By David Michaels Every year, Marion Ohio (nickname: âpopcorn capital of the worldâ) hosts the largest popcorn festival in the world, with 250,000 attendees. The Orville Redenbacher Parade is one of the festivalsâ highlights. Redenbacher, who developed the hybrid corn strain that pops so uniformly, was actually from Indiana, but ConAgra Foods manufactures the best […]
by OSHAL It is worthwhile reading the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (report PDF here; Jordan Barabâs take here) that recommends a review of the effectiveness of current strategies for workplace safety and health. Of particular interest to me is the attitude and direction of this Administrationâs OSHA, in particular for those workplaces with the […]
by Susan F. Wood After the recent post here on KETEK, both the Wall Street Journal and Senator Grassley are on the move. The WSJ reports today on another antibiotic Cubicin which has been seeking approval for use in endocarditis and discusses the competing issues of data quality and high standards, with the push for […]
by Susan F. Wood Much has been written about the antibiotic drug, telithromycin, otherwise known as Ketek. It seems to combine a host of concerns all in one place (see also Matthews, AW, WSJ, May 19, 2006:B1). Critically, concerns about safety, from visual effects to fatal liver toxicity, are paired with questions about lack of […]
By David Michaels In a move that recognizes the post-election climate change in Washington, the EPA has told two Democratic Senators that it is revising plans to roll-back the reporting requirements of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). In a post yesterday, I wrote about TRI as an important (and cost-effective) example of “Regulation by Shaming” […]
By David Michaels Last week, public scorn forced Rupert Murdock, powerful chief executive of the News Corp, to cancel âIf I Did It,â OJ Simpsonâs book and Fox TV tie-in. While shaming has fallen out of favor in the field of criminal justice, the heaping of public scorn and anger – dating back to putting […]
By David Michaels Meat factories continue to be among the most dangerous places to work in America. According to a devastating article in the Dallas Morning News, âthousands of illegal immigrants gravitate toward meatpacking plants in places like Cactus, Texasâ where each year more than one out of every ten workers gets injured carving meat […]