lborkowski | October 28, 2010At the Millennium Development Goal summit last month, one of the sessions addressed the issue of the global healthcare workforce. We don't have enough healthcare workers to deliver needed care to the world's population, and until we address this problem it'll be next to impossible to meet the goals of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating diseases like AIDS and malaria.
One major challenge is simply that there aren't enough trained healthcare professionals, but the distribution of the existing healthcare workforce is also a pressing issue. At the global level,…
lborkowski | October 27, 2010by Elizabeth Grossman
I'm on my way home from Indonesia, where I spent part of the past week attending the annual meeting of the Asian Network for Occupational Accident Victims (ANROAV), an organization that brings together NGOs working on occupational health, safety, and labor issues all across Asia. The meeting was held in Bandung, in West Java -- the most densely populated part of Indonesia -- about a three-hour drive (or six, depending on traffic) east from Jakarta. When, thanks to North American jetlag, I woke before dawn as the day's first motorcycles began to zip along the palm-lined…
lborkowski | October 26, 2010As you may have noticed if you read other science blogs, several bloggers are highlighting projects that need a little cash to bring science alive for students. DonorsChoose.org lets public school teachers post requests for classroom materials -- from dictionaries to dissection kits -- and collects donations through its website. Once a project reaches its funding goal, DonorsChoose delivers the materials to the school.
If you can spare a few dollars, this is a worthwhile cause. The ScienceBlogs page is here, so you check out all the projects these bloggers are supporting. Here are a few of…
cmonforton | October 26, 2010Melissa Lee's life changed forever on May 20, 2006 when her husband Jimmy, 33 was killed, along with four other workers, in an explosion at the Kentucky Darby coal mine. Afterwards, she not only had four sons to raise without a dad, but as soon as Melissa started speaking up to demand mine safety improvements, she was harassed and threatened by defenders of coal mine operators. Four years since her husband's death, Melissa is still speaking up, this time in a campaign ad running in Kentucky's 6th district in support of Congressman Ben Chandler (D-KY). The incumbent is in a tight race…
lborkowski | October 25, 2010The "Brazilian Blowout" is a popular treatment administered by salons to smooth their clients' hair. The Oregonian's Katy Muldoon explores the experience of one hairstylist who worried about the effects of the chemicals contained in the treatment.
After a few months of administering Brazilian Blowouts, Portland hairstylist Molly Scrutton began experiencing throat and chest pain. When she and salon owner Pauline Steiner called the treatment's distributor, the company refused to tell them what the ingredients were -- so Scrutton decided to stop offering the service. She wrote a memo to her…
lborkowski | October 22, 2010Months after it was hit by a devastating earthquake, Haiti is now battling an outbreak of cholera. So far, more than 1,500 cases have been reported and 142 victims have died of the disease, which causes severe diarrhea. The treatment is straightforward - rehydration therapy to reverse potentially deadly dehydration - but relies on hospitals being able to handle surges of weakened patients. It's been a century since Haiti last faced cholera, and until now everyone had been relieved that the earthquake hadn't spurred an outbreak.
The Guardian's Rory Carroll reports that the outbreak is taking…
cmonforton | October 21, 2010Updated (below) 10/22/2010
Industry trade association are masters of using scare tactics and misinformation about environment, health and safety regulations to recruit and retain members. The latest evidence is the Chamber of Commerce's "This Way to Jobs" propaganda campaign, with the worn out message: regulations on workers' safety and environmental protection hurt the economy and businesses. A video cartoon promoting the campaign says: "Washington isn't good at everything but recently it's been great at issuing regulations."
The sites features a photo of a small businessman, Ronald…
lborkowski | October 21, 2010The New York Times' latest "Room for Debate" discussion is entitled "2025: A Lot of Old People on the Roads," and it introduces the topic this way:
...the number of drivers 70 and over is expected to triple in the next 20 years in the United States. Older drivers are more likely to be injured, and they often reach the point where they stop driving voluntarily, even before someone takes their licenses away.
How will they get around, given that most of them don't live in cities or transit-friendly planned communities? What should transportation planners be doing, if anything, to prepare for…
lborkowski | October 20, 2010After last week's triumphant rescue of 33 miners from Chile's San José mine, attention has turned to mine safety in Chile and worldwide.
The Associated Press reports that President Sebastian Piñera fired the top regulators from Chile's mine safety agency and promised to triple its budget. In the weeks following the San José collapse, at least 18 small mines were shut down for safety violations. Piñera has promised that in the coming days he'll unveil a proposal for more effectively protecting Chilean workers, and a commission is investigating the San José disaster and will recommend…
cmonforton | October 19, 2010Estevan R. Benavidez's family says he was a happy-to-lucky, 20 year old. He graduated from Miami (AZ) High School in 2008, was a talented tattoo artist, liked to fish, eat junk food, and spend time with his young daughter. On January 9, 2010 he was working for Ames Construction as a laborer at the Freeport McMoRan copper mine in his hometown. He reported to work at 6:30 am, but he never made it home alive.
Benavidez was working with several other men to construct a new reservoir at the surface copper mine. The large lined reservoir holds a sulfuric acid mix used to extract the copper…
lborkowski | October 18, 2010Earlier this month, I was able to attend the final day of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) USA conference, and it reminded me how far behind we are in preparing for a future in which oil is less readily available than it is now.
Sharon Astyk, who's an ASPO board member, wrote a helpful Peak Oil 101 post that walks through the concept in some detail, but the basic issue is that there's a finite quantity of oil in the world, and at some point the rate of global oil extraction will slow. We may have already reached that point, or we may reach it in a decade or so. The…
lborkowski | October 15, 2010Today is Blog Action Day, when bloggers around the world write about an important global topic. This year, the focus is on water.
According to the World Health Organization, each year 3.4 million people - most of them children - die from water-related diseases. That includes 1.4 million children dying from diarrhea annually, and 860,000 children perishing directly or indirectly from malnutrition arising from repeated diarrhea or intestinal nematodes. Many malnourished children do survive, but can suffer lifelong impairment. Other water-related diseases, like trachoma and schistosomiasis,…
cmonforton | October 14, 2010Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and MSHA asst. secretary Joe Main are proposing new rules to protect U.S. coal mine workers from developing illnesses related to exposure to respirable coal mine dust. The most commonly known adverse health effect is black lung disease, but exposure is also associated with excess risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, progressive massive fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. The proposal, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Oct 19,* takes a comprehensive approach to the problem. I've not had a chance to read carefully the entire…
lborkowski | October 13, 2010All 33 of the miners who were trapped in Chile's San José mine have been safely lifted to the surface, as have the six rescuers who descended into the mine during the operation. Shift supervisor Luis Urzua was the last miner lifted to safety in the specially designed capsule that traversed the more than 2,000 feet between the miners' refuge and the surface.
The miners' survival for 69 days underground and their triumphant rescue is a story of fortitude, ingenuity, and teamwork. Chileans have much to be proud of and celebrate today. Audiences around the world have been watching the rescue…
lborkowski | October 13, 2010Sixty-nine days after an explosion trapped 33 miners 2,000 feet underground in the San José copper and gold mine in Copiapó, Chile, rescuers have begun lifting miners to the surface. As of 6am this morning, eight miners have been pulled to safety: Florencio Avalos, Mario Sepulveda, Juan Illanes, Carlos Mamani, Jimmy Sanchez, Osman Araya, José Ojeda, and Claudio Yañez.
The Associated Press explains that a specially constructed "Phoenix" capsule is raised and lowered, bringing one miner at a time through a 28-inch diameter hole. Each miner is equipped with an oxygen tank, communications…
lborkowski | October 11, 2010Several news outlets have reported that the commission appointed by President Obama to study the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill has issued preliminary reports that are sharply critical of the Obama administration's handling of the disaster. I downloaded the commission's draft working paper "The Amount and Fate of the Oil" to see how they described the federal response.
The report doesn't paint a flattering picture of the Obama administration's approach to a scientific question of national importance.
The draft report is written by the commission staff, who recommend specific questions and…
cmonforton | October 11, 2010The population of Ann Arbor Michigan swelled this past weekend with football fans. It was the annual Michigan vs. Michigan State football game and I was in town to witness some of the fanfare. The sidewalks, parking lots, porches, lawns and frat house balconies were jam-packed with people. Everybody, I mean EVERYBODY was wearing a t-shirt to show their allegiance to either the Wolverines (Michigan) or the Spartans (Michigan State). A few contrarians and oddballs, like me, wore shirts promoting other schools, all in the spirit of fun and camaraderie.
As I took in the football Saturday…
lborkowski | October 8, 2010The Washington Post's Jane Black gives us a heads-up about the forthcoming update to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Every five years, USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion issues new dietary guidelines based on analysis by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group of scientific experts appointed by the Secretaries of HHS and USDA. Here's how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 publication explains the guidelines' role:
The intent of the Dietary Guidelines is to summarize and synthesize knowledge regarding individual nutrients and food components into…
lborkowski | October 7, 2010If you feel like you could use an overview of the new healthcare law - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - head over the the Kaiser Family Foundation's website and watch their nine-minute animated video. Cokie Roberts narrates, explaining the problems the law's designed to address and its major provisions.
If you want more details, check out KFF's Implementation Timeline, which lists and briefly summarizes the various provisions that will be taking effect each year (including several that were implemented last month).
And for a more irreverant look at dysfunction of the status…
lborkowski | October 6, 2010After 29 miners were killed by an explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine on April 5, the Mine Safety and Health Administration stepped up inspections at 89 coal mines that had poor safety records. Even so, nine workers have been killed working inside mines, and another four using machinery near mine entrances, in the six months since that disaster. The Washington Post's David Farhrenthold and Kimberly Kindy describe several of the mineworkers' deaths and explore reasons why increased enforcement hasn't translated into safer mines:
Trying to explain why repeated federal citations…