May 2010 - The Pump Handle - The Network of Care

We’ve Moved!

We’ve moved The Pump Handle to ScienceBlogs! Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds accordingly. Read More...

Published Mon, May 17 2010 4:59 AM by The Pump Handle

As We Rush To Protect the Gulf Coast Environment, are Responders Being Protected?

We’re delighted to welcome journalist Elizabeth Grossman as a new writer for The Pump Handle. Elizabeth Grossman is the author of Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry, High Tech Trash: Digital Devices...

Published Fri, May 14 2010 11:45 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Environmental Health

Nano Vaccination?

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...

Published Thu, May 13 2010 2:54 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Infectious diseases, Nanotechnology

Fighting Malaria with Fewer Chemicals

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...

Published Wed, May 12 2010 3:05 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Health

Sequestered Science: Oil Cleanup Workers’ Health

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...

Published Mon, May 10 2010 11:53 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Sequestered Science

Dr. John M Peters: a gentle, witty and brilliant man

John M. Peters, MD, DSc, MPH, the Hastings Professor of Preventive Medicine at the USC Keck School of Medicine passed away at age 76 on May 6 from pancreatic cancer. The School’s dean, Carmen A. Puliafito, said “one of the legends of environmental...

Published Sun, May 09 2010 8:41 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Research

Using Facebook to react to MSHA chief’s latest on Massey investigation

I can’t keep up with Ken Ward Jr.’s coverage of the trouble brewing, battle, strong difference of opinion between Secretary Hilda Solis/MSHA Asst. Secretary Joe Main and the United Mine Workers (UMWA), family members of deceased coal miners...

Published Fri, May 07 2010 3:27 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Mining, MSHA

Integrity Watch

Thank you to the 255 signatories for their recently-published letter to the editor “Climate Change and the Integrity of Science” in the 7 May 2010 issue of Science. The letter, a polite request to de-escalate political assaults on scientists, is concise...

Published Fri, May 07 2010 12:54 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Global warming, Politics

MSHA’s Joe Main sticks with closed door probe

by Ken Ward Jr., cross-posted from CoalTattoo There’s been no formal announcement yet today from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration about how it plans to proceed in its investigation of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster — no word on public...

Published Thu, May 06 2010 9:08 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Mining, MSHA

Yes, Virginia (and all 49 other States,) chemicals do cause cancer

by Richard Denison, PhD, cross-posted from EDFBlog Please help me welcome to the true mainstream of scientific and medical thought the seemingly radical yet commonsense notion that chemical exposures are a significant contributor to cancer, many types...

Published Thu, May 06 2010 7:12 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Mining, Safety, Chemicals Policy, Science, Cancer

Puzzled by MSHA’s latest reg agenda

As I noted in “Perplexed by OSHA’s reg agenda,” I’ve made a habit of commenting on the content of the Dept of Labor’s semi-annual regulatory agenda [see links below]. I’ll be the first to admit that our system for protecting...

Published Wed, May 05 2010 4:45 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Regulation, Mining, Safety, Black Lung, Cancer, MSHA

Eye on OIRA, Coal Ash Edition: Putting Lipstick on a Not-so-cute Little Pig

by Rena Steinzor, cross-posted from CPR Blog EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was in a tough position on coal ash. If you are African American and low-income, you have a 30 percent greater chance of living near a big pit of this toxic brew than a white...

Published Wed, May 05 2010 5:53 AM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Regulation, Mining, Environmental Health, Safety, Environmental Protection Agency

Labor Secretary announces regulatory priorities for worker health and safety

Last week Labor Secretary Solis released in the Federal Register on April 26, 2010, her Spring 2010 regulatory agenda for the Department, including her rulemaking priorities for MSHA and OSHA. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act it was published...

Published Tue, May 04 2010 5:26 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Infectious diseases, Regulation, Mining, Safety, Black Lung, Combustible Dust, Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl), OSHA, Cancer, MSHA

Perplexed by OSHA’s latest reg agenda

Beginning in December 2006, I’ve written five blog post commenting on the content of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) regulatory agenda for worker health and safety rulemakings. Most of my posts [see links below] have criticized the Labor Secretary...

Published Tue, May 04 2010 5:09 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Occupational Health & Safety, Confined Space @ TPH, Infectious diseases, Regulation, Safety, Combustible Dust, Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl), OSHA

Obama EPA punts on coal ash regulations

by Ken Ward Jr., cross-posted from CoalTattoo U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials just finished their phone-in press conference to announce their action regarding regulation of toxic ash from coal-fired power plants. In its press release, EPA...

Published Tue, May 04 2010 1:39 PM by The Pump Handle

Filed under: Regulation, Mining, Environmental Health, Environmental Protection Agency

May 2010 - The Pump Handle

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