Proposed Pennsylvania study could help resolve debate about whether natural gas drilling is making people sick. In recent years there have been lots of anecdotal reports about people who say they have been harmed by the chemicals associated with gas wells and the controversial drilling technique known as fracking. But “there doesn’t seem to be a lot of hard data to either support or refute those claims,” said a research official with the Geisinger Health System, which provides care to more than 2 million Pennsylvanians. So Geisinger officials are courting scientists and funding agencies to gain support to use their huge database of electronic health records to help researchers get answers. NPR
U.S. nuclear regulators overhaul community emergency planning. The changes by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, made quietly, require fewer exercises to prepare for major accidents and call for fewer people to be immediately evacuated. The overhaul, the first since the planning program began after the 1979 Three Mile Island disaster, also eliminates a requirement that local responders always practice for a radiation release. The changes seem at odds with the lessons of last year’s nuclear crisis in Japan. One new exercise was added, providing for police to take part in exercises that prepare for a possible assault on local plants, but some emergency officials say it doesn’t go far enough. The Associated Press
Study links up to 5 percent of road crashes to tire problems. A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that underinflation — meaning tires 25 percent below their rated pressure — was the most common tire problem linked to crashes. A low tire reduces a vehicle’s stability even under ideal conditions, but it makes it significantly more difficult for a driver to maintain control in bad weather or during emergency maneuvers, such as swerving to avoid an obstacle in the road. Tire-pressure monitoring systems became standard in the 2008 model year, but the more basic version of the technology is prone to false alerts, possibly leading consumers to ignore the warnings. msnbc.com, The Detroit News
The Obama administration will scale back federal rail safety rules spurred by a Southern California train wreck in 2008 that killed 25 people and hurt 135 others. The administration will slash by 10,000 miles the amount of railroad track that needs to be covered by systems that can override human error and automatically put the brakes on trains about to collide or derail.
As long as there have been billboards, trees have been getting in the way. And billboard companies have been removing them–sometimes legally, sometimes not. Now a rash of alleged tree poisonings in Florida have implicated a top billboard company and sparked a criminal investigation. But it turns out that rogue behavior by billboard operators is nothing new.
In the arid flatlands of the Inland Empire east of Los Angeles, a vast warehouse industry serves as a staging point for Apple computers, Gerber baby clothes, Polo apparel and other brand-name imports shipped from Asia to Southern California, to be distributed around the U.S. Warehouse workers in the Inland Empire — as well as in the next two biggest distribution hubs, the Chicago area and central New Jersey — are cogs in a system that stock the shelves of stores such as Walmart, Target and Foot Locker. But the industry, critics say, has an underside.
While battles flare in communities across the country over digital billboards, many state and local officials have hoped that a study launched by the Federal Highway Administration in 2007 would clarify key traffic safety issues. But the results of the politically sensitive research are long overdue, and still are a mystery. Records obtained by FairWarning suggest the reason why the study has remained under wraps: Experts say it was botched.
Less than four years after a California train disaster spurred passage of major safety legislation, railroad companies are pushing hard to water down the law. They have won over key lawmakers in their bid to scale back and delay a system to prevent crashes such as the head-on collision that caused 25 deaths and 135 injuries in Chatsworth, Calif. The industry is bolstered by a political climate that is hostile to federal dictates. And as political currents have shifted and the issue has fallen out of the spotlight, the rule has fewer forceful advocates.
Just over a decade ago, hospitals began spending millions of dollars to buy automated defibrillators to save the lives of more patients who go into sudden cardiac arrest. The purchases were spurred by a recommendation from an American Heart Association committee. But today the costly equipment switchover increasingly seems to have been a mistake. By one estimate, the shortcomings of the automated equipment mean that close to 1,000 more hospital cardiac arrest patients die every year in the U.S.
Mesothelioma, an exceedingly lethal form of cancer, was once thought to be caused only by inhaling asbestos fibers. Then in the 1970s, when astonishing rates of mesothelioma devastated villages in central Turkey, erionite, a mineral even more dangerous than asbestos, was found to be the cause. In the U.S., the Turkish epidemic was portrayed as a distant catastrophe. This ignored a key fact: Erionite deposits are present in at least a dozen western U.S. states. Only now, with new development stirring up remote areas of the West, are officials starting to talk about how to deal with the issue.
Automakers are positioning themselves as leaders in the fight against distracted driving, which causes an estimated 5,400 deaths per year, including nearly 1,000 related to cell phone use. Even as they tell drivers to act responsibly and pay attention to the road, the car companies are seeking to pump up sales by packing their new models with cutting-edge electronics that encourage multi-tasking behind the wheel. But the industry denies it is sending a mixed message.
California job-safety regulators have steadily expanded an honor roll of companies that are considered to have stellar safety programs, and that get exemption from regular inspections. But a FairWarning investigation finds that officials have bent the rules to include employers who may not qualify.
The Obama administration will scale back federal rail safety rules spurred by a Southern California train wreck in 2008 that killed 25 people and hurt 135 others. The administration will slash by 10,000 miles the amount of railroad track that needs to be covered by systems that can override human error and automatically put the brakes on trains about to collide or derail.
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While Protecting Its Own Citizens from Asbestos, Canada Aims to Keep Selling to Other Countries
By Tim Povtak on March 15, 2012
Canada, like other countries, has taken steps to guard its citizens from the ravages of asbestos, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people exposed to its lung-scarring fibers. Yet Canadian officials are also trying to revive the country’s flagging asbestos mining industry in order to export the dangerous mineral to the developing world.
Posted in Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, Commentary, Workplace Safety and Health | 4 Comments