Majority Of Hurricane Laura Deaths Linked To Improper Use Of Portable Generators
FROM NPR: More deaths associated with Hurricane Laura were caused by the improper use of portable generators than the storm itself. And officials warn that the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning persists, as thousands of households in Louisiana remain without power. Eight of the 15 hurricane-related deaths confirmed by the Louisiana Department of Health are […]
A rushed vaccine could do more harm than good
Everyone wants a vaccine for this devastating pandemic developed as swiftly and as safely as possible. But it’s important to remember that, in rushing this medical advancement, mistakes can be made. CNN has information about the risks associated with a rushed vaccine. “Their concern that the FDA may be moving too quickly heightened when FDA […]
More abdication of responsibility at the EPA
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday relaxed strict Obama-era standards for how coal-fired power plants dispose of wastewater laced with dangerous pollutants like lead, selenium and arsenic, a move environmental groups said would leave rivers and streams vulnerable to toxic contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency regulation scaled back the types of wastewater treatment technologies […]
EPA to stop monitoring chloroprene around St. John Parish plant
The most recent in a series of moves where the Environmental Protection Agency has more resembled a Corporate Protection Agency. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to stop monitoring the levels of a chemical that is believed to cause cancer around a controversial St. John the Baptist Parish plant in December, according to the agency. […]
Thousands allowed to bypass environmental rules in pandemic
Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites won permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment because of the coronavirus outbreak, The Associated Press has found. The result: approval for less environmental monitoring at some Texas refineries and at an army […]
JURY AWARDS ER DOCS $9.4M IN CENTENE BREACH OF CONTRACT SUIT
A federal jury in Arkansas this week handed up a $9.4 million breach of-contract award to a Tennessee-based emergency physician group after finding that subsidiaries of Centene Corporation violated their contracts by systematically underpaying the physicians. Attorneys for Knoxville-based Southeastern Emergency Physicians, LLC, a subsidiary of TeamHealth Inc., said the final award could hit $13 […]
Restoring oyster beds and saving dolphins
The panel overseeing the use of BP oil spill damage money agreed last week to spend $25.6 million on three projects aimed at increasing oyster production in state coastal waters and $3.1 million to underwrite the Audubon Nature Institute’s participation in the national Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group, or TIG, which […]
‘This Is Unforgivable’: Anger Mounts Over Mauritius Oil Spill
NAIROBI, Kenya — Zareen Bandhoo was at work last week in the central Mauritius town of Curepipe when she heard that oil was spilling from a ship into the island nation’s pristine lagoons. In the days since, as Mauritius has confronted one of its worst environmental disasters, Ms. Bandhoo has been hard at work. She […]
Alaska Project Would Use ‘Chillers’ to Freeze Thawing Tundra
Climate change is poised to thaw and undermine the soil beneath ConocoPhillips’ proposed Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, making its rigs and roads vulnerable to the same global warming the project will be aggravating. The project will be so vulnerable to climate change that ConocoPhillips plans to use chillers to keep the […]
Virus Vaccine Rush Leaves Little Recourse for Anyone It Harms
Americans who suffer adverse reactions to coronavirus vaccines that the U.S. is racing to develop will have a hard time getting compensated for injuries from the drugs. That’s because pandemic-related claims for vaccines will be routed to a rarely used federal program set up to encourage drugmakers to help combat public health emergencies. It spares […]