Category Archives: Health and Wellness

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Creatures from the Black and Blue Lagoon

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Photo courtesy of The Times of London

 

Locals called it the Blue Lagoon. And over the years, the unused quarry at Harpur Hill near Buxton in the United Kingdom had become a popular swimming spot and tourist destination for people drawn by its picturesque turquoise waters. The only problem was that the lagoon was toxic. The mix of limestone rocks and quarrying chemicals that made the water so inviting had also left it with a pH level of 11.3 (normal water has a pH of 7), similar to that of household bleach, which comes in at 12.6, or ammonia at 11.5.

So local officials posted signs everywhere that not only warned swimmers that entering the water could cause skin irritations, stomach problems, fungal infections and rashes, but that the water itself was filled with wrecked cars, dead animals, excrement and trash. And still, people of all ages kept coming and and kept swimming.

Finally, officials had enough and in order to save people from themselves, they recently took a novel risk management approach and had the lake dyed black. According to a spokesperson, the dye job may be having the desired effect:

“There is already some anecdotal evidence that this is working as residents said that over the weekend people were coming up as they normally do to swim and then very quickly turning around again when they saw the water.”

So to sum up: swimming in bleach is great as long as it’s a pretty color. Further evidence that sometimes illogical human behavior is the toughest risk management challenge of all.

By the way, no word on whether the new black lake has attracted any goths, metalheads or sea monsters.

Hundreds Arrested in China for Food Safety Violations

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Regulators in China have decided to crack down on food safety violators. Since last month, Chinese police have seized 350 suspects involved in 120 food-related criminal cases. With the Chinese Lunar New Year beginning February 10, and the many celebrations surrounding it, the ministry has focused its efforts on the quality of cooking oil, meat and other food items that find a place on many revelers plates in the holiday season.

According to Chinese Radio International, “the police destroyed more than 220 underground food workshops during the crackdown” and it has organized inspections in supermarkets, food exhibitions, tourist sites and food companies to continue throughout the year. Officials have even gone so far as to offer rewards of up to 300,000 yuan (,200) to people who report on others who violate food safety laws.

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China has long been in the spotlight for food offenses. The 2008 melamine-in-milk incident resulted in the death of six children.

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And in mid-December, KFC came under fire for allegedly supplying stores with chicken containing excess amounts of antiviral drugs and hormones used to accelerate growth.

But these are merely two examples of many and it remains to be seen if the Chinese ministry can get a hold on food safety in a country of 1.3 billion.

Opioids in the Office

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Narcotics abuse among the American public has received a good amount of publicity lately — and rightly so. There are now more workers addicted to opioids than ever before. And it seems physicians may not be doing all they can to regulate patient intake.

In fact, a new report by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WRCI) states that one in 12 injured workers who started prescription narcotics were still using them three to six months later. “Longer-Term Use of Opioids” examined long-term use of narcotics in 21 states and how often physicians monitored injured patients after prescribing the drugs.

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“This study addressed a very serious issue: how often doctors followed recommended treatment guidelines for monitoring injured workers under their care, who are longer-term users of narcotics,” said Dr. Richard Victor, WCRI’s Executive Director. “This study will help public officials, employers, and other stakeholders understand as well as balance providing appropriate care to injured workers while reducing unnecessary risks to patients and costs to employers.

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”

Among the key findings were:

  • Longer-term use of opioids continued to be prevalent in workers compensation, especially in Louisiana and New York, as well as Texas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, California and North Carolina.
  • Drug testing was used less frequently than recommended by medical treatment guidelines. Among claims with longer-term use of narcotics, 18-30% received drug testing in most states studied, with the 21-state median at 24%. Over the study period, the percentage of workers with longer-term use of narcotics who received at least one drug test increased from 14 to 24% in the median state.
  • Use of psychological evaluation and treatment services continued to be low. Only 4–7% of the injured workers with longer-term narcotic use received these services in the median state. Even in the state with the highest use of these services, only 1 in 4 injured workers with longer-term narcotic use had psychological evaluation and 1 in 6 received psychological treatment.
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    Little change was seen in the frequency of use of these services.

The graph below is disturbing, considering the addictive nature of opioids, especially the longer the patient is dependent on them.

In response to these findings and the media coverage surrounding them, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued a statement regarding an initiative aimed at addressing the problem. The agency unveiled its new web-based program that was developed to help doctors prescribe addictive medications, such as Oxycontin and Percocet, in a more safe and controlled manner.

Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem and affects everyone from teenagers to stay-at-home moms to, most likely, the very people you work with. We are dealing with what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies as an epidemic. And though the Obama Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy and the ONDCP’s 2011 Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan are helpful in addressing the problem, they will in no way solve it. For that, education is key, not only in the homes and schools of the American public, but in the workplaces as well. It’s smart risk management.

Yosemite Visitors Risk Disease

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Yosemite National Park is one of the most visited places in the U.S. with more than 3.7 million people treking to the California hotspot each year. Some of those nature lovers may be at risk for a serious disease, however.

It was recently reported that approximately 1,700 Yosemite visitors who stayed in tent cabins this summer may have been exposed to a deadly rodent-borne virus — a disease that has already claimed the lives of two people.

After learning that a Pennsylvania visitor’s death was caused by hantavirus, Yosemite officials sent emails Monday evening to those who stayed in the “signature tent cabins” in Curry Village between mid-June and late August, said park spokesman Scott Gediman. Letters were sent to visitors whose email addresses were not on record.

The fatality marked the third confirmed case of the rare rodent-borne disease linked to the park. Last week, park officials said a 37-year-old Bay Area man had died and an Inland Empire woman in her 40s was recovering after being exposed to the virus. Park officials believe there may be a fourth case but had yet to receive confirmation Tuesday.

All four stayed separately at the signature tent cabins in June, Gediman said. Officials have traced the outbreak to deer mouse droppings in the area.

Jana McCabe, a Yosemite park ranger, called the hantavirus outbreak “unprecedented.” Though the park dealt with the same type of outbreak in the past (2000 and 2010), neither instance caused a fatality, and since then employees of the park have been trained on proper hantavirus protocol.

Since this most recent outbreak, the park has stepped up its response, implementing “rolling closures” of the cabins for deep cleaning, McCabe said. Crews are tearing down interior walls to look inside and repairing holes where mice could get into the structures. Meanwhile, Yosemite is suffering a reputation setback. As word continues to spread about the deadly hentavirus outbreak, the park will undoubtedly see a drop in tourist attendance.

There have been only 587 documented cases on hentavirus in the U.S. since the virus was indentified in 1993.