The day I spoke with Idaho minimum wage activist Anne Nesse, it was quite cold in her hometown of Coeur d’Alene — 29 degrees, to be exact. The harsh winters came up more than once during our conversation about low wages in the northwestern state.
Addiction & Substance Abuse
Fifty years and 8 million lives saved since the first surgeon general’s smoking report
It’s probably my earliest public health memory — the image of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and his grandfatherly beard on the television warning my elementary school self about the dangers of smoking. He was the first doctor I knew by name.
With so much pressure on the Affordable Care Act to immediately live up to high expectations, and with opponents who seem gleeful at the news that Americans are having a hard time signing up for affordable health care, it’s reassuring to read that the health reform law can readily take a few blows and keep moving forward.
Cancer
Economists’ flawed argument on OSHA’s “flawed” analysis of proposed rule to protect silica-exposed workers
Two economists, funded by right-wing, university-housed think tanks, say OSHA’s proposed rule to protect silica-exposed workers is flawed, sloppy, weak and unsubstantiated. I can say the same for their analyses of OSHA’s work.
There are few factors that shape a person’s health as strongly and predictably as income. And while enforcing wage and labor laws may at first seem outside the purview of public health agencies, Rajiv Bhatia adamantly disagrees. In fact, he says that public health may wield the most persuasive stick in town.
This week, Houston became only the second major city in the U.S. South to pass a law to prevent and punish wage theft. It’s a major victory for all workers, but it’s especially significant for the city’s low-wage workers, who lose an estimated $753.2 million every year because of wage theft.
The scheming by Jackson Kelly attorneys to deny coal miners with black lung disease modest compensation is immoral. If coal companies are sincere about their workers being their “most precious resource,” they should dump the law firm.
It takes time to change social norms, so it’ll probably take many, many years until it’s as socially unacceptable to text or use a cell phone while driving as it is to start the engine without first buckling a seat belt. In the meantime, researchers say, smart policies are needed to address the increasing share of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths attributed to distracted driving.
Environmental Health
Reporting workplace hazards: “If people are afraid to report, things don’t get fixed”
According to a new report from the Center for Effective Government, American workplace health and safety is suffering from – and as a result of – a serious lack of resources. While the number of US workplaces doubled between 1981 and 2011 and the number of US workers increased from 73 million to 129 million […]
Cancer
Toxicologist John Froines: epitome of irreproachable scientific research and effective public health advocacy
UCLA Professor Emeritus John Froines was awarded this week the 2013 Ramazzini Award from the internationally renowned Collegium Ramazzini. Professor Froines’ work represents the best of public health research: solid science with the highest integrity for the benefit of groups with little economic and political power.