Tag: Health & Science

Miners, know your rights

A mine safety law that’s been on the books since 1977 was intended to give miners the ability to report problems without retribution. This is a law that’s…

A mine safety law that’s been on the books since 1977 was intended to give miners the ability to report problems without retribution. This is a law that’s rarely been used and often when it has  managers and not working miners serve as the representatives.

A number of issues were uncovered during congressional hearings after the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that killed 29 men. Statements from miners and family members of the miners who died indicated that mine employees had been reluctant to speak out about safety conditions in existence prior to the April 2010 explosion, fearing retaliation by management.

Former and current miners admitted they knew nothing about their right to elect a representative of miners either.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is hoping to raise more awareness with a handbook and online resource page called The Miners’ Representative Guide.

A miners’ representative is any person, group or organization designated by two or more miners to represent their interest during health and safety enforcement processes at their mine.

This includes managers and supervisors.

Longtime safety advocate Tony Oppegard pointed out during an interview in April 2012  that managers already have the right to travel with inspectors. He says congress needs to take the next step and insist MSHA  make a policy managers can’t serve as miners’ reps.

“Because it defeats the entire purpose of the miners’ rep provision,” Oppegard said, “and frankly you don’t have management looking out for the safety of miners.”

Oppegard argues that electing managers as miner’s reps can prevent the law from working the way should.

Miners were given a right to elect a representative in 1977 when the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act was enacted.

The new MSHA guide provides detailed information about: reporting hazardous conditions and imminent dangers, accident investigations, understanding the elements of discrimination, health and safety training,  rights to information and records and more.  

In a news  release MSHA says in 2012 it filed more than double the requests for temporary re-instatement on behalf of miners who submitted complaints of discrimination after being fired, than any previous year.

Will West Virginia Legalize Medical Marijuana?

After three failed attempts to get a bill passed that would make marijuana available to those who would benefit from its medicinal properties, Del. Mike Manypenny (D-Taylor) continues to press on. With three republicans cosponsoring his bill this past session, a public hearing on the issue late in the Regular Session, and a successful resolution to study the issue sponsored by House Health Committee Chair Don Perdue (D-Wayne), Manypenny and other advocates appear to be gaining some traction on the issue.

Members of both legislative houses met Wednesday for a hearing with the Joint Committee on Health to learn more.

The committee began with a presentation via Skype from Karmen Hanson in Denver of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hanson pointed out that 20 states and the District of Columbia currently permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

However, the drug remains outlawed on the federal level and is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food & Drug Administration, which means it’s seen as having a high potential for abuse with no medical purpose.

The floor was then turned over to Marijuana Policy Project Legislative Analyst, Matt Simon, a Parkersburg native who holds a master’s degree from WVU currently living in New Hampshire.

“To be clear, what patients are asking for with a state-level medical marijuana law is, really, two things,” said Simon.  “They want to be protected from arrest if their doctors have recommended that they use this substance and they want to have a way to access it safely and legally.”

Simon pointed to states like California and Montana where limited regulations allow for too much access and create as many problems as they solve. He said Maine’s laws might provide a better model worth consideration.

Amongst other criticisms, Simon attempted to quell concerns that the passing of a medical marijuana law might increase use of the drug among young people. He said 15 states can provide before and after research on medical marijuana legislation where use by young people has remained the same or even dropped.

He also talked about another sticking point that often gums up legislation: the potential state revenue marijuana sales could garner.

“Some state medical marijuana programs do bring in significant revenue,” said Simon. “Others are revenue neutral. Many are written to be revenue neutral; fees are set to cover the cost of administering the program so that taxpayers will not bear the burden.

“And a few states were primarily concerned with patients and were not concerned with revenue at all, so they actually operate at a loss to those programs.”

Simon also pointed to a Pew Research study from March that shows an upswing in Americans that favor full on legalization of the drug. In fact, the study suggests that 52% of Americans are in support of legalization. He attributes these results to an increase in states with medical marijuana laws and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement of a change in the policy of enforcing marijuana related crimes.

Regarding the new change in policy with the Department of Justice, Joint Committee on Health Minority Chair Del. Ellington (R-Mercer) asked whether a a change Administrations on the federal level might change the DOJ’s approach to enforcing related laws.

Hanson responded with: “No one can predict the future.”

The committee finished the hearing by watching an excerpt of a video released in August from CNN and Dr. Sanjay Gupta titled Weed that details the benefits an epileptic child received from the drug as well as research being conducted in Israel.

Perdue, who also chairs the Joint Committee on Health, called Gupta’s report and some of the information provided during the meeting “compelling” but said major hurdles remain in dealing with medical marijuana legislation.

“How do you get away from the fact that—and I do believe that—marijuana is a gateway drug? Well, so are a lot of other medicinals,” said Perdue. “So, again, if you view it only for its medicinal value that’s not a hurdle you should have to overcome. Yet it’s going to be back there. That’s the thought process.

“That’s kind of the synchronization of the people who oppose marijuana. I understand that. But, in the understanding that, the discussion has to be framed in terms of medicinal value. Not in terms of recreational use or what might or what could happen.”

As for Manypenny, he’s working now on building provisions into a new version of this past session’s bill.  

“One of the things that is proposed in my bill is that the taxes generated, after the cost of regulating the industry, would go to treating substance abuse in the community and drug prevention programs in the schools,” he said.

“If there’s enough money generated, then, a percentage of that will go to build a veteran’s nursing home in the southern part of the state,” Manypenny added.

Despite past and planned efforts on the issue, no specific legislation that would allow the medicinal use of the drug in West Virginia was discussed during the hearing. Manypenny hopes to firm up potential legislation during interims in December and have it ready for introduction at the beginning of the 2014 Regular Session.

DHHR Secretary stays focused on filling 600+ vacancies

In her first appearance before legislators, Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling said the department is not yet prepared to release a detailed response to a performance review completed earlier this year. Instead, she shared some generalizations about major issues the department is trying to address. The biggest of those issues is hiring and retaining the necessary personnel to run the state’s largest agency.

Called a fragmented department with duplicative programs seeing little results and a lack of a strategic goal-setting vision, the performance review released in April of the Department of Health and Human Resources was less than positive.

Completed by Pennsylvania-based consulting firm Public Works, the report is still in review by the DHHR and its new secretary, Karen Bowling.

On the job since July 1, Bowling admitted she’s still trying to digest the 116 pages, but was called on by the Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Resources Accountability for an update during interim meetings at the Capitol.

“I’m not sure that we would ever have enough hours to present 78 recommendations, but I think just the idea of just some of the most important points in that Public Works report,” Bowling said Monday, “I wanted to make sure I emphasized those and talked about those so everyone could understand the direction in which we were going.”

But moving any direction is proving to be a slow process for the state’s largest agency.

With more than 630 vacancies, Bowling said one of the department’s top priorities is trying to fill those positions. Public Works accounted those vacancies to an “unstable work environment,” which lead to a turnover rate of 30 percent and an additional $7 million in mandatory overtime pay last year.

“Part of the turnover rate and part of the vacancy rate and part of the overtime issues are not being able to fill the jobs quick enough. Part of it is getting qualified people into the jobs fast enough and getting them oriented and ready to go,” Bowling said.

“We, the DHHR, will have to work with other areas to make sure that we change the process to the extent that we can so we can move quicker on filling vacancies.”

So to address the problem, Bowling said the DHHR is beginning to work with the Department of Personnel and the Department of Administration to try to streamline the hiring process.

Senator Ron Stollings, the committee co-chair, said that high turnover rate comes down to those on the front lines—social workers in child protective services or other areas—being overworked and under paid.

“Unfortunately, we probably don’t pay these front line workers competitive salaries and we haven’t hired,” Stollings said. “There are so many vacancies so the ones that are working are working so hard and I’d say there’s a very early burn out. So when there’s something better that comes along in a private arena they leave.”

Aside from streamlining the hiring process, Bowling said they’re looking at other factors like mentor systems and managerial training to create a better work environment and reduce the turnover rate.

On other issues, however, Bowling responded with broader answers. She said the department isn’t prepared to talk specifics for many of the areas of the complex review until they complete an internal self-study.

That answer seemed to be acceptable for the committee and Bowling will return in December to present more concrete, specific examples of how the department is making changes.

There was one question, however, Bowling was prepared to take a stance on. A position brought up by Delegate Don Perdue, who serves as co-chair of the committee, to break the DHHR into separate entities, one dealing with human services, the other with Medicaid.

“That was one of two suggestions that have been made periodically over the last 16 years that I know of. Each time, each time the Department has said, no, we don’t want to cut it a part into health and human resources, we don’t want to take out Medicaid, we don’t want to do anything like that,” Perdue said during the meeting, “and yet, Madame Secretary, our statistics are not changing. They’re getting worse.”

“I am really concerned that if we continue to gather all these chicks into one nest, they are going to be some that suffer and that’s what’s happening now in my belief. I hope you can prove me wrong.”

Bowling said she believes she can. She stood behind her predecessors, but said the DHHR can be more successful than it is today under her leadership in the future. The Secretary said she can help the department achieve the outcomes Perdue wants to see.

“My belief is that actually further integration and breaking down silos. You know, bureaus can get stuck in silos and I think breaking those down will actually improve efficiencies and will give us a greater opportunity to make positive change in the state,” she said.

“My job will be to show statistically that I can make that happen through leadership and maybe through some changes in organizational structure and management and then maybe Chairman Perdue will see that change in years to come and agree with me.”

Most of those changes Bowling believes can be made internally without much legislative action needed, but Stollings said he stands firmly behind the department and is prepared to support any legislative action that may be necessary to help turn the DHHR around.

Still a Beautiful Mind – and an Inspiring West Virginian

Editor’s note: Nobel-prize winning mathematician John Nash and his wife were killed in a traffic accident May 23, 2015. This profile from 2013 is part of our series, “Inspiring West Virginians.”

The 9th floor of Fine Hall, the math building at Princeton University, is a place some people call the mathematical center of the universe. 

Here you’ll find the office of 84-year-old John Forbes Nash, Jr., one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. 

One whole bookshelf in Nash’s office is lined with photos of his hometown, Bluefield, West Virginia. Nash left the state more than 60 years ago, but clearly it’s still important to him.

“This is my high school in Bluefield,” he said, sharing the picture of his 50th high school class reunion. “I’m in the corner here.”

Over his lifetime, Nash has sought and solved some of mathematics’ most difficult problems, in ways that have amazed other mathematicians, all while overcoming great trials.    

In 2001 Ron Howard made a film about Nash called “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russell Crowe.  It won the Oscar for Best Picture. The film and the book on which the film is based tell the story of Nash’s meteoric rise in the mathematical world, his early career teaching at MIT, his sudden descent into severe mental illness, and his ultimate recovery. 

John Nash’s story begins in Mercer County.

“My mother had been born there, and she had sisters,” Nash explained. “I had only one sibling – my sister – and that’s a special relationship.” 

Martha Nash Legg remembers Bluefield as a lovely place to grow up, and she describes her brother as studious.

“I guess today we’d call him nerdy!” she said. “His friends were also bright. He liked science fiction.”

“And he was musical. He is musical – to the extent that he can whistle Bach!” laughed Legg.

Nash says he was quite aware that he wasn’t close to people other than relatives.

“I guess I’m a little like an Asperger’s type,” he said. “I didn’t have very strong friendship relations generally.  I wasn’t just a buddy of the group.” 

Even as a little boy, Johnny, as his family called him, was drawn to mathematics.

“I did have a taste for numbers. In school I liked to work with larger numbers than we were taught to use, 5 digits rather than 2 or 3,” Nash remembered. 

He points to Men of Mathematics, by E.T. Bell as a book he read as a child that really influenced him.

“He’s an American,” said Nash. “The book was inspiring in the way it talked about the mathematical discoveries and what these people had done.”

Nash was particularly intrigued by the 17th Century French mathematician, Pierre de Fermat.  As a 14-year-old, Nash succeeded in proving Fermat’s Theorem. 

After high school he went to Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh. In just three years he earned a bachelors and masters in mathematics.  One of his teachers recognized Nash was a mathematical genius, and encouraged him to go to Princeton University for a PhD.  

At Princeton Nash’s dissertation was in a field called game theory. At the time it was a relatively new concept that explains human behavior.  

His main contribution to game theory – which later became known as the Nash Equilibrium – has been used in a wide variety of fields, from economics, to foreign policy, information technology, and evolutionary biology.

Nash also solved a few very, very difficult problems in pure mathematics.

And he did it in a way that still inspires young mathematicians, including Dejan Slepčev, associate professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

“Nash’s papers are very brief and have many ideas in them,” said Slepčev. “It’s not just one idea that solves everything but at every step there is a new idea and yet there is the whole picture of how everything fits together.”  

“So that is the beauty of the thing,” he said. “So if you speak about the beautiful mind, then it must be the mind which is able to store so many new ideas together at the same time.”

At the height of this brilliant young mathematician’s career, John Nash developed paranoid schizophrenia, a severe mental illness.

For more than 25 years he had delusions about who he was, who other people were and messages he believed he was receiving.

He wandered the campus of Princeton University, writing on blackboards and whistling Bach to himself.  He became known as “The Phantom of Fine Hall.”

And then, without medication, he started to get better. 

One morning in 1994, a few years after Nash returned to what he calls rational thinking, Legg says an amazing thing happened.

“The radio was on in the bedroom.  And I heard them say something about a Nobel Prize Award in Economics, and I thought they said, ‘John Nash in game theory,’” Legg recalled.

“And it brought tears to my eyes thinking how much my parents would have loved to have heard that.” 

The Nobel Prize changed John Nash’s life.  Princeton University gave him a job, and he received further awards and honors.

The man who was almost forgotten was invited to lecture at universities throughout the world. 

Today Nash continues to tackle difficult problems in mathematics and economics at Princeton University. 

“Well, it’s not unusual to work to 70, maybe 75, but now I’m 84. I could go to 90!” 

John Nash, who rarely gives interviews, is featured with others in the West Virginia Public Radio documentary Inspiring West Virginians, produced by Jean Snedegar with Senior Producer Suzanne Higgins.

Integrated Behavorial Health Conference tackles drug abuse, other mental health issues

West Virginia’s substance abuse problem is one focus of the Integrated Behavioral Health Conference in Charleston this week. Professionals from health…

West Virginia’s substance abuse problem is one focus of the Integrated Behavioral Health Conference in Charleston this week.  Professionals from health care, government and law enforcement are meeting to find the best ways to handle substance abuse and other mental health needs.

Department of Health and Human Resources Cabinet Secretary Karen Bowling said the idea of the conference began a couple years ago and that the goal is to combine resources in hopes of learning and progressing the field.

“Whether it’s medical professionals, policy makers, law enforcement –we all go at the idea of behavioral health services and substance abuse from a different angle. Bringing individuals together with expert speakers and continuing education credits and really making sure we’ve covered the full gamut of individuals who are dealing with our citizens who are in need of behavioral health services will help us think more collaboratively,” said Bowling.

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin outlined a few collaborative efforts to combat substance abuse in an opening keynote speech, which touched on regional drug task forces, prescription disposal centers, and the justice reinvestment act from this past legislative session. He also announced a $9 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that’s been awarded to the state.

“Over the course of five years these federal monies will help expand prevention services state-wide by focusing on prescription drug and alcohol abuse,” Tomblin explained

The Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli, participated in the opening panel discussion at the conference. He said the emphasis on prevention and other collaborative efforts can in some way be attributed to an evolution of perceptions surrounding substance abuse and addiction.

“I think under this Administration we’re really looked at and moved away from this 'War on Drugs' mentality and really focused this issue as a public health-related issue—acknowledging that substance abuse is a disease and that people can get treatment and do recover. One of the issues that is really important to us is how we make sure people are getting good care,” said Botticelli.

Clinical Assistant Professor of Marshall University’s Pharmacy School Brian Gallagher said getting quality care that combats substance abuse means all corners of the health care industry need to be involved, including pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies.

“Everybody has a component in this and I think the part in dealing with the pharmaceutical industry is that they’re recognizing that they don’t want their drugs taken off the market. They don’t want it to be so restrictive that the patients can’t get access to those drugs,” said Gallagher.

“We need to make sure we strike an appropriate balance: the patients who actually need the drugs are able to get them while we’re keeping them out of the hands of the people who abuse them. It’s striking that balance that’s important and working with the pharmaceutical industry and every body involved.”

Asked what type of costs might be associated with potential changes in policy, Secretary Bowling said the state will first look for other grant opportunities.  But, she expects any spending in the short term will inevitably save the state money and hopefully will reduce health care costs for individuals.

“If we focus our attention on the right things for the people that we serve, in the long run it’s going to actually reduce costs to the system,” said Bowling.

“What we have to make sure we’re doing is thinking about the client in a holistic manner, that we are looking the physical and the behavioral aspect of care and making sure we’re doing the right thing, at the right place, at the right time.”

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources is sponsoring the inaugural conference which runs through Thursday at the Charleston Civic Center.

Rooftop garden to play a role in Marshall’s storm water management

Marshall University’s college of science is conducting an experiment that they hope will help them in the future.

The Marshall University College of Science installed a green roof in a small space just off the second floor of the science building. It’s the beginning of an experiment that will illustrate what it will take to maintain larger green roofs on the biotech building on campus. That building is being constructed. It’ll also play a role in Marshall’s continued effort to better handle storm water.

Chuck Somerville is the Dean of the College of Science.

“This is a demonstration, it’s a small area and it’s not going to have a big impact on storm water on campus, but it’s in a visible place and people can come by and see it and we can put up signage about what a green roof does and how it works,” Somerville said. “So we can get a lot of educational bang for their buck, rather than storm water treatment or storm water retention.”

It’s a process that has been several years in the making. Somerville said after seeing facilities out of the state that were using the idea, they thought they should try it on the science building.

“We’ve had to go to a company that produces the plants and does the design and go through the design process and just growing the plants is about a 6 to 8 month project there,” Somerville said.

Eventually Somerville said the roof was ready for planting. They recently put in plants that include geraniums and irises. He said after going through the process of making sure the roof could handle the weight, water and soil, they now know what to expect at the new biotech facility.

“We have a green roof planned for the new building actually it’s going to be engineered into the structure so this was an add-on after this building was long since built,” Somerville said.

Biotech building in the process of being constructed.

Travis Bailey is an Environmental Specialist with the Health and Safety Department on campus. He’s tasked with helping the campus become more responsible for storm water. He said this is just one of the newer ways to deal with the water.

“A green roof is basically to capture the water and the let plants absorb it and if it doesn’t let it slow down and filter the water out, filter out the pollutants that are in the air, rather than that water going straight down the drain and potentially out to the river,” Bailey said. “It’s not being absorbed by the soils and filtered out, but for the most part we’re hoping that the plants will uptake and use most of that water,” Bailey said.

Huntington has a combined sewer system, meaning sanitary sewage and storm water runoff collect in the same pipes. Because of this the Environmental Protection Agency charges organizations like Marshall to collect the first inch of water for each building. So Bailey and others have started projects like the green roof, a rain garden and other means to collect this water all around campus.

Bailey said he hopes these projects show it’s possible to do these projects.

"And to show people a green roof is doable, it is not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing," Bailey said.

“And to show people a green roof is doable, it’s not a mythical thing you hear about other cities doing, we’re showing that you can do it here, it can be done here and same thing with the rain gardens,” Bailey said. “People read about them or have heard about them and it’s like you can’t do it here, but we’re trying to show that it can be done here and we’re gearing up to do some more hopefully.”

Bailey said green roofs also can have a positive effect on stopping ultraviolet rays from harming the roof. 

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