Fatal bromethalin poisoning

Bromethalin is a neurotoxin found in some rodenticides. A delusional 21-year-old male presented to a hospital with altered mental status the day after ingesting a bromethalin-based rodenticide. He died 7 days after his self-reported exposure to c. 17 mg bromethalin (equivalent to 0.33 mg bromethalin/kg). His clinicopathologic course was characterized by altered mental status, obtundation, increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure, cerebral edema, death, and diffuse histologic vacuolization of the white matter in the central nervous system seen on microscopic examination at autopsy. The presence of a demethylated form of bromethalin in the patient's liver and brain was confirmed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Clinical signs and lesions observed in this patient are similar to those seen in animals poisoned with bromethalin. This case illustrates the potential for bromethalin ingestion to result in fatal human poisoning.     

Intervention unnecessary: bar associations taking sides in regulatory actions

Interest groups participate in the political process in a variety of ways. They can lobby the legislature, interact with elected and administrative executive officials, and participate in litigation either as a litigant or an amicus curiae. But the literature is scarce in exploring how interest groups behave when their stakeholders dissent. This study explores the actions by one interest group, the American Bar Association (ABA), in participating in “notice and comment” rulemaking by the Department of Labor where the ABA did not represent the legal profession. It finds that the ABA engaged in astroturfing, and that their efforts were ignored by the Department. This suggests that astroturfing may not be useful in the notice and comment rulemaking process, because the agency's unitary status allows them to discern the centralized origin of the comments. This finding is confirmed by comparing the ABA's influence on the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush, when it did represent the consensus of the legal profession.     

“Der Umgang mit Gülle, Jauche und Mist als umweltstrafrechtliches Problem”

Zusammenfassung  Der Umgang mit den bei der Viehzucht anfallenden Stoffen Gülle, Jauche und Mist ist vermehrt ins Blickfeld der Umweltschutzpolitik und des Gesetzgebers gerückt und hat in jüngster Zeit auch wiederholt die Strafgerichte besch?ftigt. Auff?llig ist hingegen, dass es an entsprechender strafrechtlicher Literatur weitgehend fehlt. Zuletzt hat sich Henzler, NuR 2003, 270, mit der strafrechtlichen Würdigung der Festmistlagerung besch?ftigt. Der vorliegende Beitrag soll untersuchen, inwieweit die von Gülle, Jauche, und Mist emittierenden Gefahren strafrechtlich erfasst werden.