Commentary

Friday

New Crash Test Highlights Safety Flaws in Small SUVs

May 17, 2013 |

Only 2 of 13 small SUVs do well on new test simulating  deadly type of collision. The small-overlap crash test models collisions occurring when a vehicle hits a hard barrier with just a quarter of its bumper, which concentrates force in a small area unprotected by strong safety structures built into most new vehicles. Such crashes cause 25 percent of of serious injuries or deaths in frontal collisions but many small SUVs fared poorly in recent round of testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Only the 2013 Subaru Forrester and 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport performed well, while five SUVs were rated “poor”, with the worst marks going to the Ford Escape. Most of the SUVs tested, however, have performed well on other types of safety tests. CBS News, WETM (Corning, N.Y.)

First nationwide standards for child-care centers are announced.  New rules proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services would require workers in all child-care centers that accept government subsidies to be trained in first-aid procedures and submit to background checks. The centers will also be subject to quality ratings, monitoring and unannounced inspections. The move comes after a growing number of high-profile cases of children who have been injured or died in day care. About 1.6 million U.S. kids attend daycare using government subsidies in the form of vouchers, but these facilities are regulated by a patchwork of state rules that critics call inadequate. As many as one in five children using vouchers for child care are in unlicensed, unregulated settings with no health and safety requirements. The Associated Press, The Washington Post

Industry groups and red states take fight against climate change regulations to the Supreme Court. Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with states such as Texas and Virginia, have filed nine petitions asking the High Court to review Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The court probably won’t decide whether to take up any of the petitions until October. If it does, it would be the biggest environmental case since the landmark 2007 ruling in which justices found carbon dioxide is a pollutant that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. The petitions target four rules that apply to polluters ranging from vehicles to industrial facilities and have become one of Obama’s primary tools for addressing climate change since his efforts to pass a federal law capping greenhouse gas emissions failed in 2010. A federal appeals court upheld the rules last year. Reuters

Obama administration proposal would require companies to disclose fracking chemicals used on public lands. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s proposed rule would rely on an online database already used by several states to track fracking chemicals. It replaces an earlier draft rule that was withdrawn last year in the face of industry pressure. Environmental groups say the new proposal is much weaker and that the agency has capitulated to energy industry lobbying. Yet, trade groups were not mollified, with one spokeswoman saying the rule was not economically or scientifically justified. Companies have resisted disclosing the types of chemicals they use in fracking operations, which involve shooting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to crack rock and release oil and gas.  The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times

Updated guidance on mercury levels in fish stalls at the Health Department, despite urging from scientists, lawmakers. The government hasn’t revised its standards since 2004 when it said young children, nursing mothers and women who are (or might) get pregnant should avoid certain fish with high levels of mercury and eat up to 12 ounces per week of lower-mercury fish. But that advice is based on 20-year-old data, and newer studies have suggested the heavy metal may be dangerous at lower levels than previously thought. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration have written an updated advisory, but it appears to have stalled and the Obama administration has given no indication of when it might be released. A group of 40 scientists and advocacy groups last month sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services urging the release of the advisory. Last July, a group of 22 senators wrote a similar letter to President Obama. Reuters

Compiled by Bridget Huber

Thursday

U.S. Military Baffled by Increases in Suicides

May 16, 2013 |

Suicide rate in military rising quickly despite the withdrawal from Iraq and pullback in Afghanistan. Suicide among active-duty troops hit a record of 350 in 2012,  twice as many as a decade before. The suicide rate in the military has caught up to the civilian rate, above 18 per 100,000 people. Although the Pentagon has commissioned numerous reports and invested tens ...

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