Endocrine disrupting chemicals vs longevity in the COVID-19 era: Public health implications

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are a controversial topic within scientific, regulatory, socio-economic, and public health circles. Nonetheless, every community's physical environment is currently under siege from various EDCs, many of which are still unknown. EDCs affect the normal function of the endocrine, neurological, and immune systems, consequently diminishing successful development, reproductive adulthood, and decreasing survival. Beyond any doubt, adverse effects of EDCs are a consequence of multiple everyday exposures to hundreds of chemicals in unknown environmental doses such as pesticides, insecticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, brominated flame retardants, and parabens. Considering that thousands of other known endocrine disruptors fly under the radar of scientific and medical communities due to existing methodological pitfalls, the situation is quite precarious. In 2012, the World Health Organization published a report emphasizing that EDCs are a major and emerging global public health threat. The combined power of informed consumers, industry innovations, and government regulations is the driving force in this fight. Therefore, research advancements, public health infrastructure, and environmental protection agencies are the fundamental pillars in combating the ever-growing issue of EDCs.

“Health Circles” at Enterprise: The Forming and Application Experience

Workplace Health Promotion at enterprise in the market economy environment is filled with the new content. In Western countries practice it is formed under the motto “healthy people in healthy organization” and often realized through “health circles”. Being developed in Germany, they allow the employer to guarantee employees their safety, occupational health and health promotion at workplace. The article provides the analysis of health circles productivity factors received the names according to the place-name of their primary use cities at enterprises — correspondingly, Berlin and Dusseldorf. The Berlin model feature consists in the fact that in the circles, as a rule, there are workers of similar positions. In Dusseldorf model — besides the non-uniform participants from employed at enterprise in addition external experts are invited.

Research translation through participatory research: The case of two community-based projects in low-income African settings

In the context of a call for public health research to address social challenges and transform communities and society, research translation has increasingly become an imperative in South Africa. Research translation seeks to improve real-world settings and enhance quality of life by applying research-generated knowledge. These goals are shared by proponents of participatory action research (PAR). However, the way in which research is pursued constitutes a major focus for PAR, where the paradigmatic position influences how we relate to knowledge and people, and whether and how we achieve the goals concerned. This article contrasts the meta-theoretical positioning of PAR with that of research translation as it is pursued within public health circles, and then argues how PAR both challenge and optimise the espoused goals of research translation through its accent on co-learning, knowledge co-construction, social action and the dialectic between research and action. We offer two African-centred examples of community-engaged research focusing on violence prevention, and safety and peace promotion to illustrate how the participatory mechanisms of empowerment and agency, knowledge co-construction and knowledge sharing foster research translation. Attention to power dynamics, exemplified through researcher reflexivity is emphasised as a key challenge for researchers wishing to address public health challenges.

Sharing Our Wisdom: A Holistic Aboriginal Health Initiative

<p>Colonization has had a profound effect on Aboriginal people’s health and the deterioration of traditional Aboriginal healthcare systems. Health problems among Aboriginal people are increasing at an alarming pace, while recovery from these problems tends to be poorer than among other Canadians. Aboriginal people residing in urban settings, while maintaining strong cultural orientations, also face challenges in finding mentors, role models, and cultural services, all of which are key determinants of health. Using a participatory action framework, this study focused on understanding and describing Aboriginal traditional healing methods as viable approaches to improve health outcomes in an urban Aboriginal community. This research investigated the following questions: (a) Do traditional Aboriginal health practices provide a more meaningful way of addressing health strategies for Aboriginal people? (b) How does participation in health circles, based on Aboriginal traditional knowledge, impact the health of urban Aboriginal people? Community members who participated in this project emphasized the value of a cultural approach to health and wellness. The project provided a land-based cultural introduction to being of <em>nə́c̓aʔmat tə šxʷqʷeləwən ct</em> (one heart, one mind) and learning ways of respectful listening <em>x^wna:mstəm</em> (witness) <em>tə slaχen</em> (medicines) (listen to the medicine), through a series of seven health circles. The circles, developed by Aboriginal knowledge keepers, fostered a healthy sense of identity for participants and demonstrated the ways of cultural belonging and community. Participants acknowledged that attending the health circles improved not only their physical health, but also their mental, emotional, and spiritual health.<strong></strong></p>

Public mental health: An interdisciplinary subject?

SummaryThe Chief Medical Officer's report for 2013 was the first of its kind to highlight the public's mental rather than physical health and thus represents a very important landmark for public health in the UK. Written primarily from the perspective of psychiatrists, the report has created confusion in public health circles by failing to adequately address the public health perspective. David Foreman's editorial in this issue, calling as it does for more training in public health for psychiatrists, is therefore very welcome and timely.

Etica sanitaria e gestione della salute mondiale

La gestione dei sistemi sanitari appare regolata prevalentemente dal binomio domanda e offerta che sta alla base di tutte le teorie economiche. Gli elementi di tale binomio condizionano in maniera assai differente, però, i programmi sanitari del Nord e del Sud del mondo. Analizzando la situazione della sanità mondiale, l’Autore mette in evidenza come nel mondo sviluppato, infatti, la domanda sanitaria stia gradualmente cambiando e si stia orientando verso nuovi bisogni che, seppure non specificatamente medici, sono fatti rientrare nel mondo della salute, portando ad un sempre maggiore aumento delle spese. Se, quindi, nei paesi industrializzati è la domanda il vero motore delle politiche sanitarie, nei paesi in via di sviluppo, invece, è l’offerta a penalizzare la gestione della sanità. I vari programmi sanitari adottati in questi paesi negli ultimi cinquant’anni, volti ad assicurare l’accesso della popolazione ad un livello minimo di cure, sono infatti falliti perché basati su modelli di assistenza sanitaria elaborati solo idealmente, ma inappropriati e insufficienti nella realtà. L’Autore individua l’errore che sta alla base delle scelte operate dalle organizzazioni internazionali nell’inventare “modelli” ideologici ed imporli agli stati beneficiari, senza tenere sufficientemente in considerazione il bene della persona. ---------- Health systems’ management seems to be regulated prevalently by the supply and demand binomial which is the basis of all economics theories. The elements of this binomial condition very differently, however, the health programs of North and South of the world. Analysing the world health situation, the Author points out how health demand of developed countries is gradually changing and is tending toward new needs which, though not specifically medical, are included in health circles, bringing forth a greater and greater expenses increasing. So, if demand is the real driver behind the health policies in the industrialized countries, on the contrary, supply damages health management in developing countries. The different health programs adopted in these countries in the last fifty years, directed to assure population the access to a minimum care level, are indeed failed because based on health aid models just ideally worked out, but inadequate and insufficient in reality. The Author identifies the error in which the choices of the international organizations are based on, in inventing ideological “models” and imposing them on the beneficiary states, not holding in due consideration the good of the person.

Reproductive Health in Post-Transition Mongolia: Global Discourses and Local Realities

Global reproductive health policy is based on assumptions, couched in scientific language, that technological methods of birth control are superior to traditional methods, use of these methods is more modern and "rational" than alternatives, and abortion should not be considered a form of birth control. The authority these assumptions have achieved in global health circles prevents alternative options from being considered. Our research on women's birth control experiences in Mongolia suggests that reproductive health programs based on such global assumptions fail to consider the local cultural contexts of reproductive decision-making address women's needs, and are therefore seriously flawed.