Critics say the EPA should not have approved clothianidin, a potent pesticide that belongs to a family of substances linked to the current widespread die-off of global honeybee populations. Credit: Bob Peterson/cc by 2.0
WASHINGTON, Mar 28 2013 (IPS) – An environment group here is warning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a key government regulator, may have been haphazardly approving thousands of pesticides for decades, some of which pose risks to both human and environmental health.
Following on two years of research, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a watchdog group, has found that as much as 65 percent of the 16,000 pesticides the EP…
A mother and her child from West Point, a low-income neighbourhood of Monrovia, Liberia. The 10-worst countries to be a mother in are all in sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: Travis Lupick/IPS
NAIROBI , May 19 2013 (IPS) – Victoria J. married in 2009 at age 14, and became pregnant shortly after. “I started labour in the morning on a Friday …. The nurse kept checking and saying I would deliver safely. On Monday she said I was weak.
“The doctor decided to operate on me. (During the) operation they found the baby was dead. The doctor said the baby had died due to the long labour. After that, I found out that urine was coming out all the time,” she said.
Women and…
Over 10 million residents of Small Island Developing States depend on the Pacific Ocean for survival. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
SYDNEY, Jun 8 2013 (IPS) – The immense scale of the Pacific Ocean, at 165 million square kilometres, inspires awe and fascination, but for those who inhabit the 22 Pacific island countries and territories, it is the very source of life. Without it, livelihoods and economies would collapse, hunger and ill-health would become endemic and human survival would be threatened.
But as populations rapidly escalate, the sustainable future of this vast ecosystem hangs in the balance, while the pressing need for e…
Latin American demographers and government delegates analyse the region’s population and development challenges in Rio de Janeiro. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 17 2013 (IPS) – Nearly 20 years after the landmark U.N. conference on population and development, the countries of Latin America have an opportunity to make headway with a new agenda on these issues, thanks to the favourable economic context that has made it possible to reduce social inequalities.
The situation in the region was debated at the preparatory meeting in Rio de Janeiro for the first session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the C…
A number of hospitals and clinics in Cuba have been remodelled. Credits: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS
HAVANA, Sep 7 2013 (IPS) – One challenge faced by the Cuban government, and a high priority for citizens, is improving the efficiency and sustainability of public health services, a constitutional right that the state is supposed to ensure for all.
The quality of healthcare services was a target of criticism during mass debates that were promoted by President Raúl Castro in a key Jul. 26, 2007 speech.
Many suggestions for improving the public health system also emerged from discussions on the draft social and economic policy guidelines that were later approved for …
Women gather at a rally in Reykjavik to mark victory for their rights, but remain more vulnerable than men to the economic crisis. Credit: Lowana Veal/IPS.
REYKJAVIK, Nov 17 2013 (IPS) – Women in Iceland have been more badly affected by the economic collapse in 2008 than their male counterparts, both in terms of physical and mental health, studies show.
In one study carried out this year on people interviewed both before and after the financial crash, unemployed women, female students and women not active in the labour market showed particularly high stress levels in the year following the crash, along with women nearing retirement age (67 in Iceland) and non-ski…
A confined field trial of genetically modified cowpeas in Ghana. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah/IPS
SAVELUGU, Ghana, Dec 26 2013 (IPS) – A battle over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is building in Ghana after the government recently completed regulations that could allow modified cowpeas and other selected crops to be grown following confined field trials (CFT).
Civil society groups and at least one opposition party have positioned themselves to fight against the introduction of GMOs.”The state should support sustainable farming by providing the necessary resources, infrastructure and enough technical personnel.” — Dr. Wilson Dogbe
The BT Cowpea …
A MDR-TB patient at a Médecins Sans Frontières clinic in Manipur in north-eastern India. Credit: Bijoyeta Das/IPS.
NEW DELHI, Mar 5 2014 (IPS) – For years Joba Hemron, 50, prayed that her cough would go away. She was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) in 2011. She was put on a Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS), provided free at a public health clinic in Bongaigaon district in Assam.
But soon she began missing too many doses. “My sons work in the fields, I was too weak to go on my own to get the pills,” she says. She went to a private clinic, hoping to collect all the medicines at once. That was expensive, which meant she could again not complete the…
Poor families in Egypt consider circumcision a way to preserve the chastity of girls. Credit: Amr Diab/IPS.
CAIRO, Apr 27 2014 (IPS) – Saber Abd El-Mawgoud began his career castrating sheep and goats before moving on to humans. His first human experiment was a young boy he attempted to circumcise back in 1999 at the insistence of the boy’s father.
The boy died a few days later of infection from the operation, Mawgoud, 67, from the Al-Monofiya governorate 60 km north of Cairo, tells IPS.The practice continues even after female genital mutilation was outlawed in 2007 after an 11-year-old girl died in a private clinic while undergoing the operation.
Mawgou…
A family from Central African Republic who fled to Cameroon’s East Region after the 2013 coup d’état that ousted President François Bozizé. Credit: Monde Kingsley Nfor/IPS
GUIWA, Cameroon, Jun 24 2014 (IPS) – Central African Republic refugees living in Cameroon’s East Region are increasingly becoming frustrated about their deteriorating living conditions and their inability to support themselves as conflict between them and and local villagers has escalated over depleting resources.
They say they have been denied access to farm tools as aid agencies fear they may use them as arms against the local population.
Clay-Man Youkoute, head of refu…