Today's post is shared from www.cidrap.umn.edu
Ebola virus particlesEbola virus particles emerge from an infected cell.Ebola virus particlesEbola virus particles emerge from an infected cell.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) today reported the first case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in one of its own staff, and a media report said a health worker hospitalized with EVD in Atlanta is poised to receive convalescent serum from a British nurse who recently recovered from the illness.
As medical teams inside and outside West Africa continued to grapple with the disease, more nations announced support for the outbreak response, and a US House of Representatives committee heard from federal officials and others familiar with the medical and social challenges in battling the epidemic.
In a statement today, MSF said the sick staff member is a woman from France who had been working in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. She was placed in isolation yesterday after coming down with a fever and tested positive for the virus the same day. The group said she will be evacuated to a specialized treatment center in France.
MSF has been at the forefront of the EVD response and has been working in the region since the outbreak began in March. The woman is the eighth sick foreign medical worker to be airlifted out of West Africa's outbreak area.
Brice de la Vigne, MSF director of operations, said in the statement that MSF applies strict protection protocols for its staff before, during, and after they spend time in the EVD outbreak countries. "This...
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Thursday, September 18, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola
Today's post is shared from cidrap.umn.edu
Editor's Note: Today's commentary was submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission. In May they published a similar commentary on MERS-CoV. Dr Brosseau is a Professor and Dr Jones an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Healthcare workers play a very important role in the successful containment of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola. The correct type and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) ensures that healthcare workers remain healthy throughout an outbreak—and with the current rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it's imperative to favor more conservative measures.
The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has:
No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities
A high case-fatality rate
Unclear modes of transmission
We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.1
The minimum level of...
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Editor's Note: Today's commentary was submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission. In May they published a similar commentary on MERS-CoV. Dr Brosseau is a Professor and Dr Jones an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Healthcare workers play a very important role in the successful containment of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola. The correct type and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) ensures that healthcare workers remain healthy throughout an outbreak—and with the current rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it's imperative to favor more conservative measures.
The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has:
No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities
A high case-fatality rate
Unclear modes of transmission
We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.1
The minimum level of...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
Systematic review of response rates of sarcomatoid malignant pleural mesotheliomas in clinical trials
Systemic chemotherapy treatment for mesothelioma patients has been reported to less effective on patients with sarcomatoid tumors. A recent study has been reported in Lung Cancer.
"Abstract Rationale
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an almost universally fatal malignancy primarily related to asbestos exposure. Based on the differences in immunologic markers and gene expression between histologic subtypes of mesothelioma, and our clinical impression that response rates vary by histology, we decided to examine the reported response rates of mesothelioma subtypes.
Objectives
Our objective was to compare the response rates of sarcomatoid mesotheliomas to the overall response rates in published clinical trials.
Methods
We searched PubMed for “mesothelioma” with the clinical trials filter selected. We included articles published between January 1, 2000 and March 20, 2014 in which subjects received first or second line systemic therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Studies investigating multi-modality therapy including surgery were excluded. Response rates [including 95% confidence intervals (95% CI)] were estimated for the entire patient cohort and then separately for subjects with sarcomatoid tumors.
Measurements and main results
We reviewed 544 publications of which 41 trials met our inclusion criteria. Eleven of these trials did not include patients with sarcomatoid mesothelioma (27% of eligible studies). The remaining 30 publications included 1475 subjects, 1011 with epithelioid tumors (68.5%), 203 with biphasic tumors (13.8%), 137 with sarcomatoid tumors (9.3%) and 124 with unknown subtypes (8.4%). In total, there were 323 responses (21.9%, complete and partial responses, 95% CI: 16.3, 28.8) to systemic therapy across all histological subtypes. In patients with sarcomatoid tumors (n = 137) 19 responses were observed. This accounted for 5.9% of all responses and yields a 13.9% (95% CI: 8.6, 21.6) response rate for patients with sarcomatoid tumors. Multiple biases likely affected this systematic review.
Conclusion
Response rates for different histological subtypes of malignant pleural mesothelioma are infrequently reported. Partial and complete responses to systemic therapies appear to be less common among patients with sarcomatoid tumors.
James T. Symanowskib,
Tobias Peikertc
a Department of Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States
b Department of Cancer Biostatistics, Levine Cancer Institute Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, NC, United States
c Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States
DOI: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2014.08.017 "
"Abstract Rationale
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an almost universally fatal malignancy primarily related to asbestos exposure. Based on the differences in immunologic markers and gene expression between histologic subtypes of mesothelioma, and our clinical impression that response rates vary by histology, we decided to examine the reported response rates of mesothelioma subtypes.
Objectives
Our objective was to compare the response rates of sarcomatoid mesotheliomas to the overall response rates in published clinical trials.
Methods
We searched PubMed for “mesothelioma” with the clinical trials filter selected. We included articles published between January 1, 2000 and March 20, 2014 in which subjects received first or second line systemic therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Studies investigating multi-modality therapy including surgery were excluded. Response rates [including 95% confidence intervals (95% CI)] were estimated for the entire patient cohort and then separately for subjects with sarcomatoid tumors.
Measurements and main results
We reviewed 544 publications of which 41 trials met our inclusion criteria. Eleven of these trials did not include patients with sarcomatoid mesothelioma (27% of eligible studies). The remaining 30 publications included 1475 subjects, 1011 with epithelioid tumors (68.5%), 203 with biphasic tumors (13.8%), 137 with sarcomatoid tumors (9.3%) and 124 with unknown subtypes (8.4%). In total, there were 323 responses (21.9%, complete and partial responses, 95% CI: 16.3, 28.8) to systemic therapy across all histological subtypes. In patients with sarcomatoid tumors (n = 137) 19 responses were observed. This accounted for 5.9% of all responses and yields a 13.9% (95% CI: 8.6, 21.6) response rate for patients with sarcomatoid tumors. Multiple biases likely affected this systematic review.
Conclusion
Response rates for different histological subtypes of malignant pleural mesothelioma are infrequently reported. Partial and complete responses to systemic therapies appear to be less common among patients with sarcomatoid tumors.
Received: June 18, 2014; Received in revised form: August 18, 2014; Accepted: August 22, 2014; Published Online: September 01, 2014
Aaron S. Mansfielda, , ,James T. Symanowskib,
Tobias Peikertc
a Department of Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States
b Department of Cancer Biostatistics, Levine Cancer Institute Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, NC, United States
c Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States
DOI: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2014.08.017 "
Home Care Needs of Injured Workers and Their Families
Today's post is authored by Melissa Brown of the California bar and shared from fbgslaw.com
The WCAB has shown great empathy for the needs of injured workers and their families who provide uncompensated home care in two recent decisions. Most people think of uncompensated case in the context of elderly family members (Estimated at over $450 billion annually by AARP), the value of care provided to injured workers by family and other support networks has not been quantified. These decisions from the WCAB affirm the medical necessity of this care, with strong words directed to Insurance companies who do not operate in good faith in providing home care to injured workers
http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/workers-compensation/b/recent-cases-news-trends-developments/archive/2014/08/07/california-wcab-applies-neri-hernandez-to-home-health-care-services-cases.aspx
The WCAB has shown great empathy for the needs of injured workers and their families who provide uncompensated home care in two recent decisions. Most people think of uncompensated case in the context of elderly family members (Estimated at over $450 billion annually by AARP), the value of care provided to injured workers by family and other support networks has not been quantified. These decisions from the WCAB affirm the medical necessity of this care, with strong words directed to Insurance companies who do not operate in good faith in providing home care to injured workers
http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/workers-compensation/b/recent-cases-news-trends-developments/archive/2014/08/07/california-wcab-applies-neri-hernandez-to-home-health-care-services-cases.aspx
State With the Highest Deaths on the Job
Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from 247wallst.com
Work-related deaths dropped slightly from 2012 to 2103, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), down from 4,628 to 4,405. Maybe worker safety programs are yielding better results. The states with the highest death rates are the largest by population, which should come as no surprise.
According to the BLS:
The rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2013 was 3.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, compared to a final rate of 3.4 per 100,000 in 2012.
And:
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia reported higher numbers of fatal work injuries in 2013 than in 2012, while 30 states reported lower numbers. Three states reported the same number as in 2012. For more detailed state results, contact the individual state agency responsible for the collection of CFOI (Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries) data in that state.
Although Texas has the second largest population, it has the largest number of work-related deaths last year. Deaths, however, did fall from 536 to 493. California, the largest state by population, reported deaths rose from 375 to 385. In third place, work-related deaths in Florida rose from 218 to 234. In fourth place, work-related deaths in New York fell from 202 to 160.
Since the number was down so slightly from year to year, it may be a decade before it will be reasonable to call it a trend.
Methodology: The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the BLS...
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Work-related deaths dropped slightly from 2012 to 2103, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), down from 4,628 to 4,405. Maybe worker safety programs are yielding better results. The states with the highest death rates are the largest by population, which should come as no surprise.
According to the BLS:
The rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2013 was 3.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, compared to a final rate of 3.4 per 100,000 in 2012.
And:
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia reported higher numbers of fatal work injuries in 2013 than in 2012, while 30 states reported lower numbers. Three states reported the same number as in 2012. For more detailed state results, contact the individual state agency responsible for the collection of CFOI (Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries) data in that state.
Although Texas has the second largest population, it has the largest number of work-related deaths last year. Deaths, however, did fall from 536 to 493. California, the largest state by population, reported deaths rose from 375 to 385. In third place, work-related deaths in Florida rose from 218 to 234. In fourth place, work-related deaths in New York fell from 202 to 160.
Since the number was down so slightly from year to year, it may be a decade before it will be reasonable to call it a trend.
Methodology: The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the BLS...
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Hillary Clinton calls for re-authorization of Zadroga Act
 Today's post is shared from nydailynews.com Fresh off her appearance in Iowa -- where she dropped several hints about her future presidential ambitions in front of a crowd of more than 6,000 Democrats -- Hillary Clinton looked back as she spoke to a smaller group of labor leaders Tuesday night in Manhattan and called for the re-authorization of the Zadroga Act. Speaking to about 150 labor leaders at the teachers union headquarters, Clinton called for the re-authorization of the 2010 legislation, which compensates 9/11 first responders for health problems cause by working at the World Trade Center site after the attacks. “This is like a homecoming,” Clinton said. She hailed labor leaders as her “comrades in arms” for helping to pass the law four years ago, legislation Clinton sponsored when she served in the Senate. “It was a scene out of Dante’s Inferno,” she said, recalling a visit to Ground Zero after the World Trade Center attacks. “It was as close to Hell as I can imagine any of us experiencing…. It was organized labor that came to the forefront and began working with me and others. Union pension funds became the only source of help for people in need.” The Zadroga Act is set to expire in 2016. “There are thousands who still need help,” she said. “All this work is at risk unless Congress acts.... The price of passage was a so-called sunset clause and... [Click here to see the rest of this post] |
EPA: National Truck Driver Appreciation Week
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the American Trucking Associations, Kimberly Clark and the entire trucking industry, is taking this week to honor the 3.1 million professional truck drivers that deliver America’s freight safely and securely everyday.
During this National Truck Driver Appreciation Week September 14 – 21, EPA will mark the celebration by attending a Kimberly Clark Distribution Center in McDonough, Georgia on Thursday, September 18th. EPA chose Kimberly Clark because they are a high performing SmartWay partner in the Region and EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership is celebrating 10 years as a market-driven initiative that empowers businesses to move goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible, while protecting public health and reducing the impacts of climate change.
“Trucking and goods movement are essential parts of America’s commerce,” said Beverly Banister, Director, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, EPA Southeast. “EPA supports and encourages efforts to provide cleaner, more economical movement of food and other products through greater efficiencies and reduced fuel usage. Thanks to Kimberly Clark and their professional drivers for their efforts to keep America’s freight moving sustainably, helping us to breathe easier.”
Kimberly Clark will distribute packets to the professional truck drivers and EPA will be on hand to discuss driver training programs that target fuel efficiency. Kimberly Clark encourages their carriers to implement driver behavior techniques that will save fuel and reduce harmful emissions. A few simple changes in driving techniques can produce sizable fuel savings of 5 percent or more.
There are over 3.1 million professional truck drivers nationwide – delivering life’s essentials. These professional men and women behind the wheel log close to 398 billion miles each year and last year delivered over 67 percent of the U.S. freight tonnage – or over 9.2 billion tons of freight. 80 percent of U.S. communities depend solely on the trucking industry. Professional truck drivers keep this country moving.
During this National Truck Driver Appreciation Week September 14 – 21, EPA will mark the celebration by attending a Kimberly Clark Distribution Center in McDonough, Georgia on Thursday, September 18th. EPA chose Kimberly Clark because they are a high performing SmartWay partner in the Region and EPA’s SmartWay Transport Partnership is celebrating 10 years as a market-driven initiative that empowers businesses to move goods in the cleanest, most energy-efficient way possible, while protecting public health and reducing the impacts of climate change.
“Trucking and goods movement are essential parts of America’s commerce,” said Beverly Banister, Director, Air, Pesticides and Toxics Management Division, EPA Southeast. “EPA supports and encourages efforts to provide cleaner, more economical movement of food and other products through greater efficiencies and reduced fuel usage. Thanks to Kimberly Clark and their professional drivers for their efforts to keep America’s freight moving sustainably, helping us to breathe easier.”
Kimberly Clark will distribute packets to the professional truck drivers and EPA will be on hand to discuss driver training programs that target fuel efficiency. Kimberly Clark encourages their carriers to implement driver behavior techniques that will save fuel and reduce harmful emissions. A few simple changes in driving techniques can produce sizable fuel savings of 5 percent or more.
There are over 3.1 million professional truck drivers nationwide – delivering life’s essentials. These professional men and women behind the wheel log close to 398 billion miles each year and last year delivered over 67 percent of the U.S. freight tonnage – or over 9.2 billion tons of freight. 80 percent of U.S. communities depend solely on the trucking industry. Professional truck drivers keep this country moving.
Mercury: EPA Adds Pierson’s Creek Site in Newark, NJ to the Federal Superfund List
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today added the Pierson’s Creek site in Newark, New Jersey to its Superfund list of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. Past industrial activity at and in the vicinity of the site, including the manufacture of chemicals, has contaminated Pierson’s Creek, which flows into Newark Bay. Sediment in the creek contains elevated levels of mercury and other pollutants. Previous testing by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection showed that some sediment in Pierson’s Creek contained as much as 60% mercury by weight.
Exposure to mercury can damage people’s nervous systems and harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.
“Adding the Pierson’s Creek site to the Superfund list allows EPA to better protect people’s health and clean up this highly contaminated creek in Newark, NJ,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “We have indications that sediment in Pierson’s Creek contained as much as 60% mercury by weight. Mercury in sediment can build up in the tissue of fish and other wildlife and pose a threat to people who eat them.”
The Troy Chemical Corporation has manufactured chemicals at a plant adjacent to Pierson’s Creek since 1956. The company currently manufactures antimicrobial and antifungal paint additives at that facility. Between 1956 and 1965, the Troy Chemical Corporation allegedly discharged untreated mercury–containing wastewater into Pierson’s Creek. After 1965, the wastewater was treated at the plant to address the mercury prior to its discharge into the creek. In 1976, a wastewater treatment plant was built on the site. In 2001, the EPA reached a settlement with Troy Chemical that required the facility to come into compliance with chemical reporting regulations and make improvements to reduce air and water pollution and decrease the amount of chemicals the company uses in its processes. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has also worked to resolve air and water violations resulting from operations at the plant. Other nearby facilities may also have discharged hazardous chemicals into the creek. New Jersey supports the inclusion of the Pierson’s Creek site to the Superfund list.
The EPA periodically proposes sites to the Superfund list and, after responding to public comments, designates them as final Superfund sites. The EPA accepted public comments on the proposal of this site for 105 days and considered public input before finalizing its decision. In the proposal this site was named the Troy Chemical Corp. site. Today’s addition of this site brings the total number of final sites on the federal Superfund list in New Jersey to 115 - the most of any state in the nation.
The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. The EPA searches for parties legally responsible for the contamination at sites that are placed on the Superfund list and it seeks to hold those parties accountable for the costs of investigations and cleanups.
To learn more about the site, please visit:http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/piersonscreek
Exposure to mercury can damage people’s nervous systems and harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.
“Adding the Pierson’s Creek site to the Superfund list allows EPA to better protect people’s health and clean up this highly contaminated creek in Newark, NJ,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “We have indications that sediment in Pierson’s Creek contained as much as 60% mercury by weight. Mercury in sediment can build up in the tissue of fish and other wildlife and pose a threat to people who eat them.”
The Troy Chemical Corporation has manufactured chemicals at a plant adjacent to Pierson’s Creek since 1956. The company currently manufactures antimicrobial and antifungal paint additives at that facility. Between 1956 and 1965, the Troy Chemical Corporation allegedly discharged untreated mercury–containing wastewater into Pierson’s Creek. After 1965, the wastewater was treated at the plant to address the mercury prior to its discharge into the creek. In 1976, a wastewater treatment plant was built on the site. In 2001, the EPA reached a settlement with Troy Chemical that required the facility to come into compliance with chemical reporting regulations and make improvements to reduce air and water pollution and decrease the amount of chemicals the company uses in its processes. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has also worked to resolve air and water violations resulting from operations at the plant. Other nearby facilities may also have discharged hazardous chemicals into the creek. New Jersey supports the inclusion of the Pierson’s Creek site to the Superfund list.
The EPA periodically proposes sites to the Superfund list and, after responding to public comments, designates them as final Superfund sites. The EPA accepted public comments on the proposal of this site for 105 days and considered public input before finalizing its decision. In the proposal this site was named the Troy Chemical Corp. site. Today’s addition of this site brings the total number of final sites on the federal Superfund list in New Jersey to 115 - the most of any state in the nation.
The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. The EPA searches for parties legally responsible for the contamination at sites that are placed on the Superfund list and it seeks to hold those parties accountable for the costs of investigations and cleanups.
To learn more about the site, please visit:http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/piersonscreek
OSHA seeks damages for wrongly terminated employee who made safety complaint
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho against Sandpoint Gas 'n' Go & Lube Center Inc., in Sandpoint, Idaho, and its owner Sydney M. Oskoui, individually, for violating the whistleblower protection provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The investigation determined that Sandpoint and its owner terminated a mechanic for raising safety and health concerns in the workplace.
OSHA investigated a complaint filed by the work and cited the employer for safety and health violations. Upon receipt of the citations and proposed penalties, the employer fired the employee. The department determined that the employee was fired for filing a safety complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Boise Area Office.
"We are committed to protecting workers' rights to raise work-related safety and health concerns without fear of losing his or her job," said Galen Blanton, OSHA's acting regional administrator in Seattle. "We will not tolerate the reprehensible behavior exhibited by Sandpoint in this case."
The employer is expected to pay to the fired employee back wages with interest, benefits and punitive damages. The suit also requests an order from the court permanently enjoining Sandpoint and its owner from violating the anti-retaliation provisions of the OSH Act and requires that a notice be posted for employees regarding their rights under the OSH Act.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of more than 21 statutes protecting employees who report violations of various commercial motor carrier, airline, nuclear, pipeline, environmental, public transportation agency, consumer product, motor vehicle safety, railroad, maritime, health care reform, food safety, securities and financial reform laws. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets with information on how to file a complaint with OSHA, is available online at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
###
Perez v. Sandpoint Gas 'n' Go & Lube Center Inc. and Sydney M. Oskoui, individually
Civil Action Number: 2:14-cv-00357-BLW
Civil Action Number: 2:14-cv-00357-BLW
Fixing Our Inadequate Brain Science
Today's post comes from guest author Jay Causey, from Causey Law Firm.
By Jay Causey from Causey Law Firm
The high incidence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) affecting our returning Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, and also our civilian contractor employees, has helped to highlight the inadequacy of the current level of “brain science.”
More than one in five Americans – – over 60 million people – – suffer brain disorder from injury or illness. 600 conditions exist, ranging from autism and Alzheimer’s to the aforementioned TBI and PTSD. Not a single one of these conditions has been cured. Brain ailments affect more people than heart disease and cancer combined, yet those conditions receive 3 to 5 times more funding for research.
Unlike science for other conditions and diseases, brain science has not had the advantage of an umbrella organization to its coordinate efforts. Brain science research and funding has been fragmented, researchers have often been territorial and overly concerned with intellectual property issues, and the corporate funding that has come mostly from the pharmaceutical industry has been shrinking. An organization named One Mind has recently been created to attack the shortcomings of brain science by advocating for the principle of “open science,” which fosters collaborative scientific work with accessible central data collection for researchers. This process in turn allows for accelerated integration of data and validation of results for publication. All of this should allow basic research to more rapidly reach the clinical setting and benefit patients of brain ailment.
One Mind has two programs currently in progress: Gemini, in which 11 research centers will enroll 3000 patients in a longitudinal brain injury study; and Apollo, which is developing a data exchange portal that will support the collaborative effort described above and will create a digital marketplace accessible by students, teachers and researchers.
One Mind is currently headed by CEO Gen. Pete Chiarelli, U.S. Army (retired) who as vice chief of the Army was instrumental in Department of Defense efforts on PTSD, TBI, and suicide prevention. In 2013 Chiarelli received the “Patriot Award” for his work with soldiers and their families dealing with the so-called “invisible wounds” of war.
The author recently attended a presentation in Seattle by Gen. Chiarelli, who provided much additional anecdotal information about the shortcomings of brain science and the efforts by One Mind. He noted, for example, that the diagnostic criteria currently in use for assessing PTSD are decades old and woefully inadequate for mental health practitioners to accurately diagnose and assess the condition.
Go to www.onemind.org for a full review of the organization, its mission and its programs.
Photo credit: "Central nervous system drawing circa 1900"
A Special Warning About Over-the-Counter Pain Medications
Today's post comes from guest author Jay Causey, from Causey Law Firm.
By Jay Causey from Causey Law Firm
The dangers of prescription pain meds get a fair amount of regular attention in the media. A recent Consumer Reports (CR) article described a 300% rise in prescriptions of opiods – particularly those with hydrocodone –over the past decade, and provided a scary statistic: 17,000 people – 46 per day – die from overdose of these drugs.
What is less well known, and gets relatively scant attention, is that over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers containing acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) take 80,000 people yearly to the emergency room from overdose. Acetaminophen, widely regarded as a “safe” drug is now the most common cause of liver failure.
The CR article points out the primary problem: the directions for usage of these OTC drugs are ridiculously confusing and misleading. Many of these only provide the caveat “take only as directed.” What exactly does that mean? Wildly different things according the cautions provided by differing drug manufacturers. Some labels advise taking no more than 1000 milligrams of acetaminophen daily while others set the limits four times that high. In some bizarre bureaucratic misstep, the FDA has lowered the maximum per-pill dose of the drug in prescription medications but has not done the same thing for OTCs.
CR warns that overdosing on acetaminophen is easy as it is the most common drug in the U.S., found in more than 600 OTC and prescription medications. There is little margin for error in exceeding the maximum recommended dose as only as small excess amount of the drug can be toxic to the liver. A scary little graphic in the article shows how easy it is to do this. A person might take six 500 milligram Extra Strength Tylenol (states maximum daily dose of 3000 milligrams) starting in the morning and through the day; then be on NyQuil for a cold and take eight 325 milligram pills (states maximum daily dose 2600 milligrams); and then do Walgreens Pain Reliever PM as a sleep aid (two 500 milligram pills at bedtime for a daily dose of 1000 milligrams). At the end of a 24-hour period, that person would have ingested 6,600 milligrams of acetaminophen!! Repeated doses of more than 4000 milligrams of the drug have been linked to liver, brain and kidney damage. Chronically large doses have been correlated with the need for a liver transplant, or death, more than from one large overdose.
In 2011, the FDA limited the amount of acetaminophen in prescription pills to 325 milligrams per pill, but there has been no similar limitation imposed for OTCs, even though that market accounts for 80% of that drug taken yearly in the U.S. For those regular users of acetaminophen, signs of potential liver damage to watch for are: dark urine, pale stool, upper right abdominal pain, and a yellowish tint to the whites of the eyes.
Photo credit: Be.Futureproof / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
OSHA’s Top 10 Violations for 2014 announced at National Safety Council Congress & Expo
San Diego, CA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced the preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety violations for fiscal year 2014. Patrick Kapust, deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, presented the Top 10 before a crowded group of spectators on the Expo floor. “We greatly appreciate our colleagues at OSHA sharing their most recent data at the nation’s largest gathering of safety and health professionals,” said National Safety Council President and CEO Deborah A.P. Hersman. “This data is a poignant reminder that there is still much room for improvement in making our workplaces safer, and that it is going to take all of us to make a difference.” The Top 10 for FY 2014* are:
About the National Safety Council Founded in 1913 and chartered by Congress, the National Safety Council, nsc.org, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to save lives by preventing injuries and... |
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Cycling or walking to work 'improves psychological health'
Today's post is shared from medicalnewstoday.com
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According to a new study conducted by health economists at the University of East Anglia and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research in the UK, walking or cycling to work is better for people's mental health than driving. The psychological benefits of walking or cycling to work come on top of the well-known physical health benefits. In February of this year, the UK Office of National Statistics published a report that found UK citizens who walked to work had lower life satisfaction than those who drove to work. The report also found that cyclists were less happy and more anxious than other commuters. The new study, however - which is published in the journal Preventive Medicine - contradicts this. The team studied 18 years of data from almost 18,000 commuters in the UK aged 18-65. The data took in various aspects of psychological health including feelings of worthlessness, unhappiness, sleepless nights and capability of dealing with problems. Factors that are known to affect well-being, such as income, having children, moving house or job, and relationship changes were also taken into account by the researchers. The results suggest that people benefited from improved well-being when they stopped driving and started walking or cycling to work. Commuters reported that they felt better able to concentrate and "less under strain" if they used these methods of travel, rather than... |
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting While Driving
People know they shouldn’t text and drive. Overwhelmingly, they tell pollsters that doing so is unacceptable and dangerous, and yet they do it anyway. They can’t resist. So safety advocates and public officials have called for a technological solution that does an end run around free will and prevents people from texting in the first place. That’s where Scott Tibbitts comes in. A chemical engineer who built a company that made motors and docking stations for NASA, Mr. Tibbitts, 57, spent the last five years coming up with a novel way to block incoming and outgoing texts and to prevent phone calls from reaching a driver. He wasn’t some crazy inventor or relentless self-promoter acting on his own. To bolster his engineering solution, he struck a partnership with two heavyweights: American Family Insurance, which agreed to invest in the technology, and, even more important, with Sprint. It agreed to allow Mr. Tibbitts’s company, Katasi, to use its network to stop texts. It was a kind of holy grail, safety advocates gushed, a first for an American phone carrier.  The product was being completed in February for a summer start — “a huge deal,” as it was characterized by David Teater, senior director for transportation initiatives at the National Safety Council, which works to curb distracted driving. Sprint hailed it as a major step. It seemed to answer a call from people like Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West... |
GM halts Corvette delivery for brakes, air bags
GM halted delivery of the 2015 Corvette until it can find and fix potential problems with parking brakes and air bags. No recall was immediately announced.(Photo: Chevrolet) General Motors slammed the brakes on a month's worth of Chevrolet's high-power Corvette halo car to prevent any faulty air bags or improperly installed parking brakes from getting into customers' hands. About 800 2015 Corvettes — most of them at dealerships, GM says — are on hold because they may have been built with only one of the rear parking brake cables installed properly. Another 2,000 2015 Corvettes at dealers could have a faulty part that attaches the air bag to the steering wheel hub. GM halted shipments of additional 2015 Corvettes from their Bowling Green, Ky., factory to prevent any more potentially defective cars from getting into the sales network. The two actions — a stop-delivery order to dealers and a stop-ship order to the factory — aren't recalls. In fact, they are the actions automakers take to try to prevent recalls by trying to catch the problem cars before they are sold. GM said on Friday that it "has not publicly issued a recall on the 2015 Corvette." But such "stop" orders often don't catch all the vehicles, and a recall follows anyway. The move comes at an especially sensitive time for GM for several reasons: •It can't afford to tarry resolving safety issues. Federal regulators have GM under a microscope after it was fined for failing to... |
Taking a Health Hazard Home
 Taking health problems home from work is not new to Americam society. It is long known that bringing toxics substances home can contaminate your home and subject your family to disease. Today's post is shared from the nytimes.com/ A new study of a small group of workers at industrial hog farms in North Carolina has found that they continued to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria over several days, raising new questions for public health officials struggling to contain the spread of such pathogens. Although the bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, is common and does not always cause illness, it can contaminate food and give rise to skin infections and respiratory diseases. Its methicillin-resistant variation, known as MRSA, has wreaked havoc on hospital systems, causing life-threatening complications. The study focused on hog farms because previous research had found the highest incidence of S. aureus among workers in those settings. As of 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, there were an estimated 75,309 serious infections from MRSA and an estimated 9,670 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Improved hospital procedures have helped reduce the incidence of infection, officials say, but researchers are now concerned about strains of S. aureus resistant to a variety of antibiotics like tetracycline, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin. Among the 22 workers tested in the new study, reported in the Sept. 8 edition of the journal... |
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Airplane Crew May Face Increased Melanoma Risk
Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/
| Airline pilots and crews may be at increased risk for melanoma, a new review has found. Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer that starts in the melanocytes, the cells that produce skin pigment. According to the National Cancer Institute, there are about 76,000 cases and 10,000 deaths a year from the disease in the United States. The analysis, online at JAMA Dermatology, used data from 19 studies that included more than 266,000 subjects. It found that airline crews had about twice the incidence of melanoma as the general population, and a melanoma death rate 42 percent higher. The authors acknowledged that all the studies were observational, and that most were retrospective. In addition, they did not account for skin type; it may be that fair-skinned people, who are more subject to melanoma, are more likely to work in flight-related occupations. The reason is unclear, but ultraviolet A radiation exposure, which at 30,000 feet is twice what it is on the ground, is a well-established risk factor for melanoma, and airplane window glass blocks it only minimally. “At 30,000 feet, the amount of UVA radiation that gets through is considerable,” said the senior author, Dr. Susana Ortiz-Urda, a director of the melanoma center at the University of California, San Francisco. “Sunscreen protection is important, and skin checks once a year should be a part of health screening.” |
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Fracking: Are elevated levels of hydrocarbon gases in drinking-water aquifers near gas wells natural or anthropogenic?
| Today's post is shared from pnas.org/ Hydrocarbon production from unconventional sources is growing rapidly, accompanied by concerns about drinking-water contamination and other environmental risks. Using noble gas and hydrocarbon tracers, we distinguish natural sources of methane from anthropogenic contamination and evaluate the mechanisms that cause elevated hydrocarbon concentrations in drinking water near natural-gas wells. We document fugitive gases in eight clusters of domestic water wells overlying the Marcellus and Barnett Shales, including declining water quality through time over the Barnett. Gas geochemistry data implicate leaks through annulus cement (four cases), production casings (three cases), and underground well failure (one case) rather than gas migration induced by hydraulic fracturing deep underground. Determining the mechanisms of contamination will improve the safety and economics of shale-gas extraction. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have enhanced energy production but raised concerns about drinking-water contamination and other environmental impacts. Identifying the sources and mechanisms of contamination can help improve the environmental and economic sustainability of shale-gas extraction. We analyzed 113 and 20 samples from drinking-water wells overlying the Marcellus and Barnett Shales, respectively, examining hydrocarbon abundance and isotopic compositions (e.g., C2H6/CH4, δ13C-CH4) and providing, to our... |
Maker of Costly Hepatitis C Drug Sovaldi Strikes Deal on Generics for Poor Countries
Prescription costs are increasing and it is contributing to higher workers' compensation costs. Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/ The maker of one of the costliest drugs in the world announced on Monday that it had struck deals with seven generic drug makers in India to sell lower-cost versions of the medicine — a $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C treatment — in poorer countries. Gilead Sciences, which is based in California, also said it would begin selling its own version of the drug in India and other developing countries at a fraction of the price it charges in the United States. The company intends to provide greater access to the medicine, Sovaldi, for most of the nearly 180 million infected worldwide with hepatitis C who do not live in rich countries. Some 350,000 people die every year of hepatitis C infections, most of them in middle- and low-income nations. Sovaldi, in only its initial year on the market after gaining approval in the United States in December, is on pace to exceed $10 billion in sales in 2014, becoming one of the world’s best-selling drugs. Its high price has led to intense criticism even in the United States, where officials say it could drain Medicaid budgets and insurers say it could cause increases in private insurance premiums.But executives at Gilead say its price is similar to those of other hepatitis C treatments and is a bargain compared with the costs of liver failure and liver cancer, which it may prevent. The high price of some drugs in the United States, particularly those that treat cancer, has led some of the nation’s most... |
Monday, September 15, 2014
Temp workers organize for change in an industry rife with reported abuses: ‘They would treat people as disposable’
| Today's post is shared from scienceblogs.com For eight years, Dora worked at a frozen pizza factory in Romeoville, Illinois, called Great Kitchens. For eight hours a day — sometimes seven days a week — she assembled pizza boxes or arranged cheese and other toppings on pizzas. The consequences of years of such repetitive work surfaced in October 2012, when her hands would go numb and a painful cyst formed on her left wrist. She told her supervisor about the problem, but he said he couldn’t do anything about it — Dora was a temporary worker hired through a staffing agency and so Great Kitchens wasn’t responsible for addressing her injury. “I went to the temp agency and they told me to just put a bandage around it and use ice and they would send me to work the next day,” said Dora, 36, who asked me not to use her last name. “It was seven months later that they sent me to a doctor because I couldn’t work anymore.” Unfortunately, Dora’s experience has become a typical one among temporary workers, as more and more corporations outsource their hiring to temporary staffing agencies and effectively absolve themselves of the legal responsibility of ensuring safe and healthy workplaces that adhere to labor laws. In other words, Dora and other temporary workers are considered employees of the staffing agencies, not the factory or office in which they actually work. That means it’s the staffing agency that takes on the workers’ compensation liability,... |
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis cases linked with asbestos exposure
| Today's post is shared from sciencedaily.com A proportion of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) cases may be linked with asbestos exposure, according to the results of a new study. If confirmed, the findings would mean that current treatment strategies need to be altered as people with a history of asbestos exposure are not currently able to access new treatments for IPF. The research, which was presented at the European Respiratory Society's International Congress, provided new mortality data for IPF, asbestosis and mesothelioma. Asbestosis is the name given to the lung disease developed by people with a known history of exposure to asbestos. The symptoms and presentation of this disease can be identical to IPF; the only difference between the two diseases is whether a patient knows about their exposure to asbestos. People with asbestosis are not currently eligible for new treatments for IPF, despite the fact that these treatments work on curing an identical disease. Researchers have suggested that a proportion of IPF may be due to unknown exposure to asbestos. They analysed mortality rates for IPF, asbestosis and mesothelioma across England and Wales. Data were obtained from the Office of National Statistics on the annual number of deaths due to IPF, mesothelioma and asbestos for the period 1974-2012, broken down by age, sex and region. The analysis revealed national and regional correlations between the three diseases, which supports the theory that a proportion of IPF cases are due to unknown exposure to asbestos.... |
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