It’s the week before Valentine’s Day! For those heading out to buy last-minute gifts, consult the Food Empowerment Project [2]’s regularly updated list of chocolate companies they recommend, to assure your chocolate hearts were not harvested or processed by indentured children, a far-too-common reality in West Africa’s cocoa regions. Flower workers in South America go into overdrive ahead of a big holiday like Valentine’s; look for ethical and fair trade certifications like Fair Trade Certified [3] or Rainforest Alliance [4], to assure better worker conditions and wages. Or, you can forgo the standard gifts entirely: the International Rescue Committee wants you to give one year of school through the nonprofit’s “Rescue Gifts” program [5], for $58. For those who have already finished their shopping (or forgo the purchases altogether for something red construction paper-based), pull up a chair and read this week’s five recommendations from MCN staff:
Safety Groups Team Up to Protect Workers During Ongoing Disaster Cleanup in Puerto Rico
[6]
Alma, Senior Program Manager of Environmental and Occupational Health, shared National COSH’s recent blog post on their Train-the-Trainer sessions in Puerto Rico on post-disaster workplace hazards [6].
Congress has quietly created a new health care crisis for 26 million Americans
[7]
Candace, Specialist in Clinical Systems & Women’s Health, said: “A good article, ‘Congress has quietly created a new health care crisis for 26 million Americans [7],’ interviews the same health center CEO who was on the 1A program [8] on Tuesday.”
Fear Pushes More Immigrants to Avoid Seeking Medical Care
[9]
Amy, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, forwarded on “Fear Pushes More Immigrants to Avoid Seeking Medical Care [9],” from the California Health Report.
Social Justice League
[10]
Lasz, Co-Chief Medical Officer, was looking for examples of medical-legal partnership when he found “this recent article from my Brown Medicine alumni magazine [10] as one example. This is regarding prison health.”
Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease
[11]
Candace and several other MCNers circulated this NPR piece, “Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease [11].”
Have a safe and healthy weekend!
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