# data[].attributes.body
Title: Lauren Davis - June 12, 2018 - Race/Class/Gender/Society

Description: Netflix Documentary - '13th'. This is a thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.  This was such an eye opening documentary not only about the prison but about raced and structural race against African Americans that still is ongoing today.

Attachment: No attachment, but you can find this documentary on any Netflix account under Documentaries > Critically-acclaimed Documentaries.

# data[].attributes.headline
Title: Laura Cornwell - June 13, 2018 - Infectious/Communicable Disease

# data[].attributes.subject
Title: Laura Cornwell - June 13, 2018 - Infectious/Communicable Disease

# data[].attributes.body
Description: Radiolab podcast, "The Most Horrible Seaside Vacation." The podcast tells the story of Typhoid Mary, and the spread of typhoid in New York in the early 1900s. Typhoid Mary was a real person, and the podcast episode covers her historical significance as the first known "healthy carrier" of an infectious disease in North America.

Link:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Most Horrible Seaside Vacation | Radiolab | WNYC Studios

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 1906, a rich family vacationing in Oyster Bay, NY started to get sick. Very sick. It turns out they'd come down with typhoid, a disease forever associated with one woman: Typhoid Mary. You think you know this story, and we thought we knew this story too.

# data[].attributes.body
This video produced by "Vox" introduces a brief history of the politics and laws that have developed into our current Medicaid system, which currently serves about 70 million Americans. Currently, states create their own Medicaid policies that determine who qualifies for the program and what services are covered. Policies vary widely from state to state. Thus, due to current policies, the state that one lives in can definitely affect one's access to treatment and quality of healthcare.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Medicaid, explained: why it's worse to be sick in some states than others

# data[].attributes.headline
Aspen Becker, 6/13/18, Environmental Health

# data[].attributes.subject
Aspen Becker, 6/13/18, Environmental Health

# data[].attributes.body
This is an article about a current study being done by the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. It details research they are doing on people living near oil and gas facilities along Colorado's Northern Front Range and how they may be exposed to hazardous air pollutants that could pose health risks and an increase in lifetime cancer risk.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
People living near oil and gas facilities along Colorado's Northern Front Range may be exposed to hazardous air pollutants, including carcinogens like benzene, that could pose health risks above levels deemed acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health, Boulder County Public Health, CU Boulder, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of California Irvine.

The study, led by the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, used ambient air samples to estimate and compare risks for four residential scenarios. They found the lifetime cancer risk of those living within 500 feet of a well was eight times higher than the EPA's upper level risk threshold.

Air pollutant concentrations increased

"We found that air pollutant concentrations increased with proximity to an oil and gas facility, as did health risks," the study said. "Acute hazard indices for neurological, hematological and developmental health effects indicate that populations living within 152 meters (500 feet) of an oil and gas facility could experience these health effects from inhalation exposures to benzene and alkanes."

The cancer risk estimate of 8.3 per 10,000 for populations living within 500-feet of an oil and gas facility exceeded the U.S. EPA's 1 in 10,000 upper threshold, according to study published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"Our results suggest that Colorado's current regulations that specify a 500 foot distance between a newly drilled oil and gas well and an existing home may not protect people from exposures to hazardous air pollutants that could impact their health," said the study's lead author Lisa McKenzie, PhD, MPH, of the Colorado School of Public Health. "Our previous work shows that thousands of people along the Front Range of Colorado live closer than 500 feet from a well and related infrastructure and that the population living close to these facilities continues to grow."

The previous study examined the expansion of oil and gas wells along Colorado's Northern Front Range. In the Denver Julesburg Basin, the industry is rapidly growing along with housing construction. As a result, 19 percent of the population or about 356,000 people, live about a mile from an active oil and gas site.

Colorado requires a new oil and gas well to be 500 feet from a residence and 1,000 feet from high occupancy buildings serving more than 50 people like schools and hospitals.

Focuses on non-methane hydrocarbons emission

The study focused on the emission of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) that the wells emit into the air. These include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes, all considered hazardous.

The highest concentrations of hazardous air pollutants were measured in samples collected nearest to an oil and gas facility," McKenzie said. "For example, average benzene concentrations were 41 times higher in samples collected within 500 feet of an oil and gas facility than in samples collected more than a mile away."

The researchers noted that due to high atmospheric stability, nighttime emissions do not disperse as easily as they do during the day. That means benzene levels might be twice as high at night compared to daytime levels.

"The study provides further evidence that people living close to oil and gas facilities are at the greatest risk of acute and chronic health issues due to air pollutants emitted by those facilities," said study co-author Pam Milmoe, Boulder County Public Health Air Quality Program Coordinator. "The results underscore the importance of having policies that require effective monitoring and reducing emissions from oil and gas facilities, particularly those near homes, schools, and recreation areas."

Need for more research

Previous studies in Colorado observed that infants with congenital heart defects and children diagnosed with leukemia are more likely to live in the densest areas of oil and gas wells. Studies in Pennsylvania and Texas found associations between fetal death, low birthweight, preterm birth, asthma, fatigue, migraines and chronic rhinosinusitis and proximity to oil and gas wells.

The study acknowledged substantial uncertainties and the need for more research. Nonetheless, there is considerable evidence that benzene can cause cancer in those who work in and around it, but less evidence about its impact on non-occupational populations. The researchers also noted that air pollutants from other sources can contribute to the elevated risks, but stressed that because risks increased with proximity to wells, mitigation strategies should focus on controlling emissions from oil and gas facilities.

The study is available here https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b05983.

The study co-authors include John Adgate, Colorado School of Public Health; Benjamin Blair, Colorado School of Public Health; John Hughes, Colorado School of Public Health; William Allshouse, Colorado School of Public Health; Nicola Blake, University of California Irvine; Detlev Helmig, University of Colorado Boulder; Pam Milmoe, Boulder County Public Health; Hannah Halliday, NASA Langley; Donald Blake, University of California Irvine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Those living near oil and gas facilities may be at higher risk of cancer and other diseases - CU Anschutz Today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
People living near oil and gas facilities along Colorado's Northern Front Range may be exposed to hazardous air pollutants, including carcinogens like benzene, that could pose health risks above levels deemed acceptable by the U.S.

# data[].attributes.headline
Kaci Pickett June 13, 2018 Infectious/Communicable Disease

# data[].attributes.subject
Kaci Pickett June 13, 2018 Infectious/Communicable Disease

# data[].attributes.body
Description: Here is an example of a well-known 'celebrity' of sorts falling for the hype of "antivaccination." Even with all the resources and evidence showing that vaccinations can only help a child, people are still believing the information from a single, now discredited, report and it is quickly jeopardizing the herd immunity that we have worked for so many years to establish.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Some beauty lovers are threatening a boycott of Kat Von D cosmetics after the woman behind the brand, who is pregnant, announced she isn't planning on vaccinating her baby.

Last week, Von D posted an Instagram photo of her belly along with a message about her "personal approach to pregnancy."

Here's the full text from her post:

I knew the minute we announced our pregnancy that we would be bombarded with unsolicited advice.
Some good and some questionable - unsolicited none the less.
I also was prepared for the backlash and criticism we would get if we decided to be open about our personal approach to our pregnancy. My own Father flipped out on me when I told him we decided to ditch our doctor and go with a midwife instead.
If you don't know what it's like have people around you think you are ridiculous, try being openly vegan.
And, if you don't know what it's like to have the entire world openly criticize, judge, throw uninformed opinions, and curse you - try being an openly pregnant vegan on Instagram, having a natural, drug-free home birth in water with a midwife and doula, who has the intention of raising a vegan child, without vaccinations.
My point being: I already know what it's like to make life choices that are not the same as the majority. So your negative comments are not going influence my choices - actual research and educating myself will - which i am diligently doing.
This is my body. This is our child. And this is our pregnancy journey.
Feel free to follow me on here if you like what I'm about - whether it's tattooing, lipstick, Animal Rights, sobriety, feminism, ridiculous gothiness, black flower gardening, cats, or my adorable husband.
But if you don't dig a certain something about what I post, i kindly ask that you press the unfollow button and move the fuck on.
So before anyone of you feel inspired to tell me how to do this, I would appreciate you keeping your unsolicited criticism to yourself.
More importantly, for those who have amazing positive energy to send my way, I will gladly and graciously receive it with love! X

Vaccination is a tricky subject because it's a parenting choice that also affects other children and adults. Too many unvaccinated people in the population increases the risk of outbreaks of diseases like measles, and reduces the effectiveness of herd immunity.

Some people can't get vaccinated because they are too young (like newborns), or because they have a health condition or weakened immune system.

Herd immunity - where almost everyone in the population is vaccinated - can help stop the spread of diseases to people who can't be vaccinated for health reasons.

For a lot of people, however, this is a way bigger issue. One beauty vlogger, Caroline Hirons, posted an emotional message about her son's experience with mumps.

Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
People Say They'll Boycott Kat Von D Makeup Over Her Anti-Vaccination Stance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Some beauty lovers are threatening a boycott of Kat Von D cosmetics after the woman behind the brand, who is pregnant, announced she isn't planning on vaccinating her baby. Last week, Von D posted an Instagram photo of her belly along with a message about her "personal approach to pregnancy."

# data[].attributes.body
June 14, 2018

Mental/Social/Emotional/Behavioral Health

Description:

TED talk, “How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime” by Nadine Burke Harris

Harris discusses the health effects of childhood trauma and how specific acts of abuse can lead to serious mental health challenges later in life. She goes on to identify how repeated abuse as a child can alter the chemistry and overall development of the brain.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris | TED

# data[].attributes.headline
Patrick Ryan June 14, 2018 Non-infectious/Lifestyle Diseases

# data[].attributes.subject
Patrick Ryan June 14, 2018 Non-infectious/Lifestyle Diseases

# data[].attributes.body
The Mediterranean Diet has been hailed as one of the first diets shown to decrease risk of death from cardiovascular disease in addition to lowering the risk of heart attack and stroke. A study published in 2013 in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating these findings has now been retracted and revised due to concerns over the methodology and analysis, particularly the process of randomization. The revised publication has softened the language regarding the benefits of the diet. Even more interesting the errors were discovered by a person who taught himself statistical analysis because he had a hunch that the data was off.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ask just about anybody, and you'll probably hear that a healthy diet is one full of fruits and vegetables, olive oil, nuts and fish - the so-called Mediterranean diet. A lot of research has suggested people who eat this way tend to be healthier, but it's been harder to prove if that's because of the diet or some other factor.

So in 2013, many took notice of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that seemed to provide some proof. The study found that people eating the Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil were 30 percent less likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular causes than people assigned to a low-fat diet. People who stuck with a Mediterranean diet supplemented with mixed nuts had a 28 percent lower risk than those asked to follow a low-fat diet.

The results got wide media attention, including from NPR.

But the New England Journal of Medicine retracted the paper Wednesday because of problems in the way the study was carried out.

A retraction is a last resort for medical and scientific journals, a sign to readers that the results are no longer trustworthy, and beyond correcting. Although retractions are relatively rare - taking down fewer than 1 in 1,000 published articles - the rate is increasing.

The authors of the NEJM paper are replacing the 2013 paper with a corrected version that shows people following the diet had a similarly reduced level of heart attacks and strokes. The major change is softer language about the conclusions.

The revised paper says only that people eating the Mediterranean diet had fewer strokes and heart attacks, not, as the original paper claimed, that the diet was the direct cause of those health benefits.

Of course, a change in one paper - even a high-profile one - doesn't mean that researchers have lost faith in the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. "I don't know anybody who would turn around from this and say, 'Now that this has been revealed, we should all eat cotton candy and turn away from the Mediterranean diet,' " says David Allison, dean of the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Still, without the strong language touting the benefits of the diet in the original paper, "the legs have been kicked out from under it, in some sense," says Allison, a longtime nutrition researcher whose research has at times been partially funded by the food industry.

What prompted the Mediterranean diet researchers to soften their language?

A persistent British anesthesiologist named John Carlisle.

He knew very little about analyzing the details behind clinical trials until a few years ago, when he wrote a letter to an anesthesiology journal bemoaning the fact that his field was polluted by data from one researcher that many suspected was problematic. The journal editor told Carlisle, a practicing anesthesiologist at Torbay Hospital in Torquay, England, to prove it.

So Carlisle did. He read up on statistical methods and looked over more than 160 trials by the researcher, Dr. Yoshitaka Fujii, and analyzed how likely it was that the people had been randomized to different treatments. Randomization is part of the gold standard for clinical studies because it reduces the risk of bias and allows researchers to determine cause-effect relationships.

Carlisle found the odds were infinitesimally small that Fujii had randomized people properly. Since Carlisle's findings were published in 2012, medical journals have retracted more than 160 papers by Fujii - the most retractions for any one researcher, by a large margin, according to Retraction Watch.

Carlisle's analysis drew accolades - and added him to the ranks of a small but growing number of such sleuths. The success of the approach prompted Carlisle to expand his scope to include randomized trials from other researchers and in other fields.

After the Fujii paper, he spent two years applying the so-called "Carlisle method" to thousands of clinical trials published in eight journals. In 2017, he reported that roughly 2 percent showed signs of problems.

Among the more than 5,000 trials Carlisle analyzed, 934 were published by the New England Journal of Medicine. He flagged 11. One was the 2013 study showing the Mediterranean diet was responsible for the reduced rates of heart attack and stroke.

Today, NEJM is replacing the 2013 study, and correcting five others on different topics. The Mediterranean diet paper is being retracted because it turns out Carlisle was correct. When the lead author of the paper, Dr. Miguel Ángel Martínez González of the University of Navarra Medical School, saw Carlisle's analysis, he conducted a detailed audit of the study, and quickly noticed some problems.

It turns out, approximately 14 percent of the more than 7,400 study participants hadn't been assigned randomly to either the Mediterranean diet or a low-fat one. When couples joined the study together, both had been picked to follow the same diet. At one of the 11 participating study sites, the lead investigator had assigned the same diet to an entire village and didn't tell the rest of the investigators.

"This affected only a small part of the trial," says Martínez González. When the researchers reanalyzed the data excluding the nonrandomized people, the results were the same, he adds.

Still, because everybody wasn't randomly assigned to different groups, the study can no longer claim the diet directly caused those health benefits. "We need to tone down the results, but it is just a little bit," he says.

Many other studies have shown that people eating the Mediterranean diet have lower risks of various ailments, without claiming cause and effect.

But would the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world's most selective and prestigious journals, have published the Mediterranean diet paper from Martínez González if the randomization issues and softened conclusion had been included in the first place?

"It is difficult to answer hypothetical questions," New England Journal of Medicine spokesperson Jennifer Zeis says. "We believe the evidence [in favor of the diet] is still strong, but not as strong as a randomized study in which the randomization was executed flawlessly."

Carlisle praised the journal's response. "I think that the NEJM editorial team responded very maturely to my paper," he says. "They took the possibility of a problem seriously and acted quickly and thoroughly."
Alison McCook is the editor of Retraction Watch, a website that reports on scientific retractions and related issues. It is a project of The Center for Scientific Integrity, a nonprofit organization that has been funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Helmsley Charitable Trust.
This story is a partnership with Retraction Watch, which you can find on Twitter: @retractionwatch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Errors Trigger Retraction Of Study On Mediterranean Diet's Heart Benefits

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ask just about anybody, and you'll probably hear that a healthy diet is one full of fruits and vegetables, olive oil, nuts and fish - the so-called Mediterranean diet. A lot of research has suggested people who eat this way tend to be healthier, but it's been harder to prove if that's because of the diet or some other factor.

# data[].attributes.body
6/14/2018
According to a new study, published by PLOS Medicine, the risk of outbreaks is rising in 12 of the 18 states that permit nonmedical exemptions from childhood vaccinations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The risk of outbreaks is rising in 12 of the 18 states that permit nonmedical exemptions from childhood vaccinations, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. Those states are Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.

Over the past decade, these states have seen a rise in the number of nonmedical vaccine exemptions represented by children entering kindergarten without their shots, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a co-author of the study and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"This is a wake-up call," he said.

Certain "hot spot" metropolitan regions also show a high proportion of nonmedical exemptions and so may be especially susceptible to outbreaks: Seattle and Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Phoenix; Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah; Houston, Fort Worth, Plano and Austin, Texas; Troy, Warren and Detroit, Michigan; Kansas City, Missouri; and Pittsburgh. High numbers of unimmunized children living in large cities with busy international airports may contribute to the risk of a swift spread of disease, according to Hotez and his co-authors. Measles outbreaks in the US are usually started by people when they become sick while traveling to or from a country where the virus is endemic.

The scientists also identified a few smaller counties in Idaho, Wisconsin and Utah with troublingly high exemption rates.

Overall, Idaho has eight of the top 10 counties with the highest rates of non-medical vaccine exemptions. The low end of this range is nearly 15% of the kindergarten population having a non-medical vaccine exemption in Morgan, Utah, to 27% in Camas, Idaho. Other top 10 counties include Bonner, Valley, Custer, Idaho, Boise, Kootenai and Boundary, Idaho and Bayfield, Wisconsin.

'An autism dad' and his fight

"I'm a vaccine scientist, but I'm also an autism dad trying to fight this antivaccine movement at a very personal level," Hotez said. Antivaccine advocates often argue that autism is caused by vaccines, yet this theory has been debunked.

Hotez and his colleagues found an increase since 2009 in the number of children enrolling in kindergarten with vaccine exemptions for "philosophical" or other nonmedical reasons in 12 of the 18 states that allow them. The study does not explore the reasons why only some of these states have rising rates.

States where a higher percentage of parents exercised their right to a nonmedical vaccine exemption showed lower coverage rates of the MMR vaccine in particular, the study finds. (The MMR vaccine, which is given to children in two doses at 12 to 15 months old and 4 to 6 years old, protects against the measles, mumps and rubella.)

"We had a terrible measles outbreak in Minnesota last year," Hotez noted, adding that vaccination coverage in 90% to 95% of all children is needed to protect against highly infectious diseases.

"Marin County, California, and Orange County, California, have very strong antivaccine sentiments," he said. In fact, the state had lenient vaccine laws that allowed for philosophical exemptions prior to a 2014-15 measles outbreak in Anaheim, a city located in Orange County.

Subsequently, in 2015, California voted into law a regulation against such nonmedical exemptions, which were seen as a contributing factor in the outbreak. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of kindergarteners with nonmedical exemptions dropped to the lowest rate the state has seen in over a decade, Hotez said.

California wasn't included in the new study "because they already closed that door."

His concerns extend beyond America's borders.

"I'm worried this European/American style antivaccine movement is going to move into the global south," Hotez said.

"What we're seeing in Europe right now -- with horrific measles outbreaks across Europe -- could also begin in the US as well," he said. He noted that with more than 10,000 cases of measles in Ukraine this year and higher-than-usual rates in Romania, Italy, Greece and Germany, 2018 will top last year's total of 20,000 measles cases across Europe.

"Starting in 2000, we put in place GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. That's been an incredibly successful organization," Hotez said. "It's done a terrific job of lowering deaths from childhood infectious diseases like measles. GAVI has brought down measles deaths by 90%, from over 600,000 to over 70,000. I worry we're going to start eroding those gains."

Possible solutions

The new study is a "good contribution" to the field, said Saad B. Omer, a professor of global health and epidemiology & pediatrics at Emory University.

Omer, who was not involved in the research, said one strength of the work is that the researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of individual states with nonmedical exemptions, which had never been done.

Omer's own research has shown that states with philosophical exemptions had both higher rates of refusal and higher rates of disease; his study focused on rates of whooping cough. "Clusters of refusal overlap clusters of outbreaks," he said.

However, "if it's difficult to obtain an exemption, then you have lower rates of refusal and lower rates of disease," he said. "We established that framework and established that data." In another study, he and his colleagues showed that rates of vaccine exemption were rising faster in states that allowed exemptions for philosophical beliefs.

"More recently, at a national level, we saw a plateauing of vaccine exemption rates," Omer said. The new study is important, then, because it looks at the states where this general national trend may not be happening.

"The good news is that the policy option that is more viable for most states" -- essentially, making it less convenient for parents to not vaccinate their children -- "has actual impact on rates of refusal," Omer said. In Washington state, he noted, a law requires parents to be counseled by a physician about vaccinations before they can receive an exemption for their children for nonmedical reasons.

Just by adding that law, he said, Washington saw an approximately 42% reduction in the rate of exemptions. In California, before the regulation against non-medical exemptions became law as a result of the Anaheim measles outbreak, there was a tightening of vaccination exemption requirements that helped reduce refusals, he noted.

Such incremental changes could have positive effects across the country, Omer says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
us 'hot spots' most vulnerable for outbreaks due to opting out of vaccines - cnn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Parents who skip vaccines leave these US 'hot spots' vulnerable to outbreaks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The risk of outbreaks is rising in 12 of the 18 states that permit nonmedical exemptions from childhood vaccinations, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS Medicine. Those states are Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.

# data[].attributes.body
This TED talk discusses how the mayor of Oklahoma City worked to have the city collectively drop 1 million pounds. It's an interesting discussion about how changing your built environment and creating access to exercise programs can affect the health of a city.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mick Cornett: How an obese town lost a million pounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Oklahoma City is a midsized town that had a big problem: It was among the most obese towns in America. Mayor Mick Cornett realized that, to make his city a great place to work and live, it had to become healthier too.

# data[].attributes.headline
Title: Lauren Davis - June 14, 2018 - Race/Class/Gender/Society

# data[].attributes.subject
Title: Lauren Davis - June 14, 2018 - Race/Class/Gender/Society

# data[].attributes.body
Description: For the last 12 years, LaToya Ruby Frazier has photographed friends, neighbors and family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. But though the steel town has lately been hailed as a posterchild of "rustbelt revitalization," Frazier's pictures tell a different story, of the real impact of inequality and environmental toxicity. In this short, powerful talk, the TED Fellow shares a deeply personal glimpse of an often-unseen world.
Thought provoking video that touches on a lot of items discussed in the "Roots of Health Inequity" assignment through visuals/photos.

Attachment/Link:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LaToya Ruby Frazier: A visual history of inequality in industrial America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For the last 12 years, LaToya Ruby Frazier has photographed friends, neighbors and family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. But though the steel town has lately been hailed as a posterchild of "rustbelt revitalization," Frazier's pictures tell a different story, of the real impact of inequality and environmental toxicity.

# data[].attributes.headline
Rick DeVoss - June 14, 2018 - Race/Class/Gender/Society 

# data[].attributes.subject
Rick DeVoss - June 14, 2018 - Race/Class/Gender/Society 

# data[].attributes.body
This video describes the situation of life expectancy varying up to 25 years between zip codes. Here John Green describes his hometown of Indianapolis and the significant life expectancy differences which exist. This is a favorite channel of mine and they deliver content in a very approachable and clear way. Please watch the attachment, only 5 minutes!

# data[].attributes.headline
Jimmy Winslow- June 15, 2018 -  Mental/Social/ Emotional/ Behavioral Health

# data[].attributes.subject
Jimmy Winslow- June 15, 2018 -  Mental/Social/ Emotional/ Behavioral Health

# data[].attributes.body
This Ted Talk by Sangu Delle is about the stigma of mental health struggles, particularly from the lens of a West African man. Sangu argues that in order to help the thousands of people who are too afraid to seek help, we need to see mental health as important as physical health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sangu Delle: There's no shame in taking care of your mental health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When stress got to be too much for TED Fellow Sangu Delle, he had to confront his own deep prejudice: that men shouldn't take care of their mental health. In a personal talk, Delle shares how he learned to handle anxiety in a society that's uncomfortable with emotions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Emma Jones - June 15, 2018 - Environmental Health

# data[].attributes.subject
Emma Jones - June 15, 2018 - Environmental Health

# data[].attributes.body
Scott Pruitt is getting a lot of hate in the Midwest for his opinions on ethanol and waters protected by the EPA. Farmers in the Midwest as especially upset since Trump had supported farmers and ethanol while campaigning. Farmers are in support of limiting WOTUS (water protection policy) but are against Pruitt when it comes to ethanol.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With a litany of alleged ethics controversies swirling at home, embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt took the show on the road this week, meeting with farmers in a handful of Midwestern states to talk about his policy agenda.

While Thursday evening's meeting in Lincoln, Neb., was polite, the reception in other states has not been as welcoming, especially when it comes to conversations about his ethanol policies.

Corn farmers have been venting their frustration about Pruitt's decision to not expand summer sales of ethanol, a renewable fuel made from corn and other plant materials, with billboards and rallies.

In South Dakota, The Associated Press reported some farmers drove tractors to an anti-Pruitt rally taking place at the same time as Pruitt met with other producers.

In Reliance, SD talking directly with farmers and ranchers about the Renewable Fuel Standard. From #Kansas to #SouthDakota it's important we listen and learn from our first environmentalists and continue to see them as our partners throughout this process. pic.twitter.com/AqTA1sr26B
- Administrator Pruitt (@EPAScottPruitt) June 13, 2018

Anger over ethanol policies and the renewable fuel standard (RFS) seems far away from the seemingly ceaseless string of ethics controversies dogging the EPA administrator.

But Pruitt's stance on ethanol has made him enemies in the Corn Belt, including Iowa Sens. Check Grassley and Joni Ernst, two Republicans, who have voiced criticisms of the EPA chief.

Grassley has said Pruitt's policies undermine President Donald Trump's stated commitment to ethanol.

"This is a case where the president is being ill-served by political appointees that aren't carrying out his agenda," Grassley said earlier this month.

Ernst has called Pruitt - who is the subject of at least a dozen investigations by congressional committees, ethics watchdogs and federal auditors - "about as swampy as you get."

A handful of other Republicans have joined in their criticisms. In an interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a longtime friend and supporter of Pruitt said, "All these things that are coming are really not good things. I've kind of taken the position that if that doesn't stop, I'm going to be forced to be in a position where I'm going to say, 'Scott you're not doing your job.'"

On Wednesday, Ingraham tweeted that Pruitt's "gotta go."

Trump has voiced his support of Pruitt and the job he's doing at EPA.

"I'm not happy about certain things. I'll be honest," Trump told reporters, Friday. "But he's done a fantastic job at the EPA which is very overriding."

Pruitt has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era environmental regulations.

In the Midwest, he seems to be banking on support for his efforts to replace the Obama-era Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS), a rule that aimed to define which waters EPA can regulate. A repeal and replace of WOTUS has been a longtime goal of Pruitt's. As Oklahoma's attorney general, he led a multi-state lawsuit challenging the regulation.

In Lincoln, he said the new definition of federal waters, now under review by the White House, will be scaled back.

"We've actually went (sic) to the text of the statute and gone to the case law and asked ourselves, 'What did Congress intend with respect to what a waters of the United States is?'" Pruitt told the gathering in the boardroom of the Nebraska Farm Bureau. "And I can tell you they didn't intend it to be a puddle, a dry creek bed or an ephemeral drainage ditch."

Some agriculture-industry representatives vilified WOTUS during the Obama administration, claiming farmers would have to unnecessarily follow strict EPA regulations. Environmental advocates, however, worry that a limited version of WOTUS would leave wetlands vulnerable to development and allow more water pollution. George Cunningham, an aquatic ecologist and Conservation Chair with the Nebraska Sierra Club, also said it would "lead to massive habitat changes [affecting] hundreds of species, ultimately leading to species endangerment."

Corn farmers in the room were pleased to hear about the EPA's WOTUS rewrite, but didn't respond well when Pruitt said a plan to expand ethanol sales over the summer months remains on hold.

Farm groups have been pushing the EPA to allow E15, a 15 percent blend of ethanol with gasoline to be sold year-round. It's currently restricted over the summer months because of concerns with air quality. Pruitt said he supports year-round E15 and that the EPA has a proposal ready to go, but he said he has been told to hold off, though he didn't say by whom.

That frustrated corn farmer Dan Wesely of Morse Bluff, Neb., who expected more support for ethanol from the Trump administration.

"He should come forward and say, 'You know, we're going to get this process through. We're going to get it by next summer,'" said Wesely, who is also president of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association. "The longer it gets drawn out, the trust factor is hurt a little bit."

The EPA has granted hardship waivers to oil refineries, some owned by large corporations like Andeavor, exempting them from a portion of their obligations under the ethanol mandate. Some of those exemptions prompted the National Farmers Union, the National Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association and the American Coalition for Ethanol to file a lawsuit over the waivers.

Pruitt claimed in Lincoln, Neb., that any waivers granted to refineries fit the guidelines of the RFS guidelines, the law that sets ethanol policy.

Nathan Brabec, who works at the Louis Dreyfus ethanol plant in Norfolk, Neb.,, is worried that waivers water down ethanol production targets.

"He made valid points but at the end of the day, we've got to meet the RFS," Brabec said.

Meanwhile, a proposal favored by corn producers to make certain blends of ethanol available year-round remains on the shelf.

This story comes to us from Harvest Public Media, a reporting collaboration focused on food and agriculture.
Nathan Rott contributed to this report.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Embattled EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Faces Anger In Farm Country Over Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With a litany of alleged ethics controversies swirling at home, embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt took the show on the road this week, meeting with farmers in a handful of Midwestern states to talk about his policy agenda.

# data[].attributes.headline
Melissa Lowe - June 15, 2018-Laws/Policies/Politics

# data[].attributes.subject
Melissa Lowe - June 15, 2018-Laws/Policies/Politics

# data[].attributes.body
Description: This is an interesting overview of the levels of public health legislation in the United States and a discussion of what the CDC views as the future of public health. They see law as the foundation of public health because the law really is what enacts a change in the system because it doesn't happen externally.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beyond the Data – Public Health Law: A Tool to Address Emerging Health Concerns

# data[].attributes.body
"Climate Change Action Can Limit Asia's Growing Water Shortages"

In the not-too-distant future, extreme water shortages may not affect just South Africa. A team of researchers examine the potential for water shortages in Asia, given its economic and population boom. Their simulations reveal that up to an additional 200 million people in Asia could experience severe water shortages by 2050...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180619122453.htm

# data[].attributes.body
Description:The Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age. They have a large influence on our health. It also determines health inequities, which is the unfair and avoidable health difference between different groups of people In this video we take a look at the social determinants of health..what they are, how it impacts health and a useful framework to understand it.
This video was created by Ranil Appuhamy
Voiceover - James Clark

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Makes Us Healthy? Understanding the Social Determinants of Health