West Oakland's Experience in Building Community Power to Confront Environmental Injustice Through California's Assembly Bill 617.

We explored how air quality management processes associated with Assembly Bill 617 (AB 617) in West Oakland, California, represent a shift in power relationships between government agencies and communities toward the goal of addressing legacies of environmental injustice. We drew from a statewide assessment of community engagement in AB 617's first year, and an analysis of the West Oakland AB 617 process. The first comprised 2 statewide surveys (n = 102 and n = 106), 70 key informant interviews, observation of all AB 617 first-year sites, and analysis of related planning documents. The second comprised 2 rounds of interviews (n = 22 and n = 23, with a total of 19 individuals) and extensive participant observation. Several factors are necessary for pursuing environmental justice: (1) invest in community partnerships and collaborations, (2) honor community knowledge and data, (3) ensure that community constituents share power in environmental governance, and (4) adopt explicit racial justice frameworks. Although still a work in progress, AB 617 offers important lessons for community and policy organizations nationwide engaged in environmental justice. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(2):262-270. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306592).

Criminal Justice Barriers to Treatment of Opioid Use Disorders in the United States: The Need for Public Health Advocacy.

Expanding access to treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) is central to addressing the US overdose mortality crisis. Numerous barriers to OUD treatment are encountered in criminal justice institutions and processes, with which people with OUD are disproportionately involved. OUD treatment access is severely limited in US corrections facilities, with few exceptions. Drug treatment courts, which in principle provide court-supervised treatment as an alternative to prison, have also unduly limited treatment options, particularly medication-assisted treatment. The voice and expertise of health professionals are urgently needed to remove these barriers and ensure that criminally accused persons are systematically linked to the care they need.

Cardiovascular Consequences of Binge Drinking: An Integrative Review with Implications for Advocacy, Policy, and Research.

Worldwide, binge drinking is a major public health problem. The popularized health risks associated with binge drinking include physical injury and motor vehicle crashes; less attention has been given to the negative effects on the cardiovascular (CV) system. The primary aims of this review were to provide a summary of the adverse effects of binge drinking on the risk and development of CV disease and to review potential pathophysiologic mechanisms. Using specific inclusion criteria, an integrative review was conducted that included data from human experimental, prospective cross-sectional, and cohort epidemiological studies that examined the association between binge drinking and CV conditions such as hypertension (HTN), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and arrhythmias. Studies were identified that examined the relationship between binge drinking and CV outcomes. Collectively, findings support that binge drinking is associated with a higher risk of pre-HTN, HTN, MI, and stroke in middle-aged and older adults. Binge drinking may also have adverse CV effects in young adults (aged 18 to 30). Mechanisms remain incompletely understood; however, available evidence suggests that binge drinking may induce oxidative stress and vascular injury and be proatherogenic. Public health messages regarding binge drinking need to include the effects of binge drinking on the CV system.

Suffrage for People with Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Illness: Observations on a Civic Controversy.

Most electoral democracies, including forty-three states in the United States, deny people the right to vote on the basis of intellectual disability or mental illness. Scholars in several fields have addressed these disenfranchisements, including legal scholars who analyze their validity under U.S. constitutional law and international-human-rights law, philosophers and political scientists who analyze their validity under democratic theory, and mental-health researchers who analyze their relationship to scientific categories. This Note reviews the current state of the debate across these fields and makes three contentions: (a) pragmatic political considerations have blurred the distinction between disenfranchisement provisions based on cognitive capacity and those based on personal status; (b) proposals that advocate voting by proxy trivialize the broad civic purpose of the franchise; and (c) the persistence of disenfranchisement on the basis of mental illness inevitably contributes to silencing socially disfavored views and lifestyles. Accordingly, the Note cautions reformers against advocating for capacity assessment or proxy voting, and emphasizes the importance of disassociating the idea of mental illness from voting capacity.

Predicament of Chinese legislation on genetically modified food (GMF) labeling management and solutions - from the perspective of the new food safety law.

BACKGROUND: This paper considers the background of Article 69 of the newly revised Food Safety Law in China in combination with the current situation of Chinese legislation on GMF labeling management, compared with a foreign genetically modified food labeling management system, revealing deficiencies in the Chinese legislation with respect to GMF labeling management, and noting that institutions should properly consider the GMF labeling management system in China. RESULTS: China adheres to the principle of mandatory labeling based on both product and processes in relation to GMFs and implements a system of process-centered mandatory labeling under a negotiation-construction form. However, China has not finally defined the supervision mode of mandatory labeling of GMFs through laws, and this remains a challenge for GMF labeling management when two mandatory labeling modes coexist. CONCLUSION: Since April 2015 and October 1, 2015 when the Food Safety Law was revised and formally implemented respectively, the applicable judicial interpretations and enforcement regulations have not made applicable revisions and only principle-based terms have been included in the Food Safety Law, it is still theoretically and practically difficult for mandatory labeling of GMFs in juridical practices and conflicts between the principle of GMF labeling and the purpose that safeguards consumers' right to know remain. The GMF labeling system should be legislatively and practically improved to an extent that protects consumers' right to know. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Balance Billing by Health Care Providers: Assessing Consumer Protections Across States.

ISSUE: Privately insured consumers expect that if they pay premiums and use in-network providers, their insurer will cover the cost of medically necessary care beyond their cost-sharing. However, when obtaining care at emergency departments and in-network hospitals, patients treated by an out-of-network provider may receive an unexpected "balance bill" for an amount beyond what the insurer paid. With no explicit federal protections against balance billing, some states have stepped in to protect consumers from this costly and confusing practice. GOAL: To better understand the scope of state laws to protect consumers from balance billing. METHODS: Analysis of laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and interviews with officials in eight states. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Most states do not have laws that directly protect consumers from balance billing by an out-of-network provider for care delivered in an emergency department or in-network hospital. Of the 21 states offering protections, only six have a comprehensive approach to safeguarding consumers in both settings, and gaps remain even in these states. Because a federal policy solution might prove difficult, states may be better positioned in the short term to protect consumers.

Tobacco Control and Health Advocacy in the European Union: Understanding Effective Coalition-Building.

INTRODUCTION: Coalitions of supporters of comprehensive tobacco control policy have been crucial in achieving policy success nationally and internationally, but the dynamics of such alliances are not well understood. METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured, narrative interviews with 35 stakeholders involved in developing the European Council Recommendation on smoke-free environments. These were thematically analyzed to examine the dynamics of coalition-building, collaboration and leadership in the alliance of organizations which successfully called for the development of comprehensive European Union (EU) smoke-free policy. RESULTS: An alliance of tobacco control and public health advocacy organizations, scientific institutions, professional bodies, pharmaceutical companies, and other actors shared the goal of fighting the harms caused by second-hand smoke. Alliance members jointly called for comprehensive EU smoke-free policy and the protection of the political debates from tobacco industry interference. The alliance's success was enabled by a core group of national and European actors with long-standing experience in tobacco control, who facilitated consensus-building, mobilized allies and synchronized the actions of policy supporters. Representatives of Brussels-based organizations emerged as crucial strategic leaders. CONCLUSIONS: The insights gained and identification of key enablers of successful tobacco control advocacy highlight the strategic importance of investing into tobacco control at European level. Those interested in effective health policy can apply lessons learned from EU smoke-free policy to build effective alliances in tobacco control and other areas of public health.

State Long-Term Care Ombudsman programs. Final rule.

The Administration on Aging (AoA) of the Administration for Community Living (ACL) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing this final rule in order to implement provisions of the Older Americans Act (the Act) regarding States' Long-Term Care Ombudsman programs (Ombudsman programs). Since its creation in the 1970s, the functions of the Nursing Home Ombudsman program (later, changed to Long-Term Care Ombudsman program) have been delineated in the Act; however, regulations have not been promulgated specifically focused on States' implementation of this program. In the absence of regulation, there has been significant variation in the interpretation and implementation of these provisions among States. HHS expects that a number of States may need to update their statutes, regulations, policies, procedures and/or practices in order to operate the Ombudsman program consistent with Federal law and this final rule.

[THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE ACTIVITY OF ORGANS OF FEDERAL SERVICE FOR SUPERVISION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS PROTECTION AND HUMAN WELFARE IN THE SVERDLOVSK REGION].

In the Sverdlovsk region there have developed and implemented methodological approaches to the optimization oj the activity of the Directorate and the Centre directed to the improvement of the sanitary and epidemiological surveillance and in the sphere of the protection of the rights of consumers in the framework of the development of an comprehensive regional system of risk management for the population's health in the Sverdlovsk region.

[Coordination of governmental and public control in providing sanitary epidemiologic well-being of population and consumers' rights protection].

The article covers features of govenmental and public control in providing sanitary epidemiologic well-being of population and consumers' rights protection. Based on analysis of contemporary legislation, the authors evaluated terms "control" and "supervision", having different legal nature. The authors determined specific traits and define subjects and objects for public control in relationships aimed to provide sanitary epidemiologic well-being of population, evaluated legislative basis of citizens' claims to Rospotrebnadzor, pointed at difficulties in implementation of public control in connection with necessity to create new organizational and legal mechanisms widening control possibilities.

Perspectives on the Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic).

OBJECTIVE: This article will consider the potential impact of Victoria's new Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic) from the perspectives of consumers, careers and members of the treating team. This article will examine how some of the more drastic legal reforms will impact clinical processes, procedures and decision making. CONCLUSIONS: The new Act takes significant steps towards empowering consumers. However, its practical application will take some time to appraise. Only time will reveal how the Mental Health Tribunal handles its newfound powers, whether consumers will benefit from a more collaborative approach to clinical decision making and ultimately whether the Act will empower consumers.

Implementing the Affordable Care Act: state action to reform the individual health insurance market.

The Affordable Care Act contains numerous consumer protections designed to remedy shortcomings in the availability, affordability, adequacy, and transparency of individual market insurance. However, because states remain the primary regulators of health insurance and have considerable flexibility over implementation of the law, consumers are likely to experience some of the new protections differently, depending on where they live. This brief explores how federal reforms are shaping standards for individual insurance and exam­ines specific areas in which states have flexibility when implementing the new protections. We find that consumers nationwide will enjoy improved protections in each area targeted by the reforms. Further, some states already have embraced the opportunity to customize their markets by implementing consumer protec­tions that exceed minimum federal requirements. States likely will continue to adjust their market rules as policymakers gain a greater understanding of how reform is working for consumers.

[Ways of improving the education of specialists from the health care organizations, agencies, and institutions of the Russian Inspectorate for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare, in the area of parasitology].

The intensive modern Russian reforms in professional education require that stafftraining in medicine should be also improved. The main directions and ways of improving education in the specialty of Parasitology are as follows:--to update professional education, by applying a competence approach, in terms of which the main focus is on mastering the activity and obtaining the experience in make this activity in different situations;--to apply the modular principle in the design of educational programs and a teaching process;--to improve the fundamental training of staff in the area ofparasitology;--to enhance the integration of special, related, and basic disciplines in stafftraining.

ACA implementation: A vulnerable and misunderstood endeavor.

Few policy goals could involve more complexity than designing a new health care system. The debates over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) involve deeply personal values. The health exchange rollout problems provided opponents of the ACA new arguments to disparage the law. It is crucial for nurses to inform themselves about the basics of the ACA and articulate the facts to colleagues, patients, and neighbors. This is the right time and nursing is in the right place to influence the course of health care reform.

Rights and research: an examination of research under New Zealand's Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights.

New Zealand's Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers'Rights came into force in 1996 after Judge Silva Cartwright's Cervical Cancer Inquiry concluded that a research study into the course of cervical cancer had taken place at National Women's Hospital without the participants' knowledge or consent. The Code creates rights in respect of the provision of health and disability services which explicitly extend to research. However, in the absence of a statutory definition of "research", its meaning and the application of the Code to research in New Zealand are unclear. This article seeks to identify the gaps and find a solution.

Implementing the Affordable Care Act: state action on the 2014 market reforms.

The Affordable Care Act includes numerous consumer protections designed to improve the accessibility, adequacy, and affordability of private health insurance. Because states are the primary regulators of health insurance, this issue brief examines new state action on a subset of protections--such as guaranteed access to coverage and a ban on pre­existing condition exclusions--that go into effect in 2014. The analysis finds that, to date, only one state passed new legislation on all of these protections, and an additional 10 states and the District of Columbia passed new legislation or issued a new regulation on at least one protection. The analysis also finds that--without new legislation--some states face limitations in fully enforcing these reforms. These findings suggest an acute need for states to take action in 2013 to help ensure that consumers are fully protected by and benefit from the Affordable Care Act's most significant reforms.

Failure-to-register laws and public safety: an examination of risk factors and sex offense recidivism.

The goals of this study were to describe the characteristics of a sample of sex offenders charged with failure to register (FTR) in New York State, compare the FTR and non-FTR groups on relevant risk factors, identify risk factors associated with failing to register, and investigate the relationship between registration noncompliance and both general and sexual rearrest. FTR offenders were found to be younger, more likely to be a minority race, and have more extensive and varied prior criminal histories as well as a record of supervision violations. Results also indicated that FTR was more strongly correlated with nonsexual recidivism (r = .44) than sexual recidivism (r = .09). FTR contributed to the likelihood of sexual recidivism for rapists of adult victims, but not for sex offenders with child victims, and occurred in combination with a history of prior sexual crimes and versatility in criminal offending.