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Fishing for Answers off Fukushima

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2012Environmentcatastrophic damage, cesium, contaminated sediment, contamination, dai ichi, earthquake, fish, fukushima, fukushima prefecture, implication, Japan, japanese coast, japanese public, ken buesseler, maff, marine environment, mitsuo uematsu, northeast, northwest, nuclear power plant, ocean, pacific ocean, public health, radiation, radiation level, radioactive isotope, radionuclides, reactor site, release, seafloor, seaweed, shellfish, tokyo, triple disaster, tsunami, university, world

Japan fisheries data provides a look at how the ocean is faring 18 months after the worst accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history

Japan’s “triple disaster,” as it has become known, began on March 11, 2011, and remains unprecedented in its scope and complexity. To understand the lingering effects and potential public health implications of that chain of events, scientists are turning to a diverse and widespread sentinel in the world’s ocean: fish.

Events on March 11 began with a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the fourth largest ever recorded. The earthquake in turn spawned a massive 40-foot tsunami that inundated the northeast Japanese coast and resulted in an estimated 20,000 missing or dead. Finally, the wave caused catastrophic damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, resulting in the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history, 80 percent of which ended up in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. (more…)

Transforming America by Redirecting Wasted Health Care Dollars

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2012Generalalternative, ambitious plans, americans, childhood education, congressional, county department, economic sector, Environment, fraud, frederick zimmerman, Health, health care, health industry, jeffrey mccullough, jonathan fielding, los angeles, myriad, public health, quality, social value, spending, steven teutsch, super committee, system, Washington, waste, wasteful, well being

Eliminating excessive spending could mean windfall for U.S., study suggests

The respected national Institute of Medicine estimates that $750 billion is lost each year to wasteful or excessive health care spending. This sum includes excess administrative costs, inflated prices, unnecessary services and fraud — dollars that add no value to health and well-being.

If those wasteful costs could be corralled without sacrificing health care quality, how might that money be better spent? (more…)

First Digital Resource Explores 1918 Flu Epidemic

By Guest PostOctober 14, 2012General, Health1918, american, american history, americans, canteen volunteers, culture, detroit chapter, digital collection, digital encyclopedia, general public, hathitrust, history, howard markel, influenza epidemic, influenza victims, john wilkin, medical policy, medicine, michigan, motor corps, online, public health, red cross, united states, university

ANN ARBOR — The University of Michigan has established the largest digital collection of materials relating to the 1918 influenza epidemic in the United States.

“The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918: A Digital Encyclopedia,” created by the Center for the History of Medicine in partnership with the U-M Library’s MPublishing, documents 50 diverse communities in the United States during fall 1918 and winter 1919—a period when the effects of influenza caused the deaths of an estimated 650,000 Americans (and 50 million people worldwide). (more…)

Practical Tool Can ‘Take Pulse’ of Blue-Green Algae Status in Lakes

By Guest PostJune 12, 2012Environmentalgal blooms, alum creek, beach managers, blue green algae, buck creek, chlorophyll, cyanobacteria, deer creek, delaware, east fork, eutrophic lakes, feedback loop, fluorometer, gastrointestinal illness, jason marion, jiyoung lee, lake logan, lakes, madison lake, neurological problems, nutrient levels, ohio state, ohio state university, organic pollution, oxygen, ph, phycocyanin, phycocyanin levels, pigment, population growth, public health, secchi disk, septic systems, timothy buckley, toxin, toxin microcystin, urbanization, water resources, WHO

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists have designed a screening tool that provides a fast, easy and relatively inexpensive way to predict levels of a specific toxin in lakes that are prone to blue-green algal blooms.

Blue-green algae is not your average pond scum – rather than consisting of plant-like organisms, blue-green algae actually are cyanobacteria, and some species are linked to the production and release of the toxin microcystin into the water. Human exposure to the toxin through drinking or recreational water contact can threaten public health by causing liver damage, neurological problems and gastrointestinal illness in humans. (more…)

Peak Risk About 16 Years Old for Teens Misusing Prescription Drugs

By Guest PostMay 11, 2012Healthacceleration, adolescents, college age years, data, james c anthony, jonathan troost, michigan state university, misusing, prescriber, prescription drugs, public health, teens

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The peak risk for misusing prescription pain relievers occurs in mid-adolescence, specifically about 16 years old and earlier than many experts thought, according to a new study by Michigan State University researchers.

The results, based on recent nationwide surveys of nearly 120,000 U.S. adolescents, suggest prevention programs may need to be introduced earlier, in childhood and early adolescence, said James C. Anthony of MSU’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. (more…)

Which Ads Are Winners? Your Brain Knows Better Than You Do

By Guest PostApril 26, 2012Scienceadvertisement, advertiser, advertising dollar, ann arbor, anti smoking, behavior, brain, brain activity, brain data, brain scan, campaign, catalyst, elliot berkman, emily falk, eyebrows, fmri, john wanamaker, matthew lieberman, medial prefrontal cortex, neural focus group, psychology, public health, quit now, television commercial, university of michigan, wisdom

Study on smokers’ brains may mark dawn of a new age in advertising

Advertisers and public health officials may be able to access hidden wisdom in the brain to more effectively sell their products and promote health and safety, UCLA neuroscientists report in the first study to use brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements.

Thirty smokers who were trying to quit watched television commercials from three advertising campaigns, which all ended by showing the phone number of the National Cancer Institute’s smoking-cessation hotline. They were asked which commercials they thought would be most effective; they responded that advertising campaigns “A” and “B” would be the best and “C” would be the worst. (more…)

On-the-job Deaths Hold Steady; Number of Burn Injuries Underreported

By Guest PostApril 24, 2012Economycancer, construction industry, death certificate, deb chester, environmental medicine, illnesses, karla swift, kenneth rosenman, labor statistics, lung disease, martha yoder, michigan, michigan state university, miface report, norwood jewell, poison control center, program, public health, rate, surveillance, trauma, work related burns, worker, workers memorial day, workplace burn, workplace death

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The rate of workplace deaths in Michigan remained steady in 2011, as 141 workers died on the job compared with 145 in 2010, according to an annual report from Michigan State University.

The construction industry had the most deaths at 24, while the agriculture industry had the second most at 22, according to the Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program, or MIFACE. (more…)

New Research Suggests Cap and Trade Programs Do Not Provide Sufficient Incentives for Energy Technology Innovation

By Guest PostMarch 19, 2012Environmentberkeley lab, cap and trade, clean technologies, climate change, ctps, emissions restriction, energy efficiency, energy policy, Environment, global climate, margaret taylor, mid atlantic states, nitrogen oxide, nox, policy analysis, policymaker, pollution control, program, public health, reduce emission, so2, sulfur dioxide, Technology, university of california

Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In fact, said author Margaret Taylor, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) who conducted the study while an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, the success of some cap and trade programs in achieving predetermined pollution reduction targets at low cost seems to have reduced incentives for research and development that could help develop more appropriate pollution control targets. Taylor is a scientist in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Berkeley Lab. (more…)

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