Government | The Pump Handle

Affordable Care Act Trump’s budget is a disaster for public health: ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’

June 6, 2017 Kim Krisberg 1Comment

When you ask public health advocates about President Trump’s recent budget proposal, you typically get a bewildered pause. Public health people don’t like to exaggerate — they follow the science, they stay calm, they face off against dangerous threats on a regular basis. Exaggerating doesn’t help contain diseases, it only makes it harder. So it’s concerning when you hear words like this about Trump’s budget: “devastating,” “not serious,” “ludicrous,” “unfathomable.”

Government What?? Trump administration says unions don’t have role in defending OSHA regulation?

June 1, 2017 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 1Comment

Add this to the list of absurdities from the Trump Administration: the Justice Department (DOJ) is arguing that the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) should rely on the Trump’s DOJ to defend an Obama-era OSHA regulation.

Agriculture Occupational Health News Roundup

May 30, 2017 Kim Krisberg

Congressional lawmakers propose protections for undocumented farmworkers; the Trump administration takes aim at workplace civil rights enforcement; federal legislation would provide benefits for gig economy workers; and poultry workers get nearly $600,000 in back wages.

Affordable Care Act More research that defunding Planned Parenthood simply leaves women without needed health care

May 26, 2017 Kim Krisberg

To the surprise of literally no one, President Trump’s 2018 budget proposed stripping all federal funds, including Medicaid dollars, from Planned Parenthood. Proponents of this argue that if Planned Parenthood clinics end up shuttered, women can simply access care elsewhere. But growing research shows that’s the opposite of what actually happens.

Environmental Health The PRIDE Study is open for enrollment: People are ‘hungry to be heard and represented’

May 23, 2017 Kim Krisberg 4Comment

Last week, researchers officially opened enrollment in the nation’s first decades-long study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer health — an effort they hope will transform our understanding of the health challenges LGBTQ people face and begin narrowing a giant data gap on their physical, mental and social well-being.

Environmental Health Study: U.S. Zika burden could cost billions in medical care, lost productivity

May 18, 2017 Kim Krisberg 1Comment

A Zika attack rate of just 1 percent across the six states most at risk for the mosquito-borne disease could result in $1.2 billion in medical costs and lost productivity, a new study finds. That’s more than the $1.1 billion in emergency Zika funding that Congress approved last year after months of delay and which is expected to run out this summer.

Agriculture Occupational Health News Roundup

May 16, 2017 Kim Krisberg

A historical look at the ‘radium girls’ and their legacy of worker justice; OSHA’s website for receiving injury and illness logs not accepting submissions; California farmworkers sickened by pesticide after Trump’s EPA reverses course on a probable ban; and former Walmart employees file class-action lawsuit for pregnancy discrimination.

California Study: One-third of U.S. children with harmful lead exposures going unidentified

May 5, 2017 Kim Krisberg

Right now, according to public health officials, about half a million U.S. kids have blood lead levels that could harm their health. However, new research finds many more children — hundreds of thousands more — are likely going unidentified.

California Occupational Health News Roundup

May 2, 2017 Kim Krisberg 3Comment

Investigation reveals how Case Farms poultry plants exploit immigrant workers; Chinese workers who make Ivanka Trump’s clothing line are overworked and underpaid; California lawmakers consider bill to protect salon workers from harmful chemicals; and Trump’s budget would slash funds for combating child and forced labor overseas.

Government Study: Training parents as immunization advocates a promising approach to vaccine hesitancy

May 1, 2017 Kim Krisberg 4Comment

Protecting babies and children against dangerous — sometimes fatal — diseases is a core mission of public health. Everyday, in health departments across the nation, someone is working on maintaining and improving childhood vaccination rates and keeping diseases like measles and mumps from regaining a foothold in the U.S.