Defining Food Safety Inspection

Food safety inspections are a key health protection measure applied by governments to prevent foodborne illness, yet they remain the subject of sustained criticism. These criticisms include inconsistency and inadequacy of methods applied to inspection, and ineffectiveness in preventing foodborne illness. Investigating the validity of these criticisms represent important areas for further research. However, a defined construct around the meanings society attributes to food safety inspection must first be established. Through critical examination of available literature, this review identified meanings attributed to food safety inspection and explicates some of the key elements that compose food safety inspection as a social construct. A total of 18 meanings were found to be attributed to food safety inspection. Variation in meanings were found between consumers, food business associates and food safety inspectors. For some, inspection meant a source of assurance, for others a threat to fairness, while most view inspection as a product of resources and inspector training. The meanings were then examined in light of common criticisms directed at food safety inspection, to expound their influence in how food safety inspection is realized, shaped, and rationalized. This review highlights the influence of sociological factors in defining food safety inspection.

The incorporation of the lex artis in the Law

Health protection acts require special legal regulation, since scientific principles constitute a parameter for assessing whether the biomedical act was carried out correctly. In order to provide legal validity to such principles, their incorporation into the rules of law is required and thus be able to establish their enforceability, considering the experimental nature of medical sciences.

Tensions and polarities in the autonomy of family carers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in France

This article analyses the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on ‘monetised’ family carers’ understanding of their own autonomy in a long-term care relation at home. The reduction or suspension of medico-social service deteriorated the situation of family carers of frail older people or people with disability. We develop and apply an analytical grid of 15 interviews of monetised family carers about the reorganisation of care systems and their situation as carers. We identify three types of understandings of autonomy among family carers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: preventive autonomy; health protection autonomy; and supported autonomy.

The EPA’s Commitment to Children’s Environmental Health: History and Current Challenges

Children’s environmental health (CEH) has a 25-year history at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), during which the agency has advanced CEH through research, policy, and programs that address children’s special vulnerability to environmental harm. However, the Trump administration took many actions that weakened efforts to improve CEH. The actions included downgrading or ignoring CEH concerns in decision-making, defunding research, sidelining the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, and rescinding regulations that were written in part to protect children. To improve CEH, federal environmental statutes should be reviewed to ensure they are sufficiently protective. The administrator should ensure the EPA’s children’s health agenda encompasses the most important current challenges and that there is accountability for improvement. Guidance documents should be reviewed and updated to be protective of CEH and the federal lead strategy refocused on primary prevention. The Office of Children’s Health Protection’s historically low funding and staffing should be remedied. Finally, the EPA should update CEH data systems, reinvigorate the role of the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, and restore funding for CEH research that is aligned with environmental justice and regulatory decision-making needs. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):124–134. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306537 )

The human right to security in the implementation of the concept of the "right to health protection"

Legal support of human security in the field of health care includes the guarantee, protection and protection of rights and freedoms in the field of health care, which is the main function, as well as the goal and duty of the state. This paper describes certain aspects of the legal regulation of the implementation of the "human right to security in the health sector" and the problems of its enforcement. The research methodology is based on a system of methods of the philosophical, general scientific and special scientific level. The main goal of this scientific article is to define the concept‚principles‚ types and directions of implementation of the “human right to safety” in the concept of “the right to health protection”. The general principles of the implementation of the “human right to security in the health sector” are disclosed. It is emphasized that the legal mechanism for the implementation of the “human right to security in the healthcare sector” is the activity of legal entities, lawmaking and law enforcement agencies, and the existing legal norms governing their activities in the healthcare sector. The investigated human right to safety should be understood as a complex of rights related to the protection of the patient's legitimate interests in the healthcare sector from unlawful encroachments and threats.. The author's understanding of the definition of "patients' right to safety". It is argued that human security in the field of health care belongs to the basic needs of a person - the implementation of this need is determined by the level of development of a country, its economic and cultural components, the level and quality of life of a person living in this country, an effective health care system. It is concluded that the main goal of legal ensuring human security in the healthcare sector is to create the minimum necessary (safe) conditions for the implementation of these rights and obligations when receiving medical services.

Philosophical and legal understanding of the nature of the constitutional human right to health protection

in this article, the author examines the nature of the constitutional human right to health protection through its philosophical and legal interpretation. In this study, the consideration is carried out from the point of view of the concepts of natural law and historical materialism. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that the human right to health protection has a materialistic nature, arises and exists as a result of the need for the ruling class to regulate public relations related to health protection by expressing its will in the law.

Attitudes and Perceptions of Health Protection Measures Against the Spread of COVID-19 in Italy and Poland

Background: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (April to May 2020), 6,169 Polish and 939 Italian residents were surveyed with an online questionnaire investigating socio-demographic information and personality traits (first section) as well as attitudes, position, and efficacy perceptions on the impact of lockdown (second section) and various health protection measures enforced (third section).Methods: The “health protection attitude score” (HPAS), an endpoint obtained by pooling up the answers to questions of the third section of the survey tool, was investigated by multiple linear regression models, reporting regression coefficients (RC) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).Results: Concerns for business and health due to COVID-19 were associated with a positive attitude toward risk reduction rules. By contrast, male sex, concerns about the reliability of information available online on COVID-19 and its prevention, along with the feeling of not being enough informed on the transmissibility/prevention of SARS-CoV-2 were associated with a negative attitude toward risk mitigation measures.Discussion: A recent literature review identified two social patterns with different features in relation to their attitude toward health protection rules against the spread of COVID-19. Factors positively associated with adherence to public health guidelines were perceived threat of COVID-19, trust in government, female sex, and increasing age. Factors associated with decreased compliance were instead underestimation of the COVID-19 risk, limited knowledge of the pandemic, belief in conspiracy theories, and political conservativism. Very few studies have tested interventions to change attitudes or behaviors.Conclusion: To improve attitude and compliance toward risk reduction norms, a key intervention is fostering education and knowledge on COVID-19 health risk and prevention among the general population. However, information on COVID-19 epidemiology might be user-generated and contaminated by social media, which contributed to creating an infodemic around the disease. To prevent the negative impact of social media and to increase adherence to health protection, stronger content control by providers of social platforms is recommended.