Security

Dramatic rise in American poisoning deaths

Leave a comment

I should try to be less US-centric, but did you know that the US government just declared by unanimous vote June 2008 national safety month (NSM)? On that topic, the National Safety Council has created a dedicated page to NSM with some news about real risks to Americans:

Accidental poisoning deaths have more than tripled in the United States over the past 20 years, making poisoning the nation’s second-leading cause of unintentional deaths, after motor-vehicle crashes.
[…]
Most affected by the dramatic rise in poisoning deaths are people born in the 1950s – that is, in the middle of the baby boom years. And while the largest numerical increase in poisoning deaths is among non-Hispanic white men between the ages of 20 and 64, the rate of poisoning from unintentional overdoses is increasing fastest among non-Hispanic white women in the same age range.
[…]
What’s more, most Americans – 81 percent – believe that children are at greatest risk for fatal poisoning, though data shows that less than one percent of poisoning deaths involve children under 6 years of age – about 30 deaths – and more than 96 percent involve adults 20 years and older – more than 20,200 deaths.

Wow. That is a huge number, especially compared to the number of deaths caused by terrorists.

If you are white and middle-aged, you might want to start installing cabinet safety locks now. After all, this is the week of Poisoning Prevention. But home safety is not enough. Did you read the story about the New Zealand cafe that served sodium hydroxide as wine?

She spat out the liquid when she experienced a burning sensation on her lips and mouth. A cafe worker offered to test the drink and suffered a similar reaction, the prosecutor said.

Managers at the cafe checked and found that a mulled wine container had been filled with dishwashing detergent.

Did the managers taste it too? “Waiter, this drink is causing me emotional harm. Could you please taste it? In fact, could you please have management taste a lot of it?” Don’t forget to label your poisons, especially if you keep them in the same type of bottle as those you serve to guests and customers.

We already missed Emergency Preparedness and Distracted Driving. Next week is Falls Prevention. Defying the laws of gravity?

Security

The State of State Security Breach Notification Laws

Leave a comment

The National Conference of State Legislatures has an excellent resource for anyone trying to keep track of state breach disclosure laws:

At least 43 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have enacted legislation requiring notification of security breaches involving personal information.

Arizona | Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 44-7501 (2007 S.B. 1042, Chapter 23)

Arkansas | Ark. Code § 4-110-101 et seq.

California | Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.82

etc.

Security

Doctor’s stationery used for robbery note, leads police to robber

Leave a comment

Rebecca Herold picked up a humorous story about HIPAA in her Realtime IT Compliance blog:

The robbery note was written on the back of a doctor’s stationery, and it had the name and address of the suspect. The police went to the address a little later in the day and indeed found the robber.

The police are quoted as concerned about HIPAA rules. Rebecca attempts to set them straight by pointing out that police are not considered a covered entity. After all, when was the last time you went to the police for health care? But seriously, would it not be nice to know police care about maintaining the privacy of your personal health information even if you are a suspected robber?

Energy, Food, Security

Honda fuel cell…yawn

2 Comments

I know, I should be excited about fuel cells. The Governor of California says it is important, but I honestly do not see them playing any significant role for many decades to come. The AP has posted a story that includes the bad news with the good:

The biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles are cost and the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations. For the Clarity’s release in California, Honda said it received 50,000 applications through its website but could only consider those living near stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.

Initially, however, the Clarity will go only to a chosen few starting July and then launch in Japan this fall.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a statewide network of hydrogen stations, but progress has been slow.

No kidding. He might as well have called for statewide adoption of unicorns. Where are these expensive hydrogen stations going to come from? Big oil? Energy companies? Ha.

The state has also recently relaxed a mandate for the number of zero-emission cars it aims to have on roads. By 2014, automakers must now sell 7,500 electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a reduction of 70 percent.

Talk is cheap, obviously. Why reduce the pressure for demand? Hydrogen is a pipe dream since it requires a massive investment in infrastructure technology that does not even exist yet. Diesel, on the other hand, could achieve similar results with technology that is present today and does not require a change of heart for the oligopoly of big energy companies. Perhaps I should say oil-gopoly?

The US energy department paints a pessimistic picture for hydrogen fueling stations:

If hydrogen were priced to provide cost parity with conventional vehicles, most hydrogen infrastructure stakeholders could turn a profit in the long run, but break-even would not be achieved for many years.

Unconventional approaches are needed to improve capacity factors and reduce the capital cost of the hydrogen infrastructure, especially in the early years of infrastructure development.

Here is a real shocker, for example:

Utilizing existing excess hydrogen capacity can result in significant capital investment reductions in the early years. These cost reductions need to be examined on a regional basis, for example, in the Midwest, 50 percent of the population is within 100 miles of an existing hydrogen plant.

If you want the fuel, you will have to live in low-value industrial regions like those favored by giant chemical plants (e.g. ammonia). Sound like a good trade-off to you? Do you want to live next to an oil refinery to get petroleum into your car? No, of course not. Again, diesel needs only natural sources of oil such as plants, animals and minerals nearby. Imagine living near a forest, or restaurants, or a coast-line with algae, or even a desert with algae for that matter. I see the hydrogen generation/transportation problems many decades away from being solved, or presenting a suitable model.