U.S. Offshore Drilling Industry Feeling the Pressure - New Rules to Tighten Safety

In the months after BP finally managed to contain the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, political leaders made a lot of speeches about how this can never happen again, and promised change.

While there are never any guarantees, some progress appears to be coming. U.S. regulators have begun to take the first steps in the direction of strengthening safety requirements for offshore drilling operations.

U.S. Department of the Interior has just proposed a set of new rules that are designed to upgrading safety equipment, well control systems, blowout prevention practices on offshore oil and gas operations, and improving workplace safety. Eleven people died on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, was blunt in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, saying “The Deepwater Horizon oil spill laid bare fundamental shortcomings in the oil and gas industry’s safety practices on the Outer Continental Shelf.

“For thirty years, under the oversight of both the Democratic and Republican administrations and Congresses, (the drilling) industry ventured into deeper and deeper waters without adequate oversight. We are (now) raising the bar for safety, oversight, and environmental protection at every stage of the drilling process.”

Part of the new oversight plans being proposed include giving regulators the authority to decide where on the outer shelf companies will be allowed to drill. Right now, all scheduled lease sales in the Arctic have been canceled. Also, the North Atlantic, Pacific, and Bristol Bay, Alaska are off limits to development.

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U.S. Egg Safety Standards Still Falling Short of British Success in Reducing Salmonella Rates

Eggs are one of the most important staples of the human diet. They’re eaten as part of breakfasts all over the world, and are needed for countless recipes. While used as quality sources of protein and thickeners, they’re also highly vulnerable to Salmonella contamination if the right conditions aren’t met.

A USDA inspector checks eggs. File photo.

Over the summer, the United States saw major Salmonella outbreaks that “sickened hundreds of people across the country” and led to the massive recall of eggs from two major Iowa producers.

These latest outbreaks came just weeks before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s latest rollout of egg safety requirements. “Preventing harm to consumers is our first priority and these actions will prevent thousands of serious illnesses from Salmonella in eggs,” said the agency’s Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, in an effort to reassure the public.

From May to August of this year, about 1,500 illnesses were reported to likely be associated with these outbreaks, according to information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The FDA says that every year “as many as 79,000 illness and 30 deaths are due to consumption of eggs contaminated with the bacterium Salmonella Enteritidis” and touts that implementing the preventative measures would reduce the number of salmonella infections from eggs by “nearly 60 percent.”

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Vitamin D Deficiency Ups Risk of Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, Diabetes, and Cancers

Just about the only time most of us notice vitamin D is when we see it on a milk cartoon and even then we’re oblivious to it, but growing research says that maybe we shouldn’t be.

A study published earlier this week in Genome Research has mapped out the points where vitamin D interacts with our DNA. It also looked at how a deficiency of the vitamin in the body can increase the risk of a number of chronic conditions and illnesses.

  

Deficiencies in vitamin D can contribute to lower insulin production, which can exacerbate type-1 diabetes, sometimes called juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes. This is a chronic condition where the pancreas produces little or no insulin.

Overall, vitamin D works in several ways. Dr. Allen C. Bowling, a neurologist at the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center, said, “It’s well known that vitamin D works to promote calcium absorption (which is why it’s in milk) for strong bones. However, recent research also suggests that vitamin D may have important effects on the immune system, and may help regulate cell growth and differentiation.

“In studies of immune cells, vitamin D shows anti-inflammatory effects. Additionally, a prior large ten-year study found that women who took vitamin D supplements were 40% less likely to multiple sclerosis.”

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Threat Realized as Live Capture Shows Asian Carp Have Unimpeded Access To Lake Michigan

Map courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor.

Years of fears that the Asian carp would invade the Great Lakes and start out competing valuable commercial and recreational fish like salmon and perch for food are now beginning to being realized.

Earlier this summer the first live Asian carp - a bighead carp to be exact - was caught between the electric barrier in the Chicago Area Waterway System and Lake Michigan.

This capture proves that live Asian carp have unimpeded access to the lake and validates the accuracy of earlier environmental DNA (from microscopic bits of tissue shed from the fish) that indicated the fish were nearby.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Michigan’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction to close the Chicago-area locks. The renewed motion came in response to the DNA evidence of the carp getting past the O’Brien Lock and into Lake Michigan.

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Experts Reassure Public of Seafood Safety As Gulf of Mexico Partially Reopens to Fishing

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has done monumental damage to the ecosystems of the region, which will likely take years to be fully restored, but in small ways a recovery has already begun.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reopened 26,388 square miles of Gulf waters to commercial and recreational fishing.

This map is a detailed part of a Map of the World published by Planet Poster Editions in Germany.

At its closet point, the area that has been reopened is about 190 miles southeast of the Deepwater/BP wellhead, and the area where the majority of fishing will occur is about 220 miles from the wellhead, along the west Florida shelf.

NOAA said that its data has “shown no oil in the area, and the United States Coast Guard observers flying over the area in the last 30 days have also not observed any oil.”

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