Global Pulse Blog

The World Bank and USAID are hosting a series of debates exploring emerging issues in global responses to HIV/AIDS and worldwide evolving approaches to development aid, .  The debates attempt to lay out the best evidence and information available to assist world governments, civil society organizations, and other development organizations in interpreting and responding to the shifting dynamics of the epidemic and our collective responses to the challenges it presents.

This global discussion series began this past May with a debate entitled “Test and Treat: Can We Treat Our Way Out of the HIV Epidemic?” which looked at testing and treating strategies with a focus on their role in Africa.

In June, a debate on “Behavior Change in HIV Prevention” took place looking at dynamics involved in behavior change approaches and their past ineffectiveness.

Check out these past debates and the ones still to come including theis week’s August 26th debate on “Discordant Couples and HIV Transmission” and continue to follow this debate series for future conversations.

Recently members of several major corporations including Nike, EBay and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) presented an open letter calling on the US government and President Obama to take an innovative approach to carrying out the goals and visions committed to at the recent G8 summit and to develop a US global development strategy. They call on US leaders and Congress to develop a rewritten US development Act to replace the outdated 1961 Foreign Assistance Act. They discuss an approach to modernize foreign assistance in the global arena.

80,000 – the number of manufactured chemicals in use in the US.

62,000 – chemicals that were “grandfathered” in by the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and therefore unstudied as to their health and environmental safety.

200 – chemicals tested for their safety under TSCA.

1,000,000+ tons – amount of Bisphenol A (BPA) consumed in the US in 2004, before widespread recognition of its multiple adverse health impacts.

The US public, and now the outsourced manufacturing hubs in China, India and other places worldwide, are essentially participating in a giant experimental trial with the chemicals in our foods, our clothes, our cleaners, plastics, and virtually everything we use.  H.R. 5820 the Toxic Chemical Safety Act, currently under consideration in Congress would begin the process of re-assessing the safety of these chemicals on the loose and replace the ineffective Toxic Substances Control Act.

The new legislation marks a shift in the regulatory philosophy towards new chemicals. Historically, the US favored self-regulation of the industry and allowed the industry to innovate without much concern for long-term effects. This new legislation follows the lead of the Precautionary Principle by beginning to assess the safety of products before they are released into the market.

Perhaps most troubling from a health perspective, aside from the fact that many of these molecules have not been tested for their long term chronic exposure safety, but that even with those that have been tested, few, if any, have had their safety assessed in the context of the myriad of other chemicals that we use on a daily basis. While it has shortcomings, HR 5820 is a step in the right direction.

For more info and perspectives see:

House Panel Tackles Chemical Legislation | EHS Today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-fletcher-harper/choose-life-the-religious_b_662234.html

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h5820/show

http://blogs.edf.org/nanotechnology/2010/07/30/not-playing-nice-the-american-chemistry-council-solidifies-its-claim-to-being-the-industry-of-no/

http://mollyannaapproach.blogspot.com/2010/07/house-members-witnesses-clash-over.html

A recently released working paper by Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University reviews important demographic trends expected to occur between 2010 and 2050. In this report, based on a lecture that was part of CGD’s Demographics and Development in the 21st Century initiative, the author explores the role of population in development and indicates some of their implications for economic and global development. Additionally, he suggests some possible policies to respond to these trends and their implications.

With the highest recorded global population growth rate and the most enormous demographic shift ever between the more developed and less developed regions, the century from 1950 to 2050 saw dramatic changes in global development. It is still unforeseen whether this pattern of human development will remain sustainable. This paper explores the ways in which policy could respond to unmet human needs, many of which have arisen from human choices rather than biophysical necessities.