Health

UN Urges Global Action on Children

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:52:29 -0500

The UN children's agency says one billion children around the world are still deprived of food, shelter, clean water and healthcare 20 years after the adoption of a treaty guaranteeing children's rights.

Hundreds of millions more children are constantly threatened by violence, Unicef said in a report released on Thursday assessing the situation two decades after the UN adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child on November 20 1989.

Report Details 'Coal's Assault on Human Health'

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:54:06 -0500

by Ken Ward Jr.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Coal pollution is assaulting human health through impacts on workers, residents near mining operations and power plants, and the environment in coalfield communities, according to a new report by a group of physicians.

The report by Physicians for Social Responsibility examined coal's impacts on major organ systems of the human body, from the lungs to the brain.

UN: 200 Million Kids Have Stunted Growth

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:36:11 -0500

by Maria Cheng

LONDON - Nearly 200 million children in poor countries have stunted growth because they don't get enough to eat, according to a new report published Wednesday by UNICEF.

The vast majority are in Asia and Africa: more than 90 percent of children with stunted growth live on those two continents.

"Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal undernutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow," said UNICEF executive director Ann M. Veneman in a statement.

Indoor Plants Could Save Your Life

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:00:27 -0500

by Richard Alleyne

New research shows that ornamental plants can drastically reduce levels of stress and ill health and boost performance levels at work because they soak up harmful indoor air pollution.

Researchers have now identified five "super ornamental plants" which every workplace should have to clean up indoor air.

They include English ivy, waxy leaved plants and ferns.

According to a World Health Organisation report in 2002, harmful indoor pollutants represent a serious health problem that is responsible for more than 1.6 million deaths each year.

Excess Hormone-Grown Meat? Don't Worry, the Kids Will Eat It

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:58:59 -0400

by Chantal Clément

Whether it's the surplus chicken from a factory farm snuck into your kids meal in the form of chicken nuggets or the cheese made from hormone-laden milk made acceptable on WIC food lists, it's really no secret: the role of the USDA's Food Distribution Programs (FDPs) since the Great Depression has been to get rid of surplus agricultural commodities by passing them on to those who need nutritional foods the most.

On World Food Day: Crunching the Numbers

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:41:26 -0400

by Roger Doiron

Tomorrow is World Food Day and since I can't invite you all over for dinner, I thought I'd serve up a smorgasbord of facts and figures about the way the US and the world eat or don't eat, as the case may be.

Connecting Transit and Health

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:18:02 -0400

by Deborah Pasha James and Jeanne B. Hewitt

One of the earliest health and anatomy lessons for many of us came from the traditional spiritual "Dem Bones," when as children we sang how "the toe bone's connected to the foot bone," the foot bone to the ankle, the shin, on up to the neck and head.

The lesson reflects the importance of connectivity. Without the knee bone, leg bone or even the tiniest of bones, the body's ability to work and move about as a whole suffers. We can apply this lesson today as we consider how we get places and how we create healthy, sustainable communities.

Cost of Racial Disparities in Health Care Put at $229 Billion Between 2003, 2006

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:26:05 -0400

by Kelly Brewington

Racial health disparities cost the United States $229 billion between 2003 and 2006 - money that could help cover an overhaul of the nation's health care system, according to a new report by Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland researchers.

The Mystery of Chernobyl

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:18:19 -0400

by Sanjida O'Connell

'We walked out into a wasteland, grey and desolate. The buildings had deteriorated, windows had been smashed.

A National Movement of Foodies, Farmers, Parents and Educators Is Pushing for Better School Food

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:21:46 -0400

by Dana Hull

There's unusual lunchtime chatter at ACE Charter School in East San Jose: Students are actually raving about lunch. School lunch. And so are some teachers.

Just ask Arallana Sanchez, 11, in between her munches on a chicken barbecue sandwich and sips of organic, hormone-free milk. "At my old school everyone always drank chocolate milk because the regular milk tasted like it had expired."