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Since the 1970s, the CDC has depended upon independent scientists and policy consultants, who are experts in the field to gather information and provide advice to the CDC regarding policy initiatives for a variety of toxic materials. One of the most important safeguards of the scientific integrity of governmental policy and research has been the 258 scientific advisory committees to the various branches of the CDC that presently help policymakers decide on the appropriate means of addressing serious scientific issues. These advisory committees, while not possessing the actual power to reshape policy, are important in their role as the font of expert opinion available to various CDC chiefs. During the past two years, the Bush administration has sought to short-circuit the traditional manner in which appointments to the committees have been made and to substitute a process that by and large has reflected its own well-known anti-regulatory and anti-environmental agenda. In this paper we will look at this process, focusing on one important committee that has been responsible for protecting the nation's children from the devastating effects of lead on their neurological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of leaded gasoline and its effects to the public health during the 1920s in the U.S. The production of leaded gasoline started when General Motors and DuPont Chemical Co. created the Ethyl Corp. to market and produce its final product which inturn will be used as fuel capable of driving cars at greater speed. Ethyl Corp. continued to mass produce the product despite the heath concern from various industrial hygienist about the tetraethyl lead content as an industrial toxin. The state of New York and Philadelphia banned the sale of leaded gasoline in response to the disaster at an experimental laboratory of Standard Oil Co. in Elizabeth, New Jersey that left five workers dead and 35 workers who experienced severe tremors, palcies and hallucinations.

Examines how the changing interests, definitions, and politics of occupational health interacted with a prolonged labor struggle in the country's most productive lead and zinc mining area: The Tri-State region of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. Social and economic origins of a health crisis; Public Health Service's recognition of Silicosis; Labor conflict over Silicosis; Mineowners' views; What contributed to the union's efforts; Postwar defeat of the union.

This essay focuses on the early history of industry and professional relationships around silicosis, the debilitating occupational lung disease, through a study of the role of the Industrial Health Foundation, an industry-sponsored group which has played a critical role in shaping the nation's agenda regarding industrial disease. From its start during the Depression, it has portrayed itself as an industry-sponsored agency that depended upon detached, disinterested professionals and experts to develop effective programs to address occupational disease. As an organization that brought together professional industrial hygienists, business groups, government officials, academics and researchers it serves as a means for understanding the intertwining of industrial and academic agendas. We explore some of the issues that arose regarding public policy and scientific investigations, asking: Under what conditions is it appropriate for professionals and scientists to work together with industrially sponsored organizations? What are the pressures that shape research questions, the range of possible solutions, and the control of scientific data? How can technically trained individuals avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest? At what point does the ostensibly disinterested goals of professionalism conflict with the self-interest of the sponsoring organizations? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the end of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the sectarian system of foster care services in New York City practiced open discrimination, African-American children were generally segregated in a small number of overcrowded and understaffed all-Black institutions. As the African-American migration to the city accelerated in the years following the outbreak of World War II, a small group of psychologists, jurists, philanthropists, and social workers began a systematic challenge to this system. This paper explores the role of racism in shaping New York's foster care system and the experience of African-American children who were forced to depend on services originally organized to serve Whites, It also looks at the ways race affected the way children were typed-as mentally ill, delinquent, or even criminal-in response to the structural realities of a system that sorted children into separate types of institutions according to race. The paper also provides the background for understanding the landmark challenge to segregation of children in sectarian and public institutions represented by Wilder v Sugarman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We celebrate Labor Day every year with barbecues and picnics, rarely remembering that the holiday was born in the midst of tremendous labor struggles to improve working conditions. In the last century, 16-hour workdays and 6- and 7-day workweeks led to terribly high injury rates in the nation's mines and mills. Thousands upon thousands of workers died, caught in the grinding machinery of our growing industries, Today, despite improvements, thousands of workers still die in what has been described as a form of war on the American workforce. This commentary reminds us of the historical toll in lives and limbs that workers have paid to provide us with our modern prosperity. It also reminds us that the continuing toll is far too high and that workers who died and continue to die in order to produce our wealth deserve to be remembered and honored on this national holiday. (Am J Public Health. 1999;89:1319-1321) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Letters to the editor referring to a recent Journal article are encouraged up to 3 months after the article's appearance. By submitting a letter to the editor, the author gives permission for its publication in the Journal. Letters should not duplicate material being published or submitted elsewhere. The editors reserve the right to edit and abridge letters and to publish responses. Text is limited to 400 words and 10 references. Submit online at www.editorialmanager.com/ajph for immediate Web posting, or at ajph.edmgr.com for later print publication. Online responses are automatically considered for print publication. Queries should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH, at men6@nyu.edu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]