Health sector reform in Nigeria: A perspective on human rights and gender issues

Public health and human rights are complementary approaches to promoting and protecting human dignity and well-being. The aim of this paper is to examine international provisions and national policies on health and human rights that regulate the health system in Nigeria, along with the institutional arrangements created for the design and implementation of health services. The paper reviews the framework for policy formulation and planning on health matters and emphasizes the responsibilities of the state to implement Millennium Development Goals and international obligations of human rights. It highlights the importance and impact of gender and reproductive rights on health system performance and concludes by proposing legal strategies to improve health outcomes in the country.     

国内外康养旅游研究评述与展望

围绕健康/养生与旅游的关系、康养旅游相关概念辨析、康养旅游供给、康养旅游需求、康养旅游专项研究5个主题,对国内外康养旅游相关研究成果进行了系统梳理。结果发现:国内外学术界在康养旅游研究领域积累了较多学术成果,但整体而言学术研究滞后于实践发展,具体表现在基础概念界定不清、研究内容深度不足、理论体系尚未完全建立等方面。未来研究应围绕厘清康养旅游及相关术语的概念内涵、深化康养旅游供给研究、重视康养旅游需求研究、加强康养旅游专项研究等方面进一步拓展和深化,逐步构建系统的康养旅游研究知识体系。     

基于 DPEHA 模型生态环境健康评价体系的法治化研究

生态环境健康评价包括生态环境健康风险评估和环境治理有效性的评价,是监测生态环境质量对公众健康的潜在风险和指导决策的重要技术手段。我国至今尚未形成全面有效的生态环境健康评价体系,且在评价某一区域生态环境质量对公众健康的影响时,往往忽略了生态法治的作用。为此,本文基于驱动力—压力—环境条件—健康影响—行动(DPEHA)模型构建了一套具有生态法治特色的生态环境健康评价指标体系,并以深圳市2019年和2020年生态环境健康工作为例,对模型进行验证,以推进深圳生态环境健康保护法治化建设。未来研究要将评价体系应用至不同城市,以深入推进法治中国建设。     

Assessing local climate action plans for public health co-benefits in environmental justice communities

Climate change presents a complex environmental health and justice challenge for the field of urban planning. To date, the majority of research focuses on measuring local climate efforts and evaluating the general efficacy of adopted climate action plans (CAPs). Cumulatively, these studies argue that socio-economic and demographic variables (such as the fiscal health of cities, city size, and median household income) are important factors in implementing climate policies. Less studied are issues of environmental justice and the impacts of climate change on population health. Through interviews with urban planners and a document analysis of CAPs, this study assesses how California cities with high levels of pollution and social vulnerability address climate change and public health. The findings of this study show that CAPs in these cities rarely analyse whether greenhouse gas reduction strategies will also yield health co-benefits, such as a reduction in the co-pollutants of climate change (i.e. ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides). In many instances, the net co-benefits of health are not monetised, quantified, or even identified by local governments. In California's most impacted cities, climate planning activities and work on public health are happening in a parallel manner rather than through an integrated approach. The results suggest a need for increased opportunities for interagency coordination and staff training to conduct health analyses, free and easily accessible tools, methods for prioritising funding streams, and the development of partnerships with community-based organisations for linking climate planning with public health.     

中国石油职业健康问题探讨

通过分析国内外石油企业职业健康管理现状,找出中国石油天然气集团公司(以下简称中国石油)职业健康管理存在的主要问题,并针对这些问题提出加强职业健康管理的建议,以提高中国石油职业健康管理水平,适应中国石油建立综合性国际能源公司的需要。     

Stretching “smart”: advancing health and well-being through the smart city agenda

ABSTRACT

Contemporary smart cities have largely mirrored the sustainable development agenda by embracing an ecological modernisation approach to urban development. There is a strong focus on stimulating economic activity and environmental protection with little emphasis on social equity and the human experience. The health and well-being agenda has potential to shift the focus of smart cities to centre on social aims. Through the systematic and widespread application of technologies such as wearable health monitors, the creation of open data platforms for health parameters, and the development of virtual communication between patients and health professionals, the smart city can serve as a means to improve the lives of urban residents. In this article, we present a case study of smart health in Kashiwanoha Smart City in Japan. We explore how the pursuit of greater health and well-being has stretched smart city activities beyond technological innovation to directly impact resident lifestyles and become more socially relevant. Smart health strategies examined include a combination of experiments in monitoring and visualisation, education through information provision, and enticement for behavioural change. Findings suggest that smart cities have great potential to be designed and executed to tackle social problems and realise more sustainable, equitable and liveable cities.     

Perspectives on community health issues and the mining boom-bust cycle

The health of mining communities is becoming a priority for the mining industry, governments, and researchers. This paper describes an exploratory qualitative study into community health issues and mining activities (associated with the mining boom-bust cycle) from the perspective of health and social service providers in the northern Canadian coal mining community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Health and social service providers report on increases in pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and mine related injuries during booming mine activities. During bust times, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety were reported. Overarching community health issues prominent during both boom and bust periods include burdens to health and social services, family stress, violence towards women, and addiction issues. This paper concludes by providing recommendations as to how the industry can enhance community health made by this important stakeholder group.     

Public Health,Ethics, and Functional Foods

Functional foods aim to provide a positive impact on health and well-being beyond their nutritive content. As such, they are likely candidates to enhance the public health official’s tool kit. Or are they? Although a very small number of functional foods (e.g., phytosterol-enriched margarine) show such promise in improving individual health that Dutch health insurance companies reimburse their costs to consumers, one must not draw premature conclusions about functional foods as a group. A large number of questions about individual products’ safety, efficacy, and affordability need to be answered before they might become an important part of the public health agenda. More importantly, though, the costs and benefits of functional foods relative to alternative mechanisms of public health improvement need to be ascertained. Alternative scenarios that warrant investigation are mainly the supply of nutraceutical ingredients in pill form targeting “at risk” groups and consumer education on diet and lifestyle.     

基于农户视角的粮食主产县耕地健康评价与诊断--以湖南省湘阴县为例

耕地健康关乎国家粮食安全。依据PSR理论模型构建耕地健康评价指标体系,利用湖南省岳阳市湘阴县农户调查数据,运用层次分析法、TOPSIS法和障碍度模型评价了该县耕地健康状况并诊断其障碍因子。结果表明:湘阴县耕地健康综合指数为0.488,耕地健康等级为中度亚健康;耕地健康压力指数、状态指数和响应指数依次分别为0.597、0.526和0.418;轮作休耕、种植绿肥、单位播种面积有机肥施用量、粮食单产、耕作层厚度、单位播种面积化肥施用量、灌溉保证率是制约湘阴县耕地健康的主要障碍因子。     

Food Health Policies and Ethics: Lay Perspectives on Functional Foods

Functional foods are a challenge tofood health policies, since they questioncentral ideas in the way that food healthpolicies have been developed over the lastdecades. Driven by market actors instead ofpublic authorities and focusing on the role ofsingle foods and single constituents in foodsfor health, they contrast traditional wisdombehind nutrition policies that emphasize therole of the diet as a whole for health.Sociological literature about food in everydaylife shows that technical rationality co-existswith other food related rationalities, such aspractical and economic rationalities, socialand relational rationalities, and symbolicrationalities that influence citizens' ordinaryeating habits. An examination of lay views onexpert knowledge about food and health showthat skepticism exists with respect to thebasis of and balance of expert advice. Critical points with respect to how functionalfoods may influence routines in the populationswith relevance for public health include thefact, that they promote a way of thinking offood and health that is in conflict withwell-established practical ways of ensuring abalanced diet.     

How to correctly assess mortality benefits in public policies

This paper concerns the difficulty of taking long-term effects on health into account in an economic valuation. Indeed, public decision makers should incorporate the cessation lag between implementation of an abatement policy and achievement of all of the expected mortality-related benefits for any projects involving health impacts. This paper shows how this time lag problem can be handled by proposing two approaches—either in terms of deaths avoided or of life years saved—within a dynamic perspective. The main findings are that long-term health benefits calculated by standard methods and widely applied to adverse health effects should be corrected downwards when incorporated into an economic analysis. The magnitude of correction depends on the discount rate, on technical choices dealing with epidemiology and on the method chosen to assess mortality benefits.     

美国环境与健康管理体制借鉴

美国为应对环境污染带来的公共健康灾难,建立了环保局与卫生部既分工又协作的体制,两个部门都关注环境污染对人类健康的危害。在职能上,环保局侧重于管制和"污染者",卫生部侧重于服务和"潜在受害者"。联邦层面,环保局与卫生部在管制方面和研究(信息共享)方面紧密合作。地方层面,环保局的主要职能是监督各州执行联邦标准,卫生部的主要职能是提供健康和医疗服务,并在具体工作中密切配合。借鉴美国的经验教训,明确建立"公众健康优先"的环境管理价值取向,针对环境与健康风险管理的特点推进生态环境统一监管机构改革,以法治思维和法治方法推进环境与健康治理体系建设;加强科学研究,加快建设环境与健康风险控制信息系统。     

Overview of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects of Pollution in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Nigeria

Pollution has taken on a global dimension, and the effects are most obvious in developing countries. The effects take a toll on human health, animals, and vegetation, as well as on soil, air, and water quality. The objective of this article is to discuss the current relationships among pollution, environmental quality, and human health within the frame of anthropogenic activities in developing countries. In addition to personal observations, we review relevant literature on conditions throughout the developing world and case studies on conditions and activities in Nigeria. Key findings show the significant, adverse contributions to human health and environmental risk from current waste generation and handling practices, indoor and outdoor air pollution, wastewater and effluent generation and disposal, the hazardous nature and pollution potential of wastes, and the human behaviors that contribute to pollution in developing countries. There is an urgent need to create awareness among the various segments of society of the human health hazards posed by pollution as well as a need for the comprehensive development and enforcement of appropriate policies to prevent a descent into an abyss of deteriorating human and environmental health.     

Vehicular air pollution and asthma: implications for education for health and environmental sustainability

Studies show a direct relationship between occurrence of asthma and increases of particulate matter in the air. Private transportation is found to be a significant contributor to this problem. The objective of this article is to explore this link between air pollution, asthma and vehicular dependency in order to provide recommendations for health and transport policy. This article focuses on the survey of literature on the relationship between vehicular air pollution and asthma; combining it with the literature on vehicular dependency or ‘car culture’ in the global context and in The Netherlands. This article exposes the imbalance of power between patient groups and polluting industries, and the government failure to protect the weaker party can be explained by corporate pressures. It will be argued that since air pollution is tied to the corporate support for the car industry and vested interests in promoting a ‘car culture’, strategic policy that claims to be concerned with public health should explicitly link the present pattern of mobility to public health. This article concludes with a recommendation for raising environmental health awareness by explicitly linking vehicular dependency to respiratory health through a combination of holistic and citizenship education.     

生态系统健康的生态学理论及其评价方法

随着社会经济的发展,人类行为对生态系统产生越来越大的影响,对生态系统健康状况的研究也引起了国内外学者的普遍关注.本文从学科发展的角度论述了生态系统健康产生的背景、定义、生态学理论,及其与环境管理的关系.介绍了生态系统健康评价的指标体系和评价方法,并进一步分析了生态系统健康研究所存在的问题及前沿性研究内容.     

基于熵权的巢湖水生态健康模糊综合评价

在对巢湖水生态状况深入调查研究的基础上，确立了湖泊生态系统健康评价指标体系，确定了各指标健康等级的阙值范围，建立了基于熵权的湖库水生态健康模糊综合评价模型。并选取1980年巢湖的水质和水生态数据作为本底值。运用熵权法对2000～2005年整个湖泊生态系统的健康状况进行了客观评价，结果表明2004—2005年巢湖水生态系统均处于较差健康状态。本方法的计算结果表明采用熵权综合健康指数法对其进行生态系统健康评价具有很好的可靠性和实用性。最后根据实际提出了湖库水生态安全综合管理对策。     

An Evaluation of Air Pollution Health Impacts and Costs in São Paulo, Brazil

The need to determine cost estimates of the hazardous effects of diseases is important in order to establish the priorities of actions for prevention and health management. The evaluation of air pollution impacts on health, based on expenditures, has been carried out, but there are obvious comparison difficulties among countries, as the health-per-capita investment varies enormously. In order to achieve a standard indicator, we applied the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) method to estimate the health burden and cost estimate due to air pollution in São Paulo, Brazil. The basic methodology was the utilization of dose–response curves of epidemiological studies conducted in São Paulo to assess air pollution and its health effects. DALY attributable to air pollution in São Paulo added up to 28,212 years annually. An indirect health cost attributable to air pollution resulted in US$ 3,222,676. This estimate refers to the children and the elderly population. These results give a preliminary and underestimated value of the burden of diseases promoted by air pollution.     

Assessing Landscape Health: A Case Study from Northeastern Italy

This article investigates the concept of biophysical landscape health for what are termed “highly governed landscapes.” It proposes a definition of landscape health along with a preliminary diagnostic model and methods. The idea of landscape health derives from the emerging integrative science of ecosystem health, which seeks to diagnose ecosystem condition as humans diagnose human health. Highly governed landscapes, such as the reclaimed areas of coastal northeastern Italy, are landscapes that have been subject to even greater degrees of human manipulation than normal cultural landscapes. These highly altered landscapes are not easily served by existing environmental paradigms and concepts of health are seen to have numerous advantages. This paper condenses a broader investigation of landscape health into three main sections. A brief review of the literature is followed by a case study, which details two different phases of landscape transformation in the Lower Piave area of northeastern Italy. A definition and general parameters of biophysical landscape health are then presented after this background stage. Some key parameters of biophysical health include absence of distress and risk factors, sustainability, biodiversity, resilience, and balance. For certain parameters, a preliminary landscape health diagnostic framework is presented that includes potential diagnostic methods and thresholds based on findings from this case study. At the paper's conclusion, a summary diagnostic model is presented, which suggests a process needed to implement landscape health assessment into practice.     

Low priorities for black american leaders: Environmental and occupational health

Summary Black Americans face increased health risks from environmental and occupational exposures when compared with white Americans, but they also face increased risks for more immediate health problems such as HIV infection/AIDS, alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and infant mortality. A survey of more than 1,000 black public health and black political leaders solicited opinions on the relative importance of 1) environmental health and 2) occupational health and safety compared with other public health problems faced by the black community. The survey also determined opinions about the degree to which specific health problems are amenable to change for black Americans and who (or what agency) should spearhead efforts aimed at specific public health objectives.Responding black leaders felt environmental health and occupational health and safety goals were somewhat important for black Americans, but among the most difficult of all public health objectives to meet. Those who felt that the above objectives were very important identified the federal govemment as the primarily responsible party for seeing that the objectives are met.Dr Dona Schneider is Assistant Professor of Public Health at Rutgers University. She teaches epidemiology and biostatistics for the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and holds memberships in both the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute and the National Institute for Environmental and Health Sciences. Her research spans the health problems of children and minorities. She regularly reviews books for theEnvironmentalist.