Tagged: Public Health

Post-pandemic cities can permanently reclaim public spaces as gathering places - COVID-19

Guest Author • Jan 08, 2021 •

• COVID-19,
• parks,
• Public Health,
• public spaces,
• urban design,
• wellbeing

Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing measures have contributed to an increased recognition of the … Read More

New Zealand’s COVID-19 public health response must be aggressive - Guest Work

Guest Author • Mar 13, 2020 •

• Borders,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• Public Health

Professor Philip Hill, University of Otago China, Taiwan and other Asian countries have shown that a massive public health response to COVID-19 works. Now is the time for New Zealand to do the same.  COVID-19 presents an unprecedented challenge for New Zealand and the rest of the world. Unchecked, the coronavirus causing this disease spreads easily … Read More

A preventable measles epidemic: Lessons for reforming public health in NZ - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Feb 05, 2020 •

• measles,
• Ministry of Health,
• Public Health

Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson, Louise Delany, Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Philippa Howden-Chapman The current national measles epidemic in New Zealand is amongst the largest we have experienced in the last 40 years. It can be linked to the problems created by long-term erosion and fragmentation of national public health capacity. Fortunately, the present Health and Disability System Review … Read More

Public health, externality, and vaccination - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Oct 31, 2019 •

• early childhood education,
• Health Care,
• measles,
• Public Health,
• vaccination

Paternalism is contentious. Arguments for state action to protect us from ourselves are fraught. I come down pretty heavily on the anti-paternalism side of the argument, but I’ve heard respectable defences of paternalism. But policy around vaccination is hardly paternalistic. There’s a clear market failure that could be pointed to in any sound Regulatory Impact Statement. In a place with … Read More

What can we learn from Healthy Housing Initiatives? New evidence from the Wellington Well Homes scheme - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jul 17, 2019 •

• healthy homes,
• Healthy Housing Initiatives,
• Public Health,
• rental housing,
• tenancy

Elinor Chisholm, Nevil Pierse, Cheryl Davies, Philippa Howden-Chapman We know that poor housing conditions result in ill health for many New Zealanders, and we know which interventions are required to ensure good quality housing that supports health. Healthy Housing Initiatives intervene to improve the homes of kids who are hospitalised for illnesses that could be related to poor housing conditions. Read More

Lessons from Canada for NZ: Carbon, Cycling, Tobacco, Nutrition and Cannabis - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Apr 08, 2019 •

• climate change,
• cycling,
• food marketing,
• healthy food guidelines,
• Public Health,
• tobacco control,
• Transport

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Jones, A/Prof George Thomson Canada has a number of progressive public policies which can influence health. In this blog we briefly look at 6 potential lessons for NZ in the domains of: (i) responding to climate change; (ii) supporting cycling; (iii) tobacco control; (iv) controls on food marketing directed at children; (v) healthy food … Read More

Vaping very likely to improve health in NZ – but how does this compare with other options? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Mar 27, 2019 •

• e-cigarettes,
• Public Health,
• Smoking,
• tobacco,
• vaping

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Frederieke Petrović-van der Deen, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, A/Prof Coral Gartner, Prof Tony Blakely Our just-published modelling study suggests that easier access to nicotine via vaping as a replacement for tobacco smoking, will improve the health of the NZ population. The estimated health gain is about the same as 10% per annum tobacco tax increases … Read More

Otago and disagreement - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • May 11, 2018 •

• e-cigarettes,
• Ministry of Health,
• public health,
• tobacco,
• vaping

Every time I think that the University of Otago’s Public Health people can’t get any worse, they go and surprise me. Today, the Initiative launched Jenesa Jeram’s excellent report on vaping and reduced-harm alternatives to smoking. It walks through the evidence on the risks of vaping, heat-not-burn products, and snus, and makes some recommendations around liberalising access so that … Read More

The urgency of curbing pollution from ships, explained - Guest Work

Guest Author • Apr 19, 2018 •

• conservation,
• crude oil,
• diesel fuel,
• ecology,
• Economy,
• Environment,
• fuel,
• global trade,
• greenhouse gases,
• marine environment,
• maritime,
• pollutants,
• Pollution,
• public health,
• ships

James J. Winebrake, Rochester Institute of Technology and James J Corbett, University of Delaware This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency that regulates global shipping, is writing new rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 2050 as … Read More

Sweet Relief: Eric Crampton on the Sugar Tax - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Mar 08, 2018 •

• economics,
• government,
• Ministry of Health,
• New Zealand,
• opinion,
• public health,
• Sugar Tax,
• treasury

For the past several years, public health lobbyists have pretended that all opposition to sugar taxes is ideologically motivated or dishonest. They have argued that the only thing stopping the government from implementing their beneficent proposals has been the actions of nefarious interest groups. And so it is interesting to read what the Ministry of Health’s officials actually thought about … Read More