Both Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: The U.S. fiscal year 2004 budget will be drenched in record amounts of red ink. But each party has its own spin.
According to Joshua B. Bolton, President Bush’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, while the amount of the deficit is “unwelcome,” there’s definitely good news: “It is much lower than we projected, and we or any of the other forecasters projected just six months ago.”
Senator Kent Conrad (ND), ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, put it differently: “The administration announces the largest deficit in the history of the United States and they claim things are getting better…It’s a little like the captain of the Titanic saying there’s good news as the ship goes down, because it’s not sinking as fast as he’d said it would.”
Wild About Fish
Fish continues to get less than favorable publicity as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and university researchers find more contaminants. Earlier this year, federal officials urged consumers to eat less tuna due to mercury contamination, while researchers warned about PCBs and dioxins in farmed salmon. Now, there’s more bad news – about farmed salmon, once again, and other species of wild freshwater fish.
EPA has released a list of 3,094 health advisories issued by 48 states in 2003, warning folks to limit how much fish they eat from their rivers and lakes. The number of advisories had jumped from 2,800 the previous year. Note that two states, Wyoming and Alaska, don’t monitor for fish pollutants so they don’t issue advisories.
These advisories cover more than one-third of U.S. lakes and nearly one-fourth of the rivers. EPA Admin-istrator Mike Leavitt added some perspective to the agency’s findings, however: “It’s about trout, not tuna. It’s about what you catch on the shore,” not what you buy in the store.
Farmed salmon’s most recent hit comes from a study published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal. In that study, researchers found significantly higher levels of PBDEs – flame-retardants – in farmed salmon than in their wild counterparts.
“I’m very concerned,” said Jeffery A. Foran, professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and one of the study’s authors. Flame-retardants are suspected to disrupt hormone levels, but no human studies have been done.
Why the difference between wild and farmed fish? Diet, say the researchers. Farmed salmon eat a lot of fish oil and meal, whereas wild salmon eat less fat and exercise more.
Those involved in salmon farm-ing pooh-pooh such concerns, saying that under further scrutiny, such alleged health risks won’t stand up.
And last but not least, Baylor University researchers have found antidepressants, birth control drugs, and other meds in fish where some Texas cities release wastewater into the streams. However, more research, they say, is needed to determine the effects of such drugs.
But Don’t Take Their Word
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently came out with “Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Poultry Processing.”
Sounds impressive, but even the feds admit that they draw heavily from the agency’s own 1993 release, “Ergonomics Program Management Guidelines for Meatpacking Plants.” But lest you think the new document is merely a rehash of the old, OSHA says that they also incorporate “solutions that reflect the over 10 years of innovation in poultry processing” since that 1993 guide was published.
The emphasis this time, OSHA says, is on industry-specific, practical guidelines. Illustrations show such actions as deboning a chicken breast. A “clamping device,” for example, is suggested so that an employee can use both hands to pull the meat off.
Note: OSHA seems to bend over backwards stressing the voluntary nature of the guidelines: “These guidelines are advisory in nature and informational in content. They are not a new standard or regulation and do not create any new OSHA duties.” And, on almost an apologetic note, “OSHA does not intend these guide-lines to disrupt the effective programs employers have established.”
Car Bazaar
While the debate goes on about how many government vehicles should convert to alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, some are saying the feds have too darned many vehicles in the first place. Take a recent Government Accounting Office (GAO) report, for example. (GAO is a watchdog arm of Congress.)
According to the report, Uncle Sam spends about $1.7 billion annually to run about 387,000 vehicles. Some agencies could not justify the number of vehicles they had. The Department of the Interior’s inspector general figured that the agency could save some $34 million if it pared its 36,000-strong, underutilized fleet.
A finding at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), however, might be hard to beat: a brand-new, never-used car had been parked at a laundry since the VA purchased it – four years ago. The keys were missing to boot!
Briefly
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $11.64 million to 26 states and three tribal groups to help move the United States closer to a national animal identification system. Including cost-sharing, total investment will top $16 million.
• USDA has proposed to make steers and spayed heifers with any evidence of horn growth meet the same tuberculosis (TB) testing requirements as other cattle. The reason: these animals are usually intended for exhibitions, rodeos, roping, and the like and live longer than feeder cattle. The longer they live, the more risk of catching TB.
• Ag exports are projected to reach $62 billion in fiscal year 2004 – up $5.8 billion from last year – setting a record. Stronger beef, pork, and cotton exports are helping drive the figure up.
• At press time, soldiers and trackers at a Louisiana army base were being given the runaround by a Bengal tiger, no less. Where the beast came from is anybody’s guess. Animal experts, however, say that there are now more “pet” tigers in the United States than there are wild ones in their native habitat in south Asia.
• Virginia school districts have joined those in eight other states in requiring that students be offered an alternative to animal dissection in science classes. Alternatives can include such things as computer programs, plastic models, or resources on the Internet. Animal welfare groups are behind the impetus. The Humane Society of the United States says that around six million animals – mostly frogs, fetal pigs, and cats – are dissected annually in schools.
• The American Meat Institute’s hot dog lunch on Capitol Hill, honoring National Hot Dog Month, had a counterpart: free vegetarian “dogs” passed out by a couple of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals activists – who also happen to be former Playboy magazine playmates who were dressed in lettuce bikinis.
October 2004 Render