International Women's Day

Thursday is the 101st International Women's Day. Eighty-five percent of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, according to the World Economic Forum, but in economic and political terms there is still a long way to go. Empowering and educating girls and women and fully leveraging their talent and leadership in the global economy, politics, and society are fundamental elements of the new models required to tackle the current economic challenges and to build sustainable growth.

Equality and empowerment for women is embraced more today than any other time in world history. In the global push for gender equality in everything from business to politics, education to health, Europe has made the greatest strides to close the so-called gender gap. The World Economic Forum, a nonprofit organization known for its annual economic summit in Davos Switzerland has been publishing an annual Global Gender Gap Report since 2006 that ranks countries by their gender performance.

The index examines the gap between men and women in 135 countries in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. The majority of the data reported come from various non-government organizations such as the International Labor Organization, United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization. A short summary of the report results follows.

Greatest equality between men and women: Iceland tops the list for gender equality, with Norway, Finland and Sweden rounding out the top four best countries. The Nordic countries and their Western European neighbors account for 13 of the top 20 countries with the greatest gender parity in the world. The US ranks 17th, behind South Africa, Lesotho, and the Philippines. Pakistan, Chad, and Yemen rank at the bottom.

Best country for a woman to be a mother: Norway has the lowest risks of maternal mortality – one in 7,600 – and provides skilled help at nearly all births. The worst is Afghanistan.

Best country for female literacy: Literacy rates among women in Lesotho exceed those of men, with 95 percent of women able to read and write, compared with 83 percent of men.  The US shows no gap in educational attainment, with very high levels of literacy for both women and men.

Best country for female leadership: Thailand has the greatest percentage of women in senior management, while Sri Lanka has the greatest percentage of governmental leaders. In the political empowerment subindex, the US ranks 39th out of 135.  In addition, wage inequality in the US remains high, placing us 68th in the world on this variable.

Best country for a woman to go to college: Qatar has six women enrolled in tertiary education for every man.  In Norway, Sweden and Iceland there are over 1.5 women for every man enrolled in tertiary education, and in Finland and Denmark women also make up the majority of those in tertiary education

Best country for a woman to live a long life: Japanese women have the highest life expectancy on the planet.  Regionally, North America holds the top spot for health and survival.

Read the full report here.  The Independent also provides a summary.

Public Health Impacts of Climate Change

Poor, minority residents face most health risks with climate change | California Watch

Poor, urban and minority residents are most at risk for health problems linked to climate change, according to a new California Department of Public Health analysis of Los Angeles and Fresno counties.

Across the country, public health departments have become increasingly focused on the connection between health and climate change. The California analysis – the first to look at climate change health and safety risks at a county level – is based on a methodology developed by researchers at Occidental College in Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and UC Berkeley, and it is part of an effort to help local officials plan and identify potential policies for handling the human health impacts of climate change.

The Union of Concerned Scientists agrees that health impacts are significant.  Its study states that California would experience the “biggest economic impacts and the biggest heath impacts when ozone and temperatures increase” due to climate change, said Elizabeth Perera of the union’s climate and energy program. That study projected that an increase in ozone pollution would result in about $729 million in related health care spending in California in 2020.

But climate change skeptics say California's climate-and-health analysis is misleading and unnecessary.  UC Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller, a onetime skeptic who changed his position on climate change, said that although “there is evidence of climate change that is visible to scientists but not to the everyday person,” the state public health department’s analysis is of limited use.  “It’s certainly true that the poor people of our state are always the most vulnerable to any change whatsoever – you don’t have to do an analysis to figure that out,” he said.

Read the complete article here.

Health Costs of Climate Change-Related Disasters in the US

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, November 10, 2011

A study published in the November 2011 edition of Health Affairs is the first-of-its-kind to develop a uniform method of quantifying the associated health costs for extreme weather and disease events that are expected to be exacerbated by climate change.

The analysis spotlights six US case studies occurring between 2002 and 2009 that resulted in health costs exceeding $14 billion dollars:

• Florida hurricanes in 2004
• North Dakota floods in 2009
• California heat wave in 2006 and wild fires in 2003
• Nationwide ozone air pollution from 2000-2002
• West Nile virus outbreaks in Louisiana in 2002 (which were tied to warmer weather and changes in precipitation patterns)

Extreme climate-change related events are projected to increase in severity and frequency. Only 13 US states currently include public health measures in their climate-change adaptation plans.

Read more here.

Johnson & Johnson to Remove Contaminants from Baby Products

Johnson & Johnson has delivered a letter to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics laying out commitments and timelines for its plan to reformulate all of its baby products worldwide to remove formaldehyde, 1,4-dioxane, and phthalates.

The commitment to remove these chemicals of concern does not apply to Johnson & Johnson's adult products.

Read the press release here.

California Environmental Health Tracking Program

"Map Your County's Environmental Health", via the Bay Citizen.