By Sarah Vogel The Science Board Subcommittee on Food Contact Applications of BPA (Bisphenol A), the expert panel assigned to evaluate the FDAâs Draft Assessment on BPA, released a report Wednesday, October 29, 2008, highlighting a number of severe limitations of the agencyâs assessment. Although judiciously written, the Subcommittee unequivocally gave the agency failing marks […]
The Rotterdam Convention is an agreement addressing international movement of hazardous substances, but of course thereâs a great deal of debate about what qualifies as a hazardous substance. As convention parties met this week, several developing nations spoke up against adding asbestos to this list â and, according to one Canadian MP who attended the […]
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Everyone knows newspapers are struggling, which means cutting back on everything, including investigative reporting. So it is nice to acknowledge that there is still some wonderful reporting going on. A particular standout has been Susanne Rust and her colleagues at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, whose investigation of FDA’s handling of […]
The FDA, already under fire in the wake of widespread food- and drug-contamination problems, is now facing criticism for its failure to adequately guard against conflicts of interest in its assessment of the safety of bisphenol A. FDAâs draft assessment of the chemicalâs safety placed more weight on industry science â Sarah Vogel critiques the […]
By Ruth Long We, in the United States, generally feel safe when it comes to our water. Most people turn on their faucets at home without so much as a thought to where the water comes from or whether it is safe to use (consume). It would baffle us to no end if, for whatever […]
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Here’s some public health man-bites-dog news. George Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did something right:
Mr. Bill Oxley was working at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, WV on August 28. At about 10:25 pm, a massive fireball erupted at the facility, killing his co-worker, Barry Withrow, 45. The dramatic facts surrounding this explosion included that plant officials told the dispatchers that an emergency situation was in progress, but as far […]
The Mayor of Houston, Texas Bill White wants the Lyondell Chemical Refinery to justify and defend its practice of emitting tons of benzene annually into the air. (In 2007, the refinery reported emissions of 39 tons, which they proudly noted was below their 58 ton annual cap.) The Houston Chronicle’s Matthew Tresaugue reports that the Mayor’s office […]
by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure Every parent’s or grandparent’s nightmare is to have their darling little one suddenly carried off by illness. Flu isn’t on the radar screen of most parents but in recent years the public health community is taking notice. The first alarm occurred in the bad flu season of 2003 – […]
By Nathan Fetty Every so often, my wife and I take our daughter, whoâs now two-and-a-half, on one of our favorite walks in the country here in central West Virginia. To get there, unfortunately, we have to pass by torrents of orange acid mine drainage (photo examples here and here) and through a landscape brutalized by […]