Publications

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 72% of all deaths globally and this proportion is growing. Greatest increases in NCD mortality are seen in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Places that only a generation ago knew famine are today experiencing epidemics of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. These epidemics reduce human capital in developing countries and their economic costs are so great that they threaten to slow and even undercut trajectories of economic and social development.

Approximately 3 billion people, most of whom live in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, rely on solid fuels (i.e. wood, crop wastes, dung, charcoal) and kerosene for their cooking needs. Exposure to household air pollution from burning these fuels is estimated to account for approximately 3 million premature deaths a year.

The Global Household Air Pollution (HAP) Measurements database, commissioned by the World Health Organization, provides an organized summary of data reported in the literature describing HAP microenvironments, methods and measurements. As of June 2018, the database contains measurements from 43 countries obtained from 196 studies published through 2016.

Approximately 3 billion people rely on solid fuels and kerosene for their cooking needs. Exposure to household air pollution from burning these fuels accounts for approximately 3 million premature deaths a year.

Household air pollution (HAP) is a major contributor to pollution-related mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and is attributed to 2.6 million premature deaths and 40% of child under-5 deaths due to lower respiratory infections.

Air pollution is responsible for 7 million global deaths annually, including from non-communicable diseases such as cancer. Given the media’s vital role in social and policy change, this article reviewed the existing literature on how the media portrays air pollution and the implications this coverage has on (1) perceived links between air pollution and cancer and (2) global action for cleaner air.

In 2016, the government of Bangladesh introduced a pilot project to create an effective system for registering deaths and determining their causes. Training community-based health workers, physicians, and coders were successful approaches to improve death registration completeness and availability of cause-of-death data.

The U.S. faces a public health crisis of opioid-related harm, the effects of which could be dramatically reduced through increased access to opioid agonist therapy with the medications methadone and buprenorphine. This commentary outlines immediate, concrete steps that federal, state, and local governments can take to change law from barrier to facilitator of evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder.

Creating a programmatic norm of integrating into national civil registration and vital statistics systems the vital events information collected from existing community health programs has the potential to provide governments with information essential for public health decision-making.