Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Galveston Welcomes Biological Defense Lab

The October 28, 2008 New York Times includes a story on the Galveston National Laboratory, a $174 million biohazard research facility to open next month on the University of Texas Medical Branch campus ("Bio Lab in Galveston Raises Concerns"). Environmentalists and local residents raised questions on the logic of situating a "killer diseases" laboratory on a barrier island in the potential path of hurricanes. Citing concerns that the recent Hurricane Ike was a minimal storm and not a true test of the building's ability to withstand significant storm surge, wind, and rain, the director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club worries that a larger storm "would pose an even greater threat of a biohazards release." An infectious disease expert from the National Institutes of Health defends the decision to build the lab in Galveston, where noted virologists are already in residence.

Review selected library titles related to serious communicable diseases at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a book, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3218 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words to find more in the library catalog:

  • biological weapons
  • bioterrorism
  • communicable diseases
  • emerging infectious diseases
  • epidemics
  • globalization health aspects
Pandemics and Global Health book coverPandemics and Global Health by Barry Youngerman - Facts on File, 2008
call number: 614.49 You

Bioterrorism book coverBioterrorism edited by Jacqueline Langwith - Greenhaven Press/Gale Cengage Learning, 2008
call number: 363.325 Bio

Understanding New, Resurgent, and Resistant Diseases book coverUnderstanding New, Resurgent, and Resistant Diseases: How Man and Globalization Create and Spread Illness by Kurt Link - Praeger Publishers, 2007
call number: 362.196 Lin

The Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases book coverThe Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases by Carol Turkington and Bonnie Lee Ashby - Facts on File, 2007
call number: 616.903 Tur

Global Epidemics edited by Christopher Mari - H.W. Wilson Company, 2007
call number: 614.4 Glo

Friday, October 24, 2008

Economic Meltdown: Causes and Remedies

CNNMoney.com reports on October 24, 2008 that the Federal Reserve is trying to improve economic conditions by "allowing Wall Street firms to borrow directly" from them, but Congress will need to offer other proposals beyond the $700 billion bailout to help state/local governments and the auto industry among others ("Throwing the Bathroom Sink at the Economy"). Beyond the United States, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is reviewing how to help the ailing economies of Hungary, Iceland, Pakistan, Belarus, and Ukraine. However, the article suggests that drastic measures may be needed to make significant changes in the economic forecast.

Review selected library titles related to how the United States and the world arrived at this economic crisis and potential solutions to the issues at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a book, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3218 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words to find more in the
library catalog:
  • United States economic conditions 21st century
  • United States economic policy 21 century
  • financial crises United States
Bad Money book cover Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips - Viking, 2008
call number: 330.973 Phi

The Economists' Voice book cover
The Economists' Voice: Top Economists Take on Today's Problems edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Aaron S. Edlin, and J. Bradford DeLong - Columbia University Press, 2008
call number: 330.905 Eco

What is the Future of the U.S. Economy? book cover
What Is the Future of the U.S. Economy? edited by Susan C. Hunnicutt - Greenhaven Press, 2008
call number: 330.973 Wha

Trillion Dollar Meltdown book cover
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris - PublicAffairs, 2008
call number: 332.041 Mor

Friday, October 10, 2008

Drug Company Puts Profits Before Patient Care

Recently filed legal documents show that Pfizer delayed publication of information about the ineffectiveness of their epilepsy drug Neurontin for off-label or unapproved uses for pain, migraine headaches, and bipolar illness, allowing physicians to continue prescribing the drug and earning big profits for the company according to a New York Times article published on October 8, 2008 ("Experts Conclude Pfizer Manipulated Studies"). Deliberate misinformation about the value or safety of other drugs including Vioxx and Vytorin, manufactured by other companies is mentioned in the story, also. A pending court case will decide if Pfizer must reimburse patients and insurance companies for "fraudulently misrepresenting the drug’s benefits."

Review selected library titles related to pharmaceutical companies and their research and marketing practices that may compromise consumer health at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a book, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3218 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words to find more in the library catalog:

  • pharmaceutical industry ethics
  • pharmaceutical industry marketing
  • pharmaceutical industry corrupt practices
  • physicians ethics
  • drugs marketing
Our Daily Meds book coverOur Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs by Melody Petersen - Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
call number: 338.476 Pet

Profits before People book coverProfits before People?: Ethical Standards and the Marketing of Prescription Drugs by Leonard J. Weber - Indiana University Press, 2006
call number: 174.961 Web

Big Bucks, Big Pharma [videorecording]: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs produced and written by Ridberg, Ronit - Media Education Foundation, 2006
call number: DVD Nonfiction 338.476 Big

Paid to Prescribe?: Exploring the Relationship between Doctors and the Drug Industry by United States Senate Special Committee on Aging - Government Printing Office, 2008
call number: online access at http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS90432