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ding to the jic over the past several days about 1 000 people have now received such training on the 12th louisiana district court again ruled in favor of the fishermen saying that bp must honor legal claims against the company from fishermen who ve accepted payments from bp to make up for income lost as a result of the oil what the occupational and environmental health specialists want to help avert are long term health damages among the concerns raised by hughes and other members of the naehs council including niehs director linda birnbaum is the need for medical surveillance for response workers and community residents which would help identify any adverse health effects sooner rather than later another is that thus far there are no mental health care provisions for responders or community members noaa now projects that heavy oil flow will reach landfall near venice louisiana by sunday may 16th https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 14 are gulf coast responders being protected feed 21 the pump handle nano vaccination https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 13 nano vaccination https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 13 nano vaccination comments thu 13 may 2010 21 54 52 0000 http thepumphandle wordpress com p 9511 we keep writing about the risks involved with nanotechnology so it s nice to be able to highlight a potential benefit andrew schneider reports for aol news that researchers from the australian institute for bioengineering and nanotechnology have developed a nanopatch that can deliver vaccines more effectively than intramuscular injection university of queensland professor mark kendall told the australian broadcasting corp that the nanopatch is designed to place vaccines directly into the skin where a rich body of immune cells are a needle by contrast injects vaccines into muscles with few immune cells as a result the vaccines delivered by nanopatch are more effective he said cheap simple and effective vaccine administration has the potential to dramatically increase immunization rates in underresourced areas currently many agencies struggle to fund struggle to fund vaccination programs that rely on refrigerated vaccines administered by trained professionals kendall also points out that easier transportation and administration of nanopatches can speed vaccination when the next pandemic develops the kind of fast response he envisions would also require us to overhaul our current vaccine production system but that s a topic for another day such worthwhile applications of nanotechnology reminds us why we need to get this right study the risks of nanotechnology and put appropriate safeguards in place before nanoparticles are omnipresent if several years from now nanoparticles have become the next asbestos the chances of successfully promoting this kind of promising application will shrink https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 13 nano vaccination feed 6 liz fighting malaria with fewer chemicals https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 12 fighting malaria with fewer chemicals https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 12 fighting malaria with fewer chemicals comments wed 12 may 2010 22 05 43 0000 http thepumphandle wordpress com p 9508 in yale environment 360 sonia shah highlights a promising trend communities in mexico china tanzania and elsewhere are adopting non chemical methods to control the populations of mosquitos that transmit malaria they ve seen their numbers of malaria cases drop and dramatically reduced their use of the pesticide ddt in addition to the environmental health risks that ddt poses its continued use often results in mosquitos becoming resistant to the pesticide or they can adapt to interventions like insecticide treated bednets by changing the times and places in which they bite which shah reports has happened in dar es salam here are some of the non chemical approaches that shah describes in oaxaca mexico malariologists found that the local malaria vector anopheles pseudopunctipennis hatches from the still algae choked waters on the edges of streams rarely flying more than 2 kilometers from its birthplace and so starting in 1999 they recruited volunteers in malarious communities to remove green algae and trash from the rivers and streams near their settlements in dar es salaam tanzania anopheles gambiae lays its eggs in trash blocked sewer drains and so community workers there began a program of clearing drains and spreading the microbial insecticide bacillus thuringiensis into sewers this was the lowest hanging fruit of them all says gerry killeen of the ifakara health institute in tanzania the most basic and undramatic environmental management it led to a 30 percent drop in a gambiae s transmission of malaria the drawback to this kind of approach is that it must be developed for the conditions that exist in each community based on the characteristics of their malaria transmitting mosquitos by contrast an intervention like insecticide treated bednets can be applied almost identically in many different countries which makes it appealing to donors and international organizations that work in many different countries eradicating mosquito habitat can also be very labor intensive and require constant vigilance shah also points out that non chemical methods were used before the world became so enamored with ddt these nuanced but decidedly low tech programs recall an earlier pre chemical era when malaria control workers made similar gains against the disease by tinkering with the local environment mostly because they had few other options in the copper mines of zambia during the 1930s for example malariologists significantly reduced malaria by clearing vegetation removing obstructions from local waterways and draining flooded areas in panama during the building of the canal in the early 1900s anti malaria workers drained swamps and coated puddles with a thin skin of larvae suffocating oil part of a multi pronged anti malaria strategy that enabled the canal to be built similar measures helped eradicate malaria in the u s south environmental management methods fell into disuse after world war ii with the development of a string of synthetic insecticides and drugs led by ddt and chloroquine powerful and highly effective modern insecticides and anti malarial drugs can kill malaria mosquitoes and parasites quickly and cheaply wherever they are used regardless of local conditions they can be implemented in even the most remote locales with minimal infrastructure fashion isn t the only area where things that were once considered old fashioned suddenly can become the cool new trend https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 12 fighting malaria with fewer chemicals feed 5 liz occupational health news roundup https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 11 occupational health news roundup 144 https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 11 occupational health news roundup 144 comments tue 11 may 2010 21 45 21 0000 http thepumphandle wordpress com p 9505 the nonprofit organization human rights watch has just released a report describing the risks faced by child farmworkers in the us their findings include the following children risk pesticide poisoning serious injury and heat illness they suffer fatalities at more than four times the rate of children working in other jobs some work without even the most basic protective gear including shoes or gloves many told human rights watch that their employers did not provide drinking water hand washing facilities or toilets girls and women in these jobs are exceptionally vulnerable to sexual abuse the country s estimated 300 000 400 000 child farmworkers aren t covered by the same restrictions on work hours and hazardous work that apply to children in other industries human rights watch notes that even existing laws covering child farworkers are poorly enforced david crary reports in the associated press that secretary of labor hilda solis is adding more field investigators to improve enforcement and legislation introduced by us representative lucille roybal allard would eliminate the discrepancies between the law regarding child farmworkers and children employed in other industries in other news cnn two gas explosions in the raspadskaya mine in western siberia have killed 52 workers and 38 people are still missing at least 18 of the dead are rescue workers who entered after the first blast and were killed by the second explosion charleston gazette delores bragg and freda hatfield whose husbands don bragg and ellery hatfield were killed in the 2006 aracoma alma mine disaster have filed a lawsuit against the mine safety and health administration for not citing violations at the mine that could have been corrected and prevented the fire that killed the two mineworkers propublica federal stimulus money is funding a cleanup of the hanford nuclear reservation newly employed cleanup workers are happy to have the jobs but they don t seem to be getting adequate training on the risks of beryllium disease and how to limit their exposure san francisco chronicle a respiratory therapist and a police officer became ill with bacterial meningitis after exposure to a patient who had the disease now cal osha has fined the medical center and the police and fire departments a total of more than 135 000 for failing to limit emergency workers exposure occupational health safety osha has cited lowe s home centers for repeatedly failing to document and report employees injuries and illnesses the proposed penalties total 110 000 https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 11 occupational health news roundup 144 feed 3 liz sequestered science oil cleanup workers health https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 10 sequestered science oil cleanup workers health https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 10 sequestered science oil cleanup workers health comments mon 10 may 2010 18 53 04 0000 http thepumphandle wordpress com p 9501 elizabeth weise s usa today article about potential health effects of the gulf oil disaster and its cleanup notes that we don t have a whole lot of research to draw on about this kind of exposure residents and cleanup workers alike will be exposed both to the oil itself and to cleanup agents particularly the chemical dispersants weise references a korean study conducted following the 2007 sinking of an oil tanker of the korean coast which found that residents had an increased risk of headaches nauseau and neurological and respiratory symptoms with regards to the dispersants she reports the potential human hazard for the two dispersants being used to break up the oil is rated high for one of them moderate for another according to the material data safety sheets posted on the government s deepwater horizon response website but the section of weise s article that really caught my attention was this one emphasis added jeffrey short a scientist with the ocean conservation group oceana says in previous spills especially exxon valdez that was a danger during the shoreline cleanup phase there isn t much scientific literature on the topic in part because the people who got sickest and won against exxon got settlements that required that the records be sealed but there were a lot of anecdotal complaints about the impact on cleanup workers says short who was lead chemist for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration on the damage assessment at the exxon spill when health issues end up in court it s not unusual for the case to end in a settlement that requires both sides to keep confidential the documents involved in the case these documents may contain important health information though such as results of clinical studies or surveillance efforts so public health loses out this is one of the classic examples of sequestered science or scientific knowledge concealed from the public my colleagues at the project on scientific knowledge and public policy held a conference on this problem of sequestered science and published several of the papers from the conference in an issue of the duke university school of law s journal law and contemporary problems authors of the articles suggested mechanisms for getting sequestered public health information to the public their suggestions included publicly available registries study data which could be anonymized and instructions to juries to consider previously negotiated confidentiality agreements when deciding punitive damages daniel j givelber and anthony robbins offer this straightforward suggestion for judges and courts the most straightforward response is to refuse to enter protective orders calling for secrecy relating to materials divulged during pretrial discovery or settlement agreements thus someone who breaches a confidentiality agreement would no longer risk being in contempt of court the lack of availability of health information on those who sued exxon for illness following the valdez spill and cleanup is just the latest example of how sequestering science harms public health https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 10 sequestered science oil cleanup workers health feed 5 liz dr john m peters a gentle witty and brilliant man https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 09 dr john m peters a gentle witty and brilliant man https thepumphandle wordpress com 2010 05 09 dr john m peters a gentle witty and brilliant man comments sun 09 may 2010 15 41 29 0000 http thepumphandle wordpress com p 9483 john m peters md dsc mph the hastings professor of preventive medicine at the usc keck school of medicine passed away at age 75 on may 6 from pancreatic cancer the school s dean carmen a puliafito said one of the legends of environmental and occupational health his work took him from the freeways of los angeles to the tire factories of akron to the granite mines of vermont the focus of his research was to investigate and quantify environmental risks and then contribute to strategies to mitigate that risk in the workplace and in everyday life my dear friend and former deputy asst secretary at msha andrea hricko mph first met john peters in the early 1970s she was working for ralph nader and john peters was a professor at harvard he was serving on a panel for osha making an inquiry about vinyl chloride and bf goodrich and she testified before him she told me he was already on his way to becoming a legend in occupational health with his studies of granite shed workers and workers exposed to toluene diisocyanate tdi after leaving msha in 1997 andrea was recruited by john peters to usc she said john peters was a brilliant witty and gentle man whose main professional goal in life was doing the best science possible something he did with the greatest integrity john has left an amazing legacy hiring and mentoring a dozen new faculty members at usc who now work on air pollution and other environmental health issues and who all already miss him terribly a statement issued by usc recounts just some of dr john m peters accomplishments con...