liveonearth: (kiss kiss bang bang)

Source: Rick Ungar "from the left" at Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/01/16/here-are-the-23-executive-orders-on-gun-safety-signed-today-by-the-president/

President Obama has signed 23 executive orders designed to address the problem of gun violence in America. The following are the items addressed:

Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make itwidely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effectiveuse of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to developinnovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

It does not appear that any of the executive orders would have any impact on the guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals regarding limiting the availability of assault weapons or large ammunition magazines will be proposed for Congressional action. As such, any potential effort to create a constitutional crisis—or the leveling of charges that the White House has overstepped its executive authority—would hold no validity.

liveonearth: (Kiva)

There is a great deal of difference
between loss, change, and transformation.
A loss is a step backward;
a change is an opportunity;
transformation is a step forward.
The common denominator in these three realities
is the fact that one must
give up something.
It is possible for both loss and change to lead to transformation,
but it is not possible for transformation to occur unless
something is lost and something is changed.

–Anthony Padovano

liveonearth: (Default)
CRISIS IMPLIES OPPORTUNITY
--old Chinese saying
liveonearth: (dont_be_heavy)
Nuclear plants in Japan are melting down, and radioactive clouds are headed our way across the Pacific. We have time to prepare...but what should we do? I am full of ideas, but mind you, this is not medical advice! Just the random rantings of some stranger on the internet! With that said, maybe it is a good time to increase your antioxidant intake, and keep it high for the forseeable future. Also, because much radioactivity is carried from such events in the form of radioactive iodine, maybe it's time to fill all your iodine receptors with healthy non-radioactive iodine. That way you reduce the amount of radioactivity your body takes in. The thyroid is the #1 place that iodine is used, and guess where is #2? The breast! Yes. And especially in teenage girls, the risk of cancer if iodine levels are low is radically increased--even when no noxious clouds are headed our way. Studies after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed that the people who survived best and had least symptoms of radioactivity poisoning were the ones with the highest iodine intakes. It even helps to take iodine after the exposure, but it's better to get it in preventatively.

Here's one explanation in the news:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/954256--explainer-how-iodine-pills-protect-against-radiation
more on exactly what I'm doing---and on what NOT to do!!!! )
liveonearth: (Default)
Nice set of NYT opinion pieces here that offer perspective on how Japan's recent earthquake and tsunami experience bear on our situation here in the US. Their nuclear power plants were designed to be OK for up to 8 hours of a power failure, and because of the quake and wave one-two punch, the power outage outlasted the projection. Here in the US our plants are good for 4 hours without power. But how stable is our power grid? Are we really in better shape than Japan for dealing with what may come? Hard to know...and hope we don't have to find out. But if history is any indicator of the future, the one thing we can say is that unpredictable things do happen.
liveonearth: (Default)
According to Atul Gawande there are 90,000 new ICU admissions per day in the US. Here's more of what he says:

This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal. Line infections are so common that they are considered a routine complication. ICUs put five million lines into patients each year, and national statistics show that after ten days 4 percent of those lines become infected. Line infections occur in eighty thousand people a year in the United States and are fatal between 5 and 28 percent of the time, depending on how sick one is at the start. Those who survive line infections spend on average a week longer in intensive care. And this is just one of many risks. After ten days with a urinary catheter, 4 percent of American ICU patients develop a bladder infection. After ten days on a ventilator, 6 percent develop bacterial pneumonia, resulting in death 40 to 45 percent of the time. All in all, about half of ICU patients end up experiencing a serious complication, and once that occurs the chances of survival drop sharply.
--Atul Gawande in The Checklist Manifesto p28.
liveonearth: (Default)
Excellent basic rundown of EMT procedures when working a scene:
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~akshay.shah/ems/notes/notes2.html
notice, all ye from NCNM, that on this page a normal oriented person is A&O x4
ONLY at NCNM is normal x3. =-/
review notes swiped from another student, somewhat updated, I know this material better than the teacher and have improved on his notes in places )
liveonearth: (Default)
I just read the story of the blowup of the Deepwater Horizon, and in my mind's eye I just see people jumping from a height. The same feeling comes to me that I had in the summer following 9/11, a pit of the stomach anger and despair. The people who against orders ran down the stairs from the twin towers were the ones who lived. The rules on that oil drilling platform involved having the top two men present to make a decision during an emergency--but one of them was in the shower. Those who are to survive will not be the ones who do what authority tells them. The bosses are not in control, and may not even have a clue. Do what you need to do. Take care of yourself and anyone dear to you. Nevermind the rules.
liveonearth: (Default)
There's a cynic in me that rears higher when I hear a report about "SOS" signs showing up along the roads in Haiti. The closer to the airport the signs are, the more likely they are to be scams. With loaded humanitarians pouring in, everybody will be trying to get in on the do-gooding action. And it is so much easier to do-good if you have someone local who knows the ropes. Why do your homework when someone there says they will take the money and do good with it in your name? Where money goes, greed awaits. The opportunists will make good on this crisis. I hope that people who are NOT putting up desperation shingles on the road from the airport aren't forgotten.
liveonearth: (Default)
Seems likely at this point that the majority of fall illness is just people over-reacting to common colds. Funny how fear-mongering can plant the seeds of social collapse. CBS broke the story earlier this week. The CBC has admitted that the numbers are far lower than what is being reported in the media.

Here's the CBS report:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

and here's Mercola and his guest discussing the situation:

liveonearth: (Default)
An excellent writeup of acute abdomen in elders:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20061101/1537.html

And more on acute abdomen in general:
http://www.emedmag.com/html/pre/cov/covers/011502.asp
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec02/ch011/ch011b.html

An intususseption case, 60 year old female with periumbilical pain:
http://medgenmed.medscape.com/viewarticle/498297_print
liveonearth: (Default)

In Australia air ambulances that transport people from remote areas to big city hospitals are no longer big enough. One report says that 17.5% of the 21 million total population Down Under is grossly overweight. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is replacing its fleet of four with seven airplanes. Two of the new planes will be equipped with stretchers that can handle a 570 pound patient.
ruminations on the air/obesity news of the day )

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