Bottles of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer in the United Kingdom, relabelled by activists to highlight the World Health Organization’s judgment that its main ingredient is a probable carcinogen.
Global Justice Now
Thousands of people are suing Monsanto, claiming that its Roundup herbicide gave them cancer. A California judge has reduced the first damage award but let the verdict against Monsanto stand.
Monitoring sewage for virus allows for a quick public health response if any polio is detected.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Polio can be circulating through a community long before anyone is paralyzed. Monitoring sewage for the virus lets public health officials short-circuit this ‘silent transmission.’
What trends might emerge when we map cancer incidence and mortality rates across Australia?
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It’s clear that socioeconomic position has a strong influence on cancer incidence and mortality in Australia.
Plaintiff Dewayne Johnson reacts after hearing the verdict in his case against Monsanto at the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, Aug. 10, 2018.
Josh Edelson/Pool Photo via AP
A jury concluded on Aug. 10 that exposure to the herbicide Roundup caused Dewayne Johnson’s cancer and ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. Thousands more claims are pending.
Hundreds of lawsuits against Monsanto contend that its popular Roundup weed killer gave users cancer. But proving this kind of connection is challenging in both science and law.
Life in the human herd is complex, and we are unavoidably inter-dependent when it comes to our health. Population health science looks at the things that cause ill-health in the first place.
It can be difficult to find records from epidemics long past.
U.S. National Library of Medicine
Flu virus mutates so quickly that one year’s vaccine won’t work on the next year’s common strains. But rational design – a new way to create vaccines – might pave the way for more lasting solutions.
Lithium is present naturally in many water systems and was once considered an elixir. It has long been used to treat bipolar disorder, but researchers have also started exploring its role in dementia.
Crews clean up debris in a neighborhood flooded by Hurricane Harvey in Beaumont, Texas, Sept. 26, 2017.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Epidemiologists study disease outbreaks in populations to determine who gets sick and why. In the wake of this year’s hurricanes, they are assessing impacts from mold, toxic leaks and other threats.
Depression doesn’t lead to heart disease, as some people suggest, but it’s a sign that you might be at risk of it.
Paola Chaaya/Unsplash
Study uses satellite data to add to growing evidence that nighttime light exposure raises risk of breast cancer, with the strongest link among young women.
Australia’s policies on preventing heart disease are based on outdated research from the US.
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While we must put in place effective measures to protect against the malicious use of personal data, not using the information collected about Australians comes at a cost.
For the decolonisation of knowledge to be successful, it must be driven by critical thinking.
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Phrases like “knowledge production” conceal the fact that knowledge answers to something beyond itself and beyond us. To produce knowledge is to find out about something.
Long-term studies help us prevent the type of diseases that would otherwise land us in hospital.
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The power to overcoming Ebola was in public awareness by performing simple yet basic infection prevention and control measures like washing hands, isolation and reporting suspected cases.
Statistics and probability can sometimes yield mind bending results.
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Sometimes statistics and probability can produce unexpected or counter-intuitive results. If we’re hoping to use numbers to make good decisions, we should be wary of the traps.
A hospital nurse checks the temperature of all visitors in Conakry (Guinea) in 2014, at the height of the Ebola epidemic.
Marie-Agnès Heine/OMS
Eric Delaporte, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
One year after the end of the West African Ebola epidemic, a study of survivors in Guinea shows what has been learned about the deadly virus, and what remains unknown.
Professor of Epidemiology, Population Interventions Unit, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne