Household Hazards

"Imprelis" is an iconic brand name, subliminally suggesting an archaic order of noble rank as in one of the players on Game of Thrones. Just as in the cable TV series, you don’t want this character paying a visit to your manor house. Imprelis is a new, purportedly “eco-friendly” landscaping herbicide linked to an emerging horticultural holocaust.

I was recently asked by an old friend of mine whether I knew anything about the potential hazards of something I had never heard of called galaxolide. Galaxolide is a major player in the fragrance industry, one of a group of synthetic chemicals known generically as artificial musk. And it has a lot of environmental scientists worried.

Having been invited to give a presentation at an upcoming scientific congress on the topic of cleaning agents and allergy on-the-job, I found that I needed to brush up on the subject. As it turns out, this is a very broad topic but not a bit esoteric. In fact, it’s all too much an everyday affair.

Nail guns are ubiquitous in construction jobs and commonplace in that hands consumers. New research has documented the extent to which this equipment is posing a serious injury hazard – and how easily this risk might be mitigated.

A news item relegated to the local section of the New York Times caught my attention. The New York City Fire Department found that it had nearly a million dollars worth of defective fire-safety gloves on its hands. The back-story would be fitting for the dramatic plotline of a modernist morality play in the tradition of Ibsen or even Arthur Miller.

It was announced that a new review of a series of previous studies found that zinc supplements might indeed shorten the duration of the common cold.  

Nearly every bathroom medicine cabinet has its own stash of pain killers, with acetaminophen alone or in a combination product leading the pack.   For a long time, the veritable acetaminophen smorgasbord of products on the market has been more of a problem than solution in health care. The FDA finally decided to do something about it. 

Sport and Competition

A Virus in the Cross-Hairs

Paul D. Blanc M.D., M.S.P.H. on January 11, 2011

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on a novel viral infection formerly unknown in humans. Fortunately, this was not a mutated influenza strain threatening an outbreak of pandemic proportions. It wasn't even such a new virus...

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine reported on a novel viral infection formerly unknown in humans. Fortunately, this was not a mutated influenza strain threatening an outbreak of pandemic proportions. It wasn't even such a new virus...

Just over a week ago, a fire in a 10-story garment factory killed at least 29. The fire started on the 9th floor. Some of the trapped victims jumped to their deaths. Just shy of 100 years ago, a fire in a 10-story garment factory killed 146. The fire started on 8th floor. Many of the trapped victims jumped to their deaths.  

Neuroscience

A tale of two mothballs

Paul D. Blanc M.D., M.S.P.H. on December 3, 2010

A 44-year old was found prostrate in his apartment. He had developed bizarre behavioral symptoms over 2 weeks leading up to his collapse. An MRI scan documented severe central nervous system deterioration. The patient's doctors were at a loss to explain the cause of his pathology until it eventually came to light that he had mothball substance abuse.

A 44-year old was found prostrate in his apartment. He had developed bizarre behavioral symptoms over 2 weeks leading up to his collapse. An MRI scan documented severe central nervous system deterioration. The patient's doctors were at a loss to explain the cause of his pathology until it eventually came to light that he had mothball substance abuse.

The day after I posted my last blog entry highlighting the silica sunflower seed snafu at the Tate Modern Museum in London, the front page of the New York Times arts section featured a major report on Ai Weiwei's ill-fated installation,  making me  think about other news updates touching on the content of previous blog entries of mine.

Some of my occupational medicine colleagues and I did not share completely in the general euphoria following the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners, taking note that Mario Gomez (at 63, the eldest of the group) was reported to have silicosis. This is a progressive and life-threatening lung disease that evolves after prolonged exposure to silica-containing rock dust.

The September natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California that killed seven and destroyed nearly forty homes has raised many unanswered questions. The most obvious concern, of course, is that there may be other similar disasters waiting to happen. The personal choice between using a gas or electric cooking appliance in the home is one thing - any quick check-in with foodie websites will teach you what a hot-button item that topic is - but individual preference doesn't matter much if your home is blown apart from the outside in.  

 This summer, a leading workplace health journal published a report of an emerging problem in office workers. This relatively new condition carries the ominous sounding name, "Lipoatrophia semicircularis." By comparison, carpal tunnel syndrome comes trippingly off the tongue. Lipoatrophia semicurcularis (let's just call it LS) simply means a semi-circular line of wasting or atrophy involving fat deposited near the body's surface. This appears as an arching, narrow depression in the skin, typically manifested on the front of thighs (although it can be on the arms, too). This unusual condition was only first reported in the medical literature a few decades ago and seemed to be extremely rare. Rare, that is, other than in certain populations of modern office workers.

In the aftermath of the deadly BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the public mind has been appropriately concentrated on the hazards of natural resources extraction. A recent Journal of the American Medical Association online commentary by my colleague Dr. Gina Solomon highlights the potential physical and mental health dangers arising from oil spills, as well as the chemicals used to clean them up This includes the residual risks that might come up through the food chain and on to the dinner table of seafood consumers.

 A recent New York Times report carried the somewhat tongue-in-cheek header, “Add to the Recall List: Millions of Frozen Mice.” The story concerned an international epidemic of a serious diarrheal illness, salmonella, linked to contaminated reptile food in the form of frozen mice.  These wholesome snacks for snakes had been internet marketed by a company aptly named MiceDirect. This outbreak may be noteworthy in part because of its internet flourish, but it is, in fact, but one example of a variety of potential human health issues linked to pet ownership.

This week the California legislature will be taking up the question of methyl iodide. Methyl iodide is a highly toxic chemical fumigant that California agribusiness is chomping at the bit to start using. A prime crop will be the valuable strawberry fields of the state - the nation's big producer of ever larger and seemingly less tasty berries. But this is not a matter of taste. It's a matter of health and safety. 

In 2009, a hyper-specialized biomedical journal called NeuroToxicology published a fascinating piece of poison sleuthing. The article documented a disturbing series of 11 cases all of whom shared an unusual and crippling constellation of troubles comprised of profound impairment of the nervous system and an inability to produce an adequate number of blood cells.  

As an occupational and environmental medicine research physician, an important part of my work focuses on asthma, trying to figuring out how much of the burden of this disease can be laid at the doorstep of the workplace. My studies, and those of others, have consistently indicated at least 15% of adult asthma - three in twenty cases - may be attributable to workplace causes. It is a hard question to study, because health care providers rarely ask the questions that might make the connection between work activities and health problems such as asthma. Now, recent bureaucratic meddling may make it even harder to get good data on this important question.  

Less than 2 weeks after Valentine's Day, the New York Times ran a front page exposé on the strong links between job loss from manufacturing plant closures and heart attacks among those dealing with sudden unemployment To experts in the field of occupational and environmental health this link is hardly a revelation, but one need not rely on technical expertise for confirmation. Common wisdom draws similar conclusions from the wider human experience - one is reminded of the answer to the folk song riddle, what can cry without tears? (A heart...)