California's county and city environmental health services delivery system.
Introduction To enhance understanding of environmental health service provision in California, the Loma Linda University School of Public Health conducted an environmental health services delivery assessment of California's county and city health agencies from March 2005 to May 2005. The investigation included a workforce enumeration, an evaluation...

Multiresidue determination of pesticides in acid-clay soils from Thailand.
Tropical and temperate soils differ with respect to their chemical conditions and mineral composition. Consequently, assessment of the contamination of tropical soils with pesticides requires methods that provide exhaustive extraction from the specific soil matrix and reliable quantification. Our objective was to optimize the simultaneous extraction and determination of...

New center to tackle environmental causes of disease, gaps in environmental health policy.
Duke University's new Center for Comparative Biology of Vulnerable Populations will explore the link between exposure to pollutants and disease. The center will seek to explain why certain people develop disease when challenged with environmental agents, while others remain healthy, the researchers said. According to Duke officials,...

Still not good enough--from Barbie to Botox. (Up front: news and opinion from independent minds).
In a twist of fate, obituaries for Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll, appeared just as a $50 million advertising campaign got underway for an anti-wrinkle drug with a name that memorably combines the words botulism and toxin. Expensive injections of Botox are already popular among women eager...

The application of the Endangered Species Act to the protection of freshwater mussels: a case study.
I. INTRODUCTION The Endangered Species Act (ESA or Act) (1) remains one of the most controversial environmental laws in the United States. Supporters depict it as the only legal bulwark against the mass extinction of species in the United States and the destruction of threatened ecosystems essential...

Environmental Health Issues in Rural Communities.
Abstract The objective of this study was to examine the beliefs of rural health care providers concerning the environmental health issues challenging their communities. A national survey of rural health care providers (RHCPs) was undertaken to identify their perceptions of the environmental health issues facing their constituents....

Reflections on a career in public health: evolving foodborne pathogens, environmental health, and food safety programs. (Features).
Introduction This paper reflects on a career in public health, revealing events that led to an understanding of foodborne diseases, their prevention, and the rationale for present policies that address them. This review is presented by decade and considers activities of the Public Health Service and the...

More and better crops? Not even GM's most vehement supporters see it as an answer to world hunger. So just what are the claims for GM's benefits and do they really stack up?
Higher crop yields, a reduction in the use of weedkillers and insecticides, cheaper food, better food--these are the benefits GM technology is supposed to offer the world. And its supporters are quick to point to evidence that some of these benefits are starting to emerge. A recent...

Enhancing golf and the environment.
Park and recreation managers are beginning to recognize that today's golf courses not only include contemporary aesthetic and agronomic developments, but they also directly address a broad range of complex environmental issues. Today's courses are designed, built and maintained to work in concert with surrounding wetlands and wildlife areas....

Economic Rationalism in Action.
In February 1998 the New Zealand Government distributed the draft code of social and family responsibility as a public discussion document. The code addressed eleven social issues and called for public responses to the document. In assuming the document constitutes political communication we have used discourse analysis to examine...