Environmental Working Group (EWG): “Polar bears have a PFAS problem: Pollution from the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS contaminates polar bears, tigers, monkeys, pandas, dolphins and fish and has been documented in more than 330 other species of wildlife around the world, some endangered or threatened. And hundreds of studies have found PFAS chemicals in… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Health Care
Lead was removed from gasoline decades ago
So why is aviation fuel still laced with the metal — a neurotoxin tied to developmental problems in children? “Toddlers in California’s East San Jose, who live directly below the flight path to Reid-Hillview Airport, have concentrations of lead in their blood on par with children tested at the height of the drinking water crisis… Continue Reading
PFAS Central
PFAS Central: “It’s impossible to completely avoid PFAS, a class of human-made chemicals that has been linked to a growing list of serious medical concerns. There are thousands of types of PFAS, and many are not well studied. Yet they’re in everything from stain-resistant rugs to dental floss, outdoor gear, food packaging and soil. “These… Continue Reading
The Future of Long COVID
The Atlantic – This emergency is not about to end. By Katherine J. Wu – “In the early spring of 2020, the condition we now call long COVID didn’t have a name, much less a large community of patient advocates. For the most part, clinicians dismissed its symptoms, and researchers focused on SARS-CoV-2 infections’ short-term… Continue Reading
Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem
Strengthening and Democratizing the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Ecosystem: An Implementation Plan for a National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource. National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force, January 2023. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our country and our world. From how citizens navigate their daily lives to how researchers drive discoveries in the lab to how… Continue Reading
Long COVID Now Looks like a Neurological Disease, Helping Doctors to Focus Treatments
Scientific American: “..People with long COVID have symptoms such as pain, extreme fatigue and “brain fog,” or difficulty concentrating or remembering things. As of February 2022, the syndrome was estimated to affect about 16 million adults in the U.S. and had forced between two million and four million Americans out of the workforce, many of… Continue Reading
The State of Open Humanitarian Data 2023
A report by the UN’s Humanitarian Data Exchange. “This report was produced in February 2023 by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Centre for Humanitarian Data, which manages the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform…In our fourth year of producing The State of Open Humanitarian Data, we can report the highest… Continue Reading
National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns – Volume Two
NPR – According to a new federal report, illegal machine gun converters are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. The report – National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns – Volume Two from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) documents new data and trends in the use of guns by criminals… Continue Reading
Data Brokers and the Sale of Americans’ Mental Health Data
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Data Brokers and the Sale of Americans’ Mental Health Data The Exchange of Our Most Sensitive Data and What It Means for Personal Privacy, February 13, 2022, by Joanne Kim. “This report includes findings from a two-month-long study of data brokers and data on U.S. individuals’ mental health… Continue Reading
Far-right judges are crafting a theory that would empower courts to strike down trillions of dollars in federal spending
Slate: “…During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized Republicans for proposing to “sunset” Medicare and Social Security every five years. In response, many Republican lawmakers booed the president, prompting him to quip, “So, folks, as we all apparently agree: Social Security and Medicare is off the books now.” Perhaps… Continue Reading
NIST Selects ‘Lightweight Cryptography’ Algorithms to Protect Small Devices
NIST: “Lightweight electronics, meet the heavyweight champion for protecting your information: Security experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have announced a victor in their program to find a worthy defender of data generated by small devices. The winner, a group of cryptographic algorithms called Ascon, will be published as NIST’s lightweight… Continue Reading
First FTC Health Breach Notification Rule case addresses GoodRx’s not-so-good privacy practices
FTC: “The company name may be GoodRx, but it’s unlikely that “good” is the adjective consumers would use to describe the way the company violated its privacy promises by disclosing their personal health information to companies like Facebook and Google without authorization. How did GoodRx accomplish that? By using automatic “plug and play” tracking pixels… Continue Reading
