Smoking threatens to become “the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world.” The message from John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, came at a weekend meeting in Lugano, Switzerland of 100 of the world’s leading cancer experts. He and other experts called for tough measures against the tobacco industry. “We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it,” Seffrin said. “It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century.” Some of the experts attending the forum called for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets. The Independent
Progress is scant in preventing deaths from grain bin and silo entrapments. The toll rose over the past decade, hitting a peak of at least 26 deaths in 2010, before dropping somewhat. Teeming silos become death traps when grain cascades out of control, asphyxiating or crushing their victims, many of them teenage boys. The deaths — almost always preventable — reveal continuing flaws in the enforcement of safety laws. Last year the Labor Department proposed new regulations aimed at tightening protections for children doing farm work. But the Obama administration, sensitive to farm-state objections and Republican charges that it was choking the economy with regulations, pulled back the proposed rules this year. The New York Times
Global resurgence in coal consumption jeopardizes efforts to combat climate change. The fossil fuel now accounts for 30 percent of world energy consumption, the most since 1969. The unexpected rise is the indirect consequence of the natural gas drilling boom in the U.S. The U.S. shift to using gas to generate electricity has pushed down coal prices on world markets, sparking a bonanza for the high-carbon fuel in other countries — including nations that pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “The proponents of shale gas have always claimed that it is a lower carbon alternative to coal. However, this is only true if the coal it displaces remains in the ground and isn’t just burnt elsewhere,” one expert said. The Guardian
Toxic flow of nitrates from Midwestern farms creating a worsening “dead zone” in Gulf of Mexico. The nitrates, largely from fertilizer and manure, flow hundreds of miles down the Mississippi River to the Gulf. There the chemicals and other wastes feed algae that rob the waters of oxygen, creating the dead zone — also known as hypoxia — each summer along Louisiana and Texas, killing shellfish and other creatures. Since the dead zone’s discovery four decades ago, U.S. officials have spent billions to reduce the impact, but the toxic flow has increased. States such as Minnesota and Wisconsin have acted to limit nitrogen or phosphorus entering waterways, but Iowa political leaders and farmers have resisted. Des Moines Register
Massachusetts closes another compounding pharmacy. The move came after a surprise inspection raised concerns about the sterility of drugs at Infusion Resource, a Waltham, Mass., pharmacy. Inspectors didn’t find any contaminated drugs, but 40 patients and their doctors were asked to return any medications they received from Infusion. The state’s regulators have come under fire after contaminated drugs from New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass., were blamed for the meningitis outbreak that has killed at least 25 people and sickened another 337. NECC and a sister company, Ameridose, closed earlier this month. Infusion’s manager of record was an Ameridose employee. Reuters, The Wall Street Journal
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein
