The controversy over adverse health effects from wind turbine installations is an interesting one: both sides of the debate present compelling scientific evidence in favor of their particular perspective on the issue. A recent entry on the New York Times’ Green blog describes metastudies carried out by the state EPA branches of Massachusetts and Oregon, [...]
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Cross-posted from the Scientific American Incubator blog: Studying for a Masters degree in Public Health prepares you for many things. But it doesn’t necessarily give you hands-on experience of how to take complex information and translate it into something others can understand and use. Yet as an increasing array of public health issues hit the [...]
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The following post is by Christine Greene, one of our 2011 Risk Science Fellows, Christine has an MPH and is a Doctoral Pre-candidate in the Department of Environmental Health Science. You can read the abstract of her research project here. Most people have not heard of Acinetobacter baumannii. A. baumannii is an emerging nosocomial pathogen [...]
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Since the cold of the winter months have come upon us once again (Every year?), I have been inundated with the second-hand marijuana smoke of my neighbor. Let me try to explain. The house where I live has a forced-air central heating system through which all of the apartments are connected. I have returned to [...]
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On December 28, the US Food and Drug Administration learned that a juice company had detected very low levels of the pesticide carbendazim in some of its products – specifically orange juice concentrate – and those of its competitors. While both FDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency have stressed that the reported levels do [...]
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The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report is one of the most authoritative annual assessments of emerging issues surrounding risk currently produced. Now in its seventh edition, the 2012 report launched today draws on over 460 experts* from industry, government, academia and civil society to provide insight into 50 global risks across five categories, within [...]
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As 2011 drew to a close, controversy was brewing in the offices of some of the most prominent scientific journals in the field: both Science and Nature received manuscripts in the last quarter of the year describing research on the highly-pathogenic influenza virus A subtype H5N1. This virus is historically very highly lethal, but barely transmitted [...]
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Each year the University of Michigan Risk Science Center awards a small number of fellowships to support research students in their research over the summer. This year the standard of the applications was exceptionally high – the highest I’ve seen. It was exciting to see such a high caliber of risk-related research amongst School of [...]
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Five people died in the anthrax mailings of 2001. Since then, anyone receiving mail containing white powder, or a “suspicious package” of any kind, is automatically on high alert. At the Florida state attorney’s office in West Palm Beach on Wednesday, three employees felt ill after an envelope in the mailroom released a white powdery [...]
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In a little over a week, ten of my University of Michigan Masters of Public Health students will embark on an intensive science blogging course – and they need your help! Every week for ten weeks, each student will take a recent scientific publication or emerging area of scientific interest, and write a public blog [...]
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National Academy publishes new nanomaterials risk research strategy
by Andrew Maynard on January 26, 2012
Cross posted from 2020 Science The US National Academy of Science today published its long-awaited Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials. I won’t comment extensively on the report as I was a member of the committee that wrote it. But I did want to highlight a number of aspects of [...]
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