Health

House subcommittee seeks voluntary recall of Seresto flea and tick collars

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A Congressional subcommittee has asked Elanco to voluntarily recall its Seresto flea and tick collars, following a March 2 Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA TODAY story on thousands of incident reports about pet and human harm linked to the use of the collar.

Coronavirus

Industry lobbying left nursing homes vulnerable in pandemic

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Even before COVID-19, aides caring for elderly and disabled people in nursing homes often were overworked and underpaid, doing everything from changing linens to helping residents eat to physically rotating them to prevent bed sores.

Health

Popular flea collar linked to almost 1,700 pet deaths. The EPA has issued no warning.

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Seresto, one of the most popular flea and tick collars in the country, has been linked to hundreds of pet deaths, tens of thousands of injured animals and hundreds of harmed humans, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documents show.

Yet the EPA has done nothing to inform the public of the risks.

Farm Bureaus

Minnesota has figured out a way to help stressed farmers. Can it be replicated?

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When Pam Uhlenkamp separated from her husband earlier this year, she knew the person to call.

As a farm business management instructor, Uhlenkamp mentors farmers one-on-one. When she notices they’re stressed, she refers them to the man who’s been the go-to counselor for Minnesota farmers for decades. The morning after the separation, she called him, and, by the afternoon, she sat opposite Ted Matthews.

“Today sucks. Tomorrow is going to suck. The next three weeks are going to suck,” Uhlenkamp remembered Matthews telling her in their first session.

“He was very honest with me,” she said. “Sometimes in life you kind of need the two-by-four across the head that says, ‘Yep, this is awful and this is the reality.’”

cancer

EPA Inspector General: Covid-19 could affect agency’s ability to communicate health risks to communities

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Covid-19 could hamper the EPA’s ability to inform communities of health risks, according to a report released this month from the agency’s Office of Inspector General. Specifically, the inspector general’s office worried the EPA might not be able to inform residents who live near facilities with emissions that could cause cancer. In a separate report from late March, the office urged EPA to take “prompt action” to inform communities. As of the March report, the EPA and state agencies had not met with or reached out to residents around 16 of the 25 “high-priority” facilities, which are located primarily around cities in the South and Midwest. The June report detailed other concerns, including personnel shortages and cutbacks to routine inspections. 

The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.