Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 |
Today I got to work to find out about some news that needs to be posted. This is mostly a local event but it does demonstrate the need for emergency preparedness.
At around 1 AM a gas tanker crashed, exploded, and spilled 9,600 gallons of flaming gasoline into a residential area. The first report from The Boston Globe states that three residential buildings and 40 cars have been burned. So far no major injuries or fatalities have been reported. the three images below tell the story much better.
These images are from George Rizer, Globe Staff.
Fires do not always happen when the weather allows for easy evacuations.
This is all that remained of the tanker that caused the fire.
the heat of the fire was intense enough to melt light posts.
It was probably below 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the fire. So ask yourself right now, would you be ready for an event like this?
Always make sure that you have some clothes and most basic necessities ready in the case of a fire or other sudden disaster. Especially in the case of a fire, you will not have the chance to get much back. The things you will most need are some warm clothes ready and id cards. Having someone steal your identity causes enough problems, not being able to prove who you are can be much more difficult to drag yourself out of.
How can you get the paperwork to prove your own identity if what you need to do so is the paperwork that you lost? Also make sure papers like birth certificates, etc. are in a firebox that can be recovered.
Be safe, and be ready.
Posted in Health | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 3rd, 2007 |
From the very beginning of these Presidential Primary campaigns, two issues have clearly stood out as the central themes shaping the debate; the Iraq war and health care. How the former develops will depend very much on the course of events in that country over the next twelve months. The later, however, is a much more knowable commodity. Health care has been the proverbial elephant in the room for American politics for decades now; just recently shedding its “third rail” status and moving into the forefront of the American political arena.
So while its impossible to predict how the Iraq issue will play out if security conditions continue to improve, the problems facing our health care system have been well hashed out for awhile now. These well-worn issues don’t look to change very much between now and November 2008, and so it’s much easier to see how the battle lines will be drawn.
That’s far from a hopeful prospect. The points of contention will no doubt be the same ones that derailed the last health care reform effort in the early nineties; a political disaster of such magnitude that no politician has been willing to tackle the subject since.
A study of that failure is helpful in illustrating the reasons our system has been allowed to deteriorate. Partisan mud-slinging and wanton fear mongering on both sides killed any chance of a sensible compromise and led to the abandonment of the plan altogether. Cynical politicians; Newt Gingrich springs to mind, were so set on preventing any plan that made any concession to the opposition from reaching fruition that they scuttled all hope of resolving the dilemma.
While the strengths, weaknesses, and ongoing trends of our health care system are well documented, no other issue has been more mis-represented and politically divisive. As the battle between the Clinton white house and the republican controlled congress illustrates, stark lines have been drawn between those in favor of a government-run health solution and a market based one. Because of this sharp divide and general unwillingness to compromise, the problem has lain unresolved for years, growing untreated like a malignant cancer.
The main problem is that voters and politicians alike tend to see health care as a metaphor for political philosophy in general. It has become more than a common sense, nuts and bolts issue; moving beyond simple economics and into the realm of “us versus them”. Either you’re a “socialist” who wants the government to take over every aspect of our lives; or you’re “in the pockets of special interests”, blatantly putting the well-being of huge insurance companies over that of the average citizen.
This sort of rhetoric, while popular with hard-liners on each side, is counter-productive. While members of congress are busy blasting accusations at each other from both sides of the aisle, medicare and medicaid descend deeper into financial crisis every day.
Medicare and Medicaid, our governments two largest entitlement programs, suffer from ballooning costs and wide-spread inefficiency. The cost of health care in general is spiraling out of control, forcing more and more Americans to forgo medical treatment altogether. The burden of medical coverage is crushing American citizens and businesses, causing many employers to abandon the practice of offering health insurance to their employees.
Clearly, something must be done. The country cannot afford another failed attempt to fix our sick medical system. Tackling this issue and finding a common solution will require leadership and compromise on both sides of the debate. Otherwise, we’re doomed to watch as Washington tears itself apart trying to score political points, while average citizens struggle more every day to simply pay their medical costs.
Posted in Election 2008, Health | 1 Comment »
Thursday, September 6th, 2007 |
The “War on Drugs,” may be the longest war that has ever been waged against Americans.
In my opinion it is, like prohibition, a travesty against the rights of citizens. This is not because I like drugs, but I detest the government telling me what I can do with my own body. I am made especially angry by the extreme inconsistencies in the scheduling of different substances, mostly those that are deemed to have no medical purposes at all and for which all research is banned.
The quickness of the government to ban substances happens at a speed not seen anywhere else in government. I would not be at all surprised to find that the congress and senate can make a drug illegal with much greater alacrity than it was able to help Louisiana or Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Not for the greater good of the people, or based on lengthy studies from multiple sources, but only because it would be deeply unpopular to think twice about any sort of mind altering drug.
But wait… Alcohol and nicotine are perfectly legal. Both of these have very similar effects on the nervous system as any other drug. The only difference is that in some cases they act more slowly or less profoundly than the “hard” drugs that are banned. In fact, both alcohol and nicotine can cause the same patterns of loss of activity in the brain as other drugs in heavy users. Nicotine has an addiction rate comparable to heroine, and alcohol is responsible for countless avoidable deaths every weekend night.
Are these safe substances?
No! But we have the right to use them any way we like, so long as we do not directly endanger the safety of others. And that rule is a good one.
If I show up to work drunk, I get fired. That’s fair. If I smoke marijuana on a weekend, maybe even two weeks before testing, I get fired, even though I am not in any sort of altered state. Is that fair?
The government has decided for you that any number of substances are not safe for you. They have gone so far as to say that they are so unsafe that there shall be no testing of them to either confirm or disprove their statements. By doing this they are saying that as a citizen you are simply not smart enough to use drugs unless they were far to entrenched in society to extinguish. By this opinion I would also like to point out that I do not condone any drug use, don’t encourage it, or want intoxicated people working or driving.
Just like alcohol (and in many ways should include nicotine) if your altered state would endanger others it should be restricted to certain locations. A private home, the bar, or as in Amsterdam the weed cafe are great places to get high in whatever way you would prefer. If you get in a car, interfere with children, or otherwise disrupt the public then there should be consequences.
But that is only the social side of this very complex issue. Really this only covers the My Body argument against government regulation in a free society. I will write later on further issues.
Posted in Health | 2 Comments »
Friday, August 10th, 2007 |
When any tragedy occurs we wonder how it happened. This becomes an especially relevant question when considering mental health. I will use three cases to detail what role the mental health profession plays in these events and what keeps it from being more effective. I will consider the 20 April 1999, Columbine High School shooting; the 26 April 2002, Robert Steinhaeuser, at the Johann Gutenberg secondary school in Germany; and the 16 April 2007, Virginia Tech shooting. These cases were chosen based on time from each other in years and seeming differences in motivation, the fact that all three occurred during April is not significant.
The Shootings – Quick Facts
Columbine High School: Two shooters, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 students, one teacher, wounded 23 others and then killed themselves. The whole attack lasted one hour. The shooters were or felt alienated from other students and have been reported to have been influenced in some fashion by neo-Nazi ideology. In this case the warning signs were abundant; however, no decisive action was taken for intervention prior to the shooting.
Johann Gutenberg School: Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, killed 13 teachers, two students, and one policeman. 10 others were wounded. Steinhaeuser had been expelled October of the previous year, revenge for this seems to have been the motive. The event lasted only 20 minutes. There were some possible warning signs before the shooting. Steinhaeuser killed himself after being trapped in a classroom by a teacher.
Virginia Tech: Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building, 15 others were also wounded. Cho has been cited as being very mentally unstable. He was legally required to go to counseling sessions for his sexual assault or stalking of other female students. The warning signs were numerous and action was already being taken.
Dates and general information taken from Infoplease, other information from Wikipedia and other media sources.
We have the range of revenge killing motivated by a simple expulsion to a clearly disturbed young man who was already under the watch of the mental health community. How can we deal with this range of difference in personalities with similar violent results?
(more…)
Posted in Health | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 6th, 2006 |
Although it caused quite a stir when the idea was first spoken of, the plan for Wal-Mart to offer generic prescriptions for $4 each has faded from the limelight. A perfect time to approach the topic again. Mainly, how does this sort of price slashing benefit the American mega-corp? And, how do the ripples of this venture effect the rest of the pond?
To tackle the first question is very easy. Why would such a seemingly profit hungry corporation suddenly drastically slash the prices on medications? Because they expect to make a great deal of net revenue doing it. While viewed by many as a selfless act, the Wal-Mart drug plan is not intended to run at any kind of loss. Not a single statement Wal-Mart has made says anything about that, in fact, they readily admit they expect and want to profit from this program. Because Wal-Mart can buy enormous quantities of product, the price for doing so is extremely low per unit. However, instead of making the kinds of profits that turn the heads of any suspicious consumer, they will do so at a much lower profit margin per unit.
And that is where the magic is. They will make less money in each sale, but the idea is that low prices attract large numbers of people. In doing this they increase overall profit by simply driving up the volume of sales. There is no happy, selfless, or saintly motivation here, only the raising of the bottom line in a way that only very large and economically powerful corporations can do. However, for every action there is a reaction.
In an article by David Harsanyi of the Denver post, Dr. Jeffrey Zax, an economics professor at the University of Colorado ay Boulder, was quoted as saying this.
I don’t see any downside to it. I think it’s a terrific idea. It’s hard to imagine what downside there could be. … The only change will be that others will try and meet these prices.”
But, of course, there is a downside. Most private pharmacists have no way of matching these kinds of prices. It has long been the same argument against Wal-Mart that they drive anything smaller than them out of business. This is certainly a consequence worth noting. There is another very human consequence to note.
People in America have long carried the heavy load of the insurance industry and its less than helpful attitude about helping people. Now we not only carry the weight, but suffer from it in very real ways. We are a country that does not take preventive measures in health care, we only react to illness and injury that poses a great threat to us. We suffer many ills because we cannot afford to treat them before they stop us. Four dollar prescriptions can make a very real difference in this climate. A family formerly faced with the choice of food or medicine will be able to afford limited health care much more easily. This certainly does not cure the problem of the system, but at least it staunches the bleeding. We must weigh in our minds and hearts if the price of losing small pharmacies is equitable in terms of gains in affordable medicine.
This could be a rare example in modern times of dedicated work toward raising profits is working to also help people live better. Not only that, but it has been done without mandate by the federal government. This may be a very small change, possibly ambivalent, step in the right direction. But in a nation where many people cannot afford insurance for health care at all, even troubled baby steps are better than digging deeper trenches.
Posted in Health | No Comments »
