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:

1. The imperative of Sensible Salting -- use of road salt in minimum amounts to deliver the required level of service and safety.
2. 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.
3. The need for better real-time data on roadway conditions linked directly to road managers and the public, and
4. 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.

The new SI Report (html 43.56 kB) (html 48.85 kB) , January 2010, has been published and features stories on a FHWA report on performance measurement, the hazards of "politically-correct" weather forecasting and third quarter industry safety statistics. Read it now (html 43.56 kB) .

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) collects and compiles worker injury data, but its reporting system contains "disincentives that may discourage workers from reporting work-related injuries and illnesses to their employers and disincentives that may discourage employers from recording them," according to a recent report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). Examples include:

...workers may not report a work-related injury or illness because they fear job loss or other disciplinary action, or fear jeopardizing rewardsbased on having low injury and illness rates. In addition, employers may not record injuries or illnesses because they are afraid of increasing their workers’ compensation costs or jeopardizing their chances of winning contract bids for new work. Disincentives for reporting and recording injuries and illnesses can result in pressure on occupational health practitioners from employers or workers to provide insufficient medical treatment that avoids the need to record the injury or illness.

GAO estimates that a third of US employers face these pressures. Still other factors undermine the accuracy of employers' injury and illness data, said GAO, including "a lack of understanding of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements by individuals responsible for recording injuries and illnesses."

GAO recommends that OSHA:

(1) require inspectors to interview workers during records audits, and substitute other workers when those initially selected are unavailable;

(2) minimize the time between the date injuries and illnesses are recorded by employers and the date they are audited;

(3) update the list of high hazard industries used to select worksites for records audits; and

(4) increase education and training to help employers better understand the recordkeeping requirements.

GAO says OSHA has agreed with the changes.

As Washington, DC, digs out from two feet of snow a week before Christmas, another round of winter weather paralyzed Christmas Day travel in the US midwest. A picture is worth a thousand words. It seems we've enjoyed above-average snow and ice events since the recent global warming confab in Copenhagen.

Weather forecasts from London's Met office for a "probably mild" winter and "light snow" December 21 were not just mistakes, according to WeatherAction long-range weather and climate forecasters. The easy-winter forecasts were designed to please the
Government’s ‘Global warming’ ideology when the forecasting method used has consistently failed," maintains WeatherAction.
WeatherAction says its models predicted the huge storms that immobilized the UK (and Copenhagen) at the end of the Global Warming summit last week. Moreover, the group forecasts major snowstorms in January and predicts "Salt to run out -- again."
Most snowfighters, whether they subscribe to the global warming hypothesis, know the vagaries of weather require prudent preparation so we doubt the Brits will have a salt shortage.

No, this post doesn’t concern Dan Brown’s best-selling mystery novel by this title nor even reference the seasonally-referenced celestial battle presaging the birth of Christ which celebration is quickly upon us. But, like the engaging plot of a quick-read novel or the enduring scriptural lessons about man’s struggle to live good lives resisting evil designs and temptations, the notion of “angels and demons” leapt to mind when I read the recent study in the International Journal of Obesity on “white hat bias.”

Coming on the heels of “Climategate” with its ethically-challenged but politically-correct data suppression and intimidation, the article by David B. Allison, director of the Nutrition and Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and former colleague Dr. Mark Cope, touches many of the same sensitivities. The two scientists reviewed studies of the effects of consuming sugar-based beverages and breastfeeding and found consistent “white hat bias (WHB).” Without regard to how one feels about the quality of research into global warming or the contributions of sugar-sweetened beverages or breastfeeding to consequent obesity, we hope we can all agree that the assault on scientific integrity in the name of assorted “white hat” do-good causes is, ultimately, self-defeating and something worthy of universal concern.

They define WHB as “bias leading to distortion of research-based information in the service of what may be perceived as righteous ends.” (The reference to “white hats” being to early Hollywood western films where the “good guys” wore white hats while outlaws wore black hats).

Allison and Cope conclude that obesity research “may be misrepresented by scientists operating with particular biases … sufficient to mislead readers.” Allison sounds “a warning bell,” stating: “White-hat bias is a slippery slope that science and medicine need to resist.” He continued: “Some researchers like to demonize certain products or defend practices with a kind of righteous zeal, but it’s wrong to stray from truthfulness in research reporting.”

The NIH-funded study noted that “this bias appeared in studies not funded by industry.”

As in Climategate, the parallels with the salt/health controversy are uncanny. Scientists have long been accorded vast public credibility owing to their systemic pursuit of truth. We all need vigilance to unmask those (hopefully, few) who would abuse this credibility and play fast-and-loose with the expected high standards of scientific inquiry. We all want medical researchers who are angels of truth who rigorously resist the corruption of white hat bias in pursuit of their personal “righteous” – but wrong – political preferences.

The Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Operations has published an important benchmarking report on use of performance measures which assesses state DOT adoption and effectiveness of harnessing new techniques and technologies to improve roadway operations impaired by adverse weather conditions.

As FHWA reports, “The impact of weather events on roadway safety and capacity is substantial.” Two measures, in particular, address major concerns for those dedicated to improving winter roadway safety and mobility. They are:

• The percentage of time a roadway meets safety and capacity level of service (LOS) standards during and after weather events (normalized by the frequency/intensity of winter events), and
• The reduction in roadway user costs as measured in traffic delays, crashes, vehicle operating costs, emissions and salt damage attributable to road weather strategies.

As the Salt Institute has argued, FHWA concludes that “national level statistics do no exist yet to directly measure” the goal of measuring safety and LOS/capacity impairment. Nearly a third of agencies (32%) measure “time to wet/bare pavement.” Only 4% measure “percent of time that lanes are open during a weather event, 7% measure “pavement friction,” 11% measure “time to pre-event travel speeds after a weather event” and 18% measure “customer satisfaction with maintenance and recover time.” Another 25% use undefined additional performance indicators.

While performance measures are “in an early phase of deployment,” there is better news in adoption of new operations strategies. New Sensible Salting techniques are being adopted. Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) is credited with reducing crashes by 17% and anti-icing by 83%, but since the latter figure is equivalent to the 85% crash reduction in using older deicing techniques, the finding hardly represents great progress.

Snow and ice on roadways cause significant service degradation, the report explains, cutting roadway capacity by 25% or more (to say nothing of the number of would-be drivers who abandon planned trips entirely). Free-flow speed declines 19% in snow conditions. Despite this reduced load, weather-impaired roads are the cause of 22% of all injury and fatal traffic crashes, half of them due to slick roadway surface conditions. Overall, weather causes more than 500 million vehicle-hours of delays every year, the report documents. “Most of this estimated delay (90 percent) was due to snow in urban areas.”

Pursuit of road weather performance measures “has enabled and continues to strive for a culture shift among traffic operators to a more proactive weather management approach that in turn will improve safety and capacity,” the report concludes. The federal program is also “undertaking studies relevant to safety, including studies of the microscopic and macroscopic behavior of traffic in inclement weather conditions, weather-sensitive traffic prediction and estimation modeling, and evaluation of the effectiveness and safety implications of road weather advisory and control information.” FHWA is promoting its Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) to automate winter operations and participating in the IntelliDrive program to harness new “smart car” technology to improve road weather operations.