Word: health
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Most pollutants are probably not present in large enough concentrations to pose significant health hazards. But there are a few worrisome exceptions. Radon, a radioactive gas that gets into the air from soil and rocks, is also present in some water supplies. Rick Cothern, a member of the EPA's Science Advisory Board, points out that when the contaminated water pours out of a tap or shower head, the radon can pass into the air inside a home. He believes that radon from water may cause a few hundred cases of cancer each year. Those cases might be prevented...
...lead, which can cause high blood pressure, arm and leg pains, nausea and vomiting. Lead is especially hazardous to children, since it impairs the development of brain cells. The EPA estimates that at least 42 million Americans are exposed to unacceptably high levels of lead, and the U.S. Public Health Service says that perhaps 9 million children are at least slightly affected...
...world, it depends on methods -- sight, smell and touch -- that are suited to the hazards of the turn of the century. "At the time of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the problems were visible -- lesions and rat hairs and dirt," explains Diane Heiman of Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a Washington consumer group. "But today we've moved beyond that to invisible hazards, like pesticide residue and bacteria and microbiological toxins...
...weakest link in the country's monitoring system is seafood inspection. Consumption of fish has shot up 20% since 1980, to about 3 billion lbs. annually, mainly because it has been touted as beneficial to health. Yet it is the only food without a comprehensive, mandatory federal inspection program. The alarming fact is that about three-quarters of seafood arrives on diners' plates without a look-see by anyone...
Many major employers have been quick to reject the Mommy Track idea. Says James Cohune, a spokesman for McKesson, the San Francisco-based pharmaceutical and health-care-products distributor: "I can't imagine a company keeping someone down who wanted to move up, just because she had a family. That's the Stone Age." Another California giant, the Chevron oil company, offers flexible work schedules for working mothers but does not shift them to a slow career lane. Says Dave Hufford, manager of employment policies for the firm: "We all have to balance our personal lives with our career demands...