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The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) is thrilled by President-elect Obama's selection of Cong. Hilda Solis to serve as Secretary of Labor.
"Rep. Solis has been a leader in fighting for healthier communities, a cleaner environment, and economic justice for the most…
Bloggers are anticipating some new activities from the Obama administration´s Health and Human Services team, while still keeping a close eye on what the Bush administration HHS is up to:
Jeff Goldsmith at the Health Affairs Blog considers what we can expect from Tom Daschle, who Obama has picked…
Weâve written before (here, here, and here) about National Guard troops exposed to an orange, sand-like dust at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq. Soldiers complained of health problems, including burning eyes, nosebleeds, and rashes. They were told that the orange dust was just a mild…
I received an email today from Leo Gerard, the Int'l President of the United Steelworkers, the 850,000 person-strong union of men and women employed in Canada and the U.S. who work in the metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service industries.…
On December 12th, the Washington Post reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not be altering their current stance on the usage of the plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) in food and drug products. Â
"The agency has been reviewing its risk assessments for bisphenol A…
A (long) while back, I gave you a brief explanation of what an "internist" is. I later gave you a personal view of primary care medicine and some of the challenges involved in creating an infrastructure of primary care (only 2% of American medical grads are going into primary care). We also had a…
by revere cross-posted at Effect Measure
The Holiday Season is upon us so we won't post daily on the Public Health Conversation series. But you can join in at any time, in two ways. Effect Measure and The Pump Handle, the two blog sites hosting the discussion, have comment threads for each…
In late November, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit heard oral arguments on the two petitions for review of OSHA's health standard on hexavalent chromium (CrVI).  The transcript of the proceeding (52-page PDF) reveal that these…
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
A couple of ideas are floating around in the comment threads as part of an initial conversation about public health. I'm not surprised they seem to be on different topics and have the feel of talking past each other. We are not used to discussing…
Larry Moran points to a couple of posts critical of microarrays (The Problem with Microarrays):
Why microarray study conclusions are so often wrong
Three reasons to distrust microarray results
Microarrays are small chips that are covered with short stretches of single stranded DNA. People…
[See update at end of post]
The OMB website which lists those rules currently under review by OIRA has a new item today: something from OSHA on Diacetyl.  (See this screenshot for the OMB listing, and this reference to the rule on Regs.gov.)…
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
I'm (more than) pleased to say the public health conversation is starting. I assume it was already going on but not where we could all hear what others were saying. So let me continue by responding to a point raised at The Pump Handle (TPH…
There's been a lot of talk about the work hours of resident physicians. Given that sleep deprivation has been shown to impair various aspects of human performance, it certainly seems reasonable to limit the level of "resident impairment". But we have surprisingly little data to work from. And,…
OSHA issued a good final rule on Friday, Dec 12 designed to clarify employers' duty to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and train employees on the proper use of the PPE (link here). It will take effect on January 12, 2009. The rule was necessary because of…
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Yesterday Flu Wiki founding editor and DailyKos frontpager DemFromCT reviewed three recent report cards on public health, one each by the American Public Health Association (APHA), The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the American College Of Emergency…
Yes, it's that time of year again. Last year, I gave you weekly flu updates from the CDC and from my position on the front line.
So far, it's still quiet. I haven't personally seen any cases yet, but I'm sure to soon enough.
It's not too late to get vaccinated. Wash your hands frequently.…
(Tangentially related podcast here)
Here's the thing: all this talk about arrogance in medicine is a red herring. It's distracting us from the real question that we should all be asking: how do we improve quality medical care?
The personality of individual physicians is important, but not very,…
OK, so I guess I'm not busy enough, cuz I'm experimenting with podcasting. I have a voice best left to typing, but I want to try a new medium.
The first episode is on arrogance in medicine, and the rss feed looks funky cuz i'm still learning, but let me know how it goes. This discussion is a…
Bloggers react to the news of Obama's picks for top enviornmental posts:
Kate Sheppard at Gristmill gathers reactions from both environmental advocates and business-oriented think tanks. (Myron Ebel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute warns that Carol Browner shares many of Al Gore's "wildest…
The Washington Post obtained a copy of a draft report on mercury that Food and Drug Administration sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and reports that it contains advice that alarms scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency. At issue is advice about fish consumption…
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Energy may be the topic du jour but it's been the 800 lb. gorilla in the room for, oh, a couple of centuries. In a sense it's responsible for one of the greatest occupational health catastrophes of the 20th century, and a new report from CDC demonstrates…
Orac is celebrating his 4th blogiversary today, and folks are giving him his props over at his place. I was about to give him congrats over there, but I figured this deserved a post of its own.
I started blogging seriously in May of 07. I had been attracted to the crankosphere via the cesspit…
TO:  All worker health and safety advocates, seekers of justice and protections for working people, and friends of healthy work environments: Â
The American Public Health Association's (APHA) OHS Section has not, and will not, forget about the…
by revere, cross-posted from Effect Measure
I vaguely remember a medical school lecture about dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea Worm Disease. Also called the "fiery serpent" these are very long worms that grow in people and then the females get hungry and start to burrow out of them, sort of…
Science and medicine reporting is hard. In this space we've dealt with some of the problems that arise when "generalist" reporters try to "do" science and medicine. And now, CNN has shut down its science unit. Given the increasing complexity of medical and scientific knowledge, this is very bad…
In Brooklyn, a bus driver refused to give a transfer to a man who hadnât paid â and the man responded by stabbing the bus driver to death. Edwin Thomas, 46, had an 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter. He was driving the B46 route when he was killed. In the New York Times, Robert D. McFadden…
After my post yesterday "More Delays on OSHA's Overdue Crane Rule,"  I thought more about why OSHA's decision to extend the comment period really perturbs me. Â
Some might say "we're in the middle of the Bush-to-Obama Transition. It…
This was first posted at Science-Based Medicine on Monday, but I can't seem to keep myself from cross-posting. --PalMD
I've been thinking about an interesting organism lately, an organism that illustrates some basic principles in science-based medicine.
The organism is called Haemophilus…
When OSHA finally published on October 9 a proposed rule to protect workers using cranes and derricks, I thought (maybe) we'd turned a page on at least one inexcusable rulemaking delay.  But no. OSHA's acting assistant secretary, Thomas M. Stohler, signed off last week to…
In case yesterdayâs post didnât convince you to get a flu shot, you should check out Maryn McKenna at Superbug's report on the growing problem of deadly staphylococcus infections hitting flu sufferers. She highlights the sad case of Robert Sweitzer, a 39-year-old man who was healthy…