-
Tobacco Control Aug 2023As debate persists over regulating electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), those favouring liberal ENDS policies have advanced rights-based arguments privileging...
As debate persists over regulating electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), those favouring liberal ENDS policies have advanced rights-based arguments privileging harm reduction to people who smoke over harm prevention to children and never-smokers. Recent ethical arguments advocate regulating ENDS to prioritise their harm reduction potential for people who currently smoke over any future harm to young never-smokers. In this article, we critically assess these arguments, in particular, the assumption that ethical arguments for prioritising the interests of young people do not apply to ENDS. We argue that, when the appropriate comparators are used, it is not clear the weight of ethical argument tips in favour of those who currently smoke and against young never-smokers. We also assert that arguments from a resource prioritisation context are not appropriate for analysing ENDS regulation, because ENDS are not a scarce resource. Further, we reject utilitarian arguments regarding maximising net population health benefits, as these do not adequately consider vulnerable groups' rights, or address the population distribution of benefits and harms. Lastly, we argue that one-directional considerations of harm reduction do not recognise that ENDS potentially increase harm to those who do not smoke and who would not otherwise have initiated nicotine use.
Topics: Child; Humans; Adolescent; Smoke-Free Policy; Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems; Nicotine; Dissent and Disputes; Harm Reduction
PubMed: 35338090
DOI: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2021-057078 -
Science Advances Aug 2023This review explains how and why the United States has systemically high poverty. Descriptive evidence shows that U.S. poverty is (i) a huge share of the population,... (Review)
Review
This review explains how and why the United States has systemically high poverty. Descriptive evidence shows that U.S. poverty is (i) a huge share of the population, (ii) a perennial outlier among rich democracies, (iii) staggeringly high for certain groups, (iv) unexpectedly high for those who "play by the rules," and (v) pervasive across various groups and places. This review then discusses and critiques three prevailing approaches focused on the individual poor rather than the systemically high poverty: (i) behavioral explanations "fixing the poor," (ii) emotive compassion "dramatizing the poor," and (iii) cultural explanations both dramatizing and fixing the poor. The essay then reviews political explanations that emphasize the essential role of social policy generosity, political choices to penalize risks, power resources of collective political actors, and institutions. This review demonstrates a long emerging but ascending and warranted shift away from individualistic explanations of the poor toward political explanations of poverty.
Topics: Public Policy; Poverty
PubMed: 37611106
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg1469 -
The Lancet. Public Health Dec 2023Chinese men consume around 40% of the world's cigarettes, causing a substantial and growing burden of tobacco-attributed death and disease. In 2005, the Chinese... (Review)
Review
Chinese men consume around 40% of the world's cigarettes, causing a substantial and growing burden of tobacco-attributed death and disease. In 2005, the Chinese Government ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and tobacco control measures have since increased nationwide. To assess tobacco control progress, obstacles, and opportunities, this Review describes the long-term evolution of cigarette consumption and the associated disease burden in mainland China, and the implementation of five important tobacco control strategies advocated by WHO. These strategies covered tobacco taxation; package warnings; advertising, promotion, and sponsorship bans; public smoking bans; and cessation services. Although only 2% of women in China now smoke, half of all adult men smoke cigarettes. By the 2010s, smoking accounted for about a fifth of all adult male deaths, and this proportion is rising, following a trajectory similar to that seen in the USA 40 years earlier. The self-regulating national tobacco monopoly and its influence on policy, the country's relatively low tobacco tax, and its weak package warnings and enforcement of other tobacco control strategies all highlight challenges in tobacco control. However, these challenges can also provide opportunities to discourage smoking initiation in young women and encourage cessation in men, assisting China's long march towards better health.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Male; Female; Tobacco Control; Tobacco Products; Smoke-Free Policy; Smoking Prevention; China
PubMed: 38000880
DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00242-6 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2023
Topics: Public Policy; Health Policy
PubMed: 37593723
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1227503 -
Global Public Health Jan 2024This special issue aims to help fill two critical gaps in the growing literature as well as in practice. First, to bring together scholars and practitioners from around...
This special issue aims to help fill two critical gaps in the growing literature as well as in practice. First, to bring together scholars and practitioners from around the world who develop, practice, review, and question structural competency with the aim of promoting a dialogue with related approaches, such as Latin American Social Medicine, Collective Health, and others, which have been key in diverse geographical and social settings. Second, to contribute to expanding structural competency beyond clinical medicine to include other health-related areas such as social work, global health, public health practice, epidemiological research, health policy, community organisation and beyond. This conceptual expansion is currently taking place in structural competency, and we hope that this volume will help to raise awareness and reinforce what is already happening. In sum, this collection of articles puts structural competency more rigorously and actively in conversation with different geographic, political, social, and professional contexts worldwide. We hope this conversation sparks further development in scholarly, political and community movements for social and health justice.
Topics: Humans; Health Policy; Social Medicine; Global Health
PubMed: 38468161
DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2024.2326631 -
Bioethics Nov 2023The debate around lockdowns as a response to the recent pandemic is typically framed in terms of a tension between freedom and health. However, on some views, protection...
The debate around lockdowns as a response to the recent pandemic is typically framed in terms of a tension between freedom and health. However, on some views, protection of health or reduction of virus-related risks can also contribute to freedom. Therefore, there might be no tension between freedom and health in public health restrictions. I argue that such views fail to appreciate the different understandings of freedom that are involved in the trade-off between freedom and health. Grasping these distinctions would allow to appreciate why different people give more weight to different aspects of limitations of freedom, including whether certain options are made simply risky or impossible, whether limitations of freedom are posed intentionally or happen accidentally, whether risks are beyond a threshold of acceptability, and who gets to decide that. I provide a conceptual analysis of the relationship between different types of freedom, public health policies, viruses and diseases. As I argue, identifying what freedom-based reasons count for and against different types of public health restrictions requires distinguishing between viruses and diseases, between lockdowns and other types of restrictive policies, and between risks posed by viruses and threats of penalties involved by restrictive policies.
Topics: Humans; Public Health; Pandemics; Public Policy; Freedom
PubMed: 37638849
DOI: 10.1111/bioe.13217 -
International Journal of Environmental... Oct 2023Social networks, particularly Twitter 9.0 (known as X as of 23 July 2023), have provided an avenue for prompt interactions and sharing public health-related concerns and...
Social networks, particularly Twitter 9.0 (known as X as of 23 July 2023), have provided an avenue for prompt interactions and sharing public health-related concerns and emotions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person communication became less feasible due to stay-at-home policies in the United States (U.S.). The study of public emotions extracted from social network data has garnered increasing attention among scholars due to its significant predictive value for public behaviors and opinions. However, few studies have explored the associations between public health policies, local political ideology, and the spatial-temporal trends of emotions extracted from social networks. This study aims to investigate (1) the spatial-temporal clustering trends (or spillover effects) of negative emotions related to COVID-19; and (2) the association relationships between public health policies such as stay-at-home policies, political ideology, and the negative emotions related to COVID-19. This study employs multiple statistical methods (zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression, random-effects model, and spatial autoregression (SAR) model) to examine relationships at the county level by using the data merged from multiple sources, mainly including Twitter 9.0, Johns Hopkins, and the U.S. Census Bureau. We find that negative emotions related to COVID-19 extracted from Twitter 9.0 exhibit spillover effects, with counties implementing stay-at-home policies or leaning predominantly Democratic showing higher levels of observed negative emotions related to COVID-19. These findings highlight the impact of public health policies and political polarization on spatial-temporal public emotions exhibited in social media. Scholars and policymakers can benefit from understanding how public policies and political ideology impact public emotions to inform and enhance their communication strategies and intervention design during public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Topics: Humans; United States; COVID-19; Pandemics; Emotions; Public Policy; Health Policy; Social Media
PubMed: 37947551
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20216993 -
PloS One 2023Globally, alcohol consumption causes significant societal harm and is a leading risk factor for death and disability in adults. In India, 3.7% of all deaths and 3.1%... (Review)
Review
Globally, alcohol consumption causes significant societal harm and is a leading risk factor for death and disability in adults. In India, 3.7% of all deaths and 3.1% disability adjusted life years (DALYs) can be attributed to alcohol. In the context of rapid economic development and emphasized by the COVID-19 pandemic, India's lack of a consolidated and comprehensive alcohol policy has posed significant challenges to addressing this harm. In this context, the aim of our review was to undertake a comprehensive mapping of the State and national policy environment surrounding alcohol and its use in India, based on an analysis of policy documents. We did this though a scoping review of academic and grey literature, which helped to iteratively identify the websites of 15 international organizations, 21 Indian non-governmental organizations, and eight Indian Federal governmental organizations as well as State/Union Territory government sites, to search for relevant policy documents. We identified 19 Federal policy documents and 36 State level policy documents within which we have identified the specific policy measures which address the 10 categories of the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. We found that there are major gaps in regulation of marketing and price controls, with much of this controlled by the States. In addition, regulation of availability of alcohol varies widely throughout the country, which is also a policy area controlled locally by States. Through the clear elucidation of the current policy environment surrounding alcohol in India, policy makers, researchers and advocates can create a clearer roadmap for future reform.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Health Policy; Pandemics; Public Policy; Alcohol Drinking; India
PubMed: 37976246
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294392 -
Journal of Public Health Policy Sep 2023Despite the end of the Cold War, the world still has thousands of nuclear weapons and adversarial relations between the countries that possess them. A nuclear war could... (Review)
Review
Despite the end of the Cold War, the world still has thousands of nuclear weapons and adversarial relations between the countries that possess them. A nuclear war could cause large and abrupt global environmental change known as nuclear winter, with potentially devastating public health consequences. A significant line of natural science research characterizes nuclear winter and its potential effect on global food security, but less has been done on the human impacts and policy implications. Therefore, this Viewpoint proposes an interdisciplinary research and policy agenda to understand and address the public health implications of nuclear winter. Public health research can apply existing tools developed for the study of other environmental and military issues. Public health policy institutions can help build preparedness and community resilience to nuclear winter. Given the extreme potential severity of nuclear winter, it should be treated as a major global public health challenge to be addressed by public health institutions and researchers.
Topics: Humans; Public Health; Public Policy
PubMed: 37322225
DOI: 10.1057/s41271-023-00416-7 -
The Lancet. Public Health Oct 2023Healthy sleep is essential for physical and mental health, and social wellbeing; however, across the globe, and particularly in developing countries, national public... (Review)
Review
Healthy sleep is essential for physical and mental health, and social wellbeing; however, across the globe, and particularly in developing countries, national public health agendas rarely consider sleep health. Sleep should be promoted as an essential pillar of health, equivalent to nutrition and physical activity. To improve sleep health across the globe, a focus on education and awareness, research, and targeted public health policies are needed. We recommend developing sleep health educational programmes and awareness campaigns; increasing, standardising, and centralising data on sleep quantity and quality in every country across the globe; and developing and implementing sleep health policies across sectors of society. Efforts are needed to ensure equity and inclusivity for all people, particularly those who are most socially and economically vulnerable, and historically excluded.
Topics: Humans; Public Health; Public Policy; Health Education; Health Policy; Sleep
PubMed: 37777291
DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00182-2