Pharmaceutical advertisers want health data so that they can effectively tailor the $18 billion spent annually on drug pitches to those audiences most likely to buy these products. However, a recent privacy law out of Washington State may force substantial changes in the field—potentially exposing a huge number of companies to liability and enforcement actions. This could forever change how these companies leverage health data to target their customers.
Life rights for reproduction: Voices from the climate-affected rural subalterns
Women queue to fill their buckets, Bolangir, Odisha, India 18.1.2022. ©Nairita Roy Chaudhuri
Most small farmers in rural India directly depend on rainwater for agricultural production and subsistence livelihoods. However, climate change is intensifying droughts, threatening crop productivity, the food and livelihood security of agrarian farmers, and increasing their risks of hunger and malnutrition. Recognizing climate change as a health and existential crisis, adapting to water scarcity and droughts is essential for the sustainable well-being of rural communities, alongside mitigation efforts. The health consequences of climate change intersect with gender, as rural women bear the primary responsibility for ensuring water security for domestic consumption and performing care or reproductive work.
In my doctoral research, I employed ethnographic methods to explore how law can enable rural communities living in postcolonial societies, examined in particular within the framework of gender and colonial power relations, to sustainably adapt to droughts and water scarcity. Conducting fieldwork in the semi-arid belts of rural parts of West Bengal (Puruliya district) and Odisha (Bolangir, Bargarh, and Rayagada districts) between December 2021 and May 2022, I explored the intersections of water (in)security and gendered labor. With over three hundred participants, I qualitatively analyzed climate-affected small farmers’ accounts of water sourcing, their reflections on water’s domestic and agricultural uses, and the gendered division of water-related labor and time.
Regulating the Medication Gatekeepers: The Need for Federal PBM Reform
by Rupa Palanki
On September 20, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a landmark lawsuit against the three largest prescription drug benefit managers (PBMs) — Caremark Rx, Express Scripts, and OptumRx — and their affiliated group purchasing organizations. The FTC alleges that these entities engaged in “anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices,” artificially increasing insulin drug prices and shifting costs to vulnerable patients.
This litigation is not an isolated case, but rather represents a broader effort by federal agencies and lawmakers to curb the power of PBMs and reduce drug costs. This article explores the role of PBMs in the health care system and potential next steps for federal reform.
Climate Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa: The Urgent Need for Intersectional Approaches in Climate Change Policy and Governance
Photo credit: @wambuigichobi | SMA
A Masai woman raises her fist as other women leaders look on at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt during one of the debriefs by the Women and Gender Constituency.
by Faith Lumonya, Esther Wambui, and Eunice Musiime
As global temperatures rise and the frequency of extreme weather events — such as floods, droughts, and heat waves — increases, climate change poses a growing threat to the progress of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Women face intersecting forms of vulnerability depending on their lived realities and experiences. For example, climate change reduces access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, increases rates of sexual risk behavior, and leads to earlier sexual debut, higher prevalence of infectious diseases, and gender based sexual abuse and exploitation — however, these realities are not taken into account in climate change policy and governance.
Climate-related disasters frequently disrupt health care services, limiting women’s access to essential SRH care such as contraceptives and maternal health services. Associated economic and infrastructural damage further hamper access to vital health resources, while the increased instability exacerbates risks of gender-based violence and reproductive health challenges, especially for vulnerable women and girls. Given these compounded risks, it is crucial to integrate SRHR into broader global and national climate adaptation efforts.
Lula’s environmental foreign policy, the global far-right, and the climate agenda
by Danielle Hanna Rached and Denise Vitale
Donald Trump’s second term in office promises to bring turmoil to the global climate agenda. Against the scientific consensus that fossil fuel is leading the world to a climate breakdown, Trump has managed to impose his opportunistic views on the rest of the world. For the amount of $1 billion in campaign contributions, he initiated his vitriolic attacks against climate change (a “big hoax”), embraced the oil and gas industry (“liquid gold”), and vilified scientists and President Joe Biden’s clean energy legislation (“green new scam”).
In such a scenario, our only hope lies in resistance that might be formed elsewhere. Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election in 2022, Brazil has desperately tried to claim a leadership position on the issue. Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon and host to COP30 next year, and Lula’s socio-environmental agenda has had a prominent position from day one. He appointed Marina Silva, a historical leader of the environmental movement, to head the Ministry of the Environment and created the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to push forward the Indigenous agenda.
The impacts of climate change on the right to health in the United Kingdom
Climate change is one of the most pressing threats to health in the U.K. While climate change impacts everyone, marginalized groups and those with pre-existing health conditions are suffering the most, leading to greater health inequalities. This article explains how climate change impacts the health of the most marginalized populations in the U.K. from a human rights perspective. Read More
BPA-free Does Not Mean Bisphenol-free and How Regulators are Grappling to Deal with It
You’ve likely seen BPA-free plastic water bottles and Tupperware in stores and opted to grab those over similar, non-labeled products. You probably didn’t know, however, that those products likely just contain other bisphenols, like BPS or BPAF, instead. Regulating bisphenols, a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals, has been challenging due to “regrettable substitution.” This phenomenon allows companies to truthfully label a product “BPA-free” while misleadingly substituting a harmful chemical (BPA) with an unknown or unforeseen hazardous chemical (BPS). Adequate protection of human health requires regulators to consider how bisphenols as a class can be appropriately restricted.
Measures for Recreational Marijuana Failed in Three States: a Win for Public Health
The Outcome of Recreational Marijuana Ballot Measures
Recreational marijuana was on the ballot in three states — Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota. None of these three measures passed. Currently, 38 states and Washington D.C. allow medical marijuana, and 24 states and D.C. allow recreational marijuana. Marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, which means it is illegal to possess, sell or distribute, although the FDA has approved several purified medications containing marijuana derived compounds.
Despite a push from supporters, this election demonstrated that changing the law to facilitate access to recreational marijuana is not inevitable. In fact, this was the fifth unsuccessful attempt by political action groups, largely funded by the marijuana industry, to allow recreational marijuana in Florida.
Proponents of recreational marijuana told voters it would create tax revenue, reduce drug related crimes, and help improve drug safety via production regulation. However, each of these claims warrants closer consideration.
A Health Care Betrayal: The Ethical Crisis Surrounding Steward Health and the Demise of Community Hospitals
by Stephen Wood
In an era where health care inequities already burden marginalized populations, the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care culminating in the closure of several hospitals in Massachusetts, represents an unconscionable ethical failure. As these hospitals prepare to shut their doors, the communities they serve — comprising many uninsured, underinsured, and socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals — are left abandoned. Behind this crisis is not only fiscal mismanagement but the outright theft of funds by executives such as Ralph de la Torre, whose actions are tantamount to a betrayal of public trust.
Reinventing South African Trade Unions to Protect the Health of Informal Workers in the Face of Climate Change
South Africa is considered the most unequal country in the world, with stagnant economic growth and staggeringly high unemployment. More than five million or 31.2% of workers in South Africa find economic opportunities in the “informal economy,” often because there are fewer barriers (training, skills, regulation) to entering the sector.
Informal workers comprise a diverse group who may work in the formal or informal economy. Precarity of employment is common among these workers, who include, for example, casual workers as well as owners of microbusinesses (such as street vending or Spaza shops). However, workers in temporary, part-time or on-call work arrangements may also fall within this category, depending on the circumstances.