Everyone's talking about jobs. But while flipping burgers may be better than sitting at home collecting unemployment benefits, the foundation for renewed economic growth in the United States isn't creating more government jobs, it's revitalizing manufacturing.
The National Association of Manufacturers recently released a must-read primer on the role of manufacturing,Manufacturing Resurgence A Must for U.S. Prosperity by Joel Popkin and Kathryn Kobe. The report documents that "manufacturing contributes more to U.S. productivity than an other major sector."
An amendment just incorporated into a pending New Hampshire legislative bill seeking to create pathbreaking mandatory certification of snowfighters would exempt those who apply about 80% of the road salt in that state. That's bad public policy.
True, private sector snowfighters need more and better training, but so do those who labor in public employ to keep our winter roads safe and passable.
Today is Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow -- a "reliable" indicator that there will be six more weeks of winter weather.
Harold Alderman of the World Bank estimates the payback for investments in iodizing salt to return between $12 and $30 for every dollar invested. The study was just published in the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
. Iodizing salt was judged superior to supplementing vitamin A and zinc, doing general community nutrition education or doing iron fortification.
Alderman laments the fact that "economic investments often fail to follow from evidence...Quite possibly economists believe that rapid economic growth will, by itself, will eliminate undernutrition. If so, they are mistaken in that belief." Growth, he documents has only a "modest impact."
Investment patterns are politically-determined and over-invest in HIV/AIDS and injuries "while non-communicable disease as well as maternal and perinatal health and nutrition along with non HIV/AIDS communicable diseases receive less than they should according to calculated health benefits.
Even casual observers of road salt operations in the North American snowbelt recognize that most of the salt used to keep winter roads safe and passable is applied by public agencies. And for a half century, there has been consensus that over-application of road salt imposes unnecessary environmental costs. That's why the Salt Institute has been promoting "Sensible Salting" for more than 40 years -- application of the minimum amount of salt needed to achieve desired levels of service. Sensible Salting has been the mainstay of employee training programs for decades. Sensible Salting has won public service awards.
Snowfighter training is the key to improved salt management. Every state has a federally-subsidized Local Technology Assistance Program and snowbelt state LTAPs offer training to government and private snowfighters on how to do the job right. Problem: some agencies and contractors skimp (or even ignore) training. As a result, their application of road salt doesn't reflect best management practices. Training has always been voluntary and, as a result, inconsistent. That's the case in every state, not just New Hampshire whose motto famously proclaims "Live free or die."
New Hampshire Rep. Margaret Crisler (R-Rockingham) wants to convert the inconsistent voluntary approach and force snowfighter training throughout the state. We support the intent to improve snowfighter training, though this legislative vehicle has problems.
Rep. Crisler, at the request of the Department of Environmental Services (DES), has introduced HB 1676 to require certification of all snowfighters except homeowners and business owners who are putting salt on their own property. The bill enjoys support from the entire state bureaucracy, DES (which would draft the certification standards and enforce the program), the department of transportation, the department of safety and the department of resources and economic development. But these state departments, perhaps also reflecting municipalities throughout the state, insist that state and municipal snowfighters be exempted from the certification requirement . In other words, the guy with the pick-up truck putting out hundreds of pounds of salt on a shopping center or office complex parking lot would pay fees and be required to certify their operators, but the NH DOT and the municipal crews that operate the large plow/spreader trucks that spread the vast majority of the salt would be exempted.
Live free or die?
The House Resources, Recreation and Development Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill February 4. A couple part-time DES employees would be required to develop and administer the certification program, the DES estimated (before insisting the bill be confined only to private contractors).
Want to register your views ?
Also of note: hidden deep in the bill is a provision limiting the liability of property owners who employ best salt management practices.
Lee Smithson, the coordinator for AASHTO's Snow and Ice Cooperative Program (SICOP) has announced that TRB has posted to its website five technical papers considered to be "Practice Ready"
. They include
#1. "Guidance for Creating and Maintaining Written Snow and Ice Control Plan and Policy Documents". This paper begins on page 287 of E-C126. The paper discusses the importance, benefits, creation process and suggested content of written snow and ice control plan and policy documents for all levels of government. It also cites the experience and success of three diverse agencies to highlight the importance and utility of the documents. The paper is comprehensive and presents subject matter to guide agencies in the development of their plan and policy documents.
#2. "Providing Winter Road Maintenance Guidance, An Update of the Federal Highway Administration Maintenance Decision Support System". This paper begins on page 199 of E-C126. This paper provides an overview of the development of the Federal Prototype MDSS. It documents the five versions of the Federal Prototype that have been developed and released and the enhancement of the Rules of Practice based on field demonstrations, the addition of more chemicals types to the treatment recommendations, a frost module, etc. The paper acknowledges the importance of stakeholders and the incorporation of their feedback into the features and functions that now make up the current version of the MDSS.
#3. "Maintenance Decision Support System is not Just for State Departments of Transportation". This paper begins on page 240 of E-C126. This paper presents the use of MDSS in a county and city application. Excellent success is reported and it is anticipated they will expand MDSS to their summer operations. A study has been started to determine the direct and indirect benefits of MDSS.
#4. "An Overview of Implementation and Deployment of the Pooled Fund Study Maintenance Decision Support System". This paper begins on page 229 of E-C126. The paper describes the development of the pooled fund study (PFS) MDSS. This pooled fund has been guided by ten state DOTs and therefore accommodates a wide range of operating practices and deployment options.
#5. "Integrating Weather into Transportation Operations: A Utah Department of Transportation Case Study". This paper begins on page 318 of E-C126. The paper describes the Utah DOT Weather Operations/RWIS Program and a research project to determine how its services were being used to change and improve business practices. The project included surveys of Utah DOT maintenance foremen and construction engineers and quantitative benefit/cost analysis based on data collected regarding winter maintenance activities and outcomes.
Although the freshly-fallen snow blankets our Salt Institute offices, overall, the North American winter has been mild-to-normal. So it came as no surprise when the Canadian Press headlined "Sifto Salt laying off 80 people at its salt mine in Goderich, Ont." The company explained that it was reducing from 7-days-a-week production to five, normal for this time of year.
All the company's stockpiles are filled to capacity, the Compass Minerals' unit added.
Think back just one year ago, when road agencies were bemoaning the difficulty of obtaining sufficient deicing salt to stay ahead of winter and keep roads safe and passable.
It's a quiet victory, but let's declare the battle won which the salt industry began two years ago in trying to recover from back-to-back severe winters (with record salt sales) which totally depleted supplies from mines to regional stockpiles to customer salt sheds. Perhaps the lessons learned about the need for improved customer on-site storage are beginning to make a difference.
Well done, salt industry.
India is the country with the world's largest population of newborns who are unprotected by iodized salt from the mental impairment caused by Iodine Deficiency Disorders. At the India-International Salt Summit 2010, I was invited to share my views on whether there is any conflict between government advocacy of salt reduction and its pursuit of universal salt iodization.
Short answer: no conflict at all. As I told the international delegates (pdf 75.57 kB) :
Two public health challenges inhere in dietary salt, both with major public health implications. First, conclusive research, broad experience and consensus organizational endorsement support fortification of salt with potassium iodate or potassium iodide to protect against Iodine Deficiency Disorders. Second, inconsistent research, ineffective experience, yet broad endorsements have mired implementation of advisories for population salt intake reduction intended to improve human cardiovascular health outcomes.
I noted a series of efforts by salt reduction activists questioning whether portraying salt as a public health benefactor and the fact that the issue has been dismissed whenever it has been raised, adding:
Let’s hope this is the end of this false “debate.” We need to unite and put our energies into achieving universal salt iodization. We cannot be distracted by those who would blame their lack of success reducing dietary salt on our achievements in advancing salt iodization.
If salt reductionists want to argue in favor of reducing overall salt intakes, we should make them offer evidence, not excuses. We should remind them that while the hypothesized benefits of salt reduction may fuel contentious debate, there is global consensus that salt iodization is the most cost-effective and sustainable strategy to prevent iodine deficiency disorders. It is imperative that we promote iodized salt to help every expectant mother enjoy optimal iodine nutrition and every child be born protected from iodine deficiency. Optimal iodine nutrition will protect the entire population from the loss of intellectual and physical resources through this easily preventable cause of mental retardation.
The last week has brought a media frenzy to the debate over population-wide salt reduction thanks to the hypocritical and nonsensical campaign by NYC's Mayor Bloomberg and his administration. The Salt Institute has been in the center of the fray as we seek to get fair media coverage from folks who parrot inaccurate sound bites based on faulty science and a political agenda based on a "villain of the day" mentality. We are happy to report we have made great strides in getting out "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. SI staff appeared on CBS and Fox News, weighed in on approximately 20 interviews with print media and appeared on one national radio show and another large radio show in Miami (NYC's sixth borough).
In addition, the tide seems to be turning as the national sentiment is rejecting the nanny state mentality and seems keen on personal choice and liberty. There has been a shift in reporting on this issue since Bloomberg and company first publicly entertained the notion of population-wide sodium reduction one year ago. Perhaps our favorite editorial in the last week appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Smack is bad, but the crackdown is on salt by Eric Felten does a fine job of pointing out the lunacy of a city which teaches its residents how to properly shoot up heroin, but strong arms food producers into limiting sodium content. We, like Felten, join in a collective chorus of "huh?" John Stossel also did a fine job of making the case against government food nannies in this Fox News segment.
We are encouraged to see many rising up to fight back against nanny state public policy which ignores sound science. Fox News online ran a story "Restaurant chefs boiling over NYC Mayor's salt crackdown." And a new coalition has popped up to fight back: My Food. My Choice. is made up of businesses, restaurant owners and ethnic groups (they see the policy as an attack on ethnic cuisine) and consumers.
I was privileged to address the opening plenary session of the India-International Salt Summit 2010 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, sharing the session with the hosts -- S. Sundaresan, India's Salt Commisioner and leaders of the India Salt Manufacturers Association, President Hiralal Parakh and chairman P.B. Anandam. The featured speaker for the event was Gujarat's Chief Minister (equivalent to a U.S. state governor or Canadian provincial premier) Shri Narenda Modi.
Mr. Sundarsesan called for the 10th International Salt Symposium to be hosted in India in 2016 and predicted India's salt production would double in the next decade. Chief Minister Modi gave an exceptionally enlightened and detailed address advocating measures to support his state's salt industry -- the largest in India (itself, the world's third-largest salt producer).
My opening remarks (pdf 76.91 kB) identified three "global challenges" threatening full enjoyment of salt benefits: environment, safety and mobility, and health outcomes of dietary salt. I called for action by the salt industry to 1) stay informed about policy and technical developments, 2) remain a credible participant in the public policy debate by "speaking the truth," and 3) align salt industry advocacy with the public interest. "We must have a laser-like focus on performance, on outcomes, on actual operations of the systems that use salt."
An international audience of about 400 attended the three day conclave. Included were representatives from Tata Chemicals (India), Hub-Pak (Pakistan), China National Salt Industry Corporation (China) and Industria Salinera de Yucatan (Mexico). Here I am visiting with Ismail Suttar, CEO of Hub-Pak.
Artists are fascinated by salt and history. German photographer Fred Lange wrote today calling attention to his website with 50 large format photos related to salt .
Snowfighters belie the adage that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. Well, Salt Institute member Compass Minerals is providing a new online winter severity tracking service in support of those who are "doing something about it (winter storm events). See the company's Snow Events page to learn about the severity of winters impacting North American roadways.
The company promises to update the report quarterly. It defines a snow event as one where more than one inch falls in any 24 hour period in one of 11 large cities.
For comparison, the last decade these eleven cities averaged 48.5 snow events during the Fourth Quarters 1999-2008, but the annual fluctuation provides insight into the marketplace, ranging from 20 events in 2006 to 80 in 2008. Here are the numbers:
- 2009 42 snow events
- 2008 80
- 2007 56
- 2006 20
- 2005 68
This past week, the US House of Representatives, by a close 217-212 vote, passed a "jobs bill" directing more than $35 billion in highway and transit spending (and $30 million for barge-related improvements on the Mississippi). The money is intended to "stimulate" jobs in constructing more roads. This same week, headlines blared about people dying and businesses and industries being paralyzed by snowstorms for which overwhelmed road agency winter maintenance operations. No doubt, the increased public spending on building more roads will create jobs -- next Spring or Summer. But short-sightedly refusing to spend what we need right now is not only costing us lives and livelihoods right now, but it's also contributing to tax revenue shortfalls as taxes on worker earnings and commercial sales taxes take huge hits when impassible roads gridlock transportation. A study by Global Insight confirms these costs .
Let's "stimulate" highway operations and save jobs on "Main Street"!
As a member of the National Transportation Operations Coalition , yesterday I attended an FHWA-hosted meeting of NTOC members to discuss how improving highway operations can contribute to the Federal Highway Administration's goals for "sustainability" and "livability." (FHWA's other two goals are economic vitality and safety).
While some others talked about how to convince Americans to emulate the example of citizens in Malmo, Sweden who have tried to stigmatize anyone for driving on a trip of less than 5 kilometers (about two miles) as taking a "ridiculous trip," I tried to focus on the narrower topic of how changes in operations might lessen the environmental impacts of roads and contribute to the quality of our lives.
There are many things that could be mentioned; I offered four salt-related suggestions:
- The imperative of Sensible Salting -- use of road salt in minimum amounts to deliver the required level of service and safety.
- One particular aspect of Sensible Salting -- proper salt storage -- not only provides environmental benefits, but acts like an "insurance policy" for agencies assuring that they have enough salt to clear roads properly. Expanded salt storage also allows for early-season deliveries which can often take advantage of the energy savings inherent in moving salt, a heavy bulk commodity, by water rather than roadway.
- The need for better real-time data on roadway conditions linked directly to road managers and the public, and
- In support of encouraging people to walk and bike to work and shopping, communities must provide not only clear roads, but clear bike paths and sidewalks. Usually, residential sidewalks are a homeowners responsibility, often supported by (often unenforced) local ordinances. As for roads, assured, reliable access to safe bike paths and sidewalks is a priority for sustainable transportation.
Today's Chicago Tribune , coincidentally, picked up on this latter theme, reporting on a local Chicagoland activist group, the Active Transportation Alliance , and its efforts to encourage procrastinating homeowners to comply with the local law. Chicago requires sidewalks to be cleared "within three hours of the snow falling" or face a $50 citation.
The group points out the safety hazard of pedestrians forced to walk in snowy streets. Sustainable and livable communities should insist on timely clearing not only of public roads, but of sidewalks and bike paths.
Last week, in the aftermath of the DC area's paralyzing snowstorm, the Washington Post ran an article by Ashley Halsey III "D.C. region gets what it pays for when it comes to snow removal ." The article noted that a northern Michigan city received more than 7 feet of snow (compared to 2 feet in DC) and yet the roads were cleared with little disruption in normal activities. The annual cost of this level of service was put at $11,055 a year per lane mile. In contrast, the District of Columbia spends $5,636 annually for each mile for which it provides snowfighting service and this storm produced a government shut-down, widespread closures and extensive disruption.
Public comments to the online story were all over the lot; some considered the DC response laughable (e.g. "Giving out parking tickets is about the only thing DC does efficiently. As the nation's capital it is a joke.") while others defended the public works snowfighting crews. Many noted the inherent flaw by the author comparing a small city in a snowy rural region with a major city in an area with infrequent winter storms.
The larger lesson probably deals more with service level than budget. And that owes largely to the "wisdom of crowds" as displayed in the online comments. Had Petroskey, MI run a story on snowfighting, the comments would almost certainly have reflected its residents' insistent demand that winter not be allowed to hamstring their lives. The DC comments, on the other hand, are notably ambivalent and diverse. DC will get better snowfighting when it demands it -- budgets reflect citizens' expectations.
One could imagine a mayor of Petoskey who responded to a major snowstorm with the efficiency of the DC crews would become the next Michael Bilandic (see Wikipedia , 5th paragraph). But his job's safe in DC. The public doesn't expect good snowfighting. So the story might better be headlined "D.C. region gets what is wants when it comes to snow removal."
It could be better. It might cost more. That's democracy.
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