By Ilya Shapiro and Dennis Garcia, courtesy of the Cato Institute Pharmaceutical companies rely on direct-to-consumer advertisements to reach potential customers and extol the benefits of their medications. This type of “commercial speech” enjoys protection under the First Amendment, though not to the same degree as other forms of expression. Merck v. HHS tests the limits […]
Tag: health
Traffic pollution affects academic performance
“How traffic pollution affects children’s academic performance: Lower test scores, more behavioral incidents, and more absences” Courtesy of IZA Over 6.4 million children in the U.S. attend public school within 250 meters of a major roadway. Despite a growing body of research on air pollution, academic achievement, and human capital formation, little is known […]
Legalize It: CDC vaping findings support ending pot prohibition
“CDC Study on Vaping‐Related Lung Injuries Strengthens the Case for Cannabis Legalization” By Jeffrey A. Singer, courtesy of the Cato Institute In what it hailed as a “breakthrough,” on November 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the results of its analysis of lung fluid samples from 29 different patients hospitalized for vaping […]
Indoor air pollution hampers cognition
“Indoor air pollution hampers cognitive performance” Courtesy of IZA Poor air quality not only affects population health but also human cognition, according to a new IZA discussion paper by Steffen Künn, Juan Palacios, and Nico Pestel. The study investigates the impact of air quality on the performance of chess players at tournaments over a three-year period under different levels of […]
Drones have already saved tens of thousands of lives
“Beyond Visual Line of Sight: The Future of Drones in Healthcare” By Davis Warnell, courtesy of Mercatus Center On October 1st, UPS Flight Forward, Inc.—a subsidiary of United Parcel Service (UPS)—announced that it had received the first full “Part 135 Standard” certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) […]
Basic eye care could save sight of over 1 billion people
Over one billion people are at risk of losing their sight, the vast majority in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new report from the WHO, which urges that many of these people could be saved from vision loss with basic eye care. […]
Public-Private Partnerships Are Key to Universal Health Care
While most countries have pledged to establish universal healthcare (UHC) – typically in their constitutions or as part of international treaties – it’s no surprise that when it comes to implementation, reality generally lags far behind promises on paper. However there’s an important potential force multiplier: cooperation with the private sector, all […]
We Need A Rational Harm Reduction Strategy for Veterans’ Health
By Rory E. Riley-Topping, veterans’ advocate and TES Contributor The sentiment “horror vaccui,” which translates to “nature abhors a vacuum,” is usually attributed to Aristotle. The phrase loosely means that if you take something away, something else will naturally end up filling that space. In terms of military and foreign policy, […]
“We are clearly moving away from an evidence-based approach to regulation.”
By Erik Sass TES Editor One of the more confounding mysteries of U.S. public health regulation in recent years has been the crackdown on new forms of nicotine delivery, including e-cigarettes and vaping. On the face of it these new technologies, though still bad for human health, are vastly preferable to regular cigarettes, […]
Do early risers have a leg up on the rest of us?
From FT: In his new book The 5 a.m. Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life, “leadership guru” Robin Sharma lays out an intense daily regimen for personal success, which starts at 4:45 a.m. He says “there’s something magical” to waking before 5 a.m., when the heart is “more open and pure.” Could be—and leaders from […]