Hearing on the tanning regulation

The Board of Health is having a hearing on the proposed tanning regulation (.pdf).

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2009
6:00 PM

Where:
Howard County Health Department
(Administration Entrance)
7178 Columbia Gateway Drive
Columbia, MD 21046
Hearing room to be posted in lobby

If you wish to testify at the hearing, please sign-up inside the hearing room beginning one-half hour before the hearing. Please provide 11 copies of your written testimony. If you cannot attend the hearing but want to comment, please send your written comments to Glenn E. Schneider, Executive Secretary, Board of Health, 7178 Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD 21046. You may also email your comments to boh@howardcountymd.gov. All public comments must be received at the above address or by email no later than 12:00 PM on November 10, 2009.

Let's see: you can snail mail testimony, waste an hour or more there in person, or e-mail your comments. Yay e-mail!

A million bucks per job

An interesting article appears on Explore Howard about how many local people are critical of the federal stimulus because it created so few jobs (the feds spend $8 million in Howard County to create or save only 8 jobs!). I too am critical of the federal stimulus (to put it mildly), but not for the reason that it created too few jobs. I am critical because it was spent largely on stupid stuff that politicians love to spend money on. In fact, I have argued in the past that the number of jobs created is not a good measure of any stimulus. If it were, a good idea would be to hire people to dig holes and fill them up again. An economist quoted in the article agrees with that point of view:

Robert Dye, senior economist for PNC Bank, said the stimulus should not be judged simply by the number of jobs created.

"There's a multiplier effect," he said. "Those people who get jobs in turn go to the grocery store, and they buy cars, and those actions create demand for other jobs down the road. There will be a multiplier effect that's not quantifiable."

He said the government should choose which projects to fund to get the greatest impact.

"The best projects are the ones that return a real economic benefit, like building a road or a bridge," he said. "Some projects may not be things that were highly needed. History will be the judge of that."

However, I do not believe that the federal government is at all equipped to direct money to the use which will have the highest bang for the buck. I fail to see how any great multiplier will come from winterizing houses (one of the uses of the stimulus funds), for example. This is especially true since the resources the government is spending have to be taken from the citizenry or the capital markets, which means that the stimulus comes at the expense of private investment (or private consumption). I think the best way to stimulate the economy would be via a substantial tax cut. Let the invisible hand of the marketplace figure out where to allocate those stimulus dollars.

Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

An amusing article appears in the Baltimore Sun today. Ken Ulman and every member of the County Council are falling over themselves to play Santa Claus to the police and firefighter unions. They want to give a full property tax credit to disabled public safety workers, despite having absolutely no idea how much it will cost.

The problem is that no one knows exactly how many people might be eligible, and thus what the cost to the county treasury would be.

"We really don't know what the universe is, if we open it up," Watson said at one point.

Jeff Meyers, the senior council analyst who researched the issue, agreed there is no firm figure for potential beneficiaries. "The best we can figure, it's not going to be a lot of people," he told the members.

The best I can figure is that they must be spending money that someone else earned. If property taxes are too high, then please lower them. Nobody enjoys paying taxes. But don't give handouts to politically favored groups, even if those groups have unions that shovel money into your political campaigns.

Possible Ulman Challenger

It looks like Ken Ulman may have competition from Trent Kittleman, a 64 year old woman who is the stepmother of Allan Kittleman. I really don't know anything about her except that her last name will certainly help her raise some money. According to Wordbones, it takes about a million bucks to run for County Executive in Howard County. Approximately 107,000 voters turned out for the last election in which a County Exec was chosen. If each candidate for CE spends a million bucks this year, the cost per vote is approaching $20.

Politics is an expensive game.

Sun tan op-ed in the Sun

H.L. Mencken would roll in his grave if he could see the Baltimore Sun today. The Sun had an absurd opinion piece on the new tanning regulation proposed by HoCo guvmint. Get a load of this bit:

Allowing teens to submit to UV radiation on a parent's say-so is tantamount to letting them buy and smoke a carton of cigarettes if mom or dad says that's fine, too. The harmful effects of a known carcinogen are too great to permit such a loophole.

Really? Allowing parents to raise their children in the manner in which they see fit is a "loophole"?

The reality is that teens are not spam in a can. They are not commodities. Maybe some teens would only be more attracted to cigarettes if their parents forbid smoking. It should be up to parents, and not arrogant guvmint officials like Peter Bielenson and Ken Ulman to raise children. However, this regulation is not about smoking, it is about tanning. It is very disingenuous for the Baltimore Sun to equate addictive cigarettes with non-addictive tanning beds.

The fact is that tanning is NOT a public health issue. Skin Cancer is not spread like the swine flu, and minors and their parents should be able to measure the costs and benefits of tanning themselves. This regulation is nothing more than a power grab by the Health Department.

Peter Bielenson and Ken Ulman remind me of the balloon boy's father in that they will do anything to get their names in the newspaper or market themselves on the national stage.

r u ppl srs?

I know I am a month late in blogging about this, but a new law went into effect October 1 that bans texting while driving:

The original bill, submitted by Del. Jeffrey Waldstreicher, a Montgomery County Democrat, and Del. Frank Turner, a Howard County Democrat, prohibited reading, writing and sending text messages, but the version signed into law allows reading messages. The law does not ban playing games or using applications.

The law, which explicitly bans writing or sending "text messages," does not mention e-mails, Facebook messages and Twitter updates, but Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Rowe said that the law could be interpreted to bar writing any type of message.

However, a prominent defense attorney questioned that interpretation. "If the legislators had meant to ban e-mailing or sending a Facebook message, they would have said that," said Andrew I. Alperstein. "They certainly were aware of the fact there are many things to do with your thumbs. We're going to see an interesting series of cases related to this."

State troopers will be looking for motorists holding cell phones and driving erratically, said state police spokeswoman Elena Russo. If a driver who causes an accident is found to be texting, he could face additional charges and fines, she said.

Although I think texting while driving is really stupid, this is not a good law. I feel the same way about this law as I do the laws that make penalties stiffer for hate crimes. If killing someone is not illegal enough, make it more illegal. But don’t make it more illegal to kill someone because they are white, black, gay, straight, American, foreign or whatever. That is just an insult to people who were murdered in some manner other than a hate crime. Similarly, if driving recklessly is not illegal enough, make it more illegal. But don’t make the penalties for driving recklessly in a politically unpopular manner be more harsh than driving recklessly in a politically tolerable manner.

And isn’t it convenient now that the police can pull you over for appearing to send a text? As a practical matter, how would they ever prove it? How would they know if I was sending a text or simply using an app? The Baltimore Sun article contained a useful FAQ about the bill:

What does the law state? Beginning Thursday, Oct. 1, using a hand-held device to write or send messages while operating a vehicle in motion or in the travel portion of the road is illegal in Maryland, unless it is used to contact 911.

Am I still allowed to dial or talk on my phone while driving? Yes.

Could an officer pull me over if he suspects me of sending a message while driving? Yes, it is considered a primary offense.

What is the penalty? Messaging while driving is considered a misdemeanor, subject to a fine up to $500.

If a law enforcement officer demands to see my phone, must I comply? No, you have the right to refuse to hand over your phone, unless the officer has a search warrant.

Is sending an e-mail, a Twitter update or a Facebook message prohibited? What about playing games or using applications? Legal experts interpret the law differently on the messaging issue. Games and applications are not banned by the law. However, an officer can issue a citation if he believes you were writing a text.

By the way, with a fair amount of irony the State Highway Administration will send you twitter updates to ease your commute here.

Exceedingly Slow

Food for thought in thinking about how the Federal government can make health care cheaper or more efficient (from the Health Department website):

The demand this year for seasonal flu shots/FluMist is high both locally and across the country. Federal distribution channels are exceedingly slow causing a challenge to the number of vaccines local agencies like Howard County are able to immediately receive. Due to demand for vaccine being so high and received number of doses so low, the Clinic was forced to close to newly arriving cars a full hour and a half earlier than expected.

Not that the Federal government has ever lowered costs by getting involved in any industry.

Update: The feds dropped the ball on the swine flu vaccine as well. According to an article in Explore Howard, Bielenson expected to receive 50,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine from the feds, but received only 2,000.

Text of the tanning regulation

The text of the tanning ban (.pdf) before the Howard County Board of Health is posted online. If this regulation really is about preventing cancer in minors (a rather unnecessary goal so long as parents are raising minors and not the health department), it seems bizarre that the tanning regulation speaks to the toilet paper and soap dispenser in the restroom, as well as the ratio of employees to tanning beds. One would think that this regulation is a health department power trip more so than an attempt to prevent minors from getting cancer. This regulation contains more clauses to allow the Health Officer to lord over tanning salons than clauses to meaningfully protect teens.

Also keep in mind that Health Officer Peter Bielenson thinks that teens are capable of making the right decisions about abortion even without parental guidance, but Bielenson believes that neither teens or their parents are capable of making the healthy decisions about tanning beds.

The only thing this regulation will succeed in doing is pushing tanning salons and teen tanning patrons to neighboring counties. The irony in all of this is that the odds of a teen getting killed while driving to a tanning salon in Carroll, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Prince George's or Montgomery County is probably much greater than the odds they would get cancer from a tanning bed.

Grrrrrrrr

I can’t believe the Social Security Administration has the audacity to send me a statement when they know that the program will be broke before I retire. Those ponzi scheme con artists belong in jail right next to Madoff.

Cardin's wishful thinking

Ben Cardin supports government intervention in health care because he wants government to do two things:

1. Increase competition
2. Lower costs

Are there any examples of when the federal government has done either of these two things, particularly lowering costs? It seems to me that current government intervention in health care (FDA, licensure of doctors, etc.) do exactly the opposite of these two things, so perhaps Cardin’s two objectives could be better accomplished by getting government out of the health care business, not allowing government to screw things up even more.

Robert Higgs nicely summarizes my feelings about government:

Until more people come to a more realistic, fact-based understanding of the government and the economy, little hope exists of tearing them away from their quasi-religious attachment to a government they view with misplaced reverence and unrealistic hopes. Lacking a true religious faith yet craving one, many Americans have turned to the state as a substitute god, endowed with the divine omnipotence required to shower the public with something for nothing in every department – free health care, free retirement security, free protection from hazardous consumer products and workplace accidents, free protection from the Islamic maniacs the U.S. government stirs up with its misadventures in the Muslim world, and so forth. If you take the government to be Santa Claus, you naturally want every day to be Christmas; and the bigger the Santa, the bigger his sack of goodies. This prevailing ideology constitutes probably the most critical obstacle to reductions in the government’s size, scope, and power. Getting rid of this ideology will be diabolically difficult, if possible at all.

Sunshine Superman

A post on the Freakonomics blog links two of Dr. Beilenson's favorite health issues together: the seasonal flu and sunlight/tanning beds. A lack of sunlight in the winter months leads to less vitamin D in our bodies which may make us more susceptible to the seasonal flu. I can't vouch for the science behind this, but it seems plausible. This is just more evidence that the proposed ban on minors using tanning beds by our county Health Department is not a good policy. It's best to let minors and parents decide what is best given the risks and benefits.

Just as flu season gathers force here in the northern hemisphere, it’s petering out in the southern half of the globe. No matter where you are, you’re more susceptible to the flu in the winter months. Even if, let’s say, some research physicians expose you to live flu virus in the middle of summer, you’re still less likely to get sick than if the same doctors hit you with the same virus in the dead of winter. Why? One big risk factor for flu infection is a lack of vitamin D. We naturally produce vitamin D when we’re exposed to sunlight, and as the days shorten in the winter, we produce less and less of it. That led these researchers to think that flu epidemics could be a sign of widespread vitamin D deficiency, due in part to decreased solar radiation. So it seems darkness makes the flu go ’round.

Beilenson: then and now

Peter Beilenson then, in January of 2008, who appears to believe that teenagers are capable of making the right decisions without parental guidance:

Howard County's top health officer criticized the county school system this week for its decision to disclose information about student pregnancies to parents.

County health officer Dr. Peter Beilenson called the Board of Education's Jan. 10 decision on the matter "absolutely outrageous" because it interferes with pregnant teens' right to privacy and endangers a segment of teens who might forego prenatal care if they cannot count on confidential guidance at school.

Peter Bielenson now, who thinks that teenagers cannot make a responsible decision about the use of tanning beds even with parental guidance:

There are 17 tanning salons in Howard County, Beilenson said, with probably dozens more tanning beds in gyms and health spas.

Beilenson noted a World Health Organization report in July citing seven studies on indoor tanning that indicated that the risk of skin cancer is increased 75 percent for those under 35. The studies identified the beds - like tobacco - as a cancer risk.

Go on, take the money and run

As already noted by Wordbones, 9A delegates Bates and Miller have opted not to give back a portion of their state pay in a show of solidarity with state employees who will go without pay for as many as 10 days this year. However, I don’t blame the delegates one bit for not giving back any portion of their salary.

For as many criticisms as I may have of these two delegates, being fiscally irresponsible is not of those criticisms. Therefore, the budget mess is not of their doing (Miller voted against the budget, not sure about Bates), and they only thing they have an obligation to do is to say “I told you so.” Of course, the state employees who are bearing the brunt of these cut backs had nothing to do with the state budget mess either, but those rank and file workers are viewed as little more than collateral damage by the politicians who created this mess. Whatever Bates and Miller may do with the money that they earned, I am sure it will be much better spent that if they gave it back to the state government.

Bates and Miller will hear some criticism about whether or not they did the right thing. But that criticism is just talk by some random know-it-alls who are not walking in the shoes of Bates and Miller. And yet, Bates and Miller- who are themselves random know-it-alls who are not walking in the shoes of anyone else- have no problem denying the rights of homosexuals to marry or engage in civil unions. So while I do not begrudge Bates or Miller for wanting to keep money that they rightfully earned, it seems strange that they would work to deny others the right to pursue their own brand of doing what is right. Maybe Bates and Miller should mind their own business.

Just my two pesos.

Civility: Fail

This week is Choose Civility week. As most readers of this blog are aware, Choose Civility is an initiative inspired by Dr. P.M. Forni's 25 rules of considerate conduct (a list is maintained on sidebar at Columbia Talk). The Choose Civility initiative focuses on 15 of these rules (actually 16, because they combined two of Forni's rules about respecting the time/space of others into a single rule).

One branch of county government has really pooped the bed on two of these 15 principles embraced by the choose civility initiative. I am referring to the two shootings in two years of family pets by the Howard County Police Department. The Police Department has a lot of work to do to demonstrate the the 'apologize earnestly' and 'take responsibility' principles of civility based on their actions after both shootings. There was no public or private apology and the police have not modified their policies or means of dealing with animals in any way whatsoever. One could make a good case that the Police Department violated nearly all 15 of the civility principles, but these two were violated in a particularly glorious fashion.

Happy Choose Civility week!

Happy Anniversary HHAP

The Healthy Howard Access Plan celebrated its one year anniversary of operations on October 1st. I'll be curious to see any financial and other reports that are produced by the plan, so we can see exactly how our tax dollars have been spent and for what benefit. The plan was budgeted to spend $500,000 of tax money to help about 2,000 people. Thus far, the plan has helped somewhere around 400 people, and an additional $500,000 in tax dollars have been committed to the plan for next year. So far, taxpayers are into this plan for $1 million, so it will be interesting to see exactly what results have been achieved. A million dollars is a lot of money that could be put to many other uses.

Without results, the second year of HHAP will be the last.

Ghost town

There is a strange article on the front page of Explore Howard with a picture of some spooky-ass former church that is eerily lit with an orange glow under a dark and foreboding sky. I was disappointed not to see a black cat and a jack-o-lantern out front.

Karen Griffith is not the type to spook easily.

As curator of the Howard County Historical Museum, in a former church dating back to the 1800s, she knows the sounds and sensations a building steeped in decades of history can make.

Creaking wooden floors.

Random knocks and pings.

Unexpected drafts blowing coolness past her.

But footsteps when she's in the building alone, after closing time?

"That was a little unnerving," she says. "And I have had other people hear it too, so I know I am not hallucinating."

Griffith says she was working in her office in the basement of the museum when she heard footsteps on the floor above.

She went upstairs to investigate and saw no one.

The article then talks about how the building is being investigated for paranormal activity, because a likely explanation for these strange noises is that the building is haunted. Yeah, right.

It is fascinating what people can convince themselves and others to believe, be it paranormal activity or anything else. Using the power of suggestion and other psychological tricks commonly used by charlatans, tricksters, con men and even pickup artists, most people can be led to believe in or even to do some surprising things.

One of the best examples of someone who is well versed in these kinds of tricks is Derren Brown. Thanks to the power of the internet, we can watch some of his awesome videos on YouTube, like this one.

Update: Derren Brown has written several books that are available on Amazon, but none of which are available at the Howard County Library.