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Sustainability in Action: Family Farming
By Roberta Attanasio There are many family farms in the world, farms based on rural activities managed and operated by a family — they deserve our support for their contribution to the global food system and are now a recognized reason for celebration worldwide. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that there are about 500…
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Preterm Birth and Exposure to Environmental Pollutants
By Roberta Attanasio “Being born too soon is an unrecognized killer” – these are the words of Professor Joy Lawn, Director of the MARCH Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Senior Health Advisor to Save the Children. Professor Lawn is one of the co-editors of a 2012 seminal report entitled “Born too soon: the global…
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The Global Toll of Preterm Births
By Roberta Attanasio Too many babies are born too soon – not ready for life outside the womb – year after year. In May 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Save the Children and the March of Dimes, published a report (Born too soon: the global action report on preterm birth) that included the…
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Genetically Modified Crops: Caterpillars versus Aphids
By Roberta Attanasio To label or not to label? The debate is still on — despite the defeat of the ballot initiative in Washington state that would have required special labels for foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. A year ago, a similar measure was defeated in California. Why? One of the reasons is that there is no scientific evidence to…
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Skin Lightening Cosmetics and Mercury Toxicity
By Roberta Attanasio Skin lightening cosmetics are popular in many regions of the world — they’re used to lighten darker skin because of their ability to inhibit production of melanin, the substance that gives the skin its color. The active ingredients in some of these cosmetics often include toxic chemicals, as for example hydroquinone, fluorinated corticosteroid and inorganic mercury. The…
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A Small Molecule Repairs the Damage Caused by Nuclear Radiation
By Roberta Attanasio Invisible and often dangerous, nuclear radiation is all around us. It comes at low levels from natural sources – radon gas, the earth’s radioactive elements and cosmic rays – as well as from human activities. Testing of nuclear weapons, nuclear waste disposal and accidents at nuclear power plants increase our exposure to radiation – sometimes at very high doses. Nuclear disasters…
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Global Pollution: Top Ten Toxic Threats in 2013
By The Editors A report released in 2012 by the Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland pointed out that the disease burden of pollution is comparable in scope to that of more well-known public health threats, such as malaria or tuberculosis. The burden of disease measures the relative impact of different diseases and injuries on populations. As comparison, according to the World Health Organization…
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Breast Cancer: Prevention is Better than Cure
By The Editors The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) is a leading European not-for-profit organization addressing how the environment affects health in the European Union. With the support of more than 65 member organizations, HEAL brings independent expertise and evidence from the health community to different decision-making processes. According to HEAL, “the role that environmental factors play in cancer causation, specifically…
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Unsafe Medical Care: Global Burden and Policy Needs
By Roberta Attanasio Accurate and meaningful information deriving from scientific evidence is essential to drive international health policy and improve global public health. However, in many instances and for a variety of reasons, translating health data into policy results problematic. To overcome these challenges, in the 1990s the Harvard School of Public Health, the World Bank and the World Health…
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Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water in India Impairs Kala-Azar Treatment
By Roberta Attanasio Visceral leishmaniasis, known in India as kala-azar or black fever, is a parasitic disease that kills an estimated 500,000 people a year, 90 percent of them in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan. In India, the disease is endemic in the northeastern Indian State of Bihar – the epicenter of kala-azar in the region – and in…
