Repeated motions of lifting pitchers, steaming milk and stamping espresso may cause medial epicondylitis—golfer’s elbow—or other stress injuries in baristas. A recent New York Post article chronicles one woman’s experience with a stress injury allegedly resulting from her job duties as a barista. In addition, a former barista in Canberra, Australia, was recently awarded $600,000 (AUD) in damages after she had a rib removed and was diagnosed with a nerve disorder as a result of the stress from repeatedly holding a 4.4-pound jug of milk while the coffee machine steamed it. According to an informal survey conducted by coffee website Sprudge, 55 percent of 475 respondents reported they had sustained repetitive stress injuries in their barista work. While treatment can include physical therapy or surgery, a certified hand specialist who spoke to the Post said that preventative measures like exercise and better posture can help protect coffee shop employees from…
Category Archives Other Developments
Researchers from Switzerland’s technology and natural sciences university, ETH Zurich, have reportedly developed a method of tagging olive oil that can determine the product’s origin and whether it has been adulterated. Consisting of tiny, magnetic DNA particles encapsulated in a silica casing that are mixed with the oil, a few grams of the material are enough to tag the entire olive oil production of Italy. According to the researchers, if counterfeiting is suspected, the particles added at the place of origin can be extracted from the oil and analyzed, revealing the original producer. “The method is equivalent to a label that cannot be removed,” said researcher Robert Grass. Lab experiments evidently revealed that the tags dispersed well in the oil, did not affect clarity or taste, remained stable when heated, and passed a two-year aging trial. Research also showed that the analysis and testing method “can be carried out today by…
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) and Corporate Accountability International (CAI) published an April 25, 2014, letter to U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) School Programs Branch Chief Julie Brewer, criticizing a proposed rule that would require schools “to implement policies for the marketing of foods and beverages on the school campus during the school day consistent with nutrition standards for Smart Snacks.” According to the letter, the proposal not only gives a “green light” to food marketing in schools, but “opens the floodgates for many other types of marketing in schools.” Claiming that “the commercialization of childhood is linked to a host of problems facing children today that extend well beyond the consumption of unhealthy foods,” CCFC and CAI have asked USDA to acknowledge that “commercial-free school environments are preferable to those that allow marketing.” The letter also takes issue with the agency’s “Smart Snacks” program, alleging that the nutrition…
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued its 2014 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks pesticide contamination in “48 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of more than 32,000 samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and the federal Food and Drug Administration [FDA].” Apples topped this year’s annual “Dirty Dozen™” list of most pesticide-contaminated produce for the fourth year. Other fruits and vegetables in the Dirty Dozen include strawberries, grapes, celery, peaches, spinach, sweet bell peppers, imported nectarines, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, potatoes and imported snap peas. Kale, collard greens and hot peppers were highlighted in a section called “Dirty Dozen-Plus™,” as items “frequently contaminated with insecticides that are particularly toxic to human health.” Avocados topped this year’s “Clean Fifteen™” list—fruits and vegetables with the least amount of residues, with only 1 percent showing any detectable pesticides. Other items on that list include corn, pineapples, cabbage, frozen sweet…
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first global report on antimicrobial resistance, warning that the threat has spread to every region in the world and is attributable, in part, to inappropriate use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. Among the report’s key findings are (i) “standard treatments no longer work”; (ii) “infections are harder or impossible to control”; (iii) “the risk of the spread of infection to others is increased”; (iv) “illness and hospital stays are prolonged, with added economic and social costs”; and (v) “the risk of death is greater—in some cases, twice that of patients who have infections caused by non-resistant bacteria.” According to the report, even “last resort” antibiotics have become ineffective in certain populations. The report also discusses information gaps, noting that surveillance of antimicrobial resistance “is neither coordinated nor harmonized.” To address the issues identified, WHO is developing a global action plan that will…
After the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) reportedly granted and then rescinded labeling approval for a powdered alcohol product created by Lipsmark LLC, the company has fielded a number of consumer and media questions about Palcohol’s® marketing, safety and availability. Created by wine critic Mark Phillips, Palcohol® is described as “a powder version of vodka, rum and four cocktails” meant to be mixed with water or other liquids prior to consumption. Although it received approval for the new product “some time ago,” the manufacturer was apparently “caught off guard by [TTB] making some of our approved labels public which we now know is standard procedure.” According to the product website, the company has since surrendered its TTB-approved labels with the intention of revising and resubmitting them for final authorization. In the interim, however, the media attention has prompted Lipsmark to address concerns over “humorous and edgy”…
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has issued a report claiming that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) generally recognized as safe (GRAS) process for identifying food additives not required to undergo premarket approval is flawed and calling for legislation to change the process. According to NRDC, minimal FDA supervision and “a gaping loophole that allows companies to simply declare as safe hundreds of chemicals added to our foods—without any notification to the FDA or the public,” mar the U.S. food safety protection system. Under federal law, substances added to food are deemed food additives subject to FDA’s premarket approval unless they are considered GRAS by qualified experts or otherwise excluded from the food additive definition. While food companies can notify the agency that experts have made a GRAS determination, the law does not required them to do so. NRDC claims that it has identified “275 chemicals from 56…
A recent analysis conducted by University of Liverpool researchers and commissioned by the campaign group Action on Junk Food Marketing has suggested that children in the United Kingdom are “bombarded” with as many as 11 junk-food advertisements during one hour of prime-time, family-oriented TV. Noting that almost one out of four TV ads shown between 8 and 9 p.m. promote unhealthy supermarket products, fast food, candy, and chocolate, the advocacy group, which includes the Children’s Food Campaign and British Heart Foundation, also observed that one-third of the ads conclude by showing a website or a Twitter hashtag—a reportedly popular way of targeting teenagers. Campaigners have asked the government to ban junk-food ads until after 9 p.m. and establish rules to prohibit Internet marketing. See BBC.com, March 20, 2014.
The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business recently interviewed Marketing Professor and Jay H. Baker Retailing Center Director Barbara Kahn about her research on food consumption habits for the March 20, 2014, edition of its Knowledge@Wharton series. Describing how product shape and size affect consumer perception, Kahn noted that individuals will eat more of a particular food item if they perceive it as “incomplete,” that is, if the product is broken into pieces or presented with holes in it. A study co-authored by Kahn and published in the America Marketing Association’s Journal of Marketing Research apparently supported these findings, suggesting that consumers “overweight the completeness” of a product in their decision-making process. “[P]eople are not normative decision-makers,” explained Kahn. “They don’t eat what they think they need to eat to feel full. They eat what they perceive is the right amount, and they use these implicit rules for deciding…
The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College has announced an April 8, 2014, event touting the release of Lethal But Legal: Corporations, Consumption and Protecting Public Health by City University of New York’s School of Public Health Professor Nicholas Freudenberg. Moderated by former New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Thomas Farley, the conversation with Freudenberg and Brooklyn Food Coalition’s Nancy Romer “will examine the ways in which corporations have affected public health over the last century, and the long-term impact of corporate influence on public health in industrialized countries and now in developing regions.” Additional details about Freudenberg’s new book appear in Issue 515 of this Update. Issue 518
