Sunday, November 8, 2009

NY Times Opinion - Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies

The New York Times

Your body is probably home to a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA. It’s a synthetic estrogen that United States factories now use in everything from plastics to epoxies — to the tune of six pounds per American per year. That’s a lot of estrogen.

More than 92 percent of Americans have BPA in their urine, and scientists have linked it — though not conclusively — to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike.

Last year, Canada became the first country to conclude that BPA can be hazardous to humans, and Massachusetts issued a public health advisory in August warning against any exposure to BPA by pregnant or breast-feeding women or by children under the age of 2.

Click on the following for more details: Op-Ed Columnist - Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies - NYTimes.com

Indiana Supreme Court To Hear Gambler's Lawsuit

Indiana Supreme Court ...

The Indiana Supreme Court will hear arguments this week on whether an Ohio River casino should have allowed a compulsive gambler to play and lose $125,000 in a single night.  Casino sued Kephart to recover $125,000 that she had lost in a single night of gambling in 2006.  Kephartto said the casino enticed her to gamble with free meals and rooms and money

Click on the following for more details:  Ind. Supreme Court To Hear Gambler's Lawsuit - Indiana News Story - WRTV Indianapolis

Center for Disease Control - Seasonal Influenza (Flu) - Weekly Report: Influenza Summary Update

Take a look at the graphs—perhaps we are over the peak for the spread of H1N1 (swine) flu. Especially, because vaccination is beginning for the the  most vulnerable.

Eighteen influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported. Fifteen of these deaths were associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection and three were associated with an influenza A virus for which the subtype was undetermined.

INFLUENZA Virus Isolated
View WHO-NREVSS Regional Bar Charts| View Chart Data | View Full Screen

Pneumonia and Influenza Hospitalization and Death Tracking:

This new system was implemented on August 30, 2009, and replaces the weekly report of laboratory confirmed 2009 H1N1-related hospitalizations and deaths that began in April 2009. Jurisdictions can now report to CDC counts of hospitalizations and deaths resulting from all types or subtypes of influenza, not just those from 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. To allow jurisdictions to implement the new case definition, counts were reset to zero on August 30, 2009. From August 30 – October 31, 2009, 17,838 laboratory-confirmed influenza associated hospitalizations and 672 laboratory-confirmed influenza associated deaths were reported to CDC. CDC will continue to use its traditional surveillance systems to track the progress of the 2009-10 influenza season

 

Aggregate Hospital and Death Reporting
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Antigenic Characterization:

CDC has antigenically characterized one seasonal A (H1N1), two A (H3N2) and 239 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses collected since September 1, 2009.

One seasonal influenza A (H1N1) viruses was tested and is related to the influenza A (H1N1) component of the 2009-10 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine (A/Brisbane/59/2007).

Both influenza A (H3N2) viruses tested showed reduced titers with antisera produced against A/Brisbane/10/2007, the 2009-2010 Northern Hemisphere influenza A (H3N2) vaccine component, and were antigenically related to A/Perth/16/2009, the WHO recommended influenza A (H3N2) component of the 2010 Southern Hemisphere vaccine formulation.

Two hundred thirty-eight (99.6%) of 239 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses tested are related to the A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) reference virus selected by WHO as the 2009 H1N1 vaccine virus and one virus (0.4%) tested showed reduced titers with antisera produced against A/California/07/2009.

Annual influenza vaccination is expected to provide the best protection against those virus strains that are related to the vaccine strains, but limited to no protection may be expected when the vaccine and circulating virus strains are so different as to be from different lineages. Antigenic characterization of 2009 influenza A(H1N1) viruses indicates that these viruses are only distantly related antigenically and genetically to seasonal influenza A(H1N1) viruses, suggesting that little to no protection would be expected from vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine. It is too early in the influenza season to determine if seasonal influenza viruses will circulate widely or how well the vaccine and circulating strains will match.

Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I) Mortality Surveillance

During week 43, 7.4% of all deaths reported through the 122-Cities Mortality Reporting System were due to P&I. This percentage was above the epidemic threshold of 6.7% for week 43. Including week 43, P&I mortality has been above threshold for five consecutive weeks.

Pneumonia And Influenza Mortality

 

For more details and studies go to:  CDC - Seasonal Influenza (Flu) - Weekly Report: Influenza Summary Update

Joblessness tougher than before [1980’S]

Only twice since World War II has unemployment topped 10 percent – now and from September 1982 to June 1983. In a few respects, life is better today for the unemployed than it was then.

Americans have more than triple the debt that they had in 1982, and less than half of the savings. They spend 10 weeks longer off the job. And a bigger share of them have no health insurance, leaving them one medical emergency away from financial ruin.

Potential employers aren’t interested “if you are not a perfect fit,” he said

Click on the following for the rest of the story:  Northwest Herald | Joblessness tougher than before

Wanted: Publicity for job training--BusinessRockford.com

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Read this article—The Dislocated Program does not need publicity—it needs “counselors” to take care of the backlog of workers who are waiting in line to be served by this federally sponsored program.  Something is wrong .  Workers aren’t signing up because nothing will happen for months.  The “feds”, the dislocated program directors or Rock Valley College needs to pressure somebody so this program starts working for our unemployed.

Enrollment in the federally funded program, which serves people who have lost a job through no fault of their own, is high but pales in comparison with the 27,300 people in the metro area who were unemployed in September.

Click on the following for more details on this story:  Wanted: Publicity for job training - - BusinessRockford.com

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Here is the list of Partners which is listed on the Dislocated Workers Website:  http://theworkforceconnection.org./partners_main.cfm

Maybe people ought to contact these agencies to see if the bureaucratic red tape can be alleviated and the dislocated workers can get some help like Congress intended.

OUR PARTNERS

The Workforce Connection is a partnership of state and federally funded employment and training programs, economic development agencies and educational entities committed to providing a workforce that meets the needs of our business community, now and in the future.

The Workforce Connection partners include: