Blog Title: The Pump Handle

World AIDS Day at 20

Today is the 20th annual World AIDS Day, and World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan reflects on what the global community has achieved over the past two decades: Civil society brought the disease – and the needs of those affected – to the forefront of world attention. Attitudes changed. Treatments were developed. Clinical schedules were streamlined read more..

Fresh flowers and spoiled lives

by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure A story on the wires about a paper in the journal Epidemiology this month (November) confirms what other work has shown: those beautiful flowers we buy in American florist shops have an added price attached to them, paid by the children of Central America. Epidemiology is one of the top read more..

Occupational Health News Roundup

Nearly 1,300 people have been killed in the Mexican city of Juarez so far this year, and journalists are among those targeted by the mafia. On November 13, Armando Rodriguez, a 40-year-old reporter for El Diaro de Juarez, was gunned down as he sat in his car in his driveway. Two other reporters have received read more..

Food for Thought

We’ve mentioned before that the Obama administration will soon be focusing on developing new  approaches to consumer-product safety. It’s worth remembering some of the solutions that have been proposed over the past couple of years, as high-profile problems with contaminated food and drugs have raised concerns about the ability of the Food and Drug Administration read more..

Secrecy prevails on DOL’s risk assessment rule

Labor Secretary Chao issued her semi-annual regulatory today, listing allegedly the Department’s “regulations that have been selected for review or development during the coming year.”  It all might seem kind of pointless (given that she won’t have a say after Jan 20) but the document is in fact enlightening for what it doesn’t mention.  There’s no peep about read more..

Friday Blog Roundup

The big news in Congress this week is that Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has replaced John Dingell (D-Mich.) as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – a move likely to have big implications for national climate policy, as Kate Sheppard at Gristmill explains. Meanwhile, Alicia Mundy at WSJ’s Health Blog wonders if the leadership read more..

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor hears OSHA’s Chromium Case

A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments today about OSHA’s rule on hexavalent chromium.  OSHA issued the rule in February 2006, after this same Court of Appeals instructed the Agency in December 2002 to do so.  (According to Law.com, the attorneys for the parties learned only two weeks ago that read more..

Coal miner battles MSHA for tougher coal dust limit

An underground coal miner who works in eastern Kentucky took the next step in his legal battle to force the Secretary of Labor to reduce respirable dust levels in our nation’s coal mines.  It started in March 2008 when Scott Howard of Lechter County, KY filed a lawsuit in federal court (Howard v. Chao) against the Secretary of Labor and the Mine Safety read more..

Occupational Health News Roundup

Forty years ago today, a series of explosions ripped through the No. 9 Mine in Farmington, West Virginia and killed 78 workers. For nine days, families and friends of trapped miners waited in the hope that some of the miners would survive – but none did, and the mine was finally sealed, with the bodies read more..

Worker fatally injured at my workplace

Mr. Rosaulino Montano, 46, an employee of  Engineered Construction Products of Smithsburg, MD fell seven stories to his death on Tuesday, Nov 18 on the campus of my workplace, the George Washington University (GWU).  Mr. Montano was installing windows at a $75 million residence hall under construction at F St and 22nd St. on the Foggy Bottom campus.  The 10-story building will read more..