Last week, people across the world marched through city streets in hopes of prompting world leaders to act on the climate crisis. Over 7.6 million people participated in this strike from cities in over 185 countries, according to the Global Climate Strike website. These protestors demanded immediate action in the climate crisis from their respective elected officials. This event was inspired by the words and actions of Swedish 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, who has made significant influences in the current climate crisis conversation — some say she's the spark that lit the Climate Strike fire. "We have gathered today because we have chosen which path we want to take, and now we are waiting for the others to follow our example," Thunberg said at an earlier climate protest in ...
Disparities in chronic disease, injury, and premature death contribute to worse health outcomes, decreased productivity, and increased direct and indirect healthcare costs for minority racial/ethnic populations and people with low socioeconomic status. Inequities in housing, transportation, environmental issues, and access to healthcare, mental health, healthy food and active spaces contribute to these disparities. But we can’t address these inequities if we don’t have local data to show the way. Data like the new Salud America! Health Equity Report Card can identify health inequity issues in your county, compared to the state and nation, and help you build a case toward solutions. Let’s use #SaludTues on September 24, 2019, to tweet about how you can use data to make ...
When the Obama administration passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, one of its main goals was to expand healthcare insurance access, especially to uninsured, mid- to low-income Americans — a classification in which many Latinos find themselves. Since that time, the ACA provided millions of Americans with health insurance coverage, primarily through an expansion of Medicaid eligibility and subsidies for private coverage purchased through the legislation’s marketplaces. The ACA has expanded and improved coverage options for people without access to a job-based health plan, the law mostly left the employer market alone. "All racial groups have experienced substantial increases in their health insurance coverage," Algernon Austin, with the Center for Global Policy Solutions ...
Feeling the sun’s rays, breathing in cool air, lying amongst the trees, standing in the rain — all ways of how nature can ground people and bring about feelings of joy. While it’s true that most Latinos and Americans might spend up to 90% of their time indoors, building design can give inhabitants a sense of connectivity to our environment, or biophilia. Construction workers and architects should make the most of nature to create health-centric structures, according to the American Institute of Architects (AIA). “Simply put, nature is good for us because we are part of nature,” writes Dr. Miles Richardson, director of core psychology programs at the University of Derby. “We are human animals evolved to make sense of the natural world, and this embeddedness in the ...
Climate change is not and will not impact all people equally — Latinos and other minority groups shoulder the most significant threats. Worse, cities in the U.S. are illustrating that fact today, according to a recent study from the University of Michigan. Their research shows that climate change subjects minority communities to high risks of chemical and environmental exposures. “A key finding of this report is that environmental injustice exists across Michigan, with residents of low-income and minority communities disproportionately burdened by environmental contamination and health risks—just as we saw in Flint,” Paul Mohai, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, told Michigan News. Latinos, who already experience harm at ...
As of 2017, the U.S. is home to roughly 44 million immigrants – the largest number of immigrants in the world, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The majority of immigrants are Latino. They relocate from Mexico as well as other countries such as El Salvador, Cuba, Dominican Republic, India, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. To protect immigrant health—as well as the general public wellness—scientists from the Society of Behavioral Health (SBM) recommend that congress impose strict restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intervention in or around medical facilities. "Protecting the health of immigrants promotes health equity and is an important investment in protecting the health of the American public including schools, families, communities, ...
Many smokers will use tobacco products for years in spite of the known detrimental health impacts. On Aug. 16, 2019, FDA announced a rule proposal that aims to make a visual representation of those impacts to those buying cigarettes — health warning labels on every package. These labels will use graphic images to convey relevant information about the negative health consequences of smoking. "With these new proposed cigarette health warnings, we have an enormous public health opportunity to fulfill our statutory mandate and increase the public’s understanding of the full scope of serious negative health consequences of cigarette smoking," Dr. Ned Sharpless, Acting FDA Commissioner, said in a statement. Initially, hundreds of people, including over 275 Salud America! network ...
Early experiences can influence a person’s entire life. Specifically, stress due to adversity, poor nutrition, and exposure to environmental toxins can lead to biological changes, which make people more likely to experience physical and mental health problems later in life. Although individual interventions are important for addressing immediate needs, they alone will not advance health equity, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report provides science-driven recommendations to address the social, economic, environmental, and cultural determinants of health and early adversity. They say to advance health equity, decision-makers must address the systemic root causes of poor health and chronic ...
Most Latinos and Americans spend the majority of their time inside of homes, offices, restaurants, movie theaters, and other buildings. The indoor air quality in these spaces might not cross most people’s mind. However, researchers say the air inside buildings can billow into a significant health concern because poor air quality can lead to numerous short- and long-term complications — headaches, dizziness, fatigue, respiratory diseases, Toxicant‐Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT), and even cancer. “It is important to be aware of your environment,” Dr. Claudia Miller, an environmental health professor and leader of the Hoffman TILT program at UT Health San Antonio, writes. “This is especially important for indoor air, as most people spend 90% of their time ...
