U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer magazine
January-February 2001
Table of Contents
By John Henkel
Many of us may fantasize about winning a million bucks on a TV quiz show. But what about a game that has a goal of losing a million? FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has teamed with the National Science Teachers Association to create a fun online game that can boost your knowledge of food safety. Here's how it works: You start with a million-a million bacteria, that is. Answer a question correctly and you lose bacteria. To win the game, you need to get all the answers right and wind up with "0" bacteria. If you still have bacteria left at the end of the game, you can take another shot at lowering the bacterial count. That way, everyone has a chance to win, er, lose the game. To play "Lose a Million (Bacteria)," go to www.cfsan.fda.gov/~cjm/millintr.html.
It wasn't long ago when con artists mainly used telephones and the U.S. mail to push their shady schemes. But now these scammers have taken to the Internet, and the Federal Trade Commission says, "Beware!" To help consumers identify and report bogus online ploys, the FTC has created a Web site called "Top Ten Dot Cons" that gives helpful advice on how to know when you are being flimflammed. For example, the site lists medical conditions that often attract health fraud schemes-cancer, AIDS and arthritis, to name a few-and explains some of the ploys con artists use to hook unsuspecting consumers. The site then suggests legitimate, reliable sources of information. Among other scams featured on the site are travel, pyramid schemes, investments and business opportunities. To get a heads-up on con jobs, go to www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/dotcon.
Finding out the degree of air pollution in your neighborhood is as easy as going into the Environmental Protection Agency's AIRNOW Web site (www.epa.gov/airnow) and zooming in on your region. The site provides real-time information about air quality in an easy-to-read format. It also has background about the environmental and public health effects of air pollution, along with tips for consumers on how to protect their health, and actions they can take to reduce pollution. The site includes links to Web cameras situated in cities such as Chicago, Denver and St. Louis, so users can visually check out the visibility and air quality in those areas at different times of the day. Currently, AIRNOW focuses on ground-level ozone (smog), but EPA plans to include surveys of other pollutants on the Web site in the future.
Nearly 50 American workers are injured every minute of the 40-hour work week, and about 17 die on the job each day, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Reducing these tragic numbers is difficult because there are only about 2,500 inspectors to oversee 100 million workers at six million worksites. So OSHA and its state counterparts depend on workers themselves to spot occupational hazards and report them. On "The Workers' Page" (www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/index.html), OSHA explains workers' rights and responsibilities under the law and describes the procedure for filing a workplace complaint. The site also explains how to handle situations such as refusal to perform dangerous work and what to do if one experiences discrimination after filing a complaint. The site links to many helpful OSHA publications on topics such as chemical hazards, hearing protection, and personal protective equipment.
John Henkel is a member of FDA's Web management staff.
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