The Blacksmith Institute Journal of Health and Pollution (JH&P) is a semi-annual on-line journal of peer-reviewed research and news published by the Blacksmith Institute. The mission of JH&P is to facilitate a discussion of toxic pollution and impacts to human health, particularly focusing on poor- and middle-income countries.
The editors welcome manuscripts based on original research and findings from re-interpretation and examination of existing data. JH&P focuses particularly on point-source toxic pollution, research on related health impacts, environmental control and remediation technology. Pollutants of particular interest include: heavy metals, pesticides, radionuclides, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), air particulates (PM10 and PM2.5) and other severe and persistent toxins. JH&P especially welcomes submissions describing the effects of lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, radionuclides or arsenic. JH&P emphasizes work relating directly to poor and middle income countries, however highly relevant work relating to rich countries will be considered for publication on a case-by-case basis.
Arresting the Killer in the Kitchen:
The Promises and Pitfalls of Commercializing Improved Cookstoves
by
Rob Bailis, Assistant Professor, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
When: Thursday, November 3, 5:30 – 6:30 pm Where: The Elliott School of International Affairs, Room 505
1957 E Street NW
Professor Bailis will review the impacts associated with dependence on solid fuels as a source of residential energy throughout the developing world and discuss the current state of household energy interventions.
The journal Nature carried an article supporting the role of scientific research in discovering important cultural heritage sites and documenting their value as a way of helping to protect them. The article sites the work of the European Commission’s Net-Heritage program which gathers information on national programs and identifies key strengths and weaknesses.
Title: August 2011 Networking / Happy Hour Location: Beacon Bar & Grill Date: 16 Aug 2011, 6:30 PM
WAPA’s next networking and happy hour is Tuesday, 16 August 2011, at 6:30 at the Beacon Bar & Grill. The group can usually be found at the tables next to the large windows, near the servers’ station.
Note: The Beacon has nice happy hour specials on food and drink until 7:00 pm, so arriving early is strongly encouraged. Also, some servers at the Beacon won’t do separate checks, so paying with cash is much appreciated.
How to get there: The Beacon Bar & Grill is in the Beacon Hotel located near the Sumner School at 1615 Rhode Island Ave NW (corner of Rhode Island and 17th St).
Directions from Metro Red Line: From DuPont Circle station, take the south/P St exit, then walk 2 blocks southeast on Massachusetts Ave to 17th St. Cross 17th St and turn right (south) two short blocks to the Beacon. From Farragut North station, take either L St exit, walk one block east to 17th St, turn left and walk 3 blocks north to the Beacon. It is a 7 minute walk from either station.
A consortium of social science and medical researchers, advocates and clinicians announced the major research priorities over the next 10 years for addressing mental illness around the world. They call for urgent action and investment. Medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman, of Harvard University, is a member of the group. Nature carried a report on the consortium’s conclusions.
Depression. Flickr/shattered.art66Table 2 presents the 25 Grand Challenges related to mental, neurological and substance-abuse (MNS) disorders.
Cross-cutting themes:
research should take a life-history approach
suffering from MNS disorders includes family members and communities and thus requires health-system changes
all care and treatment interventions should be evidence-based
environmental factors such as extreme poverty, war, and natural disasters have important but poorly understood affects on MNS
In conclusion, the report notes that the greatest challenge would be the elimination of MNS disorders. A truly great challenge.
But a challenge that is not likely to be met in the next 10 years given the way things are going with the last factor listed above. Therefore, why not devote the bulk of the research funds to addressing the mental health risks from poverty, war and natural disasters? And, on the way, maybe we should do something about poverty and war?
Miwok sweat lodge. Flickr/Jason Holmberg. A special edition of the journal Body & Society is devoted to contemporary “medical migrations,” or travel in search of a medical cure for a health problem. Elizabeth Roberts and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, both medical anthropologists, are the guest editors.
In their introductory essay, they state that increasing numbers of people are now crossing national borders and travelling great distances for solutions to health problems. They construct a vast frame for “medical migrants,” which includes not just elites shopping globally for the best health care and newest drugs, but also victims of torture and human rights violations who seek to protect their health and prolong their life by gaining asylum outside their home country.
Also included are medical tourists who take risks to access illegal health services, such as organ transplants and the spiritually motivated travelers who make pilgrimages to American Indian sweat lodges in the desert. Medical trials that roam the globe in search of subjects are also in the frame.
The collection of essays promises to break new ground in thinking about “medicine on the move.”
The royal wedding is almost upon us, and while austere republicans have taken cover, the rest of the UK population is in thrall at the prospect of the forthcoming spectacle.
In fact, I had a haircut yesterday, and the Greek Cypriot owner told me that she was closing the salon next Friday even though it might affect some of her “regulars,” so that she could watch the wedding on television.
Part of the reason for not opening was that she had just found out that the wedding started at 11 a.m., effectively bifurcating the day from a trading point of view. But the other reason was because, “I really want to watch it. I think it will be so nice.”
You can’t argue with that, and everyone knows that the British do pomp and pageantry better than anyone else.
Great Barrier Reef. Source: Flickr/Noam Lovinsky. Besides Kate’s gown, the big question is: where will the royal honeymoon take place?
My understanding is that the new royal couple – commoner Kate Middleton will soon be renamed Princess Catherine, and in official communications “Kate” will be lost forever – will spend their first night at the Belgian Suite in Buckingham Palace.
On Saturday, they will journey to Balmoral, one of the Royal residences, in Scotland and spend a few days there before travelling overseas.
Mark Palmer, writing in the Daily Mail, however, argues that it would be better if the couple stayed in Britain, because it would provide “a tonic for the country’s tourism industry.” He adds, “But at this time of year there is nowhere on earth more beautiful, more full of promise and – crucially – more romantic than Britain.”
It’s a nice idea, and there is a recent precedent with the earl and countess of Wessex, who spent a four-day honeymoon in Balmoral in June 1999.
But the other five percent of Surrey offers interesting ethnic diversity. For example, in the town of Woking, the Shah Jahan Mosque, the oldest purpose-built mosque in the UK (1889) built by Gottleib Leitner, is currently used predominantly by worshippers of Pakistani-Kashmiri heritage, who mainly live in one area of Woking.
Wikipedia/Shah Jahan Mosque
Also, a recent number of African arrivals, some of whom are refugees (Zimbabwe) but most are workers in care homes for the elderly in the big towns in the county — for example Redhill and Guildford.
Conducting research on the Surrey police, I found some fascinating data. Middle-class groups of all ethnicities, it turned out, wanted a technically efficient police service. For example, if they were victims of a crime, they wanted a rapid and efficient police response. They were not especially bothered about the location of a police station. If it was around the corner fine, but if it wasn’t no matter.
On the other hand, working class communities of all ethnicities were definitely concerned about the location of a police station, because they couldn’t envisage having a “proper” relationship with the police without knowing them personally. Their relationship with the police was an extension of their concept of community, based on face-to-face meetings.
In other words, middle-class groups defined their relationship to the police by time and technical efficiency, whereas working class groups defined it more by space and personal recognition.
This is also noteworthy from a practical point of view, as it means that with cuts to the police budget, Surrey is looking to close down a number of police stations in the county. The research has alerted them to the importance of relationships with working class groups so they will have substations at, say, local authority/government buildings.
Please note, this post is satirical. Please enjoy a laugh, but do not even think of citing this in any kind of scholarly research. Though some of the names are real, the post is not to be taken seriously.
A newly-created research institute at a Russian university is looking for adventurous GW students to study the yeti.
Credit: rashmanly.wordpress.com. The Yeti Institute was created this year at Kemerovo University (KemSU) in southern Siberia after a sudden increase in yeti reports. The human-like creatures, sometimes called “abominable snowmen,” are alleged to steal sheep from isolated farmsteads.
“In Russia there are about 30 authoritative scientists who are engaged in studying the phenomenon of the ‘Abominable Snowman.’ All of them will be integrated into this institute,” said Igor Burtsev, the
director.
Maxim Lysenko, director of internationalization at KemSU, said the George Washington University, and especially its anthropology students, are attractive candidates to help with the research because of their love of studying abroad and their track record of work in biological anthropology.
Lysenko pointed to continuing work on fossil footprints in Kenya by Brian Richmond and several of his students and their related research into modern human gait.
“As with Bigfoot,” Lysenko said, “much of the evidence for the yeti is in the form of pedal impressions.”
Cleveland Krantz of Grays Harbor College in Washington State, a noted investigator of Bigfoot, is skeptical. “I’ve seen the pictures,” he told the Vancouver (Wash.) Star, “and to me they say, ‘Just some fat dude with rickets.'” However, he urged further research into the matter.
“I’d let my own daughter go yeti-hunting in Siberia,” Krantz explained. “I mean, they have 30 scientists trying to study zero yetis. They need help.”
The proposed U.S. program is still in the planning stage, Lysenko said, and no Americans will be participating before the summer of 2012. The institute is hoping for students who are “fun-loving and adventurous,” since most of the yeti reports come from remote regions that are best reached by helicopter.
“Skydiving experience would be a plus,” he said. So would knowledge of Russian, although most of the people reporting yetis are native speakers of Shor or other Turkic languages.
“That’s sometimes a problem,” Lysenko admitted. “One time we thought a Shor speaker was talking about a yeti but the word he was using actually meant Sumo wrestler.”
Contacted about the proposed program, GW Eurasian studies student Louise Bryant said it would be a great résumé-building experience.
“In these competitive times,” she explained, “being able to say I used my language skills to do cutting-edge science in a remote part of Eurasia would be great for my career. Plus, yetis are totally cool.”
Jonathan Higman is the lead administrator at the George Washington University Department of Anthropology. He received his M.A. in anthropology in 1983. Despite considerable birdwatching in alpine environments, he has never observed anything rarer than a mountain lion.
I’m delighted to learn that Slate’s Maura R. O’Connor mentioned Alex Dupuy’s “Ideological dogmatism and United States policy toward Haiti,” guest posted on anthropologyworks, in her article “Does International Aid Keep Haiti Poor? Why Is Haiti Growing Mangoes When It Needs Rice?”
anthropologyworks 