Posts tagged with ‘regulation’
Mothers exposed to significant levels of air pollution while pregnant give birth to children with lower childhood IQ scores, according to a new study released this week in Pediatrics. The study involved 249 New York City children whose mothers were exposed to varying levels of “typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus, [...]
The Integrated Risk Information System is an Environmental Protection Agency database of information on the human health effects of exposure to environmental contaminants. Before getting cataloged in the system, a contaminant must go through the IRIS process, a set of steps to evaluate the substance that include EPA review, interagency science consultation, and external peer [...]
Salmonella. Downer cows. More salmonella. The past year has seen several unpleasant and dangerous incidents of widespread food contamination. Today, Lyndsey Layton reports in the Washington Post that newly introduced Congressional legislation offers a slate of remedies to ramp up Food and Drug Agency capabilities for protecting the food supply. The draft legislation introduced in [...]
The eight years of the Bush administration were a bad time for scientific integrity in government research. Grifo, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, says we must focus on protecting government researchers, making science-based policymaking more transparent, and monitoring potential abuses.
A recent conference examining the legal protections corporations are taking to defend themselves in the event their products turn toxic should raise regulatory questions.
Members of Congress and others are calling for independent investigations into the federal oversight system for food production facilities in light of new revelations about chronic problems at the Peanut Corp. of America peanut-processing plant in Blakely, Georgia. Those calls are on target, and the matter deserves the attention of both the Justice Department and [...]
Okay, so according to the Lyndsey Layton in today’s Washington Post, the FDA has issued clear information that major brands of jarred peanut butter on grocery shelves are not subject to the recall. But there are hundreds of products affected–so many that the FDA has set up a database to track them all. If you [...]
Are science and environmental advocates as happy with Obama’s OIRA choice as his other appointments?
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has deemed a drug from a genetically engineered animal to be safe and effective even though the agency has not yet decided what the rules for such approvals should be.
Government contracting grew out of scientific inquiry in the interests of national security in the mid-20th-century and represents a government reform that yielded great successes but has since lost its moorings. It’s time to re-envision the role of private contractors in the public service.
Proponents of nanotechnology—along with federal regulators—have some serious work to do beyond public education if the field is to break through safely to commercial success.
Synthetic biology is on the brink of two noteworthy accomplishments: to be able to “streamline” and redesign the genetic material of living organisms to make them operate more efficiently; and to design and assemble entirely new, artificial life forms from scratch. But a lengthy list of potential risks, as well as broad scientific and social concerns, are largely unaddressed.
In the waning days of the Bush administration, there’s a final rush to implement a slate of polluter-friendly rules, as The Washington Post reported on Halloween.
Keeping hands clean—literally and figuratively—saves money and lives. The point is worth considering as the country closes the door on an era of regulatory slumber and considers anew how to get people and institutions to behave in more socially responsible ways.
In a surprising move last week, the Environmental Protection Agency sided with science, environmentalists, and America’s children. It has been 30 years since the United States saw a reduction in lead emissions standards, but on October 15, EPA reduced the limits from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter to 0.15. Here’s a timeline of lead regulation in the United States over the past 100 years.
Science and tech commentary from around the web: climate change health impacts, the bioethics of voting technology, evolution teaching tools, the wind in NYC, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, scivee.tv, and Green Chemistry in CA.
Stem cell based research and products are carefully managed at the federal, state, and university level. Efforts to change or strengthen these rules must demonstrate that even more regulation is actually necessary.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided on Tuesday in
Sierra Club v. EPA to throw out a rule that prevented states from implementing their own pollution-limiting permits.
The House and Senate agreed yesterday to ban three types of phthalates, chemicals that are common in plastics, perfumes, lotions, and shampoos, and that can disrupt normal hormone function.
Part 3 of coverage of Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standard, with the perspectives of witnesses on biofuel production and rising food prices.
Part 2 of a break down of Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standards, with a look at what witnesses had to say about the economic and environmental concerns.
The Environmental Protection Agency continued its fall from grace at a Senate hearing earlier this week that investigated political meddling with the Agency’s toxic chemical policies. But in the midst of a rain of criticism, there were suggestions of future policy that could better allow the EPA to protect citizens from hazardous materials.
Americans invented quality assurance procedures, those prosaic yet indispensable steps that insure ever-incremental innovation. It’s time we upgraded government for the 21st Century, relying on the insights of Joseph Juran.
The FCC 700 mhz auction ended yesterday, raking in record $19.6 billion for Federal coffers. While the successful sale of the C-block triggers an “open” network provision, questions linger about the unsold D-block license and the future of a national emergency response network.
Edward Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS) introduced the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008″ bill last week, the most recent legislative foray into the “net neutrality” debate. A look at the competing interests.
A design flaw in the gusset plates joining steel beams may have been the culprit in the I-35 bridge collapse outside of Minneapolis that killed 13 people last August.
The Minneapolis bridge collapse underscores the need to modernize infrastructure monitoring.
The efforts of China’s State Food and Drug Administration to crack down on drug and medical device companies seems to be improving the industry’s reputation and will hopefully make for a safer marketplace.
