By Stuart Silverstein on March 4, 2015
See update at bottom of story. Spurred by deadly crashes involving cars plunging into stores, day care centers and other sites, a California lawmaker has introduced a bill to prod commercial property owners to install special safety barriers. The measure, if approved, would give California the nation’s first state law encouraging wider use of bollards,…
Posted in Auto and Highway Safety, FairWarning Reports |
By Stuart Silverstein on January 20, 2015
After being thwarted in Congress following the 2012 school shooting rampage in Newtown, Conn., gun control activists have scored some important victories in states around the country. One of the biggest wins came in Washington State. In November, voters by a wide margin approved a state ballot measure extending, to gun shows and other private…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Firearms |
Burning Off Natural Gas Called 'Environmental Travesty'
By Stuart Silverstein on December 10, 2014
The drilling companies rushing to capture North Dakota’s rich oil reserves often wind up with unwanted natural gas. In other words, they literally have surplus energy to burn. So they do just that, torching vast amounts of the cheap gas — a practice that critics say is tremendously wasteful and a threat to the environment…
Posted in Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, Environmental Safety and Health, FairWarning Reports |
By Stuart Silverstein on November 18, 2014
The “drink responsibly” or “enjoy in moderation” messages tucked into liquor and beer ads don’t impress Jennifer Romo. “Nobody actually takes that seriously,” said Romo, a 21-year-old political science major at UCLA. She added: “‘Drink responsibly,’ what does that even mean?” A recent study, alcohol industry critics and even a risqué parody on the animated…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Product Hazards and Recalls | Tagged advertising, alcohol |
By Stuart Silverstein on November 12, 2014
Almost every day, somewhere in the U.S., a car jumps over a curb and smashes into a convenience store, coffee shop or restaurant. Some of these crashes hurt or kill innocent bystanders, while also causing millions of dollars in property damage. As FairWarning has reported, many safety experts say that for a modest cost –…
Posted in Auto and Highway Safety, FairWarning Reports, Uncategorized |
By Stuart Silverstein on October 16, 2014
On every package of the quit-smoking drug Chantix, a warning label alerts doctors and consumers that some people taking the tablets have reported “serious neuropsychiatric events.” As FairWarning has reported, Chantix’s so-called black box warning – the government’s strongest alert – was first imposed in 2009 after thousands of claims of side effects, including reported…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, Product Hazards and Recalls, Smoking and Tobacco Industry |
By Stuart Silverstein on September 15, 2014
Note to reader: See update at the bottom of the story. As Latino workers take on more and more of the nation’s toughest and dirtiest jobs, they increasingly are paying for it with their lives. Preliminary federal figures released last week showed that of the 4,405 U.S. workers killed on the job in 2013, 797 were Latinos….
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Workplace, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Myron Levin and Stuart Silverstein on May 22, 2014
A federal investigation of pay practices in Major League Baseball has been expanded to include two more teams—the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland A’s—bringing to four the number of clubs that have come under scrutiny for possible violations of U.S. wage standards. The Labor Department’s focus is pay for clubhouse and administrative workers and interns, who…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Workplace | Tagged Baltimore Orioles, baseball, Labor Department, Major League Baseball, Oakland A's, sports, wage violations, wages |
By Stuart Silverstein on August 27, 2013
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched an investigation of residential elevators and lifts, which the agency estimates were involved in 1,600 injuries during 2011 and 2012.
Posted in FairWarning Reports |
By Stuart Silverstein on November 20, 2012
Numbers don’t lie, as the saying goes, but it’s not always clear what they’re telling us. Consider a surprising dimension of the red state-blue state divide: Death rates from road crashes are strikingly higher in red states than in blue.
Posted in Auto and Highway Safety, FairWarning Reports |
