In The News

UNICEF: 300 Million Children Breathe Toxic Air

November 4, 2016
Air pollution is an increasing danger for children’s health. One out of every seven children, 300 million in all, are exposed to toxic levels of outdoor air pollution, reports the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. “The World Health Organization, WHO, says air pollution kills about seven million people a year, nearly 12 percent of all deaths worldwide,” reports the Environment News...

Global Health Funding Faces a Shortfall of Billions to Fight Diseases

Andrew Green November 1, 2016
The global health community has tools to prevent and treat diseases, however, a “decline in global health funding threatens not just to stymie scientific advances against diseases like HIV, but to actually reverse gains made in the past decade,” writes Andrew Green for World Politics Review. Research on diseases has contributed to the largest population of young people in the planet’s history,...

In Your Phone, In Their Air

Peter Whoriskey October 28, 2016
Lithium batteries in smartphones and laptops include graphite. “The companies making those products promote the bright futuristic possibilities of the ‘clean’ technology,” reports Peter Whoriskey for the Washington Post. “But virtually all such batteries use graphite, and its cheap production in China, often under lax environmental controls, produces old-fashioned industrial pollution.” China...

US Cities Reconsider LED Streetlights After AMA Warning

Alyssa Navarro September 26, 2016
LED lights have captured a greater share of the global market each year as Europe, the United States, India and China enact policies encouraging energy conservation. The light-emitting diode, invented in the early 1960s, sends an electric current through a semiconductor device. LEDs are about seven times more energy efficient than conventional lights and last 25 times longer, while cutting energy...

UN Pledges to Fight Antibiotic Resistance in Historic Agreement

Michaeleen Doucleff September 23, 2016
Overuse of antibiotics and outright abuse have contributed to some bacteria adapting resistance to common drugs. The UN General Assembly is tackling the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs as a priority: “The U.N.'s declaration requires countries to come up with a two-year a plan to protect the potency of antibiotics,” reports Michaeleen Doucleff for NPR. Common infections like...

Chronic Problems, Not Just Crises, Should Be a Global Health Priority

James Chen September 1, 2016
Sudden outbreaks of diseases like Zika or Ebola ignite alarm while chronic medical conditions, many easily prevented, are often ignored or accepted because they seem less urgent. Societies must revise priorities to “unlock the full potential of the developing world, argues James Chen, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review. “The World Health Organization recently estimated that the global...

UN Admits Role in Cholera Epidemic in Haiti

Jonathan M. Katz August 19, 2016
Disasters like the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 require fast response. But such responses can bring new problems. A cholera outbreak emerged in Haiti later that year. A UN report, prepared by law professor Philip Alston, suggests that the epidemic “would not have broken out but for the actions of the United Nations.” The report focuses on a peacekeeping group of more than 400 members...