It Was Legal Teams—Not Politicians—That Ultimately Held The Tobacco Industry To Account. Their Next Target? Perpetrators Of Climate Change

an article by Mitch Anderson at Reasons to be Cheerful [via 3 Quarks Daily by S. Abbas Raza]


A poster depicting Rhea Suh, president of the National Resources Defense Council, which employs 600 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to fight for the environment. Poster part of Amplifier’s #MyClimateHero campaign

Lawyers are one of America’s most distrusted professions, bringing up the rear behind even bankers and local politicians. But what if lawyers end up saving the world?

Scientists have been warning for years that mounting carbon emissions are dangerously destabilizing our climate. Efforts to tackle this urgent challenge through the political process have so far come up far short of the action needed to avoid some very bad outcomes.

Can litigation succeed where politics has so far failed?

We’ve actually been here before. Several decades ago it also seemed the tobacco industry was an invincible foe to public health. Over the course of decades, however, a series of long-shot lawsuits finally enfeebled this previously unassailable political lobby. Civil litigation against cigarette manufacturers began in the 1950s, but did not bear fruit until 40 years later in a series of court victories that culminated in the $206 billion Master Settlement Agreement with 46 U.S. states.

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There was no relationship between obesity and poverty — until high-fructose corn syrup

a post by Derek Beres for the Big Think blog

A new study out of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville traces a disturbing correlation.

• Before 1990, there was no noticeable correlation between obesity and poverty.
• Within a quarter-century, impoverished regions showed a massive uptick in obesity and type 1 diabetes.
• Researchers chart the relationship between "food deserts" along with obesity levels.

In 1841, Orlando Jones patented alkali starch extraction, a process that separated corn starch from kernels in what is known as wet milling. One year later, Thomas Kingford opened the first commercial wet milling plant in the States. Corn, an agricultural product dating back at least 6,000 years to the Oaxaca region of Mexico, was a natural fit for this process given its abundance. It would take another two decades for chemists to realizes corn starch could be used as a sweetener.

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Preventing suicide in Montana: a community-based theatre intervention

an article by Sarah N. Keller (Montana State University, Billings, USA) and  Timothy Wilkinson (Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington, USA) published in  Journal of Social Marketing Volume 7 Issue 4 (October 2017)

Abstract

Purpose
This study aims to examine whether a community-based suicide prevention project could increase willingness to seek professional help for suicidal ideation among young people.

Design/methodology/approach
Online surveys were administered at baseline (n = 224) and six months post-test (n = 217), consisting of the Risk Behavior Diagnosis scale; self-report questions on suicidality; willingness to engage with suicide prevention resources; and willingness to communicate with peers, family members, teachers or counselors about suicide.

Findings
A comparison of means within groups from pre- to post-test showed increases in self-efficacy for communicating about suicidal concerns with a teacher, school counselor or social worker; increases in self-efficacy for helping others; and increases in response-efficacy of interpersonal communication about suicide with a teacher, school counselor or social worker.

Practical implications
Young adults need to be willing and able to intervene in life-threatening situations affecting their peers. In step with narrative empowerment education, personal experiences can be used to communicatively reduce peer resistance to behavior change.

Originality/value
Health communicators tend to rely on overly didactic education and awareness-raising when addressing suicide prevention. This research shows the importance of direct and personal forms of influence advocated by social marketing professionals.

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Optimising workplace interventions for health and well-being: A commentary on the limitations of the public health perspective within the workplace health arena

an article by Maria Karanika-Murray (Nottingham Trent University, UK) and Andrew K. Weyman (University of Bath, UK) published in International Journal of Workplace Health Management Volume 6 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss contemporary approaches to workplace health and well-being, articulating key differences in the intervention architecture between public and workplace health contexts and implications for intervention design.

Design/methodology/approach
Contemporary practice is discussed in light of calls for a paradigm shift in occupational health from a treatment orientation to an holistic approach focused on mitigation of the causes of ill health and the promotion of well-being. In practice, relatively few organisations have or seem able to engage with a broader perspective that encompasses challenges to health and well-being associated with contextual organisational drivers, e.g. job design/role, workload, systems of reward, leadership style and the underpinning climate. Drawing upon insights from public health and the workplace safety tradition, the scope for broadening the perspective on intervention (in terms of vectors of harm addressed, theory of change and intervention logic) is discussed.

Findings
There are important differences in scope and options for intervention between public health and workplace health contexts. While there is scope to emulate public health practice, this should not constrain thinking over intervention opinions. Increased awareness of these key differences within work organisations, and an evidence-based epidemiological approach to learning has the potential to strengthen and broaden the approach to workplace health and well-being management.

Originality/value
The authors argue that approaches to workplace well-being interventions that selectively cross-fertilise and adapt elements of public health interventions offer promise for realising a broader change agenda and for building inherently healthy workplaces.

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Internet-based public health e-learning student perceptions: an evaluation from the People’s Open Access Education Initiative (Peoples-uni)

an article by Niyi Awofeso (University of Western Australia), Keir Philip (The University of Sheffield, UK) and Richard F. Heller (People’s Open Access Education Initiative, Manchester, UK) published in Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning Volume 27 Issue 3 (November 2012)

Abstract

Current public health training infrastructure and facilitators in most developing nations are insufficient relative to public health service delivery needs.

We examined five areas of student perceptions of a web-based public health learning initiative, the Peoples-uni, which focused on:

• reasons for enrolling;
• learning expectations;
• technical aspects of course modules;
• usefulness of prescribed learning materials; and
• encumbrances to participation in learning activities amongst the second cohort to enrol as students.

Students were generally positive about the experience, with the majority wishing to gain academic credit, continue with the course, and recommend it to others.

Other issues were identified on which the course organisers have subsequently acted, such as improved tutor training.

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