Group items tagged

U.S. Senate Committee hears submissions on NASA's 2013 budget request & U.S. space program The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has been hearing submissions regarding NASA's 2013 budget request and on the priorities, plans and progress of the U.S. space program. Witnesses appearing before the Committee on March 7 included Charles F Bolden Jr, NASA's Administrator, and Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and well known commentator on space exploration. Bolden, who flew on four space shuttle missions after a career in the Marine Corps, was appointed to lead NASA in 2009 after being nominated by President Obama. Administrator Bolden outlined the space agency's achievements in 2011 and updated the Committee on the status of current missions. His statement outlined how the requested budget of $17.7 billion for 2013 would be allocated and concluded by stating: "NASA's FY 2013 budget request of $17.7 billion represents a substantial investment in a balanced program of science, exploration, technology and aeronautics research. Despite the constrained budget environment facing the Nation, this request supports a robust space program that keeps us on a path to achieving a truly audacious set of goals. NASA is working to send humans to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, to observe the first galaxies form, and to expand the productivity of humanity's only permanently-crewed space station. We are making air travel safer and more efficient, learning to live and work in space, and developing the critical technologies to achieve these goals. The coming year will include the first commercial cargo flights to the ISS, a nuclear powered robot the size of a small car landing on the surface of Mars, and the launch of the Nation's next land observing satellite. We have spacecraft studying the Sun, circling Mercury, cruising to Pluto and investigating almost everything inbetween. In the face of very difficult times, the American p

The cancer society urged the federal government to: Ensure there is mandatory listing of unavailable drugs by drug manufacturer. Develop early warning systems to identify potential drug shortages. Put systems in place to prevent shortages from escalating. Work with other jurisdictions to investigate the root causes of the shortages and act to prevent them where possible. Canada's supply of injectable drugs such as painkillers, antibiotics and anesthetics became more precarious following a fire in the boiler room at Sandoz Canada's plant in Boucherville, Que. "Production has resumed in the portion of the plant that was not directly affected by the incident, which took place on March 4," the company said in a email to CBC News on Monday. "Our objective is to restore previous levels of supply as soon as possible, and we will make every effort to meet medical needs, while ensuring consistent high quality standards." Rationing supplies The company was unable to quantify how much more capacity it now has. Anthony Dale, vice-president of policy and public affairs at the Ontario Hospital Association in Toronto, called it "outrageous" that one company could have this kind of effect on drug supplies. Dale also called for a national strategy, noting hospitals are taking inventory of their supplies and trying to share and to compound or carefully mix drugs from raw ingredients under sterile conditions. Hospitals and drug purchasers have been holding daily conference calls to mitigate shortages. Doctors are carefully selecting patients who can swallow to give them oral forms of the medications, said Myrella Roy, executive director of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists in Ottawa. Last week, officials with Alberta Health Services asked doctors to conserve injectable medications. Cancer patients were asked to get oral anti-nausea medications instead of injections before chemotherapy treatment. In mid-February, Sandoz informed hospitals and other health-care client