sb admin
Posts by this author
By David Michaels
It is time for Congress to enlist the nationâs science and policy experts to help develop a federal workers' compensation program for 9/11 rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers. The inadequacy of state worker programs led Congress to legislate special compensation programs for…
By David Michaels
In a few short months, the country has awakened to several potential hazards associated with Chinese toys. Mattel and other manufacturers have already recalled millions of toys, some for lead paint and others because they contained magnets that, if swallowed, could cause severe…
By David Michaels
The popcorn festival has just ended in Marion, Ohio (nickname: âpopcorn capital of the worldâ), attended by more than 100,000 revelers. The Orville Redenbacher Parade is one of the festivalsâ highlights. Redenbacher, who developed the hybrid corn strain that pops so uniformly,…
While we here at The Pump Handle have been focusing on popcorn problems (the big story is here, the latest installment here), other bloggers have been keeping tabs on public health issues in Congress:
At RH Reality Check, Anika Rahman and Tod Preston explain the Global Gag Rule and why itâs a good…
Hello from England! Last night was the award ceremony for the 2007 Gruber Prizer in Cosmology. It was good to meet up with the members of the SCP again, many of whom I haven't seen in several years. Picture below is the members of the collaboration who were present, underneath one of the many…
By David Michaels
Over a year ago, unions petitioned the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt an emergency temporary standard for diacetyl (PDF). More than 40 leading occupational health physicians and scientists sent a supporting letter (PDF) to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao…
 By Susan F. Wood, PhDÂ
In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine today, Sheila Weiss Smith points out that the FDA has not been responsive to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on Drug Safety. That study and its recommendations took on the question of how to…
By David Michaels
Earlier this week, we broke the story of the first case of âpopcorn lungâ occurring in person whose exposure to diacetyl was not workplace-related. Now more details are coming out, including an interview with Wayne Watson, the Colorado furniture salesman with disease. In today's…
Workers who manufacture microwave popcorn for ConAgra and Pop Weaver will soon be able to breathe easier, since both companies have announced that they will stop using diacetyl to flavor their popcorn. Other workers â including those who make flavorings, baked goods, and other companiesâ microwave…
I"m sorry the blog's been so quiet recently. With my new job, and my trip out to SF getting started at Linden these last two weeks, I've been quite busy! Things won't settle down until next week, as I'm off to the UK for the next for days for the Gruber Prize award ceremony. I'll be back next…
With summer vacation over and school back in session, my thoughts naturally turn to homework, term papers and due dates. Perhaps if Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and OSHA's Asst. Secretary Edwin Foulke viewed their responsibilities to…
Last week, Pop Weaver announced that it was eliminating diacetyl from its microwave popcorn products. Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Associated Press report that ConAgra will remove diacetyl from its Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn over the next year. This news comes as…
I haven't read the study— it would take some digging to find, after all!— only the CNN Article, but the title sums up half of the results: "Men want hot women, study confirms."
In a nutshell, the study found that in a speed-dating test, men, despite what they said they were looking for, almost…
By David Michaels
Updated Below
For the past several years, news articles and Congressional hearings have reported on a deadly, irreversible lung disease â bronchiolitis obliterans â that is caused by workersâ exposure to food flavoring chemicals, and more specifically by exposure to a butter-…
For those of us fortunate enough to have Labor Day off from work, itâs a good time to remember all the workers who canât take a day off because we rely so heavily on them: hospital staff, police officers, bus drivers, power-company workers, and many others. Then, there are the retail and restaurant…
Read this book.
First and formost for a book review: Storm World is a good
read. You will not find yourself bogged down or forcing yourself to
push through a book that's "good for you." You will keep reading
because you will want to know more.
As for the book itself: Mooney clearly has a point of…
by Celeste MonfortonÂ
Yesterday in "MSHA Spokesman Parrots Bob Murray," I wrote about MSHA's rejection of a request by the families of the six trapped Crandall Canyon miners to have the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) serve as the miners' representative during MSHA's investigation of…
Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock alerted me that today is the third annual Blog Day, which âwas created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest.â To participate, bloggers link to five new blogs â and…
In recognition of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum at The Intersection provide a series of posts about the lessons from this disaster. At Gristmill, Joseph Romm explains why Hurricane Katrina busts the myth that humans can adapt to climate change.…
by Susan F. Wood, PhDÂ
Todayâs Washington Post writes about one more instance where womenâs health and childrenâs health were a lower priority than the interests of a powerful group. In this case, it was breastfeeding vs. the formula industry.
Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee…
by Celeste MonfortonÂ
Max Follmer of The Huffington Post reports that MSHA has rebuffed a request from the Crandall Canyon families to designate the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to serve as their representative during MSHA's formal accident investigation.Â
"In…
By Liz BorkowskiÂ
Here in the U.S., people seem to like the idea of our government ensuring that weâve got clean air, clean water, and healthy workplaces, and that our exposure to toxic substances is limited. However, we also keep electing politicians who make it hard for federal agencies to…
By David Michaels
The media has been buzzing (see here and here and here) about the announcement by the Pop Weaver Company that they will soon be marketing a butter flavored microwave popcorn that doesnât use diacetyl in the butter flavor. As readers of this blog know, diacetyl (a component of…
The Mountain Eagle's Tom Bethell recounts a 1986 coal mining disaster in Queensland, Australia which involved an explosion in an abandoned, sealed area which caused the death of 12 miners. Its similarities to the 2006 Sago tragedy end there because, as Bethell writes:
In the wake…
More distressing news related to Ground Zero keeps coming out. A probe has been launched into the Deutsche Bank building fire that killed two firefighters on August 18th; community leaders are criticizing the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for hiring a demolition subcontractor with…
During one of Mr. Bob Murray's endless television appearances, he was asked why his underground coal mine in Illinois had received more than 900 safety and health violations last year. In his "I'm just a humble coal miner" kind-of-way, he tried to explain that the public just doesn't…
 By Susan F. Wood, PhD
 The Journal of Womenâs Health published a special report and an editorial last month on the FDAâs Office of Womenâs Health (FDA OWH) that provide information and insight into the multiple roles of such an office, and the importance of maintaining the scientific…
By Kristen Perosino
Congress is currently considering important legislation to improve drug and medical device safety and strengthen scientific integrity at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Both the House (H.R. 2900) and Senate (S. 1082) versions contain provisions that should be…
By David Michaels
Tort "reformers" have long contended (with little evidence) that fear of litigation has scared off vaccine manufacturers from developing new vaccines.
It has been more than twenty years since Congress established the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The program was…
DRM stands for "digital restrictions management". (Those who are in the business of peddling it as something positive will tell you it's "digital rights management," but the former is really a better descriptive name.) It is software that prevents you from using some other software or digital…