FEMA trailers reappearing in Gulf to house oil spill workers

FEMA trailers are appearing in the Gulf region to serve as temporary housing for workers involved in cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to an investigation by Ian Urbina of The New York Times. "The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again." After the government banned their use as housing following Katrina, they sold more than 100,000 of the units. "The trailers are 'not intended to be used as housing,' said David Garratt, FEMA’s associate administrator for mission support. 'Subsequent owners must continue to similarly inform subsequent buyers for the life of the unit.'" In many cases, buyers are not being warned about the formaldehyde levels.

An six-part investigation by The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer "examined autopsies for more than 550 baby deaths from 2004-2008 that were classified as SIDS, a category that means natural and unpreventable." The investigation revealed that at least one well-known and potentially fatal risk factor was present 69 percent of those deaths.

Nine institutions for New York's developmentally disabled get nearly $5,000 per person per day in Medicaid reimbursements. This is ten times what they received in 1991 when the state vowed that they would shut the sprawling, inefficient centers by 2000. According to a report by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, the state has not closed the institutions because it would lose a billion dollars a year in federal money.

An investigation by The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer found that some dangerously ill patients who visit Charlotte’s psychiatric hospital are instead given medicine and sent home - sometimes with disastrous results. With perennial overcrowding at the county's 66-bed psychiatric facility, few who visit the hospital’s emergency department are admitted. The result: patients like Kenny Chapman don’t get the help they need. In March, Chapman told staff at the psychiatric hospital that he wanted to kill his wife. But clinicians opted not to hospitalize him, despite clear evidence of mental illness. Hours after he was released, Chapman suffocated his wife and went on to kill two of his children.

An investigation by John Fauber, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, found that when doctors sign off on research about powerful new drugs, they may be doing so based on data provided them by drug companies – not the raw data that underlies the studies themselves.  Fauber looked at the case of Multaq, a drug for treating atrial fibrillation, and the chair of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was part of a study on the drug. The doctor and his six co-authors all had ties to the drug company – with two working directly for the company and the five others moonlighting for the company as consultants or speakers.

An investigation by Peter Aldhous and Jim Giles of NewScientist found that some of the experts used by Pfizer to lead educational forums have been "disciplined for deficiencies in patient care, while others have been reprimanded for how they conducted drug research trials."

An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed widespread problems in Georgia's foster care system.  "The newspaper reviewed more than 1,500 reports of state inspections and investigations, which provide an astonishing narrative of stark conditions and inadequate oversight in small foster homes and large group facilities alike. "  In one case, an 17-year-old with a history of "incest and other sexual activity" was placed in a home with an autistic, mute 8 year old where they shared a bed.

A review of Food and Drug Administration reports by Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz, of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, revealed failures in electronic medical records systems that have resulted in death or serious injuries for patients. These "adverse events" could indicate bigger issues as hospitals make the move from paper to electronic records. Experts worry that "the prospect of stimulus funding – an estimated $5 million or more per hospital – encourages hospitals to install systems prematurely, possibly exposing patients to harm associated with software glitches and other system bugs."

In a four-part series, Rob Perez of the Honolulu Advertiser found Hawaii's long-term-care system for the elderly is fraught with problems, including a placement system tainted by kickbacks and fraud. He also found that Hawaii nursing homes are the least sanctioned in the country, that reforms at the state Legislature are consistently blocked by care-home lobbyists and that a blacklist for certified nurse aides deemed unfit to work in the industry is full of holes.

Once confined to cutting-edge labs, nanotechnology has an increasingly pervasive place in everyday life. Its ultra-tiny engineered particles are  now in as many as 10,000 products. A series by Andrew Schneider of AOL News shows a growing body of research suggests these nanomaterials pose significant and potentially fatal health risks including lung, heart and brain damage, cancer and birth defects. The federal government has done very little to address this emerging threat or regulate the use of nanomaterials.