One of the best ways that mothers, fathers, grandparents, and caregivers can find out about hazardous agents in their homes, communities, and workplaces is by reading the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an agency created in 1966 by the Surgeon General as part of […]
Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth reports on the newest research on PBDEs (levels of this flame retardant in household dust correlate to levels in breast milk) and gives an update on Washington stateâs proposed PBDE ban. Jake Young at Pure Pedantry has an update on Eli Lilly’s attempts to block the online distribution of documents […]
By David Michaels Earlier today, President Bush took another step to limit the ability of regulatory agencies to protect the nationâs health and environment. The President signed amendments to Executive Order (E.O.) 12866, further centralizing the control the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has over agency activities, and making it more difficult for public […]
By David Michaels âRisk assessment data can be like a captured spy: if you torture it long enough, it will tell you anything you want to know.â – William Ruckelshaus, first EPA Administrator, Risk assessment, explicit and implicit, is the motor that drives regulation. It can be a valuable tool for assisting regulatory agencies in […]
By David Michaels In todayâs Wall Street Journal (sub required), Jeffrey Ball reports that ExxonMobil has decided to stop funding several of the groups that have been in the forefront of attacking the scientific evidence on global warming. The campaign to shame ExxonMobil appears to be working. Earlier this week, the Union of Concerned Scientists […]
by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz Mr. Milkey (for the State of Massachusetts): Respectfully, Your Honor. It is not the stratosphere. Itâs the troposphere. Justice Scalia: Troposphere, whatever. I told you before Iâm not a scientist. (Laughter) Justice Scalia: Thatâs why I donât want to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth. [PDF […]
The biggest news in science and public health was the tragic, though not unexpected, guilty verdict in the Libyan trial of six medics accused of deliberately infecting patients with HIV. Several members of the scientific community, mobilized by Nature reporter Declan Butler and several bloggers, drew attention to the scientific evidence demonstrating the medics´ innocence […]
by Revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure The Bush Administration hates science. Science is reality-based and some truths are politically inconvenient. But there are things that can be done. Like this:
Ruth Levine of Global Health Policy offers the AIDS-Malaria link as a reason disease-by-disease thinking isn’t the way to go. Richard Littlemore at DeSmogBlog reports on which US publishers don’t think their audiences can handle George Monbiot’s book “Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning.” Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily describes research into improving […]
Could anyone besides the Economist dare to think it could overturn three of green shoppersâ sacred labels in a mere three pages? Its 12/7/06 article âVoting with Your Trolleyâ tries to debunk organic, Fair Trade, and local foods all at once. I didnât find it very convincing.