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Archives
Small Children, Big Mental Health Needs
By Elaine Grant on Friday, May 29, 2009.A new report shows that thousands of young children in New Hampshire need mental health services, but few receive them.
NHPR’s Elaine Grant has more.
Doctors, State Clash Over Ownership of Funds
By Elaine Grant on Thursday, May 28, 2009.One of the biggest chunks of potential revenue in the state budget is $110 million from a state-run malpractice insurance fund.
The state claims the money as its own, but policyholders disagree.
And as NHPR’s Elaine Grant has learned, they are threatening to sue.
Recession Taking Toll on Hospitals
By Jon Greenberg on Thursday, May 21, 2009.Eighty-five percent of New Hampshire hospitals continue to experience declining financial health as a result of the economic recession, despite implementing such cost-saving measures as cutting administrative expenses and staff, according to a survey released today by NHHA.
Cleaning Up The Ocean's Trash
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, May 20, 2009.
Last summer, we spoke with a scientist studying the Eastern Garbage Patch. That’s the swirling vortex of plastic debris floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. Scientists say it’s twice the size of Texas and contains 4 million tons of plastic –much of it worn down to small fragments that researchers believe are harming marine life, possibly getting into our food chain, and is suspected to be increasing the ocean’s acidity.
A number of innovators, sailors, scientists, and environmentalists are trying to raise awarness about the patch. A National Geographic crew will be following Project Kaisei’s 70-day initial exploratory mission to remove 40 tons of garbage, scheduled to embark in July. With us on the line from Hong Kong is Doug Woodring, the project's team leader.
(Photo by Zer Cabatuan via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Keeping Food Fresh
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, May 19, 2009.
Here’s an experiment: walk through just one supermarket aisle and count the number of times you see the word “fresh.” While the idea of freshness conjures up eggs just plucked from the nest or fish flopping in nets, the truth is that freshness is produced, engineered and marketed in ways that are far from natural.
What the fresh label conceals is many miles of travel and many hours of labor and toil that are far from wholesome. Susanne Freidberg, professor of geography at Dartmouth College, is author of Fresh: A Perishable History. The book looks at how the concept of freshness has been shipped and sold to consumers.
And when Michelle Obama rolled up her sleeves and started digging a garden on the White House lawn, advocates for healthy local food cheered. The First Lady showed it can be done, and she invited Washington, DC schoolchildren to garden along with her. In some parts of Washington, D.C., liquor stores outnumber corner grocers, and affordable, healthy food is hard to come by.
The First Lady’s example is meaningful now, when government figures estimate that some 36 million people live in households that have trouble putting food on the table. Living on Earth’s Jessica Elyse Smith tells us about efforts to bring high quality foods to struggling neighborhoods, like those in New York City.
(Photo by Charlton Clemens via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Sippin' and Puffin': Senate Passes Cigar Bar Bill
By Dan Gorenstein on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.You can’t smoke at your preferred restaurant in New Hampshire. But soon you may be able to drink at your local cigar shop.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein explains.
Telemedicine "Buddy" Offers Radical Approach to Managing Health of the Mentally Ill
By Elaine Grant on Monday, May 11, 2009.As anyone with diabetes or heart disease knows, chronic health conditions are hard to manage.
Add a mental illness and it gets even tougher.
But some local health care agencies are working with a unique program that helps monitor symptoms and teach patients how to care for themselves.
NHPR health reporter Elaine Grant has the story.
What We Put On Our Skin
By Abby Goldstein on Monday, May 11, 2009.
Chances are you buy things like shampoo, soap, lotion, hair gel and cologne without reading the labels. And even if you do read the labels, what are all those ingredients listed on that label and are they safe? Over one hundred substances have been banned by the European Union, but the United States only prohibits eight chemicals from being mixed into cosmetics.
Scientific American has just published an in-depth series called the Science of Beauty that looks at the safety of many products we use every day. Writer Katherine Harmon joins us tell us more about her article and to question how much we really know about what we put on our skin.
Scientific American: How Safe Are Cosmetics and Body Care Products?
(Photo by striped-socks via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Sex Toy Safety
By Kyle Norris on Monday, May 11, 2009.
If skin and hair care products contain unsafe ingredients, just imagine what other, perhaps less publicized products might contain.
The American sex toy industry took in more than $1.5 billion in revenue in 2006. But there are growing public health concerns about chemicals used to manufacture some adult toys. No government agency regulates sex toys because the adult toys are labeled as novelty items. "Novelty" means these toys are not intended to actually be used. Nobody even wants to talk about regulation of adult toys. Kyle Norris of The Environment Report uncovered the story.
(Photo by Kyle Norris)
Is climate change affecting human health?
By EarthTalk on Sunday, May 10, 2009.
EarthTalkTM
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
