Beef Products Inc Bpi Losing 400 Million in Sales Laying Off 700 Employees

Young people suffering fewer injuries on farms

Young people had 36 percent fewer injuries on farms in 2009 than in 2006, according to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report. USDA surveys farmers every three years about injuries of workers under 20. Experts say increased focus on safety and more training and education have led to the decrease in injuries,  Bill Tomson and Mark Peters ofThe Wall Street Journal report.

Farm-related work has long been the most dangerous for youth, and the Department of Labor recently proposed new rules for child farm labor for the first time in 40 years. The agency withdrew the rule after complaints that it wouldn't allow youth to work on farms owned wholly or partly by their grandparents, for example. National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson said "the numbers are trending in the right direction" and "suggest the Department of Labor was well advised to back off a little." (Read more)

Painkiller abuse rises most in Appalachia, Southwest

There's been a "dramatic rise" in the distribution of hydrocodone and oxycodone, the nation's two most popular prescription drugs, from 2000 to 2010, according to Drug Enforcement Agency data. Chris Hawley of Bloomberg Businessweek reports hydrocodone distribution has risen most in Appalachia and the Midwest, and oxycodone distribution rose most on Staten Island and in the West.

Increases parallel a rise in overdose deaths, pharmacy robberies and other drug-related crime across the country. Pharmacies dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone in 2010. Opioid painkillers, including hydrocodone and oxycodone, caused more than 14,000 deaths in 2008, and the Centers for Disease Control reports the death toll continues to rise. Prescription-drug overdose deaths now outnumber deaths from car accidents.

The increase is partly due to doctors prescribing more painkillers to aging baby boomers, Hawley reports. It's also driven by addiction and "doctor shopping." Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids President Pete Jackson said the addiction problem has roots in Appalachia and affluent suburbs, and spreads out from those two areas. Some areas with military bases or Veterans Affairs hospitals have seen large increases in painkiller use, Hawley reports. In 2010, per-capita oxycodone sales increased five to six-fold in most of Tennessee. Sales also engulfed much of Kentucky, with high rates of sales stretching north to Columbus, Ohio and south to Macon, Ga.

The Southwest is another "hot spot," Hawley reports. Per capita sales of oxycodone rose 10-fold and hydrocodone sales rose five-fold in New Mexico. The state had the highest rate of opioid overdoses in 2008, at 27 per 100,000 people. Hawley reports areas with large Native American reservations saw increases of painkiller abuse, including South Dakota, northeastern Arizona, northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin. (Read more)

Walmart depresses rural wages, researchers find

In some rural counties, Walmart "exerts such power over the local labor market that it depresses wages by more than 6 percent," reports Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder. The results were found in a study conducted by two University of Connecticut economists who have been studying the retail chain's power in local labor markets for several years. They found it has little effect in urban areas, but in rural areas, mostly in the Southeast, its power to "bid down" wages is triple that in cities.

Walmart is the largest single employer in the U.S., and its power varies by region. There's no evidence it's depressing wages nationwide. But in states where the company's presence is strongest, its "monopsony power," or the ability of a single buyer of goods to fix prices among many sellers, is highest. In Kansas, West Virginia and Arkansas, that power is more than 6 percent. In Colorado, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Oklahoma and Utah, it's above 5 percent.

Bonanno and Lopez say Arkansas-based Walmart depresses wages so much in the South that it could "warrant attention from antitrust regulators in the Department of Justice," Bishop writes, adding that the researchers' paper brings attention to at least two issues: the Justice Department and theDepartment of Agriculture conducted a hearing in 2010 "to examine the antitrust implications of Walmart's increasing share of local grocery markets," but Justice took no action in the matter. Also brought to mind, Bishop reports, is a Penn State study that found having big box stores in a community depressed local income. (Read more)

Study: Banned antibiotics still being used in feed

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Arizona State University have found a class of antibiotics banned by the Food and Drug Administration are still being used in livestock feed, MeatingPlace reports. Fluoroquinolones, antibiotics used to treat infections in humans, were found in eight of 12 samples of feather meal, a supplement added to chicken, pig, cattle and fish feed. The Department of Agriculture banned use of this class of antibiotics in 2005 because some bacteria in humans were becoming immune to fluoroquinolones. (The Guardian photo)

David Love, lead author of the study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, said the research "strongly suggests the continued use of these drugs" despite the FDA ban. Researchers analyzed commercially available feather meal samples from six states and China, and found the active ingredients from Tylenol, Benadryl and Prozac in them. They also found inorganic arsenic in all 12 samples.

The National Chicken Council released a statement saying the study "looked at chicken feathers and not chicken meat," Meatingplace reports. The group contends chickens in the U.S. are not given arsenic additives in feed or any other drugs mentioned in the study. "If consumers were to take away one message from the findings, it should be from the researchers themselves: 'We haven't found anything that is an immediate health concern'," the group said. (Read more)

Tennessee set to get law requiring weaknesses of climate-change and evolution theories be taught

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, left, is likely to sign a bill that would protect public-school science teachers who discuss "weaknesses of theories such as evolution and global warming in their classrooms," reports Cameron McWhirter of The Wall Street Journal. The bill, which passed the Republican-dominated legislature by large margins, is similar to several in other states that have been either written or supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a business-backed, conservative group.

The bill "does not require the teaching of alternatives to scientific theories of evolution, climate change, human cloning and 'the chemical origins of life'," notes Neela Banerjee of the Los Angeles Times. "Instead, the legislation would prevent school administrators from reining in teachers who expound on alternative hypotheses to those topics."

There have been no cases of Tennessee teachers being punished for questioning evolution or climate change, but the bill's supporters say it will provide a safeguard if any are, while not allowing religious teaching. Wrong, say opponents, including science teachers, science organizations and the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU spokeswoman Hedy Weinberg told McWhirther the bill would "gut science education in our schools." She added the Tennessee branch of the organization is ready to pursue litigation. Louisiana and Mississippi have passed similar laws, and science standards in seven other states now allow teachers to question evolution, McWhirther reports.

UPDATE: Gov. Bill Haslam allowed the bill to pass into law without his signature, ignoring pleas from parents, science teachers, the ACLU and science organizations to veto it. In a statement, he expressed "misgivings" about the bill, saying it would "create confusion over the state's science standards." Tennessee is now the second state to allow teaching of alternatives to climate change without fear of repercussion.

dunkelsquity.blogspot.com

Source: https://irjci.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

Share this post