Thousands of Orthodox Serbians march against EuroPride

Sun, August 28, 2022 

Thousands of Orthodox Christians marched in Belgrade Sunday to warn against holding EuroPride, despite the Serbian authorities' decision to cancel the pan-European gathering of the LGBTQ community next month.

Carrying icons, crosses and religious flags, protesters marched through the city centre while praying and chanting before gathering outside the cathedral of St Sava.

President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday announced that he had decided, in consultation with the government, that the pride parade would be "postponed or cancelled".

Vucic said it was not possible to "handle everything" at a time when Serbia was "pressured with all kinds of problems", underlining recent tensions with former province Kosovo and concerns over energy and food.

But EuroPride organisers vowed to press on with the parade.

"Pride will go ahead as planned on September 17," Belgrade Pride coordinator Marko Mihailovic said.

Addressing the crowd on Sunday, Serbian Orthodox Bishop Nikanor hailed the authorities' decision to reverse "the desecration of our country, our Church and our family".

For him, it was an "abnormality" which should be treated as in the Russia of President Vladimir Putin -- whom he referred to as "the tsar of the planet", according to video footage on the Glas Javnosti news site.

In 2013, Russia introduced a law banning LGBT "propaganda" aimed at minors, punishable with fines and imprisonment.

Bishop Nikanor said the faithful were ready to take to the streets again to "put themselves before those who intend to destroy the values of Serbia".

The first two Belgrade Pride marches, in 2001 and 2010, were marred by violence. The parade has been organised regularly since 2014 but with a large law enforcement presence.

bur-rus/jnd/mtp/dva

Thousands of homophobes protest EuroPride event that’s already been postponed

AMELIA HANSFORD AUGUST 29, 2022

Thousands of religious and right-wing Serbians have marched in Belgrade to protest an upcoming EuroPride event… that’s already been postponed.

Anti-LGBTQ+ protestors took to the streets of the country’s capital on Sunday (28 August) to oppose plans for the city to host EuroPride on 17 September – the event is hosted in a different European country each year.

The march was led by clergy from the Serbian Orthodox Church but was also attended by several other groups sharing similar sentiments. Bishops in the march told Reuters the Pride event threatened their view of traditional family values.

Some held signs saying things like “save our children,” while others carried crosses and pictures of significant religious figures.

The day before the march, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić had said the event would be postponed or cancelled, citing fears right-wing activists would attempt to dismantle the celebration.

“It will happen but in some other and happier time,” he said in a statement, while the Belgrade Pride director Marko Mihailovic said the government couldn’t cancel the event, only “try to ban it”.

European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) president Kristine Garina responded to the news, saying the Serbian president could not “cancel someone else’s event”.

“EuroPride in Belgrade will not be cancelled and will bring together thousands of LGBTI+ people from across Europe with LGBTI+ people from Serbia and the wider western Balkans,” the Latvian activist said.

Garina also claimed that the ban would violate Serbia’s commitment to the European Convention of Human Rights, saying: “Aside from the illegality of such a ban, it must be noted that those opposing EuroPride in Belgrade are using tired old tropes, inaccuracies and downright lies to discredit what is, in fact, a celebration of human rights and equality.”

The country has been attempting to join the European Union since 2009, but negotiations are ongoing and have involved improving human rights. Its history of banning Pride parades in the past has received criticism from several European human rights organisations – this includes marches in the early 2000s that were embroiled in violence from anti-LGBTQ+ protesters.

But after some peaceful Serbian Pride parades, EuroPride had allowed Belgrade to be considered as a candidate to host the 2022 event.

In a letter to the EPOA, former prime minister Ana Brnabić wrote: “The government I lead is committed to ensuring the full respect of human rights and of all citizens and we hereby promise to help the Belgrade Pride organising team in ensuring a safe and successful organisation of EuroPride in Belgrade in 2022.”

WORK TO RULE BY ANY OTHER NAME

'Quiet quitting' raising a din in stressful US workplaces

Brian KNOWLTON
Sun, August 28, 2022 


They are drawing a line at the 40-hour work week, limiting after-hours calls and emails and generally, if softly, saying "no" more often -- some American workers are embracing the concept of "quiet quitting" as they push back against what some see as the stifling trap of constant connectivity.

Maggie Perkins -- who lives in Athens, Georgia -- was racking up 60-hour weeks as a matter of course in her job as a teacher, but the 30-year-old realized after her first child was born that something was wrong.

"There's pictures of me grading papers on an airplane on the way to vacation. I did not have a work-life balance," Perkins explains in a TikTok video about how she chose -- though she did not have a name for it back then -- to begin "quiet quitting."


Perkins told AFP she eventually left her job to pursue a PhD, but remains an advocate for her former colleagues -- producing videos and podcasts with practical tips on making their workload fit inside their workday.

"Adopting this 'quiet quitting' mindset really just means that you are establishing a boundary that helps you to do your job when you are paid to do it -- and then you can leave that, and go home and be a human with your family," she says.
- Work-life balance or slacking? -

The buzzword seems to have first surfaced in a July TikTok post.

In the words of user @zaidleppelin, "You're not outright quitting your job but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond. You're still performing your duties but you're no longer subscribing to the hustle culture mentality that work has to be your life."

That post went viral, drawing nearly a half-million likes. Responses bubbled over with a sense of shared resentment -- and newspaper columnists spilled ink all summer trying to decipher the phenomenon.

For the debate soon erupted: Are "quiet quitters" merely trying to draw boundaries in pursuit of a reasonable work-life balance, more associated with a European lifestyle than with always-on US work culture?

Are they slackers with a trendy new name? Or are they people at genuine risk of burnout -- who would do best to quit outright?

Data suggests the need for greater balance is real.

On-the-job stress rose from 38 percent of those polled in 2019 to 43 percent the following year as Covid-19 upended the world of work, Gallup found, with women in the United States and Canada facing the most pressure.

Similar dynamics helped fuel the "Great Resignation" -- the surge in employees leaving or switching jobs amid pandemic-related pressures.

Many "quiet quitters" say they are perfectly willing to work hard, but only for the hours the job is meant to entail. Their motto: "act your wage."

Some observers are skeptical, of course, contending that offices have always had their share of clock-watchers and prickly workers claiming certain tasks are not their responsibility.

Going further, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, panned the phenomenon as "a step toward quitting on life."

But former US labor secretary Robert Reich summed up the -- forceful -- counterargument, saying "Workers aren't 'quiet quitting.' They're refusing to be exploited for their labor."
- 'Six months of dread' -

A case in point: the experience of Bess, who asked not to be identified by her real name, illustrates how Covid allowed some jobs to spill far outside their normal boundaries.

She was hired shortly before the pandemic in a job originally meant to involve regular trips to Germany.

But, she told AFP, Covid left her stuck in her New York apartment, having to take phone calls as early as 3:00 am due to the time difference.

Out of self-preservation, she began to dial back her efforts -- which her American friends had trouble understanding.

"There is that stigma -- you put your blood, sweat and tears into your job in the US, and if you don't work, you don't deserve to be here," she said.

"After six months of dread," Bess explains, she simply stopped answering emails for several weeks -- and ultimately parted ways with her company.

Philip Oreopoulos, a labor economist at the University of Toronto, said one solution is better communications to clarify employer expectations before accepting a job.

"If you need to be on call at home, then they should clearly state that," he said.

And if things do get out of hand -- and quiet quitting won't fix the problem -- aggrieved workers do have one asset to fall back on: a historically low unemployment rate.

"Come to an employer and say, 'I have an opportunity with another firm and I'm thinking of taking it,'" Oreopoulos said. "It's a good time in general to be asking for a raise."

bbk/caw/ec/sst

Water flouridation: Effective prevention for tooth decay and a win for the environment - Trinity research

Research findings also strengthen the case internationally for water fluoridation programmes to reduce dental decay, particularly in the most vulnerable populations.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Trinity College Dublin researchers collaborating with University College London have demonstrated for the first time the low environmental footprint of water fluoridation compared to other preventive measures for tooth decay. The study is published in the British Dental Journal  today [Monday 29th August 2022].

Water fluoridation is regarded as one of the most significant public health interventions of the twentieth century. But as the climate crisis worsens, the contribution of healthcare and the prevention of disease to the crisis must be considered. Action is urgent.

Influenced by this urgency, researchers quantified the environmental impact of water fluoridation for an individual five year-old child over a one-year period and compared this to the traditional use of fluoride varnish and toothbrushing programmes, which take place in selected schools across the UK, and internationally.

Today, over 35% of the world’s population have access to water fluoridation, with studies showing significant reductions in dental caries. Whilst data on the clinical effectiveness and cost analysis of water fluoridation are available, there has been no data regarding its environmental impact up to now.

To quantify this impact, the research team performed a Life Cycle Assessment  (LCA) by carefully measuring the combined travel, the weight and amounts of all products and the processes involved in all three preventive programmes (toothbrushing, fluoride varnish programmes and water fluoridation) . Data was inputted into a specific environmental programme (OpenLCA) and the team used the Ecoinvent database, enabling them to calculate environmental outputs, including the carbon footprint, the amount of water used for each product and the amount of land use.

The results of the study, led by Brett Duane, Associate Professor in Dental Public Health at Trinity College, concluded that water fluoridation had the lowest environmental impact in all categories studied, and had the lowest disability-adjusted life years impact when compared to all other community-level caries prevention programmes. The study also found that water fluoridation gives the greatest return on investment.

Considering the balance between clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness and environmental sustainability, researchers believe that water fluoridation should be the preventive intervention of choice.

This research strengthens the case internationally for water fluoridation programmes to reduce dental decay, especially in the most vulnerable populations.

Associate Professor Duane said: 

“ As the climate crisis starts to worsen, we need to find ways of preventing disease to reduce the environmental impact of our health systems. This research clearly demonstrates the low carbon impact of water fluoridation as an effective prevention tool. “

Professor Paul Ashley, Senior Clinical Lecturer (Honorary NHS Consultant), UCL Eastman Dental Institute added:

“Renewed efforts should be made to increase access to this intervention.”

Ends

 

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JOURNAL

BDJ

DOI

10.1038/s41415-022-4251-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The environmental impact of community caries prevention - part 3: water fluoridation

Drinking black tea may be associated with lower mortality risk

Embargoed News from Annals of Internal Medicine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIAN

1. Drinking black tea may be associated with lower mortality risk

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-0041

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

A prospective cohort study found that drinking black tea may be associated with a moderately lower mortality risk. The risk was lowest among persons drinking two or more cups of tea per day. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Tea is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide. Previous research has suggested an association between tea consumptions and lower mortality risk in populations where green tea is the most common type of tea. In contrast, published studies in populations where black tea drinking is more common are limited with inconsistent findings.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health conducted a study to evaluate the associations of tea consumption with all-cause and cause-specific mortality using data from the U.K. Biobank, where black tea drinking is common. They also assessed whether the associations differ by use of common tea additives (milk and sugar), tea temperature, and genetic variants affecting the rate at which people metabolize caffeine. The U.K. Biobank includes data on a half a million men and women, aged 40 to 69 years, who completed a baseline questionnaire between 2006 and 2010. Of those, 85 percent reported regularly drinking tea and of them, 89 percent reported drinking black tea. Relative to tea nondrinkers, participants who reported drinking 2 or more cups each day had 9 to 13 percent lower risk for mortality. The associations were observed regardless of whether participants also drank coffee, added milk or sugar to their tea, their preferred tea temperature, or genetic variants related to caffeine metabolism. According to the authors, their findings suggest that tea, even at higher levels of intake, can be part of a healthy diet.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with the corresponding author, Maki Inoue-Choi, PhD, please email Igor Ristic at igor.ristic@nih.gov or ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov.

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2. Physician “gun lover” offers suggestions for safer Second Amendment

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1792

URL goes live when the embargo lifts

Michael Rose, MD, MPH, is a proud gun owner, hunter, and native North Dakotan who practices medicine in the heart of Baltimore. Dr. Rose understands how his personal and professional lives may seem at odds with one another. But in a new personal essay published in Annals of Internal Medicine, Dr. Rose draws upon an insider's perspective to offer suggestions for more common-sense gun laws and a safer Second Amendment.

Gun ownership is a right protected by the Constitution, and nearly 30 percent of Americans own a gun. However, as previous research published in Annals has suggested, gun violence has significant health and safety impacts for owners, their family members, and the public.

Dr. Rose argues that his experience practicing medicine in Baltimore has shown him the devastating impact of America’s lack of gun regulation. While gun ownership is a right affirmed by the United States constitution and legal precedent, U.S. Supreme Court rulings maintain that gun rights can be regulated--and the history of public health shows that regulation allows for harm reduction. Dr. Rose believes that vocal gun extremists are the outliers and responsible gun owners like himself will support common sense policy suggestions, including reinstating the national ban on assault rifles, outlawing gun carrying in high-occupancy spaces, implementing of universal background checks, and improving safety training.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. For an interview with Michael Rose, MD, MPH, please email JHMedia@jhmi.edu.

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3. Good Publication Practice (GPP) Guidelines for Company-Sponsored Biomedical Research updated for 2022

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1460

URLs go live when the embargo lifts

The Good Publication Practice (GPP) guidelines comprised of recommendations for publishing company-sponsored biomedical research have been updated for 2022. According to the authors, these guidelines are important because they include guidance on transparency and accountability, two increasingly high priorities for company-sponsored research. The guidelines are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Created by a team of researchers for the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), the GPP guidelines apply to publications of biomedical research conducted by or in collaboration with companies or company sponsors. Publications may include peer-reviewed or peer-oriented biomedical publications, such as manuscripts, meeting presentations, posters, and abstracts, as well as enhanced content, such as plain-language summaries. For all of those areas, the GPP guidelines provide detailed recommendations related to ethics; research and data integrity; transparency; inclusivity; and authorship, contributorship, and accountability. The 2022 GPP guidelines represent a continuation of prior work to establish and refine the concept of good publication practice. A table provides a detailed list of changes and where to find them in the document.

Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. Corresponding author, Lisa M. DeTora, PhD, MA, can be contacted directly at Lisa.M.DeTora@hofstra.edu.

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Also new in this issue:

From Individualized Interactions to Standardized Schedules:

A History of Time Organization in U.S. Outpatient Medicine

History of Medicine

Michelle-Linh T. Nguyen, MD; Samuel V. Schotland, MA; and Joel D. Howell, MD, PhD

Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-1575

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JOURNAL

Annals of Internal Medicine

DOI

10.7326/M22-0041 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Tea Consumption and All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in the UK Biobank

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Aug-2022

Sugar disrupts microbiome, eliminates protection against obesity and diabetes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER

A study of mice found that dietary sugar alters the gut microbiome, setting off a chain of events that leads to metabolic disease, pre-diabetes, and weight gain.

The findings, published today in Cell(link is external and opens in a new window), suggest that diet matters, but an optimal microbiome is equally important for the prevention of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and obesity. 

Diet alters microbiome

A Western-style high-fat, high-sugar diet can lead to obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, but how the diet kickstarts unhealthy changes in the body is unknown.

The gut microbiome is indispensable for an animal’s nutrition, so Ivalyo Ivanov, PhD, associate professor of microbiology & immunology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and his colleagues investigated the initial effects of the Western-style diet on the microbiome of mice.

After four weeks on the diet, the animals showed characteristics of metabolic syndrome, such as weight gain, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance. And their microbiomes had changed dramatically, with the amount of segmented filamentous bacteria—common in the gut microbiota of rodents, fish, and chickens—falling sharply and other bacteria increasing in abundance.

Microbiome changes alter Th17 cells

The reduction in filamentous bacteria, the researchers found, was critical to the animals’ health through its effect on Th17 immune cells. The drop in filamentous bacteria reduced the number of Th17 cells in the gut, and further experiments revealed that it’s the Th17 cells that are necessary to prevent metabolic disease, diabetes, and weight gain.

“These immune cells produce molecules that slow down the absorption of ‘bad’ lipids from the intestines and they decrease intestinal inflammation,” Ivanov says. “In other words, they keep the gut healthy and protect the body from absorbing pathogenic lipids.”

Sugar vs. fat

What component of the high-fat, high-sugar diet led to these changes? Ivanov’s team found that sugar was to blame.

“Sugar eliminates the filamentous bacteria, and the protective Th17 cells disappear as a consequence,” says Ivanov. “When we fed mice a sugar-free, high-fat diet, they retain the intestinal Th17 cells and were completely protected from developing obesity and pre-diabetes, even though they ate the same number of calories.”

But eliminating sugar did not help all mice. Among those lacking any filamentous bacteria to begin with, elimination of sugar did not have a beneficial effect, and the animals became obese and developed diabetes.

“This suggests that some popular dietary interventions, such as minimizing sugars, may only work in people who have certain bacterial populations within their microbiota,” Ivanov says.

In those cases, certain probiotics might be helpful. In Ivanov’s mice, supplements of filamentous bacteria led to the recovery of Th17 cells and protection against metabolic syndrome, despite the animals’ consumption of a high-fat diet.

Though people do not have the same filamentous bacteria as mice, Ivanov thinks that other bacteria in people may have the same protective effects.

Providing Th17 cells to the mice also provided protection and may also be therapeutic for people. “Microbiota are important, but the real protection comes from the Th17 cells induced by the bacteria,” Ivanov says.

“Our study emphasizes that a complex interaction between diet, microbiota, and the immune system plays a key role in the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and other conditions,” Ivanov says. “It suggests that for optimal health it is important not only to modify your diet but also improve your microbiome or intestinal immune system, for example, by increasing Th17 cell-inducing bacteria.”

 

More information

Top image of segmented filamentous bacteria in the mouse intestine from Ivalyo Ivanov, Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The study, titled “Microbiota imbalance induced by dietary sugar disrupts immune-mediated protection from metabolic syndrome,” was published online Aug. 29 in Cell.

All authors: Yoshinaga Kawano (Columbia and Keio University School of Medicine), Madeline Edwards (Columbia), Yiming Huang (Columbia), Angelina M. Bilate (Rockefeller University), Leandro P. Araujo (Columbia), Takeshi Tanoue (Keio University School of Medicine and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences), Koji Atarashi (Keio University School of Medicine and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences), Mark S. Ladinsky (California Institute of Technology), Steven L. Reiner (Columbia), Harris H. Wang (Columbia), Daniel Mucida (Rockefeller University), Kenya Honda (Keio University School of Medicine and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences), and Ivaylo I. Ivanov (Columbia).

This work was supported by funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (DK098378, AI144808, AI163069, AI146817, DK093674, DK113375, AI132403, DK118044, and EB031935); the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (PATH1019125 and PATH1016691); fellowships from MSD Life Science Foundation, the Russell Berrie Foundation, and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (20H05627); the U.S. National Science Foundation (MCB-2025515); and the Irma T. Hirschl Trust.

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JOURNAL

Cell

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Microbiota imbalance induced by dietary sugar disrupts immune-mediated protection from metabolic syndrome

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2022

Surrounded by sick coworkers? Your body is preparing for battle.

Chapman University biologist says physiology shifts gears from anticipating sickness to defense mode.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY

Surrounded by coworkers who are sniffling and sneezing?

You may not be able to ask for sick leave preemptively, but your body is already bracing for battle, says Patricia C. Lopes, assistant professor of biological sciences at Chapman University’s Schmid College of Science and Technology.

Lopes studies how our bodies and behaviors change once we become sick.

“Our physiology, particularly the immune system — the system that protects the body from invaders — is tightly regulated,” says Lopes. “Once we become sick, our physiology can drastically change to support recovery from the disease.”

Lopes’ article in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology “Anticipating infection: How parasitism risk changes animal physiology” highlights research showing that there are scenarios in which our physiology changes prior to becoming sick, when disease risk is high.

“In other words,” Lopes, explains, “our brains can obtain information from diseased people and then elicit changes to our physiology. For example, observing images of sick people can already trigger activation of the immune system.”

From a big picture perspective, this means that parasites affect our lives much more than previously considered, because they are already affecting our physiology even before they invade us, she says.

“How this ability to change physiology before getting sick helps animals cope with, or recover from disease is not well known, but could have major impacts on how diseases spread, and on how we care for and study sick humans and other sick animals,” Lopes says.

About Chapman University
Founded in 1861, Chapman University is a nationally ranked private university located in Southern California. Chapman is categorized by the Carnegie Classification as an R2 “high research activity” institution and offers personalized education to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The campus has produced a Rhodes Scholar, been named a top producer of Fulbright Scholars, and hosts a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor society. Based in the city of Orange, Chapman also includes the Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine. In 2019, the university opened its 11th college, Fowler School of Engineering, in its newest facility, Keck Center for Science and Engineering. Learn more about Chapman University: www.chapman.edu. 

 

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JOURNAL

Functional Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2435.14155 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Anticipating infection: How parasitism risk changes animal physiology

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2022

State-level earned income tax credit linked to reduction in high-risk HIV behavior among single mothers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

FINDINGS 
UCLA research finds that a refundable State-level Earned Income Tax Credit (SEITC) of 10% or above the Federal EITC was associated with a 21% relative risk reduction in reported behavior that could put single mothers at high risk for becoming infected with HIV during the previous year. Also, a 10 percentage-point increase in SEITC was linked to a 38% relative reduction in the same reported high-risk behavior the previous year. 
 
BACKGROUND 
Previous research has found a relationship between poverty and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Poverty, low-wage jobs, income inequality, and other economic structural factors may spread sexually transmitted infections by creating high-risk partner pools, facilitating transactional sex, and undermining women’s sexual agency.
 
METHOD 
The researchers used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2002-2018) and state-level data from the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research to conduct a multi-state, multi-year analysis. 
 
IMPACT 
These findings demonstrate the impact of anti-poverty policy interventions such as providing cash aid to those in need. In this case, the reduction in HIV risk behavior was what would be expected for two or more hours of intensive HIV risk-reduction counseling, which few low-income single mothers can readily access. Thus, SEITC policy may be a strategy to reduce HIV among women with low socioeconomic status, particularly single mothers. 
 
AUTHORS 
Dr. Kimberly Danae Cauley Narain and Nina Harawa of UCLA. 
 

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JOURNAL

AIDS and Behavior

DOI

10.1007/s10461-022-03754-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Evidence for the role of state-level economic policy in HIV risk reduction: State earned income tax credit generosity and HIV risk behavior among single mothers

Study reveals pregnant women are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in dishware, hair coloring, plastics, and pesticides

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

Pregnant women in the U.S. are being exposed to chemicals like melamine, cyanuric acid, and aromatic amines that can increase the risk of cancer and harm child development, according to researchers at UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Melamine and cyanuric acid were found in nearly all study participants' samples, but the highest levels were found in women of color and those with greater exposure to tobacco. Four aromatic amines that are commonly used in products containing dyes and pigments were also found in nearly all pregnant participants.

People can be exposed to melamine and aromatic amines in a variety of ways: through the air they breathe, by eating contaminated food or ingesting household dust, as well as from drinking water or by using products that contain plastic, dyes, and pigments.

“These chemicals are of serious concern due to their links to cancer and developmental toxicity, yet they are not routinely monitored in the United States,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive medicine who directs the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, and is the co-senior author of the study published August 30, 2022, in Chemosphere.

Melamine and its major byproduct, cyanuric acid, are each high production chemicals that exceed 100 million pounds per year in this country alone. When exposure to these chemicals happens together, they can be more toxic than either one alone. Melamine is found in dishware, plastics, flooring, kitchen counters, and pesticides; cyanuric acid is used as a disinfectant, plastic stabilizer, and cleaning solvent in swimming pools; aromatic amines are found in hair dye, mascara, tattoo ink, paint, tobacco smoke, and diesel exhaust. 

Melamine was recognized as a kidney toxicant after baby formula and pet food poisoning incidents in 2004, 2007, and 2008 that caused several deaths as well as kidney stones and urinary tract obstruction in some people. Additional animal experiments suggest melamine reduces brain function.

For their study, researchers measured 45 chemicals associated with cancer and other risks using new methods to capture chemicals or chemical traces in urine samples from a small but diverse group of 171 women who are part of the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The study period covered 2008 to 2020. 

The 171 women came from California, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, and Puerto Rico. About one-third (34%) were white, 40% were Latina, 20% were Black, 4% were Asians, and the remaining 3% were from other or multiple racial groups. Prior studies on melamine were conducted among pregnant women in Asian countries or limited to non-pregnant people in the U.S.

“It’s disconcerting that we continue to find higher levels of many of these harmful chemicals in people of color,” said study co-senior author Jessie Buckley, PhD, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

For example, levels of 3,4-dichloroaniline (a chemical used in the production of dyes and pesticides) were more than 100% higher among Black and Hispanic women compared to white women. 

“Our findings raise concerns for the health of pregnant women and fetuses, since some of these chemicals are known carcinogens and potential developmental toxicants,” said Giehae Choi, postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and first author of the study. “Regulatory action is clearly needed to limit exposure.”

Authors: For a full list, please see the paper. 

Funding: The research was supported by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health: U2COD023375 (Coordinating Center), U24OD023382 (Data Analysis Center), U24OD023319 (PRO Core), U2CES026542 (HHEAR), and UH3OD023251, UH3OD023272, UH3OD023275, UH3OD023287, UH3OD023290, UH3OD023318, UH3OD023342, UH3OD023349, UH3OD023347, and UH3OD023365 (cohort grantees). 
 

About UCSF Health: UCSF Health is recognized worldwide for its innovative patient care, reflecting the latest medical knowledge, advanced technologies and pioneering research. It includes the flagship UCSF Medical Center, which is ranked among the top 10 hospitals nationwide, as well as UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, with campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians and the UCSF Faculty Practice. These hospitals serve as the academic medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, which is world-renowned for its graduate-level health sciences education and biomedical research. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. Visit https://www.ucsfhealth.org/. Follow UCSF Health on Facebook or on Twitter

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Follow UCSF
ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | Twitter.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf

 

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JOURNAL

Chemosphere

Paper finds employers increasingly willing to hire workers with criminal records

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS USA

A new paper in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that many American businesses are willing to hire workers with criminal records. Such companies become even more interested in hiring such workers if offered crime and safety insurance.

Employers are unlikely to interview or hire workers with criminal records compared to otherwise similar workers. In 2008, the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people—27%—was higher than the U.S. unemployment rate for the general population at any point in history, including during the Great Depression.

In this paper, researchers used a field experiment to test several approaches to increasing the demand for workers with criminal backgrounds that directly address the underlying reasons that employers may conduct criminal background checks. The researchers offered nearly 1,000 businesses crime and safety insurance to address risk concerns, as well as screening based on past performance reviews and the time since the most recent criminal records. The researchers also provided objective information on the average performance of workers based on their backgrounds to address risk and productivity concerns. They compared these approaches to the effects of a wage subsidy, essentially paying businesses to hire people with criminal records, a very expensive way to increase the demand for workers with criminal records, if a simple one.  

The context for the study is a leading online labor platform used by thousands of businesses in the United States to employ workers for short-term jobs. The companies use the platform to connect with workers to fill a range of entry-level jobs in sectors including general labor, hospitality, and transportation, as well as entry-level jobs in customer-facing or administrative sectors that are traditionally more averse to hiring people with criminal backgrounds. Businesses using the platform do not decide whether to work with individual workers. The platform extends the job offer to workers who meet minimum job qualifications. Potential workers can then accept or reject these job offers on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Researchers here found that 39% of businesses using the platform are willing to hire people with criminal backgrounds at baseline. Some 45% of businesses are willing to hire such employees for jobs that do not involve customer interactions. The researchers found that 51% of businesses without high-value inventory were willing to hire employees with criminal backgrounds. If employers are having difficulty filling positions the demand increases to 68%. Investigators found that demand increased by 10 percentage points when they offered employers the option of crime and safety insurance, a single performance review, or the ability to screen the most recent criminal records.

According to the study, limiting workers with criminal records to those who had completed a prior job on the platform increased demand for their services by 11 percentage points, the equivalent of the effect of an 80% wage subsidy. Limiting workers to those who had not been arrested or convicted in the past year increased demand by 21 percentage points, the equivalent of the effect of a 100% wage subsidy to employers. The researchers conclude that policies related to providing employers with crime and safety insurance and screening for workers based on past performance and the time since the most recent crime can significantly increase the demand for workers with criminal records at a fraction of the cost of providing employees with subsidies to hire such workers.

“With cost-effective policies, platforms can integrate workers with past involvement in the criminal justice system without deterring employers,” said the paper’s lead author, Zoë Cullen. “This is a promising approach to expanding labor supply, and simultaneously addressing a pressing social challenge.”

The paper, “Increasing the demand for workers with a criminal record,” is available (at midnight on August 30th ) at: https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/qje/qjac029.

Zoë B. Cullen
Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Rock Center Rm. 211
Boston, MA 02163
zcullen@hbs.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact:
Daniel Luzer 
daniel.luzer@oup.com

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JOURNAL

The Quarterly Journal of Economics

DOI

10.1093/qje/qjac029 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Increasing the demand for workers with a criminal record

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Aug-2022