Terry's blog

Its been reported that Safeway is now advertising bottled water that's free from antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides and genetic modification.

I don't know about you, but I've been quite happy (till now) to assume that my water was already free from antibiotics. Does the non-organic water contain antibiotics? Or pesticides??

This story has an upside, a downside, and perhaps an unsettling-side:

Unsettling-side The image reminds us of the enormous quantity of food we eat that has been genetically modified, and pumped full of pesticides, growth hormone and antibiotics.

Downside Even our water may have higher levels of antibiotics than we may think.

Upside The fact that antibiotics is on this label - and is first on the label - says a lot about general awareness and shifting priorities. This list would likely have looked much different 5 or 10 years ago.

via Treehugger

The blogs have been full in recent weeks with musings and articulations of what the incoming president would mean to them and their industry. Would business be brisker? Creative efforts be more creative? Would there be any noticeable change to daily life? The answer that most bloggers came to was, at best - yes and no.

No

For most 'average', Americans with 2.3 kids, a regular house, a regular car, and a regular job, the consensus is that little will change. Most of these people will not make or lose their life's fortunes, will not find themselves out of work, and will generally not fall upon hard times as the economy hibernates over the next few years.

Yes

It seems, at least at this early juncture, that the embarrassments of domestic and foreign policy might be in the past. Gone too, it appears, is the blundering, the plundering, the lying, the cheating, the misleading, and hopefully, the pillaging. It certainly appears as though the removal of these things will make things different.

But what has changed in the 'average' American's daily life? My suspicion is, for better or worse, very little. I'd venture to say that most Americans (like most Canadians), don't feel any better or worse off today than they did 3 weeks, 3 months, or even 3 years ago - despite the current economic hiccup we're experiencing.

For sure they (and we) feel much less secure now than we did then, but for the most part...?

So what changed?

As an outsider looking in, it appeared that change occurred not in the realm of personal finance, nor in GDP increase, nor in job creation, nor in any other tangible metric. The only real, perceptible change seemed to occur in people's heads and in their attitudes - in how they feel about the way things are.

As Canada weather's its own financial storm, and on this, the eve of Budget Day 2009, its not a bad time to think about how a rapid influx of positive attitude (as opposed to the unlikely influx of cash) might affect our health care system. A more positive outlook might be the perfect complement to any money that this budget throws our way.

A positive attitude is a powerful force - as we saw last week when almost 2 million Americans gathered all day in the freezing cold to watch a man swear on a bible and read a ten minute speech.

One patient, one room, one bed, one sink goes the infection control rhyme. That was until a Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak between December 2004 and March 2006 at Toronto General Hospital killed 12 transplant patients.

The issue: tall, high pressure 'gooseneck' sinks drove water straight into the drain hole of the sink without getting water into the basin.

The problem: sludge in the bottom of the sink containing Pseudomonas aeruginosa was splashed out of the drain when the high pressure water hit it and transported around the room when people washed their hands.

The solution: Who knows best on this one? The doctor? The Infection Control Practitioner? The epidemiologist? The engineer?

The answer is likely all of the above.

First things first

Design is important and needs to be first. Before cost, before space, before time, before everything else, things need to be designed and evaluated. Things seem to get designed these days to fill a space, or fit along a wall, or to be this tall by this wide, and once the right ratio of tall-ness to wide-ness is achieved, the evaluation is over.

Design is how it works, not how it looks.

via the Globe and Mail

Ontario auditor claims poor hand hygiene and housekeeping standards helped the spread of C. difficile in Ontario hospitals.

The report's findings include:

1. hospitals do not always properly sterilize surgical instruments
2. ensure that rooms occupied by patients with [c. difficile] are adequately cleaned
3. only 28% of physicians were complying with pilot hand hygiene program
4. hospitals do not have systems to monitor use of protective equipment (gloves, gowns, masks, etc)

The director of infection protection and control at Toronto's University Health Network, Dr. Michael Gardam, says,

"We've known for quite a while that we need good housekeeping standards and guidelines to help hospitals know how much they're supposed to be cleaning and how often," [...] "All these things are issues that have been on the radar for quite a while."

Read the full article from Karen Howlett at The Globe and Mail online.