The Social Medicine Portal

Agent Orange and the Vietnamese Community In the Bronx

Nestled amidst the McDonalds, Duncan Donuts and various Latin eateries of Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, sits the World of Taste Deli/Restaurant (formerly the Phung Hung Market), a cheery Vietnamese restaurant serving authentic sandwiches and various noodle soups.  It is one of many signs of our local Vietnamese community.

One of the health concerns of the Vietnamese patients who visit our clinic has been the possible health sequelae of the use of Agent Orange by US forces during the Vietnam War.  On Friday, September 19, 2008 we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ngô Thanh Nhàn, a Vietnamese activist in the Agent Orange campaign.  He spoke at a forum organized by the South East Asian community in the Bronx entitled “Justice is Healing.”  [We will be discussing this forum in a future post.].  Mr. Nhàn’s presentation follows that of Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, one of the leading Vietnamese obstetrician-gynecologists, who spoke at our Social Medicine Rounds in November of 2007.  Both are members of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign. This campaign is a joint initiative by US veterans and Vietnamese living in the US.

Agent Orange was one of several defoliants sprayed by the US Army during the Vietnam War. Defoliants kill plants and were intended to deprive guerilla fighters of hiding places and destroy crops that might feed them.  In addition, the Army sought to make entire regions “uninhabitable” forcing their population into controlled villages (called strategic hamlets).

These defoliants were contaminated with dioxin, considered one of the most toxic substances known to man.  The health impacts of dioxin were succinctly summarized in a 2007 American Public Health Association statement on Agent Orange:

“Dioxins are known to be risk factors for cancer, immune deficiency, reproductive and developmental disorders, and central nervous system and peripheral nervous system effects.

Studies conducted by the international scientific community have shown the association between exposure to the herbicides and health outcomes, including cancer, reproductive illnesses, immune deficiency, endocrine deficiencies, nervous system damage, and other ill effects and possible developmental disabilities and emotional problems in children.

Those negatively affected may include children born to parents who were sprayed directly. Current conditions recognized by the US Veterans Administration as service connected to Agent Orange exposure include the following: soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, Hodgkins Disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, diabetes (type 2), and spina bifida in the children of veterans.”

About 1/10^th of Vietnam is estimated to have been sprayed with some 20 million gallons of Agent Orange.  Dioxin hot spots remain today around US air bases.   Upwards of 2.1 million people may have been exposed to Agent Orange.

There is a strong case that the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides is illegal under various international agreements.  In addition, there is evidence that the US military knew that Agent Orange was contaminated with dioxin.

In September of 2004 a group of Vietnamese filed a law suit in New York Federal Court against 36 chemical companies. The suit sought to hold the companies “accountable for their actions when they knew they were providing a poison in orangebanded barrels to the United States government which was to be sprayed on millions of people and vast areas of land in South Viet Nam.” The suit was thrown out of court by Judge Jack Weinstein.  The judge’s decision stated in part: “Defendants moved in those cases for summary judgment based on the government contractor defense-in essence, the claim that the government told us to do it and knew at least as much as we did about the dangers. The court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss those tort-based claims on the grounds that the contractor defense applied.” This lawsuit has been appealed.

There is a need to clean up the dioxin that remains in Vietnam and to care for and compensate the victims of this toxin.  There is also an interest in doing a comprehensive survey of the effects of Agent Orange in the Vietnamese community in the US.  Agent Orange-related damage is also an ongoing problem for US Veterans. The Veterans’ Administration has lots of information on Agent Orange, sprayed “to remove unwanted plant life and leaves which otherwise provided cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam Conflict.”

Sadly, we are likely witnessing a replay of this story today in Iraq.  Please see our September 12, 2008 posting on the impact of the war on health conditions in Fallujah.

Posted by Matt Anderson,  MD

International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals

One of our readers passed along to us the following press release (dated 9/17/08) from Corporate Accountability International.  It concerns a week of actions to stop interference by the tobacco industry in efforts to control smoking.  The WHO website has information on the tobacco treaty, its history, and the Working Group which monitors its implementation. The United States signed the agreement in 2004, but has yet to ratify it. A 2006 NPR report discusses some of the politics behind the Bush Administration’s failure to present ‘the first global public health treaty” to Congress.

BOSTON- Next week, Corporate Accountability International and its allies are launching a series of actions in 25 countries demanding tobacco transnationals stop interfering in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The 9th Annual International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals is a precursor to the third enforcement meeting on the treaty this November in Durban, South Africa. Countries will be considering specific guidelines on how to implement Article 5.3, including recommendations to:
• keep the tobacco industry out of tobacco control bodies such as treaty delegations;
• prohibit government partnership or collaboration with the tobacco industry; and
• require the tobacco industry to be transparent about its activities and operations.

Action organizers are alerting governments to expected efforts by Big Tobacco to block or water down such provisions.

“The tobacco industry poses the single greatest threat to people getting the health protections they need under the treaty,” says Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. “It is plain nonsensical-and contrary to the treaty itself-to allow these corporations that are damaging our health to sit at the table when our health policies are developed.”

At next week’s events around the world, Corporate Accountability International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) will be releasing a report  called Protecting Against Tobacco Industry Interference: The 2008 Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide. The report provides a snapshot of tobacco industry interference in a range of countries from Nigeria to Mexico and provides activists and policy makers with tools and tactics to counter industry interference.

The following is a short list of in-country actions:

• In Sri Lanka, to illustrate the close ties between Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco) and many government sectors, the Swarna Hansa Foundation will be holding a press conference at Buddhist Ladies College, which is just meters from a shop refurbished by CTC, the national hospital, the capitol city town hall and the main tobacco dealer.
  The Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) is planning a training workshop for Provincial Health Inspectors to improve implementation of a new smoking ban and to highlight BAT attempts to weaken the ban.
  In Costa Rica, which just ratified the FCTC on August 21, the National Anti-Tobacco Network is planning a delivery of the Action Guide to government officials.

“Corporations like Philip Morris International have a fundamental conflict of interest with public health,” says Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth-Nigeria. “While millions of people are getting sick and dying from their deadly products, these giant corporations are pulling out all the stops to undermine effective policies.”

The global tobacco treaty has now been ratified by 160 countries, protecting nearly 85 percent of the world’s people. Tobacco kills 5.4 million people around the world each year. The death toll is projected to rise to eight million a year by 2030, with 80 percent of those deaths occurring in developing countries. The WHO estimates that broad implementation of the treaty could save 200 million lives by 2050.

For a full schedule, news and photos of the International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals, or to download the 3rd edition of the Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide, available in English, French and Spanish, visit: www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.

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Corporate Accountability International is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) includes over 100 NGOs from more than 50 countries working for a strong, enforceable FCTC. For more information visit www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.

Global Tobacco Treaty Toolkit
This toolkit includes all you need to take action to help us build public pressure, such as submitting letters to the editor and writing to your senators to ask them to call on the Bush administration to submit the treaty to the Senate for consideration.  Download the toolkit now to take action!

Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide:
Challenging Tobacco Industry Interference - Second Edition
This Action Guide is a tool to help public health advocates, non-governmental organizations, government officials and concerned citizens stop the tobacco industry’s attempts to use its money and influence to undermine ratification and implementation of the global tobacco treaty. It is a collection of first-hand stories about how tobacco transnationals, like British American Tobacco, Philip Morris/Altria and Japan Tobacco, are attempting to interfere with health policy and what government officials and NGOs are doing to expose and challenge this interference.
September 2006
Download PDF (English) | Download PDF (Français) | Download PDF (Español)

Report on Tobacco Industry Interference in  Heath Policy and Measures in the Global Tobacco Treaty to Prevent it
The purpose of this document is to expose tobacco industry interference in countries that have ratified the FCTC, to highlight measures currently being taken to prevent this interference, and to call for coordinated action by Parties to safeguard treaty implementation against commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Download PDF (English) | Download PDF (Français) | Download PDF (Español)

The International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes & Its Violators

In August of this year, we reported on an American Academy of Pediatrics endorsement of a Babys ‘R Us pamphlet in which advertisements for baby formula were featured.  One of our readers sent us links to several documents discussing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

In 1981 WHO published an International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.  The Code was developed starting in late 1979 under joint WHO and UNICEF auspices and involved multiple stakeholders. After several revisions, the code was adopted by the Executive Committee of the WHO in January 1981 and by the World Health Assembly in May of 1981.

The Code runs some 10 pages long and is quite technical in parts.  Yet in its preamble it reflects the bold, social vision that animated WHO at the time:

“Recognizing that infant malnutrition is part of the wider problems of lack of education, poverty, and social injustice;

Recognizing that the health of infants and young children cannot be isolated from the health and nutrition of women, their socioeconomic status and their roles as mothers…”

And similarly the strictures put on marketing of breast-milk substitutes are also bold:

5.1 There should be no advertising or other form of promotion to the general public of products within the scope of this Code.

5.2 Manufacturers and distributors should not provide, directly or indirectly, to pregnant women, mothers or members of their families, samples of products within the scope of this Code.

5.3 In conformity with paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article, there should be no point-of-sale advertising, giving of samples, or any other promotion device to induce sales directly to the consumer at the retail level, such as special displays, discount coupons, premiums, special sales, loss-leaders and tie-in sales, for products within the scope of this Code. This provision should not restrict the establishment of pricing policies and practices intended to provide products at lower prices on a long-term basis.

5.4 Manufacturers and distributors should not distribute to pregnant women or mothers or infants and young children any gifts of articles or utensils which may promote the use of breast-milk substitutes or bottle-feeding.

5.5 Marketing personnel, in their business capacity, should not seek direct or indirect contact of any kind with pregnant women or with mothers of infants and young children.

A brief pamphlet from the International Baby Food Action Network discusses the main points of the code and its subsequent revisions.  IBFAN produces a regular report called Breaking the Rules which documents violations of the Code.  Various pages of this report are available online and contain pictures of advertisements violating the code.  For the page about Abbott, click here.

The Nestle Boycott

Based on their studies IBFAN considers Nestle Corporation to be the biggest violator of the Code and has organized an ongoing international boycott of Nestle Products.  Baby Food Action, the British affiliate of IBFAN has an excellent page on the Nestle boycott which might serve a resource for other activists interested in boycotts.  Nestle had pledged in 1984 to observe the Code in exchange for a seven year suspension of the boycott; this agreement broke down in 1988.  The IBFAN website has a history of the boycott. Nestle has published its own version of the story.

In 2007 the Guardian published an expose written by Joanna Moorhead entitled “Milking It” about how Nestle violates the Code in Bangladesh.  To quote from the article:

“Here’s how: on [Hospital Pediatrician Dr Khaliq] Zaman’s desk, lots of small pads lie scattered: each contains sheets with information about formula milk, plus pictures of the relevant tin. The idea, he says, is that when a mother comes to him to ask for help with feeding, he will tear a page out of the pad and give it to her. The mother - who may be illiterate - will then take the piece of paper (which seems to all intents and purposes a flyer for the product concerned) to her local shop or pharmacy, and ask for that particular product either by pointing the picture out to the pharmacist or shopkeeper, or by simply searching the shelves for a tin identical to the one in the picture on their piece of paper. “I’d never give these pieces of paper out - when I’ve got a big enough bundle, I take them home and burn them,” says Zaman. But that does not mean every other health worker would do the same.

At least three types of Nestlé formula are among the brands whose tear-off pads are on Zaman’s desk.”

The WTO & the Code

According to the SpeakEasy.org website, a 1983 Guatemalan law implementing the Code was cited by the US as a violation of Gerber’s patent law.  The complaint was filed in 1993 and after several years of discussion “in 1995, under threat of a WTO challenge by the U.S. State Department, Guatemala changed its law to allow labelling of imported baby food products that violates WHO/UNICEF guidelines.”

Posted by Matt Anderson

National Physicians Alliance “Unbranded Doctor” Campaign

In our last posting we discussed the visit of Dr. Jean Silver-Isenstadt of the National Physicians Alliance.  In this posting we will focus more closely on the NPA “Unbranded Doctor Campaign” part of an attempt to protect integrity and trust in medicine. This campaign asks doctors to stop accepting gifts, however small, from pharmaceutical companies.

The campaign offers resources on how to become an unbranded doctor. Among these is a slideshow from the Madras Medical Group documenting their transition from accepting visits and gifts from pharm reps to becoming “Pharm-free.”  Not as easy as it sounds, particularly since not everyone felt this was a good thing initially.  There are links to videos, including the Frontline Expose A Bitter Pill which discusses the problems with the FDA’s role as watchdog of medication safety in the US.  There is a reading room of both books and articles.  And finally there is a listing of “sources of independent medical information and industry-free CME.

The campaign is being conducted in association with the American Medical Student Association, No Free Lunch, and Pharmed Out.  The website links to several blogs: PostScript, The Carlat Psychiatry Blog, Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma, GoozNews, and Pharmalot.

This initiative is also associated with the Prescription Project, an effort “led by Community Catalyst in partnership with the Institute on Medicine as a Profession.  Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Project seeks to eliminate conflicts of interest created by industry marketing by promoting policy change among academic medical centers, professional medical societies and public and private payers.” The specific platform supported by the Prescription Project are the recommendations published in the January 2006 JAMA.

The Unbranded Doctor campaign is closely associated with several other NPA initiatives.  The Protecting Prescription Privacy Campaign seeks to bar pharmaceutical companies from purchasing prescribing information about individual doctors. This information is used to target Pharma advertising.  They are also supporting S. 2029 The Physician Payments Sunshine Act which seeks to force reporting of pharmaceutical gifts to doctors.

Last, but not least, you can actually buy “Unbranded Doctor” paraphernalia including mugs, T-shirts and wall clocks.  Who would have thought?

Commentary

It is heartening to see the range and depth of activism around this issue, which even involves important elements within “mainstream” academic medicine.  However, it is worth remembering that according to a 2008 article by  Marc-André Gagnon and Joel Lexchin in PLOS: “Pharmaceutical promotion in the United States in 2004 is as high as $57.5 billion compared to the figure of $27.7 billion given by IMS. Excluding direct-to-consumers advertising and promotion towards pharmacists, the industry spent around $61,000 in promotion per practicing physician.”

$61K per doctor! This is truly a Goliath.

Posted by Matt Anderson

Dr. Jean Silver Isenstadt of the National Physicians Alliance

Dr. Jean Silver-Isenstadt

On Tuesday, September 11, Dr. Jean-Silver Isenstadt, the founding Executive Director of the National Physicians Alliance spoke at Social Medicine Rounds about the work of the NPA since its formation in 2005.

She began her presentation with Broken Covenant, a short film which captures the issues and events surrounding the birth of the NPA; it is available on the NPA website.  The Alliance developed from a core group of AMSA (American Medical Student Association) ex-presidents who wanted to create an “AMSA beyond AMSA,” i.e. a physician’s organization that could better express the values animating AMSA.  These core values, as identified by NPA’s founders, were: service, integrity and advocacy.

Core Issues

The core issues identified by the new organization were:

Integrity & Trust in Medicine

Equitable, Affordable Health Care for All, Without Health Disparities

Prevention and Wellness

NPA Campaigns

These core issues have translated into three major NPA campaigns:

1. The Unbranded Doctor (which will be the subject of our next posting).

2. Rx: Vote, a voter registration campaign (see our posting of June 20, 2008)

3. Secure Health Care for All

The Secure Health Care for All campaign has chosen not to endorse a specific plan, but rather endorses the Institute of Medicine’s general principles for health care reform:

1.      Health care coverage should be universal.

2.      Health care coverage should be continuous.

3.      Health care coverage should be affordable to individuals and families.

4.      The health insurance strategy should be affordable and sustainable for society.

5.      Health insurance should enhance health and well-being by promoting access to high-quality care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.

This campaign has been undertaken in alliance with a number of groups including HCAN, Health Care for America Now.  HCAN calls for a plan which guarantees affordable coverage and allows people to: “keep your current private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a public health insurance plan.”  It appears this plan has been controversial within the NPA, some seeing it as too left, others as not left enough.  (For a recent critique of HCAN from Physicians for a Naitonal Health Plan, see the PNHP blog).  The campaign also offers NPA’s report card on the health plans of the current presidential candidates.

In addition to these three large campaigns, the NPA website has information on campaigns to address malpractice, safety, and the global health worker shortage.

The NPA lays great importance on the role of physicians as advocates.  Dr. Silver-Isenstadt stated: “Patient advocacy is a responsibility of the profession.”  And their website offers many opportunities for physicians to work as advocates.  In addition, NPA has a blog and a facebook page.

From the NPA website: “Jean Silver-Isenstadt holds a doctorate in the history and sociology of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania, a medical degree from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in nonfiction and science writing from the Johns Hopkins University. Her doctoral work focused on 19th-century American health reform.  She is the author of Shameless: The Visionary Life of Mary Gove Nichols (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), a biography of the infamous and influential health advocate and social reformer best known for her leadership of the water-cure movement and for her scandalous public lectures to women on anatomy and physiology.”

After her talk, Dr. Silver-Isenstadt reminded me that the Social Medicine Portal was one of the first sites to give publicity to the NPA in 2005.

Posted by Matt Anderson

World Breastfeeding Week 2008

World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7, 2008) is currently underway. This is an initiative of the World Breastfeeding Alliance, a global network of individuals & organizations concerned with the protection, promotion & support of breastfeeding worldwide. The WBW website has a map of the world covering with flaming Olympic torches linking to activities supporting the week. You can download a beautiful WBW poster from this link

Here is their description of WBW 2008:

Breastfeeding results from a reproductive health continuum for the mother to the child with no beginning or end, from generation to generation. When a practice is disrupted, it must be restored. However, restoration of the breastfeeding culture demands more resources and mobilization.

In conjunction with the Olympics next August, WBW 2008 calls for greater support for mothers in achieving the gold standard of infant feeding: breastfeeding exclusively for six months, and providing appropriate complementary foods with continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond.

As every country sends its best athletes to compete at these global games, it is important to remind ourselves that, in a similar fashion, a healthy young athlete can only emerge from a healthy start on life. There is no question that optimal infant and young child feeding is essential for optimal growth and development.

Supporting Mother = Supporting Her to Provide the Golden Start For Every Child !

In New York City we are working on promoting the Baby Friendly Hospital initiative, developed by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Happily, in July of 2008 Harlem Hospital became the first baby friendly hospital in New York City.

Here are the Ten steps to a Baby Friendly Hospital.

1. Maintain a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
6. Give infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice “rooming in”– allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding.
9. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.

posted by Matt Anderson, MD

With thanks to Rebecca Williams, MD and Natalie Davis, MD

Struggle for Health: Short Course for Health Activists: Brazil, September 2008

Our friends at the People’s Health Movement have just announced the next short course for health activists, being offered in Porto Alegre, Brazil, September 7-20, 2008.  This course will be offered in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

The curriculum is an interesting one, and can be viewed at the International People’s Health University (IPHU) website. Of particular interest is the Resource Library at the IPHU website which includes a very rich selection of readings, Powerpoints and other materials (including videos) on the course content.

The curriculum includes:

• the struggle for health: achievements, strategies and new directions
• working with communities and with grass roots health organizations
• comprehensive primary health care: achievements, lessons and new
  directions
• the political economy of health: globalization, the WTO, the IMF and
  the WB; local issues and global pressures
• the right to health: principles, achievements and new directions
• people’s health and the environmental struggle
• research: part of the problem and part of the solution
• social determinants of health (poverty, oppression and hierarchy)
• alienation and exclusion
• racism and sexism

The 11 day course is presented by the International People’s Health University (IPHU) and the People’s Health Movement (PHM) in association with the School of Public Health of Rio Grande do Sul. The teaching faculty is drawn from Latin America and beyond. Priority is given to students from the Southern Cone. For more information about IPHU and the Porto Alegre Short Course go to www.phmovement.org/iphu. Further inquiries should be directed to the Course Coordinators (porto@phmovement.org).

The short course is offered periodically in various venues and languages. It was, for instance, offered at the US Social Forum in June of 2007.

Matt Anderson

[This entry was updated on 7/13/2008]

Health Funding Opportunities at the Open Society Institute (OSI)

The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private foundation established by George Soros and is associated with the Soros Foundations Network. The OSI seeks “to shape public policy to promote democratic governance, human rights, and economic, legal, and social reform. On a local level, OSI implements a range of initiatives to support the rule of law, education, public health, and independent media. At the same time, OSI works to build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as combating corruption and rights abuses.”

OSI has provided funding to health activists in the past through its Fellowship Programs.

One of these programs, Medicine as a Profession, began at OSI and subsequently moved to the Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University. Medicine as a Profession provided physicians with the opportunity to get fellowship training in advocacy and operated from 1999 to 2007. A list of the 44 funded fellows is on the Columbia website.

OSI also funds particular Initiatives in Health. When we checked their website (in June of 2008) this was the list of current initiatives.

• Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap
• Global Drug Policy
• International Policy Fellowships
• Open Society Mental Health Initiative
• OSI-Baltimore
• Public Health Program

In addition to these initiatives there are standing health-related programs:

Reproductive Health

Project on Death in America

Lear Fellowships for Medical History Students

As noted in an earlier posting, this year Walter Lear turned 85. He used his birthday party (in part) to fundraise for a medical history fellowship. Here is the description of the fellowship:

“The U.S. Health Left History Center is pleased to announce the availability of the Lear Fellowships to further the investigation of the history of U.S. health activism using the U.S. Health Activism History Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Rare Book and Manuscript Library as well as other relevant resources. Two fellowships of $1000 will be awarded annually. If the fellow is not in commuting distance of Philadelphia the documented costs of travel and two weeks residence will also be defrayed (maximum $2,000).In addition to conducting research, fellows will submit a report of the research completed no later than one year after receipt of the fellowship (this may be posted on the website of the History Center or published in its newsletter).

The U.S. Health Activism History Collection gives priority attention to classism, racism and sexism in the health field and major reform of the health care delivery system including national legislation, as well as to the health and medical aspects of poverty, labor unions, civil and human rights, women’s movements, Left political parties, grass-roots human services, red witch hunts, L/G/B/T issues, and international peace and progressive people’s solidarity campaigns.

Eligibility: Applicants must have been or be enrolled in a college/university degree program.

Time schedule: The deadline for the receipt of applications is July 1. Awards will be announced September 1 and will apply for the subsequent twelve months.

Applications (both PDF and hard copy) must include:

1. a project description of no more than 3 double-spaced pages in 12-point font indicating the purpose and methodology of the research and the historical materials to be consulted; preference will be given to projects that are likely to be useful to current and future U.S. health activists;

2. a curriculum vitae of no more than 2 pages;

3. a proposed budget for travel and residence (two weeks maximum) for applicants not in commuting distance of Philadelphia;

4. the name of one reference who has agreed to send a supporting letter directly to the History Center by July 1.

Submissions may be made either by mail or email to:

The U.S. Health Left History Center
206 N. 35th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2429
Email: wjlear@critpath.org

For more information please contact:
Walter J. Lear, M.D., Director
U.S. Health Left History Center
215-386-5327

Health Activism in the UK

A very partial listing…

Medact: formed from the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons and the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Medact “speaks out for countless people across the globe whose health, wellbeing and access to proper health care are severely compromised by the effects of war, poverty and environmental damage.” We are particularly grateful to Medact for their consistent attention to the health effects of the war against Iraq. Their work, however, involves a broad set of social issues including development, environment and refugees.

Socialist Health Association: The SHA is affiliated with the British Labour Party and works for a health care system that reduces inequalities and is founded on socialist principles.

Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture: “Founded in 1985, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture provides care and rehabilitation to survivors of torture and other forms of organized violence.”

Medical Justice “Medical Justice facilitates the provision of independent medical advice and independent legal advice and representation to asylum seekers detained in immigration removal centres. We also seek to negotiate changes to policy and practice within detention centres and publish our findings on the treatment of detainees.”

Action on Smoking and Health: The UK site for this international organization of anti-tobacco activists. The US site is at this link.

Politics of Health Group (UK) POHG’s slogan is: “Healthcare as if people mattered.” (What a radical idea!) PoHG “campaigns for the social, economic and environmental conditions that support health for all people, and against the market-oriented political and economic decisions that are currently being taken in the UK and across the world, and the inequalities, discrimination and poor health they create.” They have a number of thoughtful publications, accessible at this link.

Please attach a comment or send us an email if there are other groups we should include.