i know this is true for a fact

i have many many many friends in the service industry. some have benefits (insurance that is) but almost NONE of them have sick time, paid sick days.

there are a LOT of immigrants in the business too. it's not unusual for them to work well over 8 hours a day, 6 and 7 days a week. while they get paid MORE than the flat $30.00 a day mentioned in the article (i mean they get paid by the hour and it's NOT 3.00 unless they are waiting tables and/or getting tips), most of them do NOT have the medical coverage.

of course this effects both men and women, however, women are going to get hit a lot harder.

it's idea to stay home when one is sick. SOME PEOPLE CANNOT STAY HOME WHEN THEY'RE ILL


A Sick Situation
-Judith Warner

Early this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that anyone with flu symptoms stay home from work or school.

President Obama reiterated that advice at his press conference on Wednesday night. “If you are sick, stay home,” he said. “If your child is sick, keep them out of school.”

“I know it sounds trivial,” the president said, after asking families to start taking other “very sensible precautions” like washing hands and covering up during coughs. “But it makes a huge difference.”

The president’s admonition to the sick to stay home didn’t sound trivial to Silvia Del Valle, a 42-year-old restaurant worker in Miami.

It sounded impossible.

When I spoke to her Thursday morning, Del Valle was sick in bed with a cough and a fever. Was she planning to go to work, I asked her, Obama’s press conference still fresh in my mind.

“Yes,” she said. “I need to go. Because if I don’t go, I lose my job.”...........

from the cdc

here are some faqs on swine flu

remember though (and your moms told you this when you were a kid) WASH YOUR HANDS

wash 'em frequently. wash 'em all the time. 80% of the cases of flu are spread by hand. so WASH 'EM

wash 'em after touching that grocery cart. that door to enter work or school.

oh and don't hang in crowds for a while

it's not like we're living in china or anything

is it? hmmmmmmmmmmm, let me see.

spinach
peanuts
pistachios
tomatoes

and on and on an on

(if you use baby formula, helpful hint: HAVE IT TESTED)

Health agency covered up lead harm
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention withheld evidence that contaminated tap water caused lead poisoning in kids.

By Rebecca Renner
April 10, 2009 | From 2001 to 2004, Washington, D.C., experienced what may have been the worst lead contamination of city water on record. Tens of thousands of homes had sky-high levels of lead at the tap, and in the worst cases, tap water contained enough lead to be classified as hazardous waste. Not that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government oversight agency for public health, was worried.

A 2004 CDC report found that water contamination "might have contributed a small increase in blood lead levels." The study has been influential. School officials in New York and Seattle have used the CDC report as justification for not aggressively responding to high levels of lead in their water, and other cities have cited the report to dispel concerns about lead in tap water.

But the results of thousands of blood tests that measured lead contamination in children were missing from the report, potentially skewing the findings and undermining public health........

let me get this straight

a peanut processing plant, peanut corporation of america, KNEW there was salmonella in their products yet not only did they not reveal that to anyone (outside the plant that is) but they SOLD THEIR PRODUCTS to unwary customers (none of their products was actually sold to the public. it was sold to other manufacturers who used it to make other products sold directly to the public)? oh that's not even the shocking part. the shocking part is NO ONE EVEN KNOWS IF THAT'S ILLEGAL? come on now. of COURSE it's illegal (not to mention immoral). i'm not a lawyer and i know you can't KNOWINGLY poison anyone. (i hope the peanut corporation of america executives are glad they're not in china where some of the milk scandal people got sentences of death)

Peanut Processor Knowingly Sold Tainted Products
It Found Salmonella 12 Times
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened 500 more across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said yesterday. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have been investigating the outbreak of salmonella illness, said yesterday that Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway, sometimes after getting a negative finding from a different laboratory.

Companies are not required to disclose their internal tests to either the FDA or state regulators, so health officials did not know of the problem. ...........

i read the headline of this story

and said, 'WHO THE F**K inhales pig brains'? the i slapped myself on the forehead and said
'SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORKERS of course'! (and WHO works in slaughterhouses you ask? well lots of born americans for sure, BUT a way LOT of immigrants as well. first breathing in the additives in the popcorn* came to light, now this. none of it surprising
Inhaling Pig Brains May Be Cause of New Illness

By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer
Fittingly, the first person to detect a faint signal in all the noise was the interpreter.
The 33-year-old woman who worked for eight years working with Spanish-speaking patients at a medical clinic in southern Minnesota noticed something familiar as she translated the story of a young meatpacker last September.
Earlier last summer, she had heard a version of it from two other workers at the same slaughterhouse, and had told it to their doctors, who were different from her current patient's. When the consultation was over, she pointed this out.
The interpreter's insight set in motion a story, still unfolding, that may be making envious the ghost of Berton Roueche, the legendary chronicler of medical mysteries at the New Yorker magazine. A new disease has surfaced in 12 people among the 1,300 employees at the factory run by Quality Pork Processors about 100 miles south of Minneapolis. ..........

*NOTE king george's administration threatened to VETO any actions to halt or regulate diacetyl

julie gerberding's speech was eviscerated?

oh hell NO, the AMERICAN PEOPLE are being eviscerated by king george and his entire court. that the great goddess for the occasional 'leak' (i call them whistle blowers OR truth tellers). not that we wouldn't have known her comments were edited. just like everything else though, NOTHING will be done. well the world is going to fall apart on the greater scale but i meant on the lesser scale; to king george and his court.

even on 60 minutes the other day, one of the firefighters battling the california blazes mentioned climate change. not that that is what CAUSED these particular fires but how climate change perhaps changes the frequency and the severity of the fires. well THEY don't care because the rapture is a rap rap rappin' at their doors

Heavy Editing Is Alleged In Climate Testimony

By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press
Testimony that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to give yesterday to a Senate committee about the impact of climate change on health was significantly edited by the White House, according to two sources familiar with the documents.
Specific scientific references to potential health risks were removed after Julie L. Gerberding submitted a draft of her prepared remarks to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.................

........Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, said in a statement last night that the Bush administration "should immediately release Dr. Gerberding's full, uncut statement, because the public has a right to know all the facts about the serious threats posed by global warming."
The Bush administration has been accused by government scientists of pressuring them to emphasize the uncertainties of global warming. Earlier this year, climate scientists complained to a House committee that the administration had sought frequently to manage or influence their statements and public appearances. .......................

the more i read

the more i feel we are doomed


Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Food, Water Supply
Studies Being Done to Determine Long-Term Effects of Small Amounts of Perchlorate on Human Health

they closed down (well are going to close down) a plant that makes candy in connecticut. the talk is they are going to contract out to some country where it was cheaper to make candy. i was enraged. i saw how and what happened with pet food being made in other countries. turns out i have NOTHING to worry about. we're poisoning ourselves without any help!

Perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel, is turning up in the nation's food -- in vegetables like lettuce and spinach -- and water supply.
You've never heard of it? Most Americans haven't, but millions have been exposed to it. This week Congress held hearings to determine just how dangerous it is to humans' health.
"A study from the Centers for Disease Control last year tested almost 3,000 people who are representative of the U.S. population. They found perchlorate in every single person," said Dr. Anila Jacob of the Environmental Working Group.........