Ebola Infection rate as compared to other diseases
07 Oct 2014 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: Ebola
I knew it: killer green technologies alert – reusable grocery bags can kill (unless washed)
20 Sep 2014 1 Comment
in environmentalism, health economics Tags: do gooders, environmental movement, killer green technologies, offsetting behaviour, recycling, reusable grocery bags, unintended consequences
Reusable grocery bags often carry raw meat and are stored for convenience in the trunk of cars that sit outside in the sun. Reusable grocery bags are friendly breeding environment for E. coli bacteria, which can cause severe illness and death.
The above figure shows the number of emergency room visits in San Francisco County related to E. coli for the 10 quarters before and after the reusable grocery bags enactment of the ordinance: zero on the horizontal axis is the date the ordinance went into effect. The shaded area around the line is a 95% statistical confidence interval. There is a discontinuous jump in the number of emergency room visits immediately after the reusable grocery bags ordinance was enacted.
San Francisco experiences about 12 deaths per year from intestinal infections, and that the restrictions on plastic bags probably let to another 5-6 deaths per year in that city and several dozen additional hospitalisations.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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