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reasonsforhope · 2 months

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"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule Tuesday [April 9, 2024] that will require 218 chemical plants to reduce toxic and carcinogenic airborne pollutants, aiming to reduce the number of people with elevated cancer risk by 96% nationwide.

The rulings principally address chloroprene: used to make rubber products, and ethylene oxide, used primarily for sterilizing medical supplies. Long-term exposure to these chemicals and their manufacturing have been identified as possible carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents.

According to a report in the Washington Post, this can include lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and liver cancer.

Across a strip of Louisiana and Texas where half of the 218 chemical manufacturing facilities set to be affected by the new regulations are located, cancer rates of these kinds are substantially higher than national averages, leading it to be colloquially called “Cancer Alley.”

EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited Cancer Alley during the open-comment period of the proposed ruling, and said that across the 85 miles dotted with communities, he failed to meet a single person who didn’t know a loved one or friend who had either developed cancer, died of it, or knew someone who had.

Once implemented, the ruling will reduce more than 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution each year, according to the Post."

-via Good News Network, April 15, 2024

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alwaysbewoke · 1 month

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allthecanadianpolitics · 1 year

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Alberta's decision to cancel funding for an elite wildfire-fighting crew in 2019 came despite pleas to keep the Rapattack program from at least three municipalities, including one that has since been evacuated during this spring's blazes.

"Rapattack is a pivotal program in the fight against wildfire and without them communities will be losing a valuable resource," wrote Jim Hailes, then mayor of Fox Creek, to Devin Dreeshen, then the United Conservative forestry minister.

Fox Creek's 1,700 residents are expected to be out of their homes until at least Wednesday.

Rapattack firefighters are rappelled from helicopters to douse wildfires while they still only covered a few hectares. They can extinguish small fires before they merge and clear landing spaces for other helicopters to bring in crews and gear. [...]

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @abpoli

#cdnpoli #Alberta #public security #health & safety #natural disasters #environmental racism #austerity measures #fire tw #Danielle Smith #corruption #United Conservative Party #Conservatives

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ivygorgon · 2 months

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AN OPEN LETTER to THE PRESIDENT & U.S. CONGRESS; STATE GOVERNORS & LEGISLATURES

Support Marijuana Decriminalization for a more Equitable USA

4 so far! Help us get to 5 signers!

I am writing to express my strong support for the decriminalization of marijuana at both the federal and state levels. The current approach to cannabis, rooted in policies dating back to 1971, requires urgent reconsideration given evolving social norms and scientific understanding.

The revelation by President Richard Nixon's domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, that the war on drugs was designed to target Black communities underscores the urgent need to rectify the injustices perpetuated by decades of punitive drug policies. The disproportionate impact of these policies on communities of color has fueled systemic inequities in our criminal justice system.

Decriminalization of marijuana would shift our focus from ineffective punitive measures to evidence-based public health strategies, emphasizing harm reduction and regulated use, whether medicinal or recreational. It's crucial to differentiate between decriminalization and unregulated use, prioritizing public health and equitable access.

I urge you to champion legislation that decriminalizes marijuana and addresses the racial disparities entrenched by outdated drug policies. By investing in research and public health initiatives related to cannabis, we can develop policies that protect public health while respecting individual freedoms.

In conclusion, federal and state-level decriminalization of marijuana is imperative to rectify the failures of past policies and promote equitable, evidence-based drug reform. I urge you to seize this opportunity to advance sensible, ethical drug policy reforms that reflect our evolving understanding of cannabis regulation.

Thank you for considering my perspective on this critical matter. I look forward to your leadership in championing meaningful drug policy reform.

📱 Text SIGN PWUITK to 50409

🤯 Liked it? Text FOLLOW IVYPETITIONS to 50409

💘 Q'u lach' shughu deshni da. 🏹 "What I say is true" in Dena'ina Qenaga

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noneedforbloodpressure · 2 years

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Because I’m apparently back on my bullshit I would fucking love it if star wars fans would actually listen to Asian fans when we tell you “no, that’s not what attachment means.”

And for the record, don’t give me some bullshit about how “well George Lucas was white and he was writing for a western audience” with the implication that therefore you don’t have to examine the source of what he appropriated - which is an actual fucking take someone said to my face. If you don’t see how breathtakingly racist that is I don’t know what to tell you. Lucas’s racism does not give you permission to be racist; not to perpetuate the same racism, and not (often, I find) to be actively more racist than Lucas ever was. You want to call yourself an anti-racist ally? Put in the work. You have a responsibility to make space for us and let us reclaim stories that couldn’t exist without us.

If you’re just ignorant, I’m sympathetic - but that sympathy ends when people actively try to educate you and you refuse to listen. I cannot count the amount of times I have had people double down and make fandom spaces actively hostile for me and other Asian fans. (People tried to doxx a friend of mine about this - ironically right as Stop Asian Hate was picking up and the same people claimed to support it with their whole chests.)

Anyways, there isn’t a concrete end to this. This is a rant, more than anything else. I don’t know what else to say other than it’d be nice if people stopped demonizing something that’s part of a real life culture and claiming it: 1) impossible to live by (wrong! Do you know how many Buddhists there are?), and 2) something people actively deserve to be killed for if they believe (because yes, that is what you’re saying when you claim the Jedi “deserved to fall”). What you’re advocating is genocide, and I think it’s plenty fair for the real life people who belong to the real life cultures Lucas used to build the Jedi to get fucking scared when we hear that.

#star wars #racism #racism against asians #harassment #genocide #for mention #alex tir talks #the jedi were good YES i mean the order YES i mean the council YES i mean yoda #people literally put their star wars opinions about the actual health and safety of a real asian person #RIGHT when covid related sinophobia was getting the most discussion #(something that hasnt ended btw!)#(taking certain forms of public transportation is a big no for me because I run the risk of getting MURDERED for being asian in public)

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piplupod · 4 months

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honestly i wish i didnt know as much as i do about occultism and spirituality because it is so fucking frustrating to see ppl talk about it and they very obviously do not have the knowledge that i have. like i am so open to being wrong, but i see things that ppl are saying and i'm fairly certain that they just ... do not have the depth of knowledge i do, so they say very ignorant things, or draw lines between things in an incredibly (potentially dangerously) overgeneralized way. and i am just sitting here like "oh you have no clue what you are saying right now, do you? you do not realize what you are saying is unfortunately pretty damn wrong." and i have to back away from the screen bc i do not discuss these things anymore due to the brain being constantly ready to dropkick me straight into a mental health crisis

but christ alive i think anyone who engages with spirituality needs to read up on like. essentially Everything they can get their hands on, even if they do not necessarily agree with the ideas being presented, because that way !! you learn !! and you grow to realize what things are borne out of racism and grossly mystifying other cultures and straight up white supremacy and nazi ideology and encouraging psychotic symptoms that lead to mental health crises !!!

#i hate new age spirituality so much. soooo much. 90% of it is just racism repackaged with a pretty bow on top #and nobody realizes bc they do not know what the fuck they are engaging with :))) what the roots of it all actually is !!!#and i do not necessarily blame them but i am so .... its tiring. and disconcerting. and scary. to see all of it being paraded around #esp when ppl accuse you of being ignorant or cruel for criticising smth that is so fucking dangerous or racist hsdgjkl ARGH ARGH ARGH #just bc they themselves do not realize !! it is dangerous and/or racist!! and they assume you must be wrong to criticise them!!!#sorry im just hgdsgjkl. this drives me crazy. i also hope i dont sound egotistical or high-n-mighty #but i do genuinely know i have more knowledge than the average bear (not difficult to though tbh! u just have to read a lot!!)#because i was so fucking fixated on it and went delving into so many books and pdfs and websites and did my own stuff on my own time #for several years #i was DEEP in this stuff (and boy howdy my mental health suffered for it lmfao me when i lose touch w reality almost entirely !!)#AND OBVIOUSLY. not everyone is going to have the same exps i did when they do spirituality stuff #but . it is very common esp these days. there is a whole label for it lol #ALRIGHT IM DONE RANTING NOW. im going to log off from everything for a good long while today to try to reset my nervous system lmfao #sorry for the public yelling and wailing fsdfjkl #pippen needs 2nd breakfast

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itsmythang · 7 months

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Yale honors a young black scientist after a neighbor falsely reported the 9-year-old to the police

Editor's note: This article was originally published on February 3, 2023. It has since been updated.

The spotted lanternfly has received a lot of attention. The beautifully colored yet highly invasive and destructive species has expanded rapidly. The people were encouraged to trample on apple and maple trees, among other vegetation, whenever they saw the flash of red and speckled wings. A 9-year-old Black girl named Bobbi Wilson decided to attempt something similar in her hometown of Caldwell, New Jersey. A neighbor contacted the authorities to report a "suspicious" individual as she destroyed the animals with a non-toxic, homemade spray, reported My Modern Met.

The young scientist was subjected to a terrible incident of racial profiling, as many people of color have experienced. Despite this traumatic occurrence, Yale University has taken further steps to ensure Bobbi understands how valuable and respected she is as a young, Black female scientist. Following the racist incident in October 2022, Bobbi's 13-year-old sister Hayden bravely stepped up in front of the town council to protest the unfairness her sister and other children of color experienced in their community.

Her impassioned statements drew the attention of news organizations, such as CNN. Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health, noticed the news and asked Bobbi and her family to visit Yale. The girls returned to the prestigious campus on January 20, 2023, for a special event commemorating Bobbi and her commitment to both science and her community. Bobbi handed her own collection of mounted spotted lanternflies to Yale's Peabody Museum during the event. The museum's catalog will always include her name.

#racism #science #environment #insects #yale #black girl magic #public health #community

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gwydionmisha · 10 months

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#Racism #COVID Denial #Anti-Vaxxers #Robert F. Kennedy Jr.#Public Health #News

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ausetkmt · 1 year

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Should racism and discrimination be viewed as public health threats? A new study argues they should - ABC News

LONDON -- Racism and discrimination must be acknowledged as public health threats in the fight to address global health disparities, according to a new study.

As part of the four-paper series published in The Lancet medical journal Thursday, researchers from countries around the world, including the U.S., U.K., Brazil and India, carried out a major review of scientific literature and used data from hundreds of articles in recent years.

The tendency among health professionals has been to explain unequal health outcomes on either genetics or economic conditions, according to the study's authors. But in order to tackle racial health inequities, racism and discrimination themselves should be classified as public health threats globally, the authors say.

"Racism has always been a public health threat," Alexandre White, assistant professor of sociology and the history of medicine at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, told ABC News. "It has emerged time and time again, especially over the last 10 to 15 years."

Research into the intersection of race and health disparities has advanced in recent years, particularly in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention almost every two in three pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. A 2020 report found that non-Hispanic Black women experienced a higher pregnancy-related mortality rate -- a disparity placing them nearly three times more at risk of dying due to pregnancy-related causes compared to non-Hispanic white women.

STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

"This study is tremendously important [as] it sheds light on the fundamental role that racism, xenophobia and forms of discrimination actually play on health, both from a structural level and generational level over time," White said. "But also fundamentally since the COVID-19 pandemic we've seen the ways in which, especially racism and xenophobia, affects who gets sick, how seriously and why."

The study also reports that racial biases in health care can lead to a stress response -- affirming previous studies that found discrimination, whether overt or covert, can lead to chronic stress responses which can affect human neurological and immune systems. That chronic stress response can lead to lower life expectancies and is associated with other health complications such as anxiety, depression and heart disease.

"It's not only because of racism at the individual interpersonal level," Dr. Abi Deivanayagam, a public health doctor, researcher, activist and one of the study's authors, told ABC News. "It's racism in the way that our society is structured. And that's very real. And it's really important that we acknowledge this in a medical journal like The Lancet so that health people recognize that this is something this is our duty of care to patients. And our care really has to go beyond the individual to making sure that our systems are safe for our patients."

Although discrimination against minority groups comes in different forms around the world according to such factors as race, ethnicity and religion, a pattern of worse health outcomes for minority groups can be seen globally.

According to Deivanayagam, the study has drawn two major conclusions.

"One thing is that there is evidence globally that shows that racism, xenophobia and discrimination affect a range of different health outcomes, and that this is embedded across different levels of society and that it affects people across the course of their lives ranging from COVID-19, to vaccines, to actually getting health care access," she told ABC News. "The second thing is that we need to get to the root cause of this. And the way we do that as health professionals is to recognize that racism, xenophobia and discrimination are actually a public health threat."

#Should racism and discrimination be viewed as public health threats #racism is a health threat #studies say yes #racism #white supremacy #systemic racism

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shreygoyal · 2 years

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“Scientists logged rises of up to 22% in racist, misogynist and homophobic tweets when temperatures rose above 42C, and increases of up to 12% when the mercury fell below -3C, according to a study by The Lancet Planetary Health”.

(Source)

#Climate Change #racism #public health #climate and health #Climate Crisis #My Tweets

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aerposts · 2 years

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Travel Warnings Other Countries Have About Visiting The U.S. - Your Mileage May Vary

Regardless of what we think of the United States, other countries are well aware of the very real problems we have with domestic terrorism, racism, gun safety, violent crimes, theft, global warming, medical costs, young Black men’s interactions with the police, how we treat people seeking asylum, and even our (*cough*) puritanical opinions about some modern topics.

#the greatest best country god has ever given man on the face of the earth #'murica #travel #hypocrisy #god of travel #xenia #xenophobia #terrorism #gun violence #racism #public health #global warming #calvinism

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reasonsforhope · 1 month

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"In cities across the country, people of color, many of them low income, live in neighborhoods criss-crossed by major thoroughfares and highways.

The housing there is often cheaper — it’s not considered particularly desirable to wake up amid traffic fumes and fall asleep to the rumble of vehicles over asphalt.

But the price of living there is steep: Exhaust from all those cars and trucks leads to higher rates of childhood asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary ailments. Many people die younger than they otherwise would have, and the medical costs and time lost to illness contributes to their poverty.

Imagine if none of those cars and trucks emitted any fumes at all, running instead on an electric charge. That would make a staggering difference in the trajectory, quality, and length of millions of lives, particularly those of young people growing up near freeways and other sources of air pollution, according to a study from the American Lung Association.

The study, released [February 28, 2024], found that a widespread transition to EVs could avoid nearly 3 million asthma attacks and hundreds of infant deaths, in addition to millions of lower and upper respiratory ailments...

Prior research by the American Lung Association found that 120 million people in the U.S. breathe unhealthy air daily, and 72 million live near a major trucking route — though, Barret added, there’s no safe threshold for air pollution. It affects everyone.

Bipartisan efforts to strengthen clean air standards have already made a difference across the country. In California, which, under the Clean Air Act, can set state rules stronger than national standards, 100 percent of new cars sold there must be zero emission by 2035.

[Note: The article doesn't explain this, but that is actually a much bigger deal than just California. Basically, due to historically extra terrible pollution, California is the only state that's allowed to allowed to set stronger emissions rules than the US government sets. However, one of the rules in the Clean Air Act is that any other state can choose to follow California's standards instead of the US government's. And California by itself is the world's fifth largest economy - ahead of all but four countries. California has a lot of buying power. So, between those two things, when California sets stricter standards for cars, the effects ripple outward massively, far beyond the state's borders.]

Truck manufacturers are, according to the state’s Air Resources Board, already exceeding anticipated zero-emissions truck sales, putting them two years ahead of schedule...

Other states have begun to take action, too, often reaching across partisan lines to do so. Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island adopted zero-emissions standards as of the end of 2023.

The Biden administration is taking similar steps, though it has slowed its progress after automakers and United Auto Workers pressured the administration to relax some of its more stringent EV transition requirements.

While Barret finds efforts to support the electrification of passenger vehicles exciting, he said the greatest culprits are diesel trucks. “These are 5 to 10 percent of the vehicles on the road, but they’re generating the majority of smog-forming emissions of ozone and nitrogen,” Barret said...

Lately, there’s been significant progress on truck decarbonization. The Biden administration has made promises to ensure that 30 percent of all big rigs sold are electric by 2030...

Such measures, combined with an increase in public EV charging stations, vehicle tax credits, and other incentives, could change American highways, not to mention health, for good."

-via GoodGoodGood, February 28, 2024

#asthma #asthma attack #medical news #pollution #air pollution #ev #evs #environmental racism #good news #hope #auto industry #auto news #public health #medicine

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that-gay-jedi · 2 years

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I'm always surprised when I see people in places where weed is still illegal celebrating steps toward legalization bc I forget that not everyone knows how legal cannabis in Canada only further harmed the same people prohibition had been harming.

It basically put all the good dealers out of business and legitimized the shitty ones, screwed disabled people over in favour of ableds, suffused everything with a cringey weed mom culture with all the same fucked up elements as wine moms, and previous users are now paying more for a lower quality product that's worse for the environment.

Legalization did not bring decriminalization to the majority of people already serving time or living with a criminal record for it, did not reduce the racism involved, and all but halted research into remaining unknowns about how cannabis works.

What it did do was largely cause the kinds of people whose voices are most likely to be heard to forget about decriminalization, medical use, public education on cannabis, and so on. Apparently the only time moneyed, abled and/or white people cared about any of those issues was when it inconvenienced them and now that they can just buy from a government-run covid farm that looks like an Apple store it's out of sight, out of mind.

There's a broader lesson here about how social change does not always equal social progress and you can't trust any system built on exploitation and violence to do anything except find new and more egregious ways to be exploitative and violent.

The only cultural changes that improve things are ones which fundamentally alter how agency, worth, visibility and control are determined and distributed among the living beings belonging to or in contact with the impacted culture. Changes to specific taboos and norms are useless if they leave the load-bearing elements of injustices intact.

I'm already seeing the logical continuation of this in how hallucinogens that might be (re)legalized within my lifetime are being approached. Social assistance in Canada still won't cover anything except CBT and (some) medication, and even their coverage of CBT is tenuous (and the CBT that's covered is of dubious quality). You really think people who could benefit from new treatments are going to have them?

Whenever people excitedly share news about psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy being approved for certain patients or results of yet another study into the effects of such substances on lingering trauma symptoms etc etc I think, "Great, one more goddamn thing that traumatized people who are already struggling to access various broadly accepted or established treatments won't get to use."

It's all repainting the walls without replacing the rotten foundation. And the building is going to fall just as soon and just as hard as it was going to before, with just as many people inside.

#decriminalization #cannabis #legalization #mental health #social justice #public health #social determinants of health #ableism #classism #racism #policing #poverty #the ways in which we continue to gentrify everything from drugs to abstract concepts astound me #do you ever get tired?#cause i sure do

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teachanarchy · 2 years

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Watch "Stress is Bad for Your Health: Crash Course Public Health #5" on YouTube

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#public health #stress #health #healthcare #birth fertility #sociology #economics #capitalism #racism #aging #weathering #Youtube

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panicinthestudio · 2 years

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Monkeypox Isn’t New, But There Are Many Ways It’s Different, October 11, 2022

The current human monkeypox outbreak has left many feeling uneasy about the potential of another pandemic. Through public health messaging, destigmatization, and a longer history of research on the disease, we're diminishing that potential. For up-to-date information on the human monkeypox outbreak consider visiting WHO's official website: https://bit.ly/3ywKoeG SciShow

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merelygifted · 2 years

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These Black-led groups have popped up across the country as more and more Black people have reported prolonged Covid symptoms — and difficulty getting treatment

#coronavirus #racism #evil #Public Health #WTAF #OMFG

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