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California Senate Bill Would Ban Suspect Plastic
San Francisco Chronicle
05/16/2008
If the measure becomes law, California would be the first state in the nation to ban the plastics ingredient bisphenol A in any consumer product.
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Study on Native Addiction Brings Elders to Tears
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/16/2008
A new public health study that looked at more than 500 young aboriginal drug users in two British Columbia cities produced such shocking data that people wept openly when it was first presented to a panel of elders.
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Canada OKs Over-the-Counter Morning-After Pill
Vancouver Sun
05/16/2008
The emergency contraceptive pill Plan B will now be sold on the front shelves of Canadian pharmacies without any medical consultation after a landmark decision came down Thursday to make the drug more accessible.
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Strong smells push action for nail care workers
Portland Oregonian
05/16/2008
A nail salon makes its first impression on the nose. Even regular customers can feel overpowered by the smell of the chemicals necessary for that professional finish.
On a typical visit, a customer might spend two hours exposed to that smell while getting a manicure or pedicure. Yet day after day, thousands of Oregon women, a large number of them immigrants from Vietnam, must tolerate air quality that could make them sick.
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Maker of HPV Vaccine Under Fire
The Tyee
05/16/2008
While British Columbia Health Minister George Abbott was announcing the province will provide a controversial new vaccine starting in September with assurances that it is "safe," the American Food and Drug Administration was threatening to close the factory where it is made.
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Seattle's Climate-Action Mayor Misses Point on Drinking Water
Crosscut
05/15/2008
Seattle's tap water is the "gold standard," says Greg Nickels. Really? No, not really. It could be a lot better.
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Environment Wrecks Havoc on Girls
Portland Tribune
05/15/2008
First, girls who hit puberty sooner are more likely to wind up with a long list of health and social problems.
Second, it raises the unpleasant possibility that something sinister in our environment may be sabotaging the complex hormonal system that governs sexual development.
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A Conversation on Oregon's Health Care
Medford Mail-Tribune
05/14/2008
Members of the Oregon health board are traveling across the state to hear what people actually want in the health plan concept approved by the Legislature in 2007. People will gather in small groups to discuss how to create a health- care system that's "sustainable and serves the needs of as many Oregonians as possible."
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Lead Fragments in Game Meat
The Dickinson Press
05/14/2008
An Idaho raptor group working to eliminate lead from ammunition has released findings it says shows 80 percent of ground venison from deer killed with high-velocity lead bullets contains metal fragments.
The Peregrine Fund, based in Boise, and researchers from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., say the study released Tuesday is further evidence people who eat meat from game animals shot with lead bullets risk exposure to the toxic metal.
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The Anthropology of Homelessness
KUOW
05/12/2008
When most of us see a homeless person on the street, we avert our eyes. One woman in Seattle does the opposite: she studies the anthropology of street people.
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Kids' Toys Going Non-Toxic
The Christian Science Monitor
05/12/2008
Parents who want nontoxic toys for their kids are finding more choices.
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Sam Sullivan: We Must Care for Our Most Vulnerable
Toronto Globe and Mail
05/09/2008
You have all read about international surveys ranking Vancouver as one of the best places in the world to live, work and visit.
But for every one of those, you will also read about the social challenges of homelessness, drug addiction and mental health facing our city.
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Group Urges F.D.A. to Take Contraceptive Off Market
New York Times
05/09/2008
A consumer advocacy group petitioned the government Thursday to pull the birth control patch off the market, calling it far riskier than the pill.
“Ortho-Evra is a poor choice for women,” Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the group, Public Citizen, wrote the Food and Drug Administration.
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Getting Doctors to Rural Oregon a Tough Sell
Coos Bay World
05/05/2008
Oregon has an uphill battle to train enough rural doctors to replace their retiring baby boomer predecessors and then to keep them from moving to the city, says the president of Oregon Health & Science University.
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Views: Canada's Poor Dying for the Rich
The Tyee
05/06/2008
Statistics Canada confirmed last week the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class has been treading water for a quarter-century.
The Globe and Mail published a Second Coming headline about those findings. Pundits chimed in. Yet, despite all the chatter, we still seem unable to confront this fact: The wider the income gap in a country, the worse its life expectancy.
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Nanotechnology Is Silver Bullet to Health
The New Republic
05/05/2008
Your toothpaste may be a pesticide. So might your electric razor, your computer keyboard, and your child's teddy bear. These products, and scores of others, combine one of the world's oldest disinfectants--silver--with one of its hottest new industries: nanotechnology.
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Group Health Coop Ranks High in Washington
KPLU
05/06/2008
Group Health Cooperative is apparently well-loved by those who use it for their care. A national survey ranked it highest for member satisfaction in the Northwest - and second highest in the nation.
Premera Blue Cross and Regence Blue Shield of Washington also came in above average.
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Formaldehyde in Some Baby Furniture
Sacramento Bee
05/06/2008
Cribs and changing tables may be exposing babies to unhealthy levels of formaldehyde, according to a new environmental report.
In a report published today, Environment California found a half dozen products – out of 21 nursery furnishings it tested – emitted formaldehyde at levels high enough to trigger allergy and asthma attacks in children.
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Remodelers to Face 'White-Glove' Test on Lead
Washington Post
05/06/2008
Remodeling contractors will have to pass a "white-glove" test under a new U.S. rule to prove their work doesn't stir up dangerous dust and debris from lead paint.
The Environmental Protection Agency mandate, which takes effect in 2010, covers some 38 million homes and child-care facilities built before 1978, when lead paint for residential use was banned. Studies show that the lead in old paint can cause cognitive and developmental problems in children.
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How Tacoma Beat the Meth Epidemic
The Economist
05/05/2008
It is a rare success in the war on drugs, and an oddly unheralded one.
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Wife dies but new hospital bills keep coming
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/05/2008
During the final two months of Melanie Smailus' life, she battled the leukemia ravaging her body.
Since September, her husband has been fighting to deal with not only his grief, but a pricey medical bill that won't go away.
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Advisory for Eating Fish from Lake Roosevelt, Spokane River
AP
04/30/2008
State health officials are recommending more limits on consumption of fish from Lake Roosevelt and the Spokane River because of pollution.
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Views: A Welfare 'Savings' Boomerang for B.C.
The Tyee
05/01/2008
Provincial spending on housing and health care has exploded during Premier Gordon Campbell's second term, and a pair of recent reports suggest that a large part of this ongoing spending may be a direct result of the BC Liberals' 2002 cuts to welfare spending.
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Failing Grade for Bay Area's Air Quality
San Francisco Chronicle
05/01/2008
Like a white-gloved Marine testing Bay Area air for cleanliness, the American Lung Association studied samples for soot and on Wednesday issued a reprimand - failing grades for San Francisco, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.
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Views: Less Health Care Help in Hard Times
New York Times
05/01/2008
This is a terrible time to reduce funding for safety-net programs. Congress needs to place a moratorium on the Medicaid regulations by a veto-proof margin and find a way to overturn the children’s health rules. As a permanent remedy, Congress should restructure Medicaid and children’s health programs so that federal financing increases during bad economic times — when people most need their government’s help.
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