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Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minnesota. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Colgate Total Ingredient Linked to Hormones, Cancer Spotlights FDA Process

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.bloomberg.com




Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The chemical triclosan has been linked to cancer-cell growth and disrupted development in animals. Regulators are reviewing whether it’s safe to put in soap, cutting boards and toys. Consumer companies are phasing it out. Minnesota voted in May to ban it in many products.
At the same time, millions of Americans are putting it in their mouths every day, by way of a top-selling toothpaste that uses the antibacterial chemical to head off gum disease -- Colgate-Palmolive Co.’s Total.
Total is safe, Colgate says, citing the rigorous Food and Drug Administration process that led to the toothpaste’s 1997 approval as an over-the-counter drug. A closer look at that application process, however, reveals that some of the scientific findings Colgate put forward to establish triclosan’s safety in toothpaste weren’t black and white -- and weren’t, until this year, available to the public.
Colgate’s Total application included 35 pages summarizing toxicology studies on triclosan, which the FDA withheld from view. The agency released the pages earlier this year in response to a lawsuit over a Freedom of Information Act request. Later, following inquiries from Bloomberg News, the FDA put the pages on its website.
The pages show how even with one of the U.S.’s most stringent regulatory processes -- FDA approval of a new drug -- the government relies on company-backed science to show products are safe and...
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Thursday, December 5, 2013

Rail Safety Questions Raised After NY Train Derails

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.thetakeaway.org

Investigators have found that the Metro-North commuter train that crashed in Bronx on Sunday—which killed four and injured more than 60 people—was speeding.
The train was travelling at around 82 miles per hour, even though a speed of 30 miles per hour or less was mandated on the stretch of curvy track the train was passing through.
In 2008, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which mandated that railroad companies install positive train control—a technology that automatically detects excessive speeding and other human error.
But even though the law was passed five years ago, the deadline to install positive train control isn’t for another two years.
In 2008 as a Democratic congressman representing Minnesota's 8th District, James Oberstar was a driving force behind this change as chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee. He joins The Takeaway to explain why Congress pushed for the Rail Safety Improvement Act and why the deadline isn't until December 31, 2015.
Also joining the program is Stuart Silverstein, assistant editor at FairWarning.org, an investigative news organization focused on public health and safety issues. Silverstein explains why some rail companies are succeeding at installing the positive train control system while others are missing the...
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Target Bans the Box

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com


Sanctions that make it more difficult for ex-offenders to obtain jobs, housing and even basic documents like drivers’ licenses only serve to drive them back to jail. With that in mind, a growing number of states and municipalities now prohibit public agencies — and in some cases private employers — from asking about a job applicant’s criminal history until the applicant reaches the interview stage or gets a conditional job offer. These eminently sensible “ban the box” laws are intended to let ex-offenders prove their qualifications before criminal history issues enter the equation.
A Target store in Daly City, Calif.Earlier this year Minnesota extended its existing law to cover private employers. Now, the Minneapolis-based Target Corporation, one of the nation’s largest employers, has announced that it will remove questions about criminal history from its job applications throughout the country. The announcement represents an important victory for the grassroots community group TakeAction Minnesota, which had been pressuring the company to change.

This comes on the heels of a similar development earlier this month in California, where Gov. Jerry Brown signed a ban-the-box bill that applies to government employers. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave this movement a lift last year, when it expanded and updated a ruling that barred employers from...
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