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| Rates* of avoidable death from heart disease, stroke, and hypertensive disease,† by county — United States, 2008–2010 |
Objectives: Crystalline silica occurs as a significant component of many traditional materials used in restoration stonework, and stoneworkers who work with these materials are potentially exposed to stone dust containing respirable crystalline silica (RCS). Exposure to RCS can result in the development of a range of adverse health effects, including silicosis and lung cancer. An understanding of the determinants of RCS exposure is important for selecting appropriate exposure controls and in preventing occupational diseases. The objectives of this study were to quantify the RCS exposure of stoneworkers involved in the restoration and maintenance of heritage properties and to identify the main determinants of RCS exposure among this occupational group.
Methods: An exposure assessment was carried out over a 3-year period amongst a group of stonemasons and stone cutters involved in the restoration and maintenance of heritage buildings in Ireland. Personal air samples (n = 103) with corresponding contextual information were collected. Exposure data were analysed using mixed-effects modelling to investigate determinants of RCS exposure and their contribution to the individual’s mean exposure. Between-depot, between-worker, and within-worker variance components were also investigated.
Results: The geometric mean (GM) RCS exposure concentrations for all tasks measured ranged from <0 data-blogger-escaped-.02="" data-blogger-escaped-0.70mg="" data-blogger-escaped-m="" data-blogger-escaped-sup="" data-blogger-escaped-to="">−3. GM RCS exposure concentrations for work involving limestone and lime mortar were <0 data-blogger-escaped-.02="" data-blogger-escaped-m="" data-blogger-escaped-mg="" data-blogger-escaped-ndash="" data-blogger-escaped-sup="">...
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 After months of delay, the NFL could soon be putting sensors in helmets. “Our goal is that by midseason we will have some teams geared up,” Kevin Guskiewicz, a University of North Carolina researcher and a member of the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, said at a Wednesday event in Baltimore, via USA Today. “We’re getting close, and I think that we have some teams identified.” The NFL previously had been chasing its tail regarding helmet sensors, with the league referring questions from ESPN regarding the league’s failure to use helmet sensors to Guskiewicz, who was publicly advocating the use of helmet sensors. Guskiewicz spoke openly in June 2012 about giving up on the effort to use sensors if the sensors weren’t used within the coming year. At that same time, former Steelers receiver and current NBC analyst Hines Ward expressed concern about the approach. “You’re gonna open up a while Pandora’s Box with it,” Ward told ESPN. “For a doctor to read a computer and tell me how hard I’ve been hit and to pull me out of a game, that won’t sit well with a lot of players.” It won’t, because many players want to try to persuade... |
 The troubled United States Postal Service is likely to vote to raise its prices at a Thursday meeting of its Board of Governors, according to top Washington lobbyists opposed to the hike. Greeting Card Association lobbyist Rafe Morrissey told reporters Wednesday that he expects the USPS to try to increase price of the 46 cent first-class stamp by 3 cents. That would consist of a 2 cent increase on top of a 1 cent inflation adjustment already expected in January. The magazine industry is anticipating as much as a double-digit increase for periodicals, another lobbyist source said. Currently, magazine postal rates average 27 cents per magazine. The Board vote would start a process of seeking emergency price-raising powers from the Postal Regulatory Commission. Congress under current law does not have a role in the process, but both the House and Senate are weighing overhauls of the USPS. “The Board seems to me moving down the path of filing an exigent case,” Morrissey said. “We don’t think that is part of a common-sense or sustainable solution.” He argued that the rate increase along with proposed reductions in service such as the end of Saturday delivery would only contribute to a agency's death spiral. The Greeting Card Association wants Congress to adjust the formula by which the USPS prefunds the future health benefits for its retirees and for it to consider delivering mail to curbside cluster boxes rather than individual... |
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Can law enforcement obtain a search warrant to dig through a vast trove of e-mails, instant messages and chat logs because they have reasonable suspicion that the owners of those accounts robbed computer equipment from a private company?
No, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Kansas earlier this week. The case is significant in that it limits what constitutes unreasonable search and seizure, as protected by the Fourth Amendment, in the age of big data. The magistrate judge, David J. Waxse, denied the government’s search warrant requests on the grounds that it has to be particular and “reasonable in nature of breadth.” Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and an expert on surveillance law, interpreted it this way on Twitter: “You can’t look through the kitchen sink to get the evidence, as you do with physical searches.” Prosecutors sought search warrants to extract information from Verizon, an Internet service provider, GoDaddy, a Web site hosting company, along with Web communications companies Google, Skype and Yahoo on account holders suspected of having stolen $5,000 in computer equipment from Sprint. The government believed that the suspects used e-mail and instant-message accounts to “facilitate the purchase, receipt and transportation of the equipment” from Kansas to New Jersey. The government sought “contents of all emails, instant messages and chat logs/sessions — and other... |
