health

How Pandemic-Era Prison Life Shows The Stakes Of Abolition

September 17, 2024 Justin A. Davis, Waging Nonviolence. Educate! Book Review, COVID-19, health, Pandemic, Prison abolition, Prisoner rights

A few months before COVID became a permanent part of life in the U.S., the New York City Council approved a plan to shut down the infamous jail complex known as Rikers Island and replace it with four smaller facilities. (That plan was later delayed — and city officials have since acknowledged that they likely won’t meet the plan’s legal deadline.) The vote to close Rikers Island came from years of extensive grassroots organizing by reformists and abolitionists alike. But for those left caged there in 2020, the risks posed by COVID were immediate — not just illness and death, but new forms of the isolation, neglect and violence that already shape life inside.

Boar’s Head Plant Shuts Down

September 15, 2024 Edward Carver, Portside. Educate! Boar's Head, Food Industry, health, Unions, Virginia, Worker Rights and Jobs

About 500 workers lost their current jobs when Boar's Head on Friday announced the closure of the Virginia meatpacking plant behind a deadly listeria outbreak. A chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents the workers, said in a statement that the closure was "especially unfortunate" given that the workforce was not to blame for the outbreak, which killed at least nine people nationwide. The UFCW announced that it had reached a deal with the company to allow the workers to transfer to another Boar's Head facility or receive a severance package "above and beyond" what's required by law. "Thankfully these workers have a union they can count on to always have their backs," the union statement said.

Scale Up Mpox Response, Health Groups Urge

August 24, 2024 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. Educate! Africa, DR Congo, health, Health Care, Monkeypox, United Kingdom (UK), Vaccines

Thousands of people across Africa have been infected with the Mpox virus, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the ongoing spread of the disease. In response, over 55 health groups have urged the British government to support health systems in the affected countries. In an letter circulated on August 23, the groups demand rapid distribution of vaccines to countries in Africa currently struggling with mounting a response to the outbreak, as well as ensuring sharing of technologies between existing vaccine producers and manufacturers in Africa to increase global supply.

The US Prison System Is Slowly Killing Its Political Prisoners

August 15, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Black August, health, Human Rights, Palestine, political prisoners

Each year on Black August, socialists, revolutionaries, and those familiar with the Black radical tradition mark the month to “study, fast, train, fight” in honor of the many freedom fighters who were killed or languish behind bars in service to the Black liberation movement. Black August marks a number of key dates within the Black liberation movement, including when the first enslaved Africans landed in what is now the United States in 1619, Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831, as well as more modern events such as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of 1963 and the Watts Rebellion on 1965.

Red Hill Whistleblower Details How Her Warnings Were Ignored

June 25, 2024 Christina Jedra, Honolulu Civil Beat. Educate! Fossil Fuels, health, pollution, Red Hill, US Navy, Water, Whistleblowers

As the new director for the U.S. military’s largest fuel depot in May 2020, she realized almost immediately that something was wrong. The fire suppression system for the massive Honolulu storage system, which was holding 100 million gallons of fuel, was essentially turned off. Firefighting foam necessary to put out a potential fuel fire had been removed by officials who feared a leak could contaminate the drinking water aquifer below, she said. As a result, those working in the facility’s underground tunnels, and those residing in surrounding neighborhoods, were at risk of facing an out-of-control blaze, she said. So Bencs did what the Navy itself had trained her to do: She said something.

How Workers Are Winning Fans, Air Conditioning, And Even Heat Pay

June 21, 2024 Keith Brower Brown, Labor Notes. Resist! extreme heat, health, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

If you’re dreading summer on the job this year, you’re not alone. Every month last summer was the most scorching on world record. Trapped under heat domes, dozens of metro areas busted their longest streaks ever of highs over 100 degrees. Phoenix afternoons were over 110 for a month straight. On asphalt yards nearly hot enough to melt, bonus-hungry managers forced workers to keep up the usual pace. The results were lethal. In 2022, the latest year for which we have data, 43 U.S. workers lost their lives to heat on the job. That’s up from 36 in 2021, and we can expect this cruel number to keep climbing.

Safe Abortions Everywhere, Regardless Of The Law

June 11, 2024 Naomi Braine, In These Times. Create! Abortion Rights, Abortions, Global South, health, Supreme Court, Women's Rights

In 2008 in Quito, high in the Andes Mountains, a group of young feminist activists dropped a banner from the top of an enormous statue of the Virgin Mary that towers over Ecuador’s capital city. “Aborto Seguro,” the banner read, alongside the number for a new hotline that offered callers information on safely using medication to end a pregnancy outside the medical system. In a country where abortion access is extremely restricted and the majority of the population is Catholic, the Ecuadorian “safe abortion hotline” was a bold declaration of women’s bodily autonomy. It was also the beginning of what has since become a transnational movement that is increasingly relevant far beyond the region where it was born.

Whistleblower: EPA Didn’t Follow Normal Procedures In East Palestine

May 21, 2024 Rich McHugh, NBC4 WCMH-TV. Educate! East Palestine, EPA, health, Ohio, pollution, Train Derailment, Whistleblowers

An EPA whistleblower has stepped forward, saying the Environmental Protection Agency deviated from normal procedures when testing for chemical contamination after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. On Feb. 6, 2023, officials in East Palestine, Ohio, vented and burned five tank cars full of vinyl chloride after a Norfolk Southern train derailed near the town. Three days later, the Environmental Protection Agency gave the all-clear for evacuated residents to return to the area. Immediately, people in the area began complaining of sickness and rashes. “I undressed to get into the shower, and I had a rash all over the side of my face on both sides and all over my chest,” said resident Katlyn Schwarzwaelder.

Justice Department Admits Navy Jet Fuel Leak Caused Thousands To Suffer

April 26, 2024 Li Cohen, CBS News. Resist! Hawaii, health, Navy, pollution, Red Hill, Water

The U.S. government, in what an attorney says is a "monumental admission," said last year that it caused injury to thousands of people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when jet fuel from its storage facility leaked into the drinking water system. On Monday, thousands of military family members and locals are headed to trial seeking financial compensation. Kristina Baehr, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case, said her firm has 7,500 clients suing over the leak. Monday's proceedings kick off a bellwether trial, meaning it's a smaller consolidation of lawsuits taken from a larger group.

Ten Times More Toxic Pesticide Could End Up On Our Food Under Proposal

April 24, 2024 Sharon Lerner, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, EPA, Food and Agriculture, health, Pesticide

When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity and reduced scores on intelligence tests in children. But rather than banning the pesticide, as the European Union did more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed easing restrictions on acephate.

War And Genocide On Earth Day

April 22, 2024 Melissa Garriga, Consortium News. Educate! Earth Day, Environment, Genocide, health, Wars and Militarism

On Earth Day Monday, prepare for the annual spectacle of U.S. lawmakers donning their environmentalist hats, waxing poetic about their love for the planet while disregarding the devastation their actions wreak. The harsh reality is that alongside their hollow pledges lies a trail of destruction fueled by military aggression and imperial ambitions, all under the guise of national security. Take Gaza, for instance. Its once-fertile farmland now lies barren, its water sources poisoned by conflict and neglect.

Fifth People’s Health Assembly Begins In Mar Del Plata

April 8, 2024 People's Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch. Organize! Argentina, health, Israel, Javier Milei, Palestine, People’s Health Assembly

Over 600 activists from around the world have converged in Mar del Plata, Argentina, to launch the 5th People’s Health Assembly (PHA 5). Under the motto “Making ‘Health for All’ our path to ‘Buen Vivir'”, the activists have renewed their commitment to health justice, particularly during times of crisis. This commitment comes at a critical time, marked by the policies of the Milei government in Argentina against public services and the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza. “When the local chapter of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) began preparations for hosting the PHA, Argentina was a different country,” said Carmen Baez, sub-regional coordinator of PHM’s Southern Cone region.

The Surprising Link Between Budgeting And Good Health

March 27, 2024 Carl Smith, Governing. Create! Civic Engagement, Governance, health, Participatory budgeting

The health department in Tacoma-Pierce County, Wash., is always looking for ways to improve public health outcomes. To find out what might work best, the department tried something that might sound obvious, but isn’t always done. Namely, asking members of the public for their input about what's most important. Too often, health officials are prescriptive, coming into communities they may know little about and applying a standard intervention that might not match local needs, says Benjii Bittle, director of the Public Health Centers for Excellence.

An Invisible Chemical Is Poisoning Thousands Of Warehouse Workers

March 9, 2024 Naveena Sadasivam and Lylla Younes, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Ethylene Oxide, Georgia, health, Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

The dangers came as a surprise to warehouse workers and regulators alike. Georgia EPD officials had originally only set out to monitor ethylene oxide levels around the industrial sterilization facilities fumigating medical equipment. The EPA had just published modeling that suggested high levels of cancer risk around the country’s medical sterilization facilities, and Georgia regulators wanted to assess the plants in their jurisdiction. (The modeling incorporated the results of a 2016 study that found ethylene oxide to be 30 times more toxic to adults and 60 times more toxic to children than previously known.)

What The US Can Learn From The Cuban Health Care System

February 10, 2024 National Single Payer, Popular Resistance. Educate! Cuba, Economic Blockade, health, Health Care, US Sanctions

David Ramirez Alvarez is Second Secretary in the Cuban Embassy, representing Cuba’s cultural and political forces sectors. He will be presenting an historical and current analysis of the Cuban health care system, how it differs from our profit-driven system, how Cuba provides comprehensive primary and quaternary health services in the face of a decades’ long illegal and brutal U.S. blockade and still has better outcomes than ours. Ramirez Alvarez will also address how the training of health care providers and scientists in Cuba is intimately connected to the socialist culture derived from the Cuban Revolution. Is a socialist culture necessary to displace our capitalist health care system?

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