NC Smoking bill dead this year

Byoliveridley

The vote was 55-61, and one of the arguments advanced was by Representative Paul Stam (h/t N&O’s new political blog):

This is pushing smoke out of places where only adults are, but into places where children are. A person who’s addicted to tobacco and can’t smoke all day will get in that car and have to light up three or four or go home and do what they didn’t do during the day. That seems common sense to me.”

Yeah, and if you stop a murderer from killing in public, he will kill at home, so we should just let him shoot people randomly in public.

North Carolina General Assembly – House Bill 259 Information/History (2007-2008 Session)

Whatever, it does not matter, smoking in public will be history even in the South in a decade or less, just a few lawsuits away. I think we first need to overturn the laws against local government passing anti smoking legislation.

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    Hog Factories Hit the NY Times

    Byoliveridley

    The tale is told from the pig’s viewpoint. Of course, as I have mentioned before, hog factories are evil and affect the people (mostly poor and black) who live around them in very many horrible ways.

    Pig Out – NY Times

    Of the 60 million pigs in the United States, over 95 percent are continuously confined in metal buildings, including the almost five million sows in crates. In such setups, feed is automatically delivered to animals who are forced to urinate and defecate where they eat and sleep. Their waste festers in large pits a few feet below their hooves. Intense ammonia and hydrogen sulfide fumes from these pits fill pigs’ lungs and sensitive nostrils. No straw is provided to the animals because that would gum up the works (as it would if you tossed straw into your toilet).

    In my work as an environmental lawyer, I’ve toured a dozen hog confinement operations and seen hundreds from the outside. My task was to evaluate their polluting potential, which was considerable. But what haunted me was the miserable creatures inside.

    They were crowded into pens and cages, never allowed outdoors, and never even provided a soft place to lie down. Their tails had been cut off without anesthetic. Regardless of how well the operations are managed, the pigs subsist in inherently hostile settings. (Disclosure: my husband founded a network of farms that raise pigs using traditional, non-confinement methods.)

    The stress, crowding and contamination inside confinement buildings foster disease, especially respiratory illnesses. In addition to toxic fumes, bacteria, yeast and molds have been recorded in swine buildings at a level more than 1,000 times higher than in normal air. To prevent disease outbreaks (and to stimulate faster growth), the hog industry adds more than 10 million pounds of antibiotics to its feed, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates. This mountain of drugs — a staggering three times more than all antibiotics used to treat human illnesses — is a grim yardstick of the wretchedness of these facilities.

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    Lasers shooting into irises

    Byoliveridley

    I did not think my first minor surgery would involve someone shooting lasers to make holes in my iris. It sounds like more fun than it actually was, but was mostly painless and here I am, looking at a computer screen 3 hours later. My eyes feel like they’ve had about 5 hours of sleep, which is good considering they’re now sporting two brand new drain holes.

    Laser iridotomy is also performed prophylactically(preventively) on asymptomatic individuals with narrow angles and those with pigment dispersion. Individuals with a narrow angle are at higher risk of an acute angle closure, especially upon dilation of the eye

    http://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/La-Pa/Laser-Iridotomy.html

    I also just started reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, which is about the use and misuse of the banner of science by a large group of people including nutritionists, pharmaceutical companies and “alternative” treatment specialists. It has a great chapter on the “placebo” effect, how much of it is culturally mediated, and how much doctor demeanour and confidence in their skills and outcome affects results. The doctor shooting holes in my eye was extremely confident in their skills and their results, and normally, my brain would be sending off all kinds of hubris warnings. In this case, their confidence reassured me a bit, and Bad Science definitely helped. It was also interesting to see a large section on homeopathy in the book, since I’ve written about my contact with homeopathy and felt that the cultural practices of a good homeopath can be of some use to people as long as they don’t go too far. The book confirmed some of that.

  • How Safe Is The US Food Supply?

    Byoliveridley

    A good summary of the state of food safety regulation in the United States.

    How Safe Is The Food Supply?

    These known cases make up a tiny fraction of the overall problem–an estimated 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths in the U.S. from food poisoning each year. Meanwhile, imports of food, some from countries without strict controls, soared to more than 9 million shipments last year doubling since 2002. The cash-strapped FDA is able to inspect less than 1% of imports. It’s a recipe for disaster. “Our food-safety system in this country is broken,” warned former FDA Commissioner Dr. David A. Kessler at a recent congressional hearing.

    Few incidents ever have a body count high enough to shock the country into making fundamental changes. Overall, “we do have a very safe food supply,” says Sanford A. Miller, former director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition. But the alarms over pet food and vitamin A have lit a fire under lawmakers and executives. On May 2 the Senate rushed to pass a bill by a vote of 94-0 giving the FDA more responsibilities, such as creating databases of adulterated food. Meanwhile, food producers have been holding emergency meetings with suppliers, looking for problems in their factories or supply chains. Companies are “feverishly examining their own purchasing policies and trying to ensure they are followed,” says Kovacs.

    Note that it is always tempting to blame the bureaucrats here. Bureaucracy is a dirty word in this country, associated with “red tape”, “corruption”, “standing in the way of business”, “pencil pushers”, “big government”, you name it, they get called it. But, agencies like the EPA and the FDA have competent scientists who know what they are doing. But, without the money and the authority, which is given to them by the political arm of the government, they cannot do much. They have also, in recent years, been headed by political appointees who come from the industry they are supposed to regulate and show a distaste for regulation which is in complete opposition of the mandate they are supposed to fulfill as the head of a regulatory agency.

    It’s easy to take potshots at the FDA, but remember who gives them the money, makes the rules and tells them what not to oversee.

  • American feed makers used melamine as well

    Byoliveridley

    Well, turns out all that China baiting was for naught, because right in America’s heartland, Ohio, some feed manufacturer was using melamine as a binding agent.

    Melamine From U.S. Put in Feed – New York Times

    Ever since pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical was traced to shipments of wheat flour from China, American officials have concentrated on cracking down on imports.

    It turns out the problem was closer to home, too.

    Yesterday, federal officials announced that a manufacturing plant in Ohio was using the same banned substance, melamine, to make binding agents that ended up in feed for farmed fish, shrimp and livestock.

    Apparently, it is Tembec, a Canadian company with a plant in Ohio. I am sure the effects to humans are not significant, but where’s the control? Where’s the list of things you can’t put in food. More importantly, where’s the list of things you’re allowed to put in? Food being a very easy mode of pollutant ingestion, the ingredients list must be exclusionary, that is, only approved ingredients are allowed. If something is not approved, it is not allowed…

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    Circumspection on Circumcision – Lessons for India

    Byoliveridley

    Circumcision May Help Protect Against HIV – washingtonpost.com

    Getting circumcised may reduce men’s risk of acquiring HIV, according to a study conducted in Africa. “Our study shows that circumcised men had 53 percent fewer HIV infections than uncircumcised men,” lead study author Robert Bailey, professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), said in a prepared statement.

    This study, published in The Lancet (registration and kidney donation required!) adds to the growing body of research suggesting that circumcision significantly reduces the incidence of HIV infection. The doubts on circumcision as a protective factor against HIV are falling away.

    But, is this a viable public health strategy? In context, the US health and human services reports an 85% reduction in HIV risk through condom usage. This is probably a conservative estimate. There’s no indication yet that the gains from circumcision and condom use together are multiplicative.

    Let’s look at India, for instance. Circumcision is not practiced among Hindus. There is no history of circumcision, and when I was growing up, it was clear that circumcision was for Muslims and Muslims only. It was often laughed about and there was a sense of superiority about not having to mutilate. It was a clear distinction setting difference between “us” and “them”. This article by Jaishanker and Haldar provides some perspective on Hindu-Muslim identities.

    Apart from that, the other important identity of Muslim males is circumcision. It is found in many riots that Muslims were victimized based on their religious identity. In the riots if the perpetrators or the police are not able to identify victims with their religion they forcefully remove the pants of the victims to check whether they are circumcised or not. Once they find that the victim is circumcised he is targeted without further analysing which community he belongs to.

    For example in Bombay riot (1992) there is a case of man who was frisked by the police for assessing whether he was a Muslim. However, out of fear he gave his name as Raju (a Hindu name) the officer made him take out his trousers and, noticed that he was a circumcised Muslim, and fired at him.

    No Hindu parent in their right mind would circumcise their male child. It’s that simple. It’s part of the ingrained Hindu psyche that having an uncut member sets us apart from our Muslim brethren.

    Nothing has changed about AIDS prevention strategies. But it’s boring to study the same variables all the time, let’s recap them one more time, shall we!

    Education and awareness: Look at this picture from India (from the NFHS Survey):
    Now tell me that increasing awareness among women and empowering them is not the most important thing you can do!

    Condom use = 85% risk reduction

    Nothing more to say. Continuing to improve access to condoms is important. Avert indicates that condom use is very state dependent, especially among sex workers, with Tamil Nadu having an 80-90% use rate and Mysore in neighboring Karnataka having a 9% use rate.

    Access to antiviral therapy

    India is in a lucky position here with a very well established pharmaceutical industry. So, drugs are likely to be available (patent issues notwithstanding). The issue however is with infrastructure, getting the drugs to the right people at the right time. This 2004 paper from the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics indicates that coverage is spotty at best. India’s National AIDs Control Organization (NACO) recognizes this, but in my opinion does not go far enough to provide free/affordable drugs to infected people, especially to prevent mother-child transmission.

    So, to cut a long story short, circumcision in India is not likely to be a factor in the pantheon of choices available. We have a long way to go with our other major AIDS prevention challenges, and I hope this circumcision issue does not become an increasing distraction.

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    Pet Poisonings – A chemistry detective story

    Byoliveridley

    Melamine in pet food may not be accidental – USATODAY.com

    A nitrogen-rich chemical used to make plastic and sometimes as a fertilizer may have been deliberately added to an ingredient in pet food that has sickened and killed cats and dogs across the country, public and private officials say. A leading theory is that it was added to fake higher protein levels.

    Melamine has been found in wheat gluten, rice protein concentrate and, in South Africa, corn gluten, all imported from China, and all meant for use in pet food, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Thursday.

    “It adds to the theory when you see other products that are labeled as protein supplements, in this case rice protein, and in South Africa corn gluten and in the previous case wheat gluten,” said Stephen Sundlof, FDA chief veterinarian. “That melamine was found in all three of those, it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that this was intentional.”

    Interesting, apparently, melamine was added to increase the nitrogen content of the food so it would show up as protein in the most common protein test, which only looks for nitrogen. When I am not working, I guess I will look up the test details.

    I wonder if this is only the tip of the iceberg? What other techniques do food manufacturers use to fake it? Growing up, food adulteraion was a serious problem in India, and still continues to be an issue in the third world.

    More on this story to come, I am sure.

    One more thing that needs to be said is that the FDA has been very reactive, as opposed to proactive. This is partly because the FDA does not issue recalls, it first “strongly suggests” that the company involved recall whatver product it is that may be having issues. Only if this issue is not addressed can the FDA start seizure proceedings, which could take months. The FDa regulates and monitors on a company level, not at a product level.

    For example, when Japan had one sample of U.S beef test positive for mad cow disease, that was the end of beef imports from the U.S. This is an extreme case because you’re dealing with an infectious disease, but the point is that when you are finding huge levels of pesticide in food from a country, the first thing you need to do is stop everything, troubleshoot, then turn things back on again. Yes, this gets expensive, but so does 1000s of sick pets. The difference is, who pays. In the U.S, it’s always the consumer!