Health Policy Commons^™

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Addressing The Role Of Climate Change In Agriculture And Mexico-Us Immigration, Xiaoxin Liang

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Among the greatest threats of climate change is the significant impact on mass displacement, particularly as it relates to Mexico-US immigration. Low crop yields from worsening climate conditions have been linked to increased migration of Mexican farmers. With a projected 4.2 million additional migrants in the foreseeable future, it poses a contemporary environmental, social, and political dilemma. This policy brief analyzes several provision proposals to be adopted into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as evaluated under economic cost, equity, environmental impact, and feasibility criteria. My research concludes that the most effective and direct provision proposal is the implementation of adaptive …

The Disproportionate Impact Of Toxins In Consumer Products, Meredith Bollheimer, Elissa Reitz

The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal

The number of chemicals used in everyday products has grown exponentially over the last century. Many of these chemicals are known endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC’s) and they have not been proven to be safe for humans or for the environment. Rather, many of these chemicals have been linked to negative human health outcomes and damage to the environment. Corporate America is responsible for the production and liberal use of these chemicals in consumer and personal care products. The federal government has failed to provide effective or meaningful standards or regulations for the myriad chemicals of concern that make their way …

A Retrospective Study Of Epa's Record Of Decision Report On The Woolfolk Arsenic And Lead Contamination In Fort Valley, Georgia, Ovigueroye L. Ojarikre, Oreta Samples, Jacques Surrency

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

Heavy metal contamination is a major anthropogenic challenge in communities with heavy presence of chemical industries. Most of the contamination is due to the improper disposal of chemical waste. The study involved the evaluation of the levels of arsenic and lead regarding remediation activities carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It compared the results of the EPA’s 1993 soil analysis of arsenic and lead, and a subsequent soil analysis of the same mapped areas. It also covered the evaluation of the level of arsenic dust in the attics of residential properties and evaluation of the EPA’s record …

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review Fall 2018

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

No abstract provided.

The Battle Over Fracking: The Mobilization Of Local Residents, Mehmet Soyer, Sebahattin Ziyanak

The Qualitative Report

In the last decade, the natural gas industry has grown rapidly, and North Texas has become a major shale gas-producing area. This paper studies the power struggle of two rival groups (Frack Free Denton and Denton Tax Payers for a Strong Economy) over fracking in Denton. How did each of these groups challenge the claims-making activities and goals of their adversaries?” We conducted data from ten in-depth interviews from each side to compare concerns about fracking. This study focuses on the campaign of the two groups on each side of the debate. We developed the model of merging the theoretical …

Better Together

DePaul Magazine

Faculty have taken full advantage of the university's innovative intercollegiate grant program, and the resulting research is as interesting and diverse as the collaborators themselves. What is resulting is research on "Patient and Primary Care Provider Perspectives on Recreational and Therapeutic Cannabis Use Within a Changing Socioculltural and Political Context;" a new minor in climate change science and policy; a new class, Communication, Coding and Entrepreneurship; brain inflammation research; and the project "Cosmology Meets Continental Philosophy: Natural Laws and Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing"

Food Policy: Urban Farming As A Supplemental Food Source, Bessie Didomenica, Mark Gordon

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Food policy has a unique role for public, nonprofit, private, and academic stakeholders. Growing food in the city is a challenge worldwide. Food systems can be destroyed by external (weather extremes) and internal (zoning regulations) forces. This study explores urban farms as a secondary food source and their common themes across four sectors. A Northeastern U.S. city was the case study to examine how it implemented its formal urban agriculture program. The positive social change implications of urban farms include greater food visibility and food access in low-income areas and more consumer awareness about growing fresh food. This study contributes …

Jefferson's New Smoking Policies: Steps Toward A Healthier Work Environment, Russell K. Mcintire Phd,Mph, Amber Bowie Mph Student

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Racial Disparities In Access To Community Water Supply Service In Wake County, North Carolina, Jacqueline Macdonald Gibson, Nicholas Defelice, Daniel Sebastian, Hannah Leker

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Anecdotal evidence suggests that historically African American communities on the fringes of cities and towns in North Carolina have been systematically denied access to municipal drinking water service. This paper presents the first statistical analysis of the role of race in determining water access in these fringe areas, known as extraterritorial jurisdictions. Using publicly available property tax data, we quantified the percentage of residences with municipal water service in each census block in Wake County (the second-largest by population in North Carolina). Using the resulting water service maps plus 2010 U.S. Census data, we employed a logistic regression to assess …

Happiness In Public Policy, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

The happiness movement represents a new paradigm where social, economic, and environmental systems are structured to encourage human well-being in a sustainable environment. Bhutan has adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) as a way of determining its society’s success in contrast to purely economic goals and the singular use of the gross domestic product indicator. Bhutanese policy promulgation includes use of a GNH screening tool. In the United Kingdom, happiness indicators are being used to collect data and the government is starting to explore their application to policy. The Bhutanese GNH policy screening tool has been adapted for the grassroots activists, …

Regulation Of Hydraulic Fracturing Of Shale Gas Formations In The United States, Fatemeh Bagheri

Pepperdine Policy Review

The practice of hydraulic fracturing has become increasingly common over the years since it has been looked at to replace energy derived from coal. Though hydraulic fracturing may be one of the better forms of obtaining energy, it comes with its own set of problems ranging from environmental problems to health problems if the appropriate safeguards are not implemented when completing the process. Regulations at the local, state, and federal level are assessed to determine which entity should regulate the practice and many technologies are reviewed in order to offer suggestions which allow the process to be completed without significant …

Mobile Health Technology In Developing Countries: The Case Of Tanzania, Shruti Modi

Pepperdine Policy Review

Mobile technology is one of the fastest growing industries. In rural parts of the world, mobile phones are more accessible than sanitation facilities and electricity. Mobile phones can be used to transmit health information, promote health awareness, track the spread of diseases, and ultimately decrease the prevalence of diseases. In particular, this study focuses on how mobile health technology, m-health, can reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria in Tanzania.

Can Clean Drinking Water And Sanitation Reduce Child Mortality In Senegal?, Catherine Bampoky

Pepperdine Policy Review

The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of clean drinking water, modern sanitation facilities and hygiene on child mortality rates in Senegal. Diarrhea-related morbidity is still fairly common among young children and this disease is mainly due to poor hygiene and environmental factors. Although extensive research has been done on the determinants of child mortality in Senegal, they were mainly descriptive studies that did not focus on a policy-related variable on which public policies could have a direct intervention. Using dummy dependent variable models, I find that drinking water source and sanitation facility are not individually statistically …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

An Inconvenient Lie: Big Tobacco Was Put On Trial For Denying The Effects Of Smoking; Is Climate Change Denial Off-Limits?, Elizabeth Dubats

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Plaintiffs have made several notable attempts to bring nuisance, trespass, and negligence suits against major sources of greenhouse gas emissions for climate change related injuries. While climate change is a widely recognized environmental issue, courts have refused to recognize it as a basis for a valid cause of action in tort, finding either petitioners lack standing to bring the claim, or that the claim raises political questions that should not be addressed by the judiciary. Some more recent climate change tort claims have also included allegations of fraud on the part of the hydrocarbon industry for actively perpetuating misinformation about …