Israel to block aid convoys to northern Gaza, says UNRWA 


Sky News
Sun, 24 March 2024 

In this article:  Philippe Lazzarini  UN official


The head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has said it's "outrageous" Israel will block its aid deliveries to northern Gaza.

UNRWA boss Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had told the United Nations that convoys would no longer be approved.

It comes after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of participating in October's Hamas terror attack. Nine of the accused workers were sacked.

America and the UK are among the countries that have paused funding to the agency, but others such as Canada and Australia have since resumed donations.

"This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct life-saving assistance during a man-made famine," Mr Lazzarini said on X on Sunday.

"These restrictions must be lifted."

Israel did not immediately respond to the claims.

Experts say most of Gaza's population is on the brink of famine due to Israel's ongoing military operation to destroy Hamas.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has also been at Egypt's Rafah border crossing, where a huge backlog of aid trucks is waiting to get into Gaza from the south.

Mr Guterres said the food situation was a "moral outrage" and that Israel must remove "obstacles" to the aid. Israel denies blocking supplies.

"Looking at Gaza, it almost appears that the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest and death are galloping across it," said the UN boss.

Some aid recently arrived in Gaza by sea, while some has been dropped from planes, but constant land-based deliveries are vital if famine is to be avoided, according to experts and charities.

October's surprise Hamas attack on Israel killed more than 1,200 people and the group is still holding about 100 hostages.

More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli response, according to Gaza's health ministry, but Israel blames Hamas for embedding itself among the population.

There are fears thousands more could die when Israel launches a ground offensive in Rafah - the southern city where many have fled.

Meanwhile, Israel's military has said a raid on Gaza's main hospital has killed more than 170 militants, with about 480 suspects detained.

The raid on Shifa hospital in Gaza City began last Monday, mirroring another major offensive there in November.

Israel says Hamas is still using it as a base despite thousands of displaced people living around the complex.

Hamas and medical staff deny the claims and Gaza's health ministry said dozens of staff and patients were among those detained in the latest operation.

Israeli forces also carried out "very intense shelling" at al Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israel said it acted at al Amal after "precise intelligence... which indicated that terrorists are using civilian infrastructure for terror activities".

It added its troops weren't currently inside the hospital.

Israel and its allies – including the UK – are going to deliver a planned famine in Gaza

Posted on March 20 2024

The IPC describes itself as follows in its website:

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is an innovative multi-partner initiative for improving food security and nutrition analysis and decision-making. By using the IPC classification and analytical approach, Governments, UN Agencies, NGOs, civil society and other relevant actors, work together to determine the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity, and acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally-recognised scientific standards.

The IPC has issued a report on Gaza, based on its scale of crisis assessment, which is as follows:

They say the situation in Gaza in the last month was as follows:

And then they note that they expect things to change as follows over the next few months:

Israel controls food supply into Gaza. No one else can.

Israel is not permitting sufficient food into Gaza. As a result 50 per cent of its population now face famine. Most of the rest face a food crisis.

International law does not permit Israel to do this. Its actions are clearly illegal. But countries like the UK and USA permit it by supplying the arms Israel needs to crush Gaza and impose this famine.

It is my hope that not just those in Israel imposing this famine should be punished, but so too should those in this and other countries that let it happen, knowing it was going on.

Here’s what I saw as a doctor treating children in Gaza

Gaza needs to be inundated with shipments of food, water, medicine and fuel to begin the lengthy road to recovery, writes a doctor from Oak Lawn who recently worked in Gaza.

Opinion
By Thaer Ahmad, M.D.
Mar 20, 2024

Children walk past the rubble of a collapsed building with a pot of food provided by a charity organization ahead of the fast-breaking “iftar” meal during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. They’re shown March 16 in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Said Khatib/AFP via Getty

In January, I joined the WHO’s Emergency Medical Teams deployed to Gaza as a member of MedGlobal. I worked in Gaza’s largest remaining hospital, Al-Nasser in Khan Younis.

As I roamed the hospital’s corridors, I was struck by how many displaced people were sheltering in and around the hospital complex. Many were children running and playing "Ring Around the Rosie." It seemed hauntingly out of place against the grim backdrop of bombs and tank shells.

I can’t help but reflect on the suffering and disorder the children of Gaza have encountered during this war.

One evening, as I wandered through the pediatric division, the nurse accompanying me, Shehab, showed me the patient rooms. Many were suffering from upper respiratory infections or diarrheal illnesses. Each room, no bigger than the size of a walk-in closet, had four patients and their caretakers in it, except one room. It had only three patients. The room corner adjacent to the window where the fourth patient would be was empty and the walls were damaged.

Shehab told me the space had belonged to Dunia Abu Mohsen, a 12-year-old who was recovering in the hospital after an airstrike hit her home and killed her family. Dunia had lost her leg in the attack but miraculously survived and awaited a transfer out of Gaza to be fitted for a prosthesis. She dreamed of one day becoming a physician.

Two weeks after being interviewed chronicling her recovery, an Israeli tank shell burst through the window of Dunia’s room and killed her. She is one of more than 12,000 Gazan children killed. Her nurse told me in her last days, Dunia had grown increasingly withdrawn and detached. She had begun to feel the absence of her family.

No one in Gaza has it easy, but for Palestinian children all aspects of life are disrupted and broken. There has been no schooling since the war started, and 75% of the educational infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged.

Palestinian society greatly values education and boasts some of the highest literacy rates globally. Six hundred thousand displaced children are in Rafah, which had a population of 250,000 before Oct. 7. An entire cohort is trapped in the southern edge of Gaza, with schooling stalled. If they survive the war, their futures are inevitably compromised.
Children die of hunger

As food and water are logjammed at the border with Egypt, the rise of extreme hunger and starvation particularly affects vulnerable populations like children.

In Northern Gaza, where there is a looming famine, more than 20 children have starved to death. After the flour massacre, in which Israeli tanks killed more than 100 Palestinians seeking bread for their hungry families, I tremble at the thought of more starving children dying.

In January, UNICEF found one in six children younger than 2 in Northern Gaza were severely malnourished and in need of urgent treatment. While in Khan Younis, our diets mainly consisted of bread and beans. Food poverty must be addressed.

My interactions with Gazan families confirmed the astounding resilience and steadfastness they were known for, but more than five months of immense death and destruction will leave a mark on even the strongest of us.

Many in Gaza believe there is a “war after the war,” referring to a time when everyone will have to process all that has transpired. Surely, this will impact children more severely.

They’ve endured multiple conflicts over the last decade, and perhaps the consequences are best demonstrated by a study before Oct. 7 by Save the Children that found half of the children of Gaza had contemplated suicide and three out of five were self-harming.

With no psycho-social support interventions in place, and with health care infrastructure collapsed and homes destroyed, what will become of the surviving children, 17,000 of whom have been orphaned during this war? Who will hug them? Who will cover them with a blanket when they’ve fallen asleep? Who will help feed them when they’re hungry?

A cease-fire is just the beginning. Gaza needs to be inundated with shipments of food, water, medicine and fuel to begin the lengthy road to recovery. Too many tragic stories have emerged that will haunt us eternally. Children like Dunia are lost forever, and a million more are at risk.

There is no time to waste. They need us now. Tell their stories, contribute generously to their healing, and advocate to policymakers and elected officials for their safety and security.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad is the emergency department director of global health and medical ethics and an emergency medicine physician at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.

The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Sun-Times or any of its affiliates.

ICYMI

CANADA WILL HALT ALL ARMS SHIPMENTS TO ISRAEL AS TRUDEAU GETS CRITICAL OF NETANYAHU


AFP
MARCH 21, 2024
Montreal, Canada

The Justin Trudeau-government is halting all exports of weapons to Israel and said the ground reality has forced the government to make such a move. (Image: Reuters)

Israel is a major receiver of Canadian weapons exports and said Canada’s decision will be judged harshly.

Canada will halt all arms shipments to Israel, a government official told AFP on Tuesday, a decision that has drawn the ire of Israel as it faces growing international scrutiny over its war in the Gaza Strip.

The besieged Palestinian territory is facing a mounting humanitarian crisis, and months of war have pushed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to the brink of famine.

Canada, a key ally of the United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars a year in military aid, had already reduced its weapons shipments to Israel to non-lethal equipment such as radios following the October 7 Hamas attack.

“The situation on the ground makes it so that we can’t” export any kind of military equipment, the Canadian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Canada’s foreign minister Melanie Joly told the Toronto Star newspaper on Tuesday that Ottawa would stop future arms exports to Israel.

Israel slammed the decision, with foreign minister Israel Katz saying it “undermines Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas terrorists.”

“History will judge Canada’s current action harshly,” he said in a post on social media platform X.

US Senator Bernie Sanders welcomed the move, saying in a post on X: “Given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including widespread and growing starvation, the US should not provide another nickel for Netanyahu’s war machine.”

Israel has historically been a top receiver of Canadian arms exports, with CAN$21 million worth of military materiel exported to Israel in 2022, according to Radio Canada, following CAN$26 million in shipments in 2021.

That places Israel among the top 10 recipients of Canadian arms exports.

Ottawa has only exported “non-lethal” shipments such as communications equipment to Israel since the deadly October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel triggered a war in the Gaza Strip.

No exports had been sent since January, the government official added.

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.

Israel has responded with a relentless offensive against Hamas that has killed at least 31,819 people, most of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

While affirming Israel’s right to defend itself, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken an increasingly critical stance toward Israel as civilian deaths have mounted in Gaza.

On Monday, the Canadian Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution calling for the international community to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

The issue of arms deliveries to Israel has triggered legal proceedings in several countries around the world.

In Canada, a coalition of lawyers and citizens of Palestinian origin filed a complaint against the government in early March to suspend arms exports to Israel, accusing it of violating both international and domestic law.

Forced Rafah population transfer would be a 'war crime', Macron warns Israel

Sun, 24 March 2024 


French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any forced transfer of people from the southern Gaza city of Rafah would constitute "a war crime".

In a telephone call between the two leaders, Macron also "strongly condemned" Israel's announcement Friday of the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank for new settlements, said his office.

Activists say Israel's declaration that the land in the northern Jordan Valley was now "state land" was the single largest such seizure in decades.

Macron also repeated his opposition to any Israeli military operation to fight Hamas in Rafah, where most of Gaza's population has taken shelter after months of fierce fighting in the besieged territory.

In the call, Macron told Netanyahu he intended to bring a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for "an immediate and lasting ceasefire".

He urged Israel to immediately open all crossing points into Gaza.

Macron also had talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II, during which they discussed the "unjustifiable humanitarian situation in Gaza", said the Elysee Palace.

Forcing civilians to run the risk of famine was "unjustifiable", the two leaders said.

They also agreed on the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that "implied the creation of a Palestinian state including Gaza".

 

Neighborhood-level poverty and food insecurity during pregnancy associated with lower birthweight and small for gestational age infants, NIH study finds

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES

 

IMAGE: 

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON HEALTH OUTCOMES 

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CREDIT: NIH ECHO PROGRAM

Living in neighborhoods where residents have lower incomes and limited food access during pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of babies born small for gestational age or with lower birthweight, according to a new study from the NIH Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

Previous studies have shown that maternal diet during pregnancy can impact the physical and mental health of a mother. However, less is known about how food insecurity affects health outcomes for newborns. In a new research article, ECHO researchers analyzed data to understand what connections might exist between where a pregnant person lives, their access to food, and birth outcomes.

This ECHO analysis, recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, indicates a possible connection.

“Given the long-term effects of adverse birth outcomes on later cardiovascular disease risk and other conditions, more research is needed to evaluate whether interventions and policies that improve food access during pregnancy would be effective in improving birth outcomes and promoting child health,” said Izzuddin M. Aris, PhD, of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

Using nationwide data from more than 22,000 ECHO Cohort participants, a team of ECHO researchers found that, during pregnancy, 24% of those participants lived in a low-income neighborhood where a third or more residents lived over one mile from a grocery store (or more than 10 miles in rural areas). They also found that about 14% of the participants lived in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and where more than 100 households had no access to a vehicle and lived more than half a mile from the nearest grocery store.

Residence in low-income, low-food-access and low-income, low-vehicle-access neighborhoods was associated with lower birth weight, higher odds of babies born small for gestational age, and lower odds of babies born large for gestational age. However, researchers did not find any associations of individual food insecurity with birth outcomes. 

To conduct this study, researchers matched pregnant individuals' home addresses with information about nearby food availability from the U.S. Food Access Research Atlas, which provided data on household income, the availability of a household vehicle, and where people can access food in different neighborhoods.

“In future studies, we want to look at health habits and chemical exposures to understand what else could be affecting birth outcomes,” said Dr. Aris.

Dr. Aris led a team of ECHO Cohort researchers from across the country who collaborated on the data analysis and writing for this research article.

###

About ECHO: Launched in 2016, the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program is a research program in the Office of the Director at the NIH with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.

 

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

DOI

10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.02.022 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Birth outcomes in relation to neighborhood food access and individual food insecurity during pregnancy in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)-wide cohort study

 

In Lake Erie, climate change scrambles zooplankton’s seasonal presence

Warming temperatures, invasive species modify Great Lakes’ ecosystems, study finds

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new analysis of zooplankton in western Lake Erie shows that their biomass and seasonal behavioral patterns have been drastically altered by human-driven changes in water temperature and food webs. 

Zooplankton, aquatic microorganisms that reside in nearly all bodies of water, are extremely sensitive to changes in their ecosystem. This hypersensitivity makes them important bioindicators of water quality, and studying how they interact with their environment can provide researchers with detailed snapshots of a region’s present ecological condition. 

By taking a new look at more than two decades of plankton monitoring data, researchers at The Ohio State University found that in western Lake Erie, zooplankton communities are undergoing a substantial change in the timing of certain events in their life cycles. 

Using data collected from previous studies, the team examined the behavior patterns of four common types of zooplankton populations in Lake Erie between 1995 and 2022. Their analysis showed that due to factors like rising temperatures, the presence of invasive species and the availability of high-quality food, the period when zooplankton concentrations are at their highest now varies by as much as three weeks in the summer months.  

“Warming is making natural events happen earlier, as we can see across basically all ecosystems,” said Jim Hood, lead author of the study and an associate professor in evolution, ecology and organismal biology at Ohio State. “These systems are really complex, and any disruption is likely to have unseen negative effects.”

Even in lakes, zooplankton play a central role in the local freshwater food web, from determining which types of algae thrive to helping sustain local fish populations, said Hood. Yet as the research notes, early warming can often advance the emergence of spring plankton while delaying fall populations, which can have a big impact. Because of their vital place in the food chain, major changes in plankton behavior could cause damage to other top-down and bottom-up processes that rely on them.  

The study, recently published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters, marks one of  the first times scientists have tried to unpack the complexity of these dynamics in Lake Erie and the Great Lakes region. 

Some of the most dominant changes observed in the timing of zooplankton emergence were caused by temperature variation as well as an invasive phytoplankton species called B. longimanus, which was likely carried over from Europe by shipping boats, said Hood. 

“It’s this invasive predator and the increase in harmful algae blooms that are really altering the timing of zooplankton concentrations,” he said. “In some cases, they’re causing them to move in earlier, in some cases, they’re moving them in later.” 

Though Lake Erie has been plagued by harmful algal blooms for decades, warmer temperatures during the summer cause the organisms to grow thicker and faster. Because large blooms release toxins that endanger the health of humans and other animals and threaten important utility infrastructures, environmental scientists have been steadily working toward ways of addressing the multiple causes of their excess growth. 

“It’s not just climate change,” said Hood. “All of the things humans are doing to these systems, like bringing in invasive species, are creating a complex series of interactions that are going to influence big things that people care about, like harmful algal blooms and fisheries.”

This study’s analysis period took place between May and September of each year when the four zooplankton species whose behavioral patterns being surveyed were especially abundant. Though they all had different diets and life histories, they surprisingly each had varying reactions to B. longimanus and its effects on the ecosystem, revealing that the mechanisms that drive the timing of certain plankton behaviors are more sophisticated than they seem, said Hood. 

“It was really noteworthy how these four taxa that we focused on all had different responses to this invasive species, which really highlights the need for more research on them,” he said. 

Hood and co-author Jenna Bailey suggested that further research should aim to extend monitoring in temperate lakes to learn how winter conditions influence zooplankton life cycles, offering insight into other freshwater ecology issues related to climate change. 

“It’s difficult to predict the effects human activity has on our ecosystems,” said Hood. “But we need to step back and understand how all of these things that we’re doing are interacting with one another and incorporate that into our management.”

This study was supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

#

Contact: Jim Hood, Hood.211@osu.edu
Written by: Tatyana Woodall, Woodall.52@osu.ed

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JOURNAL

Limnology and Oceanography Letters

DOI

10.1002/lol2.10377 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Biotic and thermal drivers alter zooplankton phenology in western Lake Erie

 

Maple syrup producers provide sweet news for threatened birds

A $2 million grant will encourage forest biodiversity to help bird populations in North America

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: 

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ASHELY DAYER (AT RIGHT) RESEARCHES THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND HUMAN SOCIETIES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION.

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CREDIT: PHOTO BY SAM DEAN FOR VIRGINIA TECH.

The summer mating season is looking to get a lot easier for the scarlet tanager, one of a number of migratory songbirds that use the forests of northeastern North America to find a mate.

In recent decades, the loss and degradation of bird habitats has led to a precipitous decline in bird populations. Now, a $2 million grant awarded to the National Audubon Society’s Bird-Friendly Maple program, in partnership with College of Natural Resources and Environment Associate Professor Ashley Dayer, will look to improve bird habitats by encouraging maple syrup producers to incorporate forest management practices that allow other trees and bushes to grow amid the sugar maples that are responsible for our sticky breakfast topping.

“The future of maple-dominated forests, birds, and other biodiversity and their ability to be resilient and adaptable to a changing climate relies on how private lands are managed,” said Dayer, who researches the interplay between wildlife conservation and human societies in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “We aim to understand how to empower small forest landowners to get involved and ensure that benefiting birds benefits their bottom line too.”

The project is funded through a new program in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service that supports emerging markets to foster forest resilience. Participating maple syrup producers will commit to dedicating at least one-fourth of their land to the growing of alternative tree species and also will allow for diverse growth of understory and midstory plants and shrubs, critical resources for bird species that call the forests of North America home.

Maple producers who participate in this technique will be able to label their maple products “bird-friendly,” a designation that researchers hope will lead to market benefits for owners of the sugar shacks that are currently producing our favorite pancake topping.

“Virginia Tech will play a key role in the project, evaluating landowner needs and addressing barriers to increased engagement,” said Dayer, an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, the Global Change Center, and the Center for Coastal Studies. “We will also develop and implement message testing with potential consumers of bird-friendly maple syrup to explore how to grow interest in this product.”

For Dayer, this research aligns with previous work she has done in helping to develop certification for bird-friendly coffee, which encourages tropical farmers to grow and harvest coffee under the canopies of mature trees, a critical need for both tropical and migratory bird species.

Dayer said that getting buy-in from the forest landowners producing coffee or maple syrup is critical for conservation efforts like this initiative.

“As we’ve learned from other contexts, listening to landowners is the foundation of a successful private lands conservation project,” said Dayer. “Developing projects with them ensures that our work will have lasting benefits for people, habitats, and birds.”

Related stories

'Curious Conversations' podcast: Ashley Dayer talks about the positive impact of feeding birds

Bird feeding may give humans something to chirp about

Birds aren’t the only creatures who flock together

 

Most new doctors face some form of sexual harassment, even after #MeToo

Pair of new studies in first-year residents shows some encouraging trends, variation in experiences, and increased recognition of what constitutes harassment

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

More than half of all new doctors face some form of sexual harassment in their first year on the job, including nearly three-quarters of all new female doctors and a third of males, a new study finds.

 

That’s actually down somewhat from the percentage of new doctors who experienced the same five or six years before, according to the paper published in JAMA Health Forum by a team from the University of Michigan Medical School and Medical University of South Carolina.

 

And today’s new doctors are more likely than their predecessors to recognize that what they experienced qualifies as harassment, whether it was gender-biased comments or jokes, persistent unwanted romantic overtures, or pressure to engage in sexual activity for job-related reasons.

 

But the new study and another paper published recently in JAMA Network Open suggest that medical schools and hospitals need to do more to educate about, and address, all forms of sexual harassment. Some institutions and specific medical specialties have more work to do than others, the research shows.

 

That’s especially true for profession-related sexual coercion, which increased across the six years studied, though it was much rarer than gender-based verbal or work environment harassment.

 

In all, more than 5% of female first-year residents, also called interns, said in 2023 that they had been in a situation where they felt pressured to engage in a sexual activity in order to get favorable professional treatment. That was more than double the percentage who said so in 2017. The rate in men stayed the same, at less than 2%.

 

“The overall decrease in sexual harassment incidence over recent years suggests a move in the right direction, however rates of sexual harassment experienced by physician trainees are still alarmingly high,” said Elena Frank, Ph.D., lead author of the new study and an assistant research scientist at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute.

 

The findings come from surveys of thousands of doctors who took part in the Intern Health Study, based at the institute. Each summer, the study enrolls thousands of recent medical school graduates who volunteer to take a variety of smartphone-based surveys and wear activity trackers for their entire intern year.

 

Recognizing harassment

 

The new JAMA Health Forum study includes data from nearly 4,000 doctors who finished intern year in 2017, 2018 or 2023. In addition to being asked a general question about whether they had experienced sexual harassment, they were also asked whether and how often they had had specific experiences that qualify as gender-based harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion.

 

That allowed the researchers to measure interns’ recognition of what constitutes sexual harassment. To do so, they analyzed how many interns said they had had at least one of those specific experiences, and compared that with each person’s answer on the general question of whether they’d experienced sexual harassment.

 

In all, 55% of the interns in the 2023 group had experienced at least one form of sexual harassment. But only about 18% of that group recognized that they had experienced sexual harassment, and there was a big gap between women and men in recognition.

 

Recognition of what constitutes sexual harassment has improved, the study shows; in 2017 less than 9% of those who had a sexual harassment experience recognized it as such. Recognition improved fivefold in surgical specialties.

 

“The persistent gap between the experience and recognition of sexual harassment identified in our study illustrates the importance of looking beyond policy compliance, to challenge the deeply entrenched cultural norms that have enabled sexual and gender-based harassment to continue largely unquestioned in medicine for so long,” said Frank, who directs the Intern Health Study team. The society-wide #MeToo movement for sexual harassment awareness and prevention has likely made a difference too.

 

Variation in experiences

 

The team explored differences between types and locations of medical training in their JAMA Network Open paper, which is based on 2,000 interns who finished intern year at 28 institutions in 2017.

 

Interns training in surgery and emergency medicine were 20% more likely than those training in pediatrics or neurology to have experienced sexual harassment in 2017. And interns at some hospitals were 20% more likely to have experienced sexual harassment than those at hospitals with the lowest number of interns reporting any sexual harassment.

 

Elizabeth Viglianti, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., lead author of the JAMA Network Open study and an assistant professor of internal medicine at U-M, notes that the variation between specialties and institutions seen in the study she led suggests that residency programs and hospitals play a key role in combating harassment.

 

She notes that surgical training programs, which include general surgery and specialties that include surgical training such as gynecology, urology, otolaryngology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery and orthopedic surgery, have the most work to do.

 

“Until administrators, faculty, and trainees truly understand that sexual harassment is not and should not be an expected or accepted part of the training experience, an equitable and safe learning environment for physicians cannot be achieved,” Frank said.

In addition to Frank and Viglianti, the authors of the two papers include Intern Health Study co-investigator Constance Guille, M.D., of the Medical University of South Carolina; Intern Health Study principal investigator Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., who is also the director of the Eisenberg Family Depression Center and a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at U-M; other U-M faculty Amy Bohnert, Ph.D., M.H.S., Andrea Oliverio, M.D., M.Sc., and Lisa Meeks, Ph.D.  as well as Intern Health Study team members Zhuo Joan Zhao, M.S., Yu Fang, M.S.E., Jennifer Cleary, a doctoral student in psychology at U-M, and Karina Pereira-Lima, a Ph.D. student at the University of Sao Paolo.

The Intern Health Study is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (MH101459). Additional NIH funding was also used for the two studies.

Trends in Sexual Harassment Prevalence and Recognition During Intern Year, JAMA Health Forum, doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.0139

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

DOI

10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.0139 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Trends in Sexual Harassment Prevalence and Recognition During Intern Year

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Mar-2024

 

Scientists uncover evidence that microplastics are contaminating archaeological remains

Researchers have for the first time discovered evidence of microplastic contamination in archaeological soil samples

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

 

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RESEARCHERS IDENTIFIED 16 DIFFERENT MICROPLASTIC POLYMER TYPES ACROSS BOTH CONTEMPORARY AND ARCHIVED SAMPLES.

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CREDIT: YORK ARCHAEOLOGY

Researchers have for the first time discovered evidence of microplastic contamination in archaeological soil samples.

The team discovered tiny microplastic particles in deposits located more than seven metres deep, in samples dating back to the first or early second century and excavated in the late 1980s.

Preserving archaeology in situ has been the preferred approach to managing historical sites for a generation. However, the research team say the findings could prompt a rethink, with the tiny particles potentially compromising the preserved remains.

Microplastics are small plastic particles, ranging from 1μm (one thousandth of a millimetre) to 5mm. They come from a wide range of sources, from larger plastic pieces that have broken apart, or resin pellets used in plastic manufacturing which were frequently used in beauty products up until around 2020.

The study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, was carried out by the universities of York and Hull and supported by the educational charity York Archaeology.

Professor John Schofield from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “This feels like an important moment, confirming what we should have expected: that what were previously thought to be pristine archaeological deposits, ripe for investigation, are in fact contaminated with plastics, and that this includes deposits sampled and stored in the late 1980s.

“We are familiar with plastics in the oceans and in rivers. But here we see our historic heritage incorporating toxic elements. To what extent this contamination compromises the evidential value of these deposits, and their national importance is what we'll try to find out next.” 

David Jennings, chief executive of York Archaeology, added: “We think of microplastics as a very modern phenomenon, as we have only really been hearing about them for the last 20 years, when Professor Richard Thompson revealed in 2004 that they have been prevalent in our seas since the 1960s with the post-war boom in plastic production,” 

“This new study shows that the particles have infiltrated archaeological deposits, and like the oceans, this is likely to have been happening for a similar period, with particles found in soil samples taken and archived in 1988 at Wellington Row in York.”

The study identified 16 different microplastic polymer types across both contemporary and archived samples.  

“Where this becomes a concern for archaeology is how microplastics may compromise the scientific value of archaeological deposits.  Our best-preserved remains – for example, the Viking finds at Coppergate – were in a consistent anaerobic waterlogged environment for over 1000 years, which preserved organic materials incredibly well.  The presence of microplastics can and will change the chemistry of the soil, potentially introducing elements which will cause the organic remains to decay.  If that is the case, preserving archaeology in situ may no longer be appropriate,” added David Jennings.

The research team say further research into the impact of microplastics will be a priority for archaeologists, given the potential impact of these man-made chemicals on archaeological deposits. 

The study, ‘The contamination of in situ archaeological remains: A pilot analysis of microplastics in sediment samples using μFTIR’, has been published in Science of the Total Environment.

 ENDS

 

 

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JOURNAL

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.169941 

ARTICLE TITLE

The contamination of in situ archaeological remains: A pilot analysis of microplastics in sediment samples using μFTIR