A rock burst at a coal mine in China’s Henan province has killed a total of 10 miners. The explosion happened just after a minor 2.9-magnitude earthquake occurred nearby, and 45 workers were rescued after 36 hours underground – although two of those workers later died of their injuries. Last month, a gas explosion at […]
SciDev.Net’s TV Padma reports that tuberculosis experts are looking to India to develop affordable TB-testing kits. An estimated four million cases of the disease go undetected, and two million TB patients die every year. India has increased its efforts at finding and treating cases of the disease, but diagnostics still present a challenge, Padma explains: […]
Bicycling has been in the news a lot this week. E&E News reports that China is trying to get people back onto bicycles in an attempt to address traffic problems. The city of Zhongshan has launched a bike-sharing system with 4,000 bikes; Hangzhou and Shanghai have systems with 50,000 and 19,000 bikes, respectively. Reporter Coco […]
Something that’s come up in a couple of the different sessions I’ve attended at the American Public Health Association annual meeting is the problem of inadequate definitions of success. It’s important to set targets and measure progress against them – and missing targets can be a signal that it’s time to revise the strategy. But […]
One of my favorite parts of the American Public Health Association annual meeting is the Occupational Health & Safety Section’s awards lunch. It’s always inspiring to hear about and from the award recipients, who bring dedication, creativity, and much-needed stubbornness to the cause of ensuring safe and healthy workplaces. The 2011 honorees are: Alice Hamilton […]
The American Public Health Association is having its annual meeting in DC this week, and the theme is “Healthy Communities Promote Healthy Minds & Bodies.” The APHA YouTube channel features several clips from yesterday’s opening session, including former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who spoke about the Affordable Care Act, and APHA President Dr. Linda […]
The Obama administration has asked a federal advisory committee, the National Biodefense Science Board, to make recommendations about testing the anthrax vaccine in children. The vaccine has been tested in adults, administered to military personnel, and stockpiled so it can be administered quickly should an attack occur in the US. The Washington Post’s Rob Stein […]
A few of the recent pieces I’ve liked: Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Scathing Report: Polio Eradication “Not … Any Time Soon” Douglas Starr at Discover Magazine: Sparks of Truth: Can Science Bring Justice to Arson Trials? Scicurious at The Scicurious Brain: Grab your Coffee, I think this paper may depress you Patricia Leigh Brown at […]
The Institute of Medicine has released a report recommending that the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture consider “a fundamental shift in strategy” when it comes to nutrition labeling.” While the recommendation for a “front-of-package” (FOP) labeling system is not new, the IOM authors don’t just want the usual nutrition facts […]
The kidnapping of two aid workers from the Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border is a grim reminder of the crisis situation in the region, especially Somalia. Al-Jazeera’s Peter Greste has some numbers: [I]n Somalia alone, four million people are still starving nationwide; three million of those live in the South. Of these, 750,000 […]