Health

ainfos May 21, 2008

"This is going to be a different type of occupation," say the people of Tierra y
Libertad (Land and Freedom), a land occupation on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The name of their group gives an idea of what they intend. The occupation began on March 29th this year when 40 families entered a small parcel of land in La Matanza and began setting up a community. Since then the occupation has grown to over 135 families and has continued to organize and resist eviction in the face of intimidation and violence.  read more »

Film Screening at Media Island March 5 at 7pm

A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud!looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud!hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba -- now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA.  read more »

Rome, 14 Feb.(AKI) - Thousands of women were expected to protest to defend abortion rights in nationwide rallies being held in major Italian cities late on Thursday.

The protests followed a raid by police on a hospital in the southern city of Naples earlier this week, on what was thought to be an illegal abortion.

Rallies were being held in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples and Italian Health Minister Livia Turco was expected to attend one of them.  read more »

12 Jan 2008 Reuters By Royston Chan

SHANGHAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people marched through China's financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday protesting a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation and sicken them.

Police detained dozens of people, bundling them into waiting cars, vans and buses, as protesters thronged a major shopping street shouting "We don't want the maglev" and carrying placards reading: "No to maglev -- bad for health".

"We are afraid how the radiation will affect us. Why does the government not listen to our concerns?" said a protester surnamed Guan, adding the extension would pass within 100 metres (328 ft) of her house.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

There is an interesting article in the 12-21-07 issue of SCIENCE ("The Ethics of International Research with Abandoned Children" by Joseph Millum and Ezekiel J. Emanuel). I'm not going to review the whole article. I'm just going to give a little background to show what is going on and make a few remarks. The article's main thrust is about the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (the effects of moving children to foster care from institutions) but the following experiment with HIV prevention was mentioned. I think it illustrates a real problem with capitalist science.  read more »

The Gleaners Coalition is continuing to organize clean-up crews for farms experiencing extensive flood damage in the Thurston and Lewis County areas. Come help our food bank donors and local growers get back on their feet!

Put on your muck boots and join a work party Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and/or Friday of next week, December 17-22, 2007. We will meet folks daily at 9:30AM at our downtown office (see address below) and at The Evergreen State College in parking lot C. We plan to finish each afternoon around 4:00PM.  read more »

December 12, 2007 CityNews.ca

It was, by any measure, a study in extreme contrasts: Bay St. types dressed in business suits, walking past men and women in worn coats and pants, begging for spare change. But it wasn't a scene from the streets of Toronto. Instead, it was a slice of life from beneath them.  read more »

Published on Thursday, December 6, 2007 by The Albany Times-Union
New study shows people who lived near or worked at former munitions factory in Colonie have depleted uranium in their bodies
by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

COLONIE, NY - Former workers at a Cold War-era munitions plant and nearby residents still carry traces of toxic depleted uranium in their bodies, a team of scientists said Wednesday.1206 03

The findings, unveiled at a news conference, seem to contradict an earlier assessment by the federal government that deemed it impossible to measure contamination because it had been so long since the emissions ended.  read more »

Dec 6, 2007 Tamil Eelam News

Vavuniya - Over 700 medical staff including doctors, nurses, technical staff, midwives and minor staff from K'ilinochchi and Mullaiththeevu district hospitals, staged a protest on Thursday against targeted Claymore attacks by the Sri Lanka Army Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) on ambulances and humanitarian vehicles.

 read more »

By BRETT ZONGKER November 30, 2007 Associated Press

Dozens of students, HIV-positive activists and health advocates were arrested Friday in a loud protest at the White House in advance of World AIDS Day.

Demonstrators said the Bush administration's response to the spread of AIDS has been ineffective. They called for increased funding and an end to abstinence-only sex education requirements for U.S.-funded HIV and AIDS programs internationally. They said the disease also has been largely ignored at home in the nation's capital, which has the country's worst rate of infection.

More than 150 people gathered for the rally. They chanted: "When people with AIDS are under attack, what do we do? Act up, fight back."  read more »