Under pressure from U.S. regulators, automaker consents to safety meaures. Chrysler Group said it will recall 1.56 million Jeeps with fuel tanks behind the rear axle to satisfy regulators who say the vehicles pose unacceptable fire risks in rear-end crashes. The move reverses Chrysler’s previous rejection of a U.S. request to recall up to 2.7 million Jeeps. The recall covers 1993-1998 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2002-2007 Jeep Liberty SUVs. Chrysler said dealers will install towing hitches on vehicles lacking them, putting more metal between fuel tanks and the rear of the car to absorb an impact. Chrysler said dealers also will inspect and, if needed, replace non-Chrysler towing hitches on 1.14 million 1999-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees. The Wall Street Journal
Lack of U.S. guidelines for chemical exposures at oil spills forces health officials to improvise. Since 2010, ruptured pipelines have spilled oil into neighborhoods in Utah, Michigan and Arkansas, forcing officials to decide quickly whether residents would be at risk if they breathed the foul air. Because there are no clear U.S. guidelines for oil spill evacuations, health authorities relied on a patchwork of data designed for other situations. After the spills, people complained of headaches, nausea and respiratory problems — short-term symptoms that health experts say usually disappear as the air clears. What health experts don’t know, however, is whether the fumes could also trigger long-term health problems that become evident years later. InsideClimate News
Food and Drug Administration probe focusing on possible risks of schizophrenia treatment. The agency said today the investigation was triggered by the deaths of two patients who passed away three to four days after receiving the Eli Lilly & Co. treatment Zyprexa Relprevv. The medicine, approved by the FDA in late 2009, comes with warnings that patients must stay at the doctor’s office for at least three hours after it is given so they can be monitored. The agency said high doses of the drug can cause, among other things, delirium and cardiopulmonary arrest. In a website post, the FDA said both victims were found to have received “appropriate” doses but had “very high” blood levels of the drug in their systems. Bloomberg, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal
Large livestock farms, which can generate as much waste as people in a large city, have been growing in size and number for the last 30 years. In many areas, they pose a serious threat to water supplies.
Every year, thousands of U.S. workers and do-it-yourselfers suffer disfiguring, life-changing injuries from the whirring blades of table saws, though technology exists that could virtually eliminate this.
Every year, hundreds of motorcycle riders die in crashes they would have survived had they been wearing helmets that meet a government safety standard instead of so-called novelty helmets. Yet sales of the substandard helmets are booming, and federal authorities have failed to crack down.
U.S. health authorities estimate that about 535,000 children are still at risk of developmental problems due to elevated levels of lead in their blood. In an interview, public health historians Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner discuss the history and scope of the lead problem.
When the Consumer Product Safety Commission launched SaferProducts.gov, a database allowing consumers to report and learn about hazardous products, it was inevitable that some business would go to court to keep a customer’s complaint private. But the first legal challenge is shrouded in mystery.
Peace Corps volunteers who serve in impoverished, dangerous countries all too often endure sexual assaults, psychological trauma and physical injuries, as well as exotic diseases. Yet former volunteers-turned-activists say the government workers’ compensation program that is supposed to provide medical care and disability payments for the injured is rife with troubles.
As countries around the world ramp up their campaigns against smoking with tough marketing restrictions, the tobacco industry is fighting back by invoking international trade agreements to thwart the most stringent rules. The resulting battles raise broader concerns about trade provisions that enable foreign companies to challenge national health, labor and environmental standards.
This year lung cancer will kill about 160,000 Americans—more than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. Yet the government spends far less for research on lung cancer than for other common cancers, and corporate sponsors of cancer awareness campaigns have steered clear of the disease.
The $4.9 billion tanning salon industry repeatedly has faced charges of misrepresenting health risks. So how is the industry responding? By going on the offensive with an audacious campaign to blunt skin cancer fears by discrediting physicians and health groups as members of a ‘Sun Scare’ conspiracy. Using tactics that seem cribbed from Big Tobacco’s playbook, the industry has challenged widely accepted scientific findings and funded advocacy groups to spread its message that sunbed use is a healthful source of vitamin D.
When it comes to dangers that threaten children, one of the most unimaginable is a piece of furniture toppling and injuring, or even killing, a youngster. Yet tens of thousands of children in recent years have wound up in emergency rooms and scores have died from such accidents, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
For several years, doctors and medical spas around the country have touted a fat-melting device called the LipoTron 3000, or Lipo-Ex, as a revolutionary way for people to slim down. But there’s a problem: The LipoTron has never been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Chlorine is used to kill bacteria in drinking water, but with the unintended consequence of creating chemical byproducts that may raise the risk of cancer.
Last week Pfc. Bradley Manning returned to court for his final pretrial hearing in the WikiLeaks case, an appearance that has renewed debate about how to balance the imperatives of national security against the rights of whistle-blowers. But while Private Manning’s ordeal has received exhaustive news coverage, it may ultimately have a less profound bearing ... Read more »
David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, calls on gun owners to work side by side with non-owners to fight the scourge of gun violence. “If, as many of you say, you disagree with the gun lobby’s positions,” Hemenway writes, “please do something about it.”
President Obama has an opportunity to fix badly broken media policies that keep Americans in the dark about their environment. Gina McCarthy’s nomination as the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency affords him an opportunity to live up to his promise to create an “unprecedented level of openness in government.” The Obama administration ... Read more »
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An Open Letter to Gun Owners:
By David Hemenway on May 23, 2013
David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, calls on gun owners to work side by side with non-owners to fight the scourge of gun violence. “If, as many of you say, you disagree with the gun lobby’s positions,” Hemenway writes, “please do something about it.”
Posted in Commentary, Firearms | 10 Comments