact that human health is inextricably linked to the health of our environment.
The front page of yesterday’s Washington Post provided a stark reminder of the cost of powering the DC region: a scarred and denuded landscape once graced by mountains and wildlife. Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) in West Virginia feeds coal-powered plants that have been demanding more and more of the fuel; in the DC area, demand for electricity grew 18% since 2001. The Post’s David A. Fahrenthold explains the process and its effects:
Bloggers 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:
Last month, five fishermen died when their boat, the Alaska Ranger, went down off Unalaska Island. They joined the more than 400 killed since 1999, when a Coast Guard panel warned Congress that weak regulations allow unseaworthy boats to continue fishing. Congress has failed to solve the problem, the Seattle PI’s Daniel Lathrop and Levi Pulkkinen report:
Records show that on at least 10 occasions since 1971, the Coast Guard has told Congress and the public that fishermen are dying because of unseaworthy boats, and that a legislative fix is needed to improve safety. But Congress instead opted for voluntary safety programs supported by the fishing lobby.
Meanwhile, the fishing industry, which grosses roughly $10 billion annually, has spent heavily on lobbying Congress. And senators and representatives from Washington state — home to 85 percent of the Bering Sea fishing fleet — have netted their share of industry dollars while sitting on committees where change could be made, or blocked.
In other news:
Doubt is Their Product is the focus of the second piece in a three-part series by Slate’s Daniel Engber on “radical skepticism and the rise of conspiratorial thinking about science.” After describing the strategy of manufacturing doubt, from its tobacco-industry roots to its use by energy and drug companies and politicians, Engber suggests that anti-regulatory forces aren’t the only ones using it. His perspective is an interesting and useful one for those of us who are immersed in the scientific back-and-forth and might not realize how the general public views the issues.
Today the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other news sources report that the National Toxicology Program has issued a draft brief stating concerns about the effects of low levels of bispehnol A on fetusus and children. Exposure to bisphenol A can interfere with the development of children’s brains and reproductive organs, including alterations to breast and prostate tissues that can incrase the risk of developing cancer later in life. Bisphenol A is used in many plastics and in the liners of some food and beverage containers, and most of us have measurable concentrations of it our bodies.
While the NTP doesn’t have any power to regulate BPA, its findings will influence EPA and FDA regulation and state laws. To truly appreciate the importance of this NTP brief, it helps to know how the research on this chemical has emerged, and how federal agencies have dealt with science, conflicts of interest, and industry bias. At DefendingScience.org, we’ve just posted a bisphenol A case study by Sarah Vogel, a PhD Candidate at Columbia University in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences’ Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health and Medicine. It’s a comprehensive look at what’s happened with bisphenol A and what needs to happen to protect public health. Here’s her summary of where things stand:
Most of us probably take our tap water for granted, but recent events remind us that we shouldn’t. Salmonella contamination of the water supply in Alamosa, Colorado sickened over 300 people and left residents avoiding showers and drinking bottled water for a week. Abel Pharmboy explains that the city was one of the few that didn’t have a water chlorination program – but that’s changed now, and the episode reminds us that trace amounts of chlorinated acid byproducts in the water seem less alarming when compared to potentially fatal bacterial illness.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, manure and commercial fertilizers spread on frozen ground contributed to record-high levels of ammonia in the water. Des Moines’s utility had to draw on alternate water sources to keep taps running in the metro area, and use four times the usual amount of chlorine. As alarming as such instances of contamination are, though, water supply and infrastructure should probably be more of a concern.
It’s been a while since I highlighted some of the great blogging on healthcare topics:
- Anna Wilde Matthews at the WSJ’s 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.
- Maggie Mahar at Health Beat investigates what’s 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 is too rarely coordinated with supportive services.
Also, congratulations to RH Reality Check and NRDC’s Switchboard for their Webby Award honors!
We’ve written before about how the beryllium industry – and Brush Wellman in particular – staved off OSHA’s attempt to revise the beryllium exposure limit (blog post here, article here). Their chief tactics were denying the validity of evidence showing the existing standard was insufficiently protective, and then, when that was no longer credible, insisting that more research was needed before the limit could be changed.
Now, CBS News Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian raises the question of whether CDC officials caved to political and corporate pressure in dramatically downscaling a health study of residents living near Brush Wellman’s largest beryllium-manufacturing plant:
Proposals for reforming our country’s dysfunctional healthcare system often emphasize that prevention can save us money, but the Washington Post’s David Brown cautions that it doesn’t always work out that way. He notes that some interventions, like uniform childhood immunization and colonoscopies for men ages 60-64, are clear financial winners, either because they don’t cost a whole lot or because they prevent diseases that are expensive to treat. But when it comes to reducing smoking and obesity, two of the big risk factors for the U.S. population, the answers aren’t as clear-cut.
Even though the Vanity Fair Green Issue features an excellent piece on Monsanto (which, in addition to its long history of toxic contamination, now has a reputation for ruthless legal campaigns against small farmers), we here at The Pump Handle were most excited to see this sentence on the book review page:
In Doubt is Their Product (Oxford), David Michaels calls out the corporations—you’ll recognize them—that bankroll lobbyists and unethical scientists to attack the factual evidence that their products, such as asbestos, lead, and tobacco, are deadly.
We’ve just posted the Introduction of Doubt is Their Product on DefendingScience.org, so head over there for a taste of the tobacco-industry tactics that have now been adapted for everything from aspirin to global warming.
A new UK law now in force should make it easier to prosecute companies accused of causing death because of negligence. BBC News explains:
Under the new offence of corporate manslaughter, employers may face large fines if it is proved they failed to take proper safety precautions.
The old law was criticised for making it too hard to bring prosecutions.
Proof is no longer needed that a single senior official was to blame, only that senior management played a role.
It also lifts government bodies’ immunity to prosecution. Some worker advocates say it doesn’t go far enough, though, and predict that individual senior managers will still not be held responsible for health and safety failings that result in deaths.
In other news:
Major public health organizations are drawing attention to climate change’s effects on health: the American Public Health Association has chosen “Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance” as the theme for National Public Health Week (April 7-13), and the World Health Organization used World Health Day (April 7th) to remind us that we’re already starting to see climate change’s effects on health, and it’s not pretty. We can expect to see more deadly weather events, like Hurricane Katrina and the 2003 European heat wave, as well as more widespread and severe outbreaks of Rift Valley fever, malaria, cholera, and other diseases influenced by climate and weather.
At yesterday’s Public Health Grand Rounds at the George Washington University School of Public Health, Dr. Kristie Ebi – a lead author for the human health chapter of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (PDF) – pointed out that pathogens may not even be the biggest health problem climate change brings (Kaisernetwork.org has a webcast of the event). Farming will become harder due to hotter, drier conditions in some places and sea-level rise in others, so we’ll probably see more widespread hunger and malnutrition. In fact, that seems to be the trend already.
The winners of the 92nd annual Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday, and reporting on veterans’ care and on drug and product safety scored top honors in the journalism category:
The Public Service prize went “to the Washington Post for the work of Dana Priest, Anne Hull and photographer Michel du Cille in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.” The Post’s Walter Reed and Beyond website includes the original stories and slideshows, as well as reporting on the federal response.
The Investigative Reporting prize had two winners: “Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of The New York Times for their stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other everyday products imported from China, leading to crackdowns by American and Chinese officials”; and “the Chicago Tribune Staff for its exposure of faulty governmental regulation of toys, car seats and cribs, resulting in the extensive recall of hazardous products and congressional action to tighten supervision.” The New York Times doesn’t appear to have a special page dedicated to Bogdanich and Hooker’s reporting, but their initial article is here and others are listed here; the Chicago Tribune has a Kids at Risk website for its articles and resources.
Congratulations to the newspapers, reporters, and staff for their excellent work – and thanks to all of the journalists who are drawing attention to health and safety shortcomings and prompting officials to address them.
The watchdog group OMB Watch does a terrific job staying on top of all of the proposed rules, executive orders, and other federal government actions that have far-reaching effects but can be easy to miss. Now, they’ve launched a new initiative to educate people about the regulatory process and show them how they can participate in it: the Regulatory Resource Center.
Check out their explanation of how the regulatory process works (including a notice-and-comment rulemaking flowchart); handy glossary of regulatory terms; instructions for finding rules in the Federal Register and commenting on proposed rules; and more. Visit it, bookmark it, and let them know what you think.
Several 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 it’s advisable for state authorities to order HCWs to work.
- 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 employer they say held them in forced-labor conditions in a Mississippi shipyard.
- Jason Heilpern at Hazard’s Recognized applauds OSHA for following up on a UPS whisteblower’s complaint of being fired after complaining about unsafe trucks; the company decided to settle with the mechanic.
Elsewhere:
One year ago yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that EPA must formally declare whether greenhouse gases could harm human health, and if they find that they do, regulate automobile greenhouse-gas emissions. Last week, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson revealed the Bush administration’s response to the Court’s requirement: they’re going to drag their feet some more, using the excuse of more information-gathering.
Eighteen states, led by Massachusetts, have responded by filing a petition in federal court, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington to order the EPA to make its determination about greenhouse gases’ harm to human health within the next 60 days. Beth Daley and Stephanie Ebbert of the Boston Globe explain the states’ position:
On March 27th, South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism announced a prohibition on the use, processing or manufacturing, of any asbestos or asbestos containing products. The regulation’s objectives are:
- To prohibit the use, processing or manufacturing, of any asbestos or asbestos containing product unless it can be proven that no suitable alternative exists, in which case a phase-out plan may be approved.
- To prohibit the import or export of any asbestos or asbestos containing product provided that the importation is purely for transit through the country. Any person transporting asbestos or asbestos containing material through the country will be required to register with the Department and provide certain information on an annual basis.
- To prohibit the import of any asbestos or asbestos containing waste material other than from a member of the Southern African Development Community for the sole purpose of safe disposal locally, subject to the submission of certain information annually.
- The use of asbestos or asbestos containing material for research purposes will be allowed if the research is not being undertaken to produce another asbestos containing product. The researcher will need to notify the Department of their research and will have to provide a report on the amount of asbestos used and the outcome of the research on an annual basis. The Minister may review the permission on an annual basis.
The press release notes, “In publishing these regulations, South Africa joins more than 50 other countries that have put the health of its people first.” The United States, of course, is not on that list.
The breakneck pace of high-rise construction on Las Vegas’ famed Strip comes at a terrible price: Since the end of 2006, nine construction workers have died in workplace accidents. In a special two-part series, the Las Vegas Sun’s Alexandra Berzon explores why these deaths are happening and what the state OSHA’s response has been.
Berzon’s first article, “Pace is the new peril,” begins with the story of 46-year-old Harold Billingsley, who worked on the CityCenter development, a casino and six adjacent high-rises that together amount to the most expensive private commercial development in this country’s history:
Bloggers 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 country’s 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 Stiffler at Dateline Earth brings us the latest news about the effects of global warming and overfishing on salmon and other marine fish populations.
Benjamin Cohen at The World’s Fair recaps recent articles about local food and energy efficiency, and shares an interesting finding from research on the energy use of a Charlottesville farmers’ market.
Elsewhere:
Workers repairing the Qarmat Ali water injection plant in Iraq were told that the orange substance strewn around the facility was only a mild irritant – but after two-and-a-half months of exposure to it, many workers felt ill. Farah Stockman reports in the Boston Globe:
But the chemical turned out to be sodium dichromate, a substance so dangerous that even limited exposure greatly increases the risk of cancer. Soon, many of the 22 Americans and 100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness of breath. Within weeks, nearly 60 percent exhibited symptoms of exposure, according to the minutes of a meeting of project managers from KBR, the Houston-based construction company in charge of the repairs.
Now, nine Americans are accusing KBR, then a subsidiary of the oil conglomerate Halliburton, of knowingly exposing them to the deadly substance and failing to provide them with the protective equipment needed to keep them safe.
KBR claims it should be protected from employee lawsuits under the Defense Base Act. Since KBR hired the workers through two subsidiaries, though – a move that let them avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll taxes – they may not qualify as an employer, and may be ineligible for that protection.
In other news:
Rachel Nugent at Global Health Policy reminds us that it’s World TB Day. She’s got good news and bad news about tuberculosis around the globe. On the plus side, tuberculosis control funding has reached an all-time high, and the number of TB cases per capita has dropped. On the minus side, the number of cases is increasing, and more and more of these cases are turning out to be resistant to many of the drugs generally used to fight them.
In today’s New York Times, Celia W. Dugger looks at the lives of South Africans with MDR and XDR TB (MDR is multi-drug-resistant, XDR extensively drug-resistant). Many of them are held in a hospital that’s essentially “a prison for the sick”:
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Williamson links the housing-market crisis to recent problems with food, drug, and toy safety and suggests that the combination of these problems spells more regulation on the horizon:
This week, bloggers look at who’s making decisions about coal:
- At Gristmill (home of David “coal is the enemy of the human race” Roberts), Ted Nace explains how a bureaucrat’s 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 – and shipped to China.
- Keith Johnson at Environmental Capital explains how Kansas has become Big Coal’s new battlefield, and the role of state courts and officials in determining who wins.
- At Appalachian Voices, jdub reacts to Hillary Clinton’s remarks about mountaintop removal mining, and collects other online responses.
Elsewhere:
Back in December, Andrew Schneider reported in the Seattle PI that the use of diacetyl-containing cooking oils could be putting professional cooks at risk for the same severe lung disease that’s struck workers in microwave-popcorn and flavor factories. After his article came out, the Unite-Here union requested an investigation from NIOSH (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), and the union’s local Seattle chapter requested one from Washington state’s Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention.
Schneider now reports that both of these investigations are underway – and he also highlights two new animal studies by federal scientists documenting that low-level exposure to diacetyl can cause damage. (These are in addition to the many existing studies about the harmful effects of the butter-flavoring chemical.)
In a welcome contrast to the disappointing ozone rule the agency announced last week, EPA has issued tougher air-pollution standards for diesel locomotives and marine engines. When fully implemented in 2030, the new standards will reduce particulate matter pollution by 90% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 80%. The new standards only cover ships traveling on inland waterways and between U.S. ports – which means that LA and Long Beach residents will still be breathing lots of pollution from international cargo ships – but EPA estimates that its benefits will still be substantial:
Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard District of Columbia v. Heller, which pits DC’s handgun ban against the Second Amendment. DC’s gun law is the strictest in the nation, since it effectively all handguns; it does, however, allow for rifles and shotguns if they’re kept disassembled or under trigger lock. The big issue is whether the Second Amendment – “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” – guarantees an individual right to gun ownership, or only a collective right that hinges on militia service.
For the public health community, the question isn’t what the framers intended, but what works.
On the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the toll on members of the military is substantial: at least 3,988 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq and 29,395 more have been wounded. iCasulties.org estimates the total number of Coalition force fatalities at 4,298 and Iraqi Security Force fatalities at 6,727.
What these numbers don’t reveal is the toll on wounded soldiers, their families, and their communities. Veterans suffering from debilitating injuries and mental health problems often have to fight to get the care they need from a system ill-prepared to provide it; meanwhile, mental and physical hardships contribute to economic problems and even homelessness, making the return to health even more difficult. In some horrifying cases, PTSD-suffering veterans turn their guns on family or community members. Here are a few of the articles from the past few months about war’s toll on veterans and those around them:
New York Times: The Plight of American Veterans
The American Prospect: What Happened to Mental Health Care for Vets?
NPR: Private Attorneys Fight for Disabled Veterans
New York Times: When Strains on Military Families Turn Deadly
Washington Post: Soldier Suicides at Record Level
AP: Pentagon Reports Increase in Harassment
AP: New Generation of Homeless Vets Emerge
USA Today: Army Task Force Finds Gaps in Brain-Injury Care
NYT: Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles
McClatchy: Payments Vary Greatly for New Veterans with Mental Illness
NPR: Army Dismissals for Mental Health, Misconduct Rise
AP: Wounded Vets Also Suffer Financial Woes
In other occupational health and safety news:
Just a heads-up for our DC readers: the Environmental Film Festival is going on right now. On Saturday, the last day of the festival, there’s a special World Water Day tribute at the Carnegie Institution (1530 P St. NW, DuPont Circle Metro) featuring the following:
Welcome by Peter O’Brien, Managing Director, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. Opening remarks by Guest Curator Linda Lilienfeld, followed by: AGUAS CON EL AGUA; UMBRELLA; WATER FIRST; TIROL - LAND OF WATER; THE STAVE WEIR IN LUCERNE; RIVERGLASS; VILLAGE OF DUST, CITY OF WATER; and SWITCH-OFF. The World Water Day Tribute will continue with a panel discussion entitled “Global Water Challenges,” and the film finale FLOW: FOR THE LOVE OF WATER.
There’s plenty of worrying environmental news out there, but over the weekend bloggers and reporters highlighted a few glimmers of hope, too:
A group of concerned universities put out a statement about how flat funding for the National Institute of Health “puts a generation of science at risk,” and the House Committee on Science and technology has been holding hearings. Naturally, science bloggers have some thoughts on this:
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Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science explains why non-researchers should care about this issue.
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DrugMoneky argues that the pipeline problem isn’t just due to funding amounts – cultural biases against younger investigators during grant review also play a role.
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At Respectful Insolence, NIH-funded surgeon/scientist Orac advocates for reforming the “used car salesman” model of how biomedical research is funded at universtieis.
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Sameer Yousef at Science Progress reports on the grilling of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Acting Director over proposed program cuts, and on Bill Gates’s testimony about keeping the U.S. competitive in the technology field.
Elsewhere:
EPA has set the limit for pollution-forming ozone in the air to 75 ppb, despite the unanimous advice of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee to set it between 60-70 ppb (more here on the health effects of ozone). This is hardly a surprise, given the Bush Administration’s record. But in this case, it’s apparently not enough to make a single standard insufficiently protective; administration officials have decided to take on the rulemaking requirements of the Clean Air Act. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin explains:
In the largest Superfund cleanup settlement ever, W.R. Grace has agreed to pay $250 million to cover government investigation and cleanup costs associated with the asbestos-laden ore the company mined in Libby, Montana.
EPA has already spent roughly $168 million removing asbestos-contaminated soils and other dangerous materials, EPA Emergency Coordinator Paul Peronard told the Missoulian. He estimates that it will take another $175 million to get to the point where cleanup efforts are considered a success – which doesn’t mean that the town will be entirely clean. EPA cleanup efforts started in 2000, and the agency filed suit against W.R. Grace in 2001 to recover costs. The company was already facing thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits, and filed for bankruptcy.
Andrew Schneider, who first drew national attention to Libby’s plight in a series of Seattle P-I articles, points out that W.R. Grace still faces a criminal trial:
On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee released a report on the Crandall Canyon mining disaster that claimed nine lives in Utah last August. (Celeste’s posts on the disaster are in our August archive.) A Salt Lake Tribune editorial opines that “Most damning is the revelation that the coal company ignored a direct order from an MSHA inspector and continued to carve coal from a barrier pillar that served as a roof support in the mine.” The SLT’s Robert Gehrke focuses on what MSHA did wrong:
Mine Safety and Health Administration officials yielded to pressure from officials with the mining company, appear to have sped up approval of mining in Crandall Canyon and backed off on safety enforcement actions, records obtained by the committee appear to show.
“MSHA missed significant flaws in [the company's engineering] analysis, dismissed critical findings by MSHA’s own engineer and did not submit the plans - which proposed one of the most hazardous mining operations ever intended - for review by MSHA’s expert technical staff,” stated the report by the committee, chaired by Sen. Edward Kennedy.
In other news:
The Associated Press has another following up on yesterday’s investigative report about pharmaceuticals found in drinking-water supplies. They delve into the issue of who’s studying water supplies, and whether they’re revealing their findings. Accompanying the article is an alphabetical list of cities, so you can see whether your area’s water has been tested, and whether traces of drugs have been found; here in Washington, DC, for instance, tests have turned up carbamazepine, caffeine, ibuprofen, monensin, naproxen and sulfamethoxazole.
It’s nice that AP is supplying this list, because water providers and researchers often stay silent about test results:
On Thursday, the Senate approved legislation that will boost funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, increase the agency’s enforcement power, and effectively ban lead in all children’s products. The House bill passed in December contained similar provisions, although that chamber raised the maximum fine for companies that fail to report product hazards immediately to only $10 million, compared to a Senate cap of $20 million. Compared to the current maximum of $1.8 million, though, those are both big improvements.
There are some ways in which the Senate bill is markedly tougher than the House bill, though – and tougher than what the White House wants. The Washington Post’s Annys Shin explains:
It’s been a particularly busy week in global warming news:
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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 staffs’ advice, the release of Johnson’s ridiculous rationale for denying California’s waiver request seemed to be the last straw. (Frank O’Donnell at Gristmill has more on that ridiculousness.)
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DeSmog Blog’s Kevin Grandia and Richard Littlemore report on the Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change, a.k.a Denial-a-palooza.
- JLowe at Impact Analysis investigates whether we’re trending away from coal-fired power plants, as some optimists have suggested.
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Ana Campoy at Environmental Capital looks at what’s keeping the U.S. from shifting more passengers from cars to mass transit.
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Andrew Wetzler at Switchboard explains how global-warming-induced changes to the Arctic food web may be causing mercury contamination in marine mammals.