IARC to evaluate carbon nanotubes

Today's post is shared from http://johncherrie.blogspot.co.uk The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has announced that the 111th Monograph meeting  (30 September - 7 October 2014) will evaluate some nanomaterials and fibres. The agents  for review are carbon nanotubes (CNT), fluoro-edenite and silicon carbide. The major concern with CNT is their elongated shape and the possibility that they may have similar toxicological properties to asbestos, but the scientific issues surrounding nanotubes are complex. Searching the recently published literature shows that there are almost ten times the number of papers investigating the use of carbon nanotubes as a way of delivering therapeutic cancer drugs as are concerned with the cancer hazards or risks of the same materials. Ken Donaldson and colleagues [1] discussed the hazard of CNT in a recent paper. They noted that when inhaled, asbestos can cause asbestosis, bronchogenic carcinoma, mesothelioma, pleural fibrosis and pleural plaques. The pathogenicity of fibres in the lung depends on their length, diameter and biopersistence. Long and biopersistent fibres can cause oxidative stress and inflammation in the lung and pleura and these processes culminate in pathologic changes. Current research suggests that fibrous CNT can elicit inflamatory effects similar to asbestos but more research is needed to determine whether they can cause fibrosis and cancer in the lung. However, given the main potential use of these materials it is perhaps more important to determine whether...

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CMS Takes a New Direction in the Proposed MSP Appeal Process

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) has proposed rules for the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) appeals process that will target the “applicable plan” as the primary responsible party for recovery. 

Medicare, in pursuing recovery directly from the applicable plan, removes the beneficiary, as well as the provider or supplier, as the responsible party to initial a re-determination and all subsequent levels of the administrative process that could culminate in judicial review.

Docket ID:CMS-2013-0270

Topic(s):Administrative Practices and Procedures, Health Facilities, Health Professions, Kidney Diseases, Medical Devices, Medicare, Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements, Rural Areas, X-Rays

Document Type:Proposed Rule

Received Date:Dec 27, 2013

Start-End Page:78802 - 78807

Comment Start Date:Dec 27, 2013

Comment Due Date:Feb 25, 2014

Click here to review the proposed rules.

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Tips To Protect Workers In Cold Environments

Today's post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

Prolonged exposure to freezing or cold temperatures may cause serious health problems such as trench foot, frostbite and hypothermia. In extreme cases, including cold water immersion, exposure can lead to death. Danger signs include uncontrolled shivering, slurred speech, clumsy movements, fatigue and confused behavior. If these signs are observed, call for emergency help. OSHA's Cold Stress Card provides a reference guide and recommendations to combat and prevent many illnesses and injuries. Available in English and Spanish, this laminated fold-up card is free to employers, workers and the public. Tips include: How to Protect Workers Recognize the environmental and workplace conditions that may be dangerous. Learn the signs and symptoms of cold-induced illnesses and injuries and what to do to help workers. Train workers about cold-induced illnesses and injuries. Encourage workers to wear proper clothing for cold, wet and windy conditions, including layers that can be adjusted to changing conditions. Be sure workers in extreme conditions take a frequent short break in warm dry shelters to allow their bodies to warm up. Try to schedule work for the warmest part of the day. Avoid exhaustion or fatigue because energy is needed to keep muscles warm. Use the buddy system - work in pairs so that one worker can recognize danger signs. Drink warm, sweet beverages (sugar...

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Garment Makers Stumble on Call for Accountability

PARETS DEL VALLÈS, Spain — From a sleek gray distribution center near Barcelona, the global fashion brand Mango ships 60 million garments in a year. Automated conveyor belts whir through the building like subway lines, sorting and organizing blouses, sweaters and other items to be shipped around the world. Human hands barely touch the clothes. Five thousand miles away in Bangladesh, the Phantom Tac factory in the industrial suburb of Savar was a hive of human hands. Hundreds of men and women hunched over sewing machines to produce garments in an assembly line system unchanged for years. Speed was also essential, but that just meant people had to work faster. Last spring, as it pushed forward with global expansion plans, Mango turned to Phantom Tac to produce a sample order of polo shirts and other items. Then, on April 24, the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people in the deadliest disaster in garment industry history, and destroying Phantom Tac and other operations in the building. Now, eight months later, the question is what responsibility Mango and other brands should bear toward the victims of Rana Plaza, a disaster that exposed the murkiness and lack of accountability in the global supply chain for clothes. Under intense international pressure, four brands agreed last week to help finance a landmark $40 million compensation fund for the victims. But many other brands, including Mango, have so far refused to contribute to the...

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Shoveling snow led to shocking experience for one Jersey City employee, offical says

Shoveling snow can have a toll on the body, but one unlucky Jersey City employee got more than he bargained for when he received a shock from a utility box he touched.  Just before 11 a.m. an employee from the Jersey City Incinerator Authority was shoveling snow at a crosswalk on Ocean Avenue between Armstrong and Van Nostrand avenues when he leaned up against a utility pole and received a shock, said a city official.  The unidentified man was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, said Jersey City police and fire spokesman Bob McHugh.  McHugh said details of the incident were developing but confirmed "this was not an electrocution." PSE&G officials did not respond to The Jersey Journal's request for comment on the incident.

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Why Everyone Seems to Have Cancer

EVERY New Year when the government publishes its Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, it is followed by a familiar lament. We are losing the war against cancer. Half a century ago, the story goes, a person was far more likely to die from heart disease. Now cancer is on the verge of overtaking it as the No. 1 cause of death. Troubling as this sounds, the comparison is unfair. Cancer is, by far, the harder problem — a condition deeply ingrained in the nature of evolution and multicellular life. Given that obstacle, cancer researchers are fighting and even winning smaller battles: reducing the death toll from childhood cancers and preventing — and sometimes curing — cancers that strike people in their prime. But when it comes to diseases of the elderly, there can be no decisive victory. This is, in the end, a zero-sum game. The rhetoric about the war on cancer implies that with enough money and determination, science might reduce cancer mortality as dramatically as it has with other leading killers — one more notch in medicine’s belt. But what, then, would we die from? Heart disease and cancer are primarily diseases of aging. Fewer people succumbing to one means more people living long enough to die from the other. The newest cancer report, which came out in mid-December, put the best possible face on things. If one accounts for the advancing age of the population — with the graying of the baby boomers, death itself is on the rise...

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