This week's highlights in public health journalism from around the globe http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#9may2012 Patricia Callahan and Sam Roe kick off the Tribune Watchdog series: “Playing With Fire” with a critical look at the chemical industry’s tactics to push for toxic and ineffective fire retardants into American homes. "[A] decades-long campaign of deception...has loaded the furniture and electronics in American homes with pounds of toxic chemicals linked to cancer, neurological deficits, developmental problems and impaired fertility. The tactics started with Big Tobacco, which wanted to shift focus away from cigarettes as the cause of fire deaths, and continued as chemical companies worked to preserve a lucrative market for their products...These powerful industries distorted science in ways that overstated the benefits of the chemicals, created a phony consumer watchdog group that stoked the public's fear of fire and helped organize and steer an association of top fire officials that spent more than a decade campaigning for their cause. Today, scientists know that some flame retardants escape from household products and settle in dust...Blood levels of certain widely used flame retardants doubled in adults every two to five years between 1970 and 2004. More recent studies show levels haven't declined in the U.S. even though some of the chemicals have been pulled from the market. A typical American baby is born with the highest recorded concentrations of flame retardants among infants in the world. People might be willing to accept the health risks if the flame retardants packed into sofas and easy chairs worked as promised. But they don't...The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, has allowed...flame retardants onto the market and into American homes without thoroughly assessing the health risks...Since the 1970s manufacturers have repeatedly withdrawn flame retardants amid health concerns. Some have been banned by a United Nations treaty that seeks to eliminate the worst chemicals in the world...As evidence of the health risks associated with these chemicals piled up, the industry mounted a misleading campaign to fuel demand. There is no better example of these deceptive tactics than the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute, the industry front group." http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#sotw Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 EST In advance of Mother’s Day, Peter Walker reports on the latest Mothers’ Index from the charity Save the Children and the large role nutrition plays in their calculation while downplaying the income divide. "Niger is the worst country on earth in which to be a mother, according to a...charity's annual Mothers' Index [that] uses statistics covering female and child health and nutrition, as well as prospects for women's education, economic prosperity and political participation in its assessment of 165 countries. Niger's current food crisis bears much of the blame...Afghanistan, which came last the previous two years, was credited for providing skilled assistance at more births and a reduction in female mortality rates, among other factors...The authors stress that income is not the only thing that matters." http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#mothers Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 EST In the wake of the recent IOM advice to make America less "obesogenic," Mark Trumbull reports on the nanny state uproar stemming from a new Massachusetts ban on junk food in schools. "A bake-sale ban in Massachusetts schools, designed to combat youth obesity, has spawned a sort of nationwide food fight...Although it's a Massachusetts policy that has drawn the sudden attention, the issue of school food guidelines is national. It's under review by everyone from local school boards to the US Agriculture Department. As public officials consider ways to improve nutrition and reduce childhood obesity, rules and norms are changing in sometimes controversial ways...[The Massachusetts ban begins this] August [and] will limit access to junk food...at schools from a half-hour before the school day until a half-hour after it ends." http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#obesity Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 EST Michelle Roberts reports on the new cancer study that reveals the number, globally, of cancers caused by preventable infections and the need to convey cancer as a communicable disease. "One in six cancers -- two million a year globally -- are caused by largely treatable or preventable infections...estimates...which looked at incidence rates for 27 cancers in 184 countries, found four main infections are responsible. These four -- human papillomaviruses, Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis B and C viruses -- account for 1.9m cases of cervical, gut and liver cancers. Most cases are in the developing world. The team from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France says more efforts are needed to tackle these avoidable cases and recognise cancer as a communicable disease." http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#onandc Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 EST In the wake of ex-NFL linebacker, Junior Seau’s suicide last week, Elizabeth Lopatto and Eben Novy-Williams report on the research surrounding CTE and the science afforded to its study when families of the deceased donate the brains of loved-ones who may have been most prone to the puzzling condition. "Junior Seau, the former professional football player...played almost 30 years of football from high school through the National Football League. Now his family is weighing whether to donate his brain to research. If so, his longevity may offer new insight into the condition known as CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy...CTE is thought to be a progressive condition that affects those with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions...Researchers aren't sure whether the athletes' condition as they get older is due to a sped-up version of the aging process, or whether CTE is a separate, distinct neurological illness." http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/#mental Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:00 EST