“Fun” Fact: Australia had the cleanest currency in the study, and the U.S. dollar had the highest concentration of E. coli – the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

(Don’t be offended by the giant “FOR KIDS” headline at the top of the article. Money is gross no matter how old you are.)

credit: YODCOX!

Until yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wasn’t allowed to recall tainted food. All they could really do was ask businesses to voluntarily recall their e.coli-burgers.

But President Obama just signed a bill into law that gives the FDA much more power to monitor food safety. They’ll be able to issue mandatory food recalls, inspect facilities more often, and tighten regulations on the riskiest fruits and vegetables (like spinach).

• The law will cost taxpayers $1.4 billion over the next five years – but health care costs related to contaminated food add up to tens of billions of dollars every year.
• One out of every six Americans gets sick from contaminated food each year. 180,000 are sick enough to go to the hospital, and 3,000 are sick enough to die.

credit: Mike Licht

* Popular candidates for e.coli and salmonella include peanuts, eggs, and produce. (Twinkies are still safe, though you will eventually end up in the hospital if you replace your fruits and veggies with them.) Meat and dairy are also good candidates for disease, but because they’re monitored by the Agriculture Department, they won’t be affected by the new law.

Best Quote:
“Fiscal responsibility does not necessitate abandoning or neglecting the need of American consumers for safe food.” – Tom Harken, the Democratic Senator from Iowa who sponsored the bill

• In October, Arizona stopped funding organ transplants for low-income patients relying on Medicaid (the state-funded healthcare program).
• Transplants cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they’re the only hope of survival for many people. Doctors say these cuts are basically a death sentence for these patients, many of whom are already on a waiting list to receive an organ.
• Some politicians are trying to reverse the situation, but the governor of Arizona, Republican Jan Brewer, blamed “Obamacare” (referring to the newly passed health care bill) for the cuts. Actually, Arizona voted to approve the measure before the national health care bill was signed into law.

Facts & Figures

• The cuts affect roughly 100 people currently waiting for a transplant
• Lung transplants, certain liver transplants, and some bone marrow and pancreas transplants will be discontinued, saving the state about $4.5 million
• Private donors are now stepping in to help patients fund their operations

Best Quote

“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives. You just can’t do that.” –  Flor Felix, wife of denied liver transplant patient Francisco Felix

• In an effort to fight the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York State have teamed up to get sugary drinks out of the hands of low-income residents. Bloomberg has already won smoking bans in restaurants and bars, and junk food bans in public schools.
• They’ve asked the federal government to ban the sale of soda and other sugary drinks to New York City residents using food stamps. Cigarettes and alcohol are already off-limits to these customers.
• The ban will serve as a two-year experiment to see whether reducing availability of sugary drinks reduces obesity and diabetes rates, as well as overall sales of sugary drinks. Bloomberg recently tried to add a tax on all sugary drinks, but his proposal was defeated by industry lobbyists.

Facts & Figures

• 1.7 million city residents currently receive food stamps.
• An estimated $135 million in federal food aid is used to purchase sugary drinks.
• Approximately 40% of kids from kindergarten through eighth grade and 60% adults in NYC are overweight or obese.
• Drinking one sugary drink per day increases a child’s likelihood of being obese by 60%.

Best Quote

“We’re saying you can’t use a government-subsidized health program to do it.” – Jessica Scaperotti, Mayoral Press Aide, insisting the mayor is not trying to prevent poor New Yorkers from purchasing sugary drinks

• Lamberth’s ruling effectively ends Obama’s 2009 executive order to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research. The U.S. Justice Department plans to challenge the ruling.
• Currently funded research projects will be allowed to continue until their grant money runs out – usually in the space of about a year.
• Researchers are devastated. They fear the end of promising human developmental studies in the U.S., they fear a “brain drain” of scientists who relocate to other countries to continue their research, and they fear a new dependance on private funding.

Facts & Figures

165 research grants for stem cell research (worth about $149 million) will be frozen by the end of September.

Best Quote

“Stem cell research offers true potential for scientific discovery, and hope for families. This decision has just poured sand into that engine of discovery.” – Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health

TILE: Why should young people care about clean water?
Scott: Most of us never have to think about where our water comes from. We take it for granted, that we can turn on the faucet and it’s there. But right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. It’s a big problem – but there are simple solutions that can help change it.

It’s really up to all of us, all ages, to help. But I think there’s a unique connection with young people. 4,500 kids a day die from water-related illnesses. And half the world’s schools don’t have clean water or sanitation. When we tell kids this, they’re devastated. We’ve had kids raise tens of thousands of dollars to help build clean water projects all on their own. The will of young people that try to imagine living like the almost one billion without water is incredible. And I really believe that if young people act now, they can see the water crisis end in their lifetime.

TILE: How did you get started in this work?
Scott: I worked years as a nightclub promoter in New York until I finally realized that I was an incredibly selfish person and I couldn’t keep denying my responsibility to give back to the world. I served as a volunteer photographer on a ship that provided surgeries and medicine to people on the coast of Liberia. My experience there changed my life forever. Many of the diseases we saw on the hospital ship were a direct result of contaminated water and lack of sanitation. So I made it my mission to provide clean and safe drinking water to those in need.

TILE: What’s the most important factor that influences whether someone has access to clean water?
Scott: There are many. Money and lack of infrastructure, mostly. Much of the world’s clean water resides right under us, in aquifers too deep in the ground to access with a simple shovel. Some areas, like many in East Africa, require digging deep boreholes – it’s an expensive project that governments don’t (or can’t) provide and local people don’t have the money to invest in. But once these deep water wells are drilled, the pumps can be maintained by the communities, which can collect minimal dues and take care of the spare parts and small repairs.

For other communities, lack of education or training limits safe water access. Take Cambodia, for example, where there is plenty of groundwater, but most of it is too contaminated to drink. Here, we help fund reliable filtering technologies that purify groundwater to be safe enough to use. Our program requires training and the families construct the filters themselves so they know how they work.

TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Scott: Go travel. It’s the most immediate and effective way to open up your mind and educate yourself on what’s going on in the world. If you don’t have the opportunity to travel, take advantage of everything that the Internet has to offer. Watch videos and documentaries, follow people you admire or can learn from on Twitter, keep up with them on Facebook. Technology has given us the chance to connect with people all over the world like we never could before. Tap into this. Figure out which issues ignite something in you.

TILE: How do you think young people can play a role in the changing landscape of philanthropy?
Scott: Young people want to actively participate. They don’t want to just write a check and call it good. They want to get deeply involved with what we do. One example – a nine-year-old girl named Riley Goodfellow from California. She asked her friends, family and church to help her fund a water project – she ate beans and rice for four months to prove she was serious – and ended up raising enough money for three (that’s more than $15,000). She’s not alone. Last September, we built a fundraising site to make it easy for people like Riley to join our mission. And since then, they’ve raised more than $2.5 million, all for clean water projects.

So how important are young people in changing philanthropy? Crucial. They get it done. They need little direction when they have passion for what they do. They just take care of it. The tens of thousands of mycharity: water members prove this. Every day, we’re excited to see more and more young people come up with creative ideas to fundraise for water projects. They’re changing the face of philanthropy by involving their personalities and their hobbies in giving and by trying to connect with those they help. It’s so exciting to see.

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!

TILE: How do the issues you work on affect young people?
Rebecca: There is a link between poverty and poor health. To break that link, Project HEALTH recruits motivated college students that work with families to make sure they get the help they need. It is a transforming life experience for our student volunteers. It changes their way of thinking, it makes them view healthcare differently, and may influence their political views or choice of careers.

TILE: What was the catalyst for you to start Project HEALTH?
Rebecca: When I was a sophomore in college I spent six months in Boston City Hospital talking with doctors about what they would give their patients in a perfect world. The doctors realized that the absence of essential services such as jobs, food, heat, and housing was having a larger effect on their patients than the medicines they were prescribing. A doctor can prescribe an antibiotic but if a family is living in a car, they’re not going to be healthy.

TILE: What is the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Rebecca: The organization’s time and resources are limited so we have to make strategic choices as to how to deploy those resources. We have to decide which opportunities to seize. There is a very fine balance between pursuing exciting big-picture opportunities and also making the work we do on the ground better and better each day.

TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Rebecca: I wish I knew how much change a single person can bring about. I didn’t realize how powerful one person with a vision can be. The world needs leaders! If you have an idea about how to make the world a more just place, you should pursue it vigorously. Listen to more experienced people around you, but don’t take no for an answer.

TILE: How do you think young people can play a role in the changing landscape of philanthropy?
Rebecca: Young people are the future of philanthropy. When you’re starting to think about your role in philanthropy, ask yourself two questions: 1) What am I truly passionate about?  And 2) How can I get involved? The best philanthropy isn’t just about giving money away. It’s about being really invested in the work that you’re supporting.

>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!

Providing healthy food to Baltimore’s poor residents has been given a face, and a salary

• Baltimore recently became one of the first U.S. cities to hire a “food czar” – someone who works to make healthy food more accessible to the city’s poor residents.
• But Holly Freishat, Baltimore’s food czar, lacks a budget for major food programs and so spends most of her time raising grant money.
• Despite these challenges, Ms. Freishtat’s paid position signifies a hefty improvement in the effort to provide healthy food to a city’s residents. Though many cities have food-policy councils, few of them have managed to implement lasting changes.

Facts & Figures

• Ms. Freishat is paid for 30 hours of work per week
• New York, Boston, and Kansas City have also hired food policy directors

• Some major medical associations are warning that there may be a deficiency of tens of thousands of doctors as soon as 2020, especially in traditionally underserved areas like inner cities and rural towns.
• There are many reasons for this: an uneven concentration of specialists in certain fields due to compensation differences, an aging population with unique and extensive medical needs, an increasing overall population, and increased access to medical care thanks to health care reform.
• But not everyone agrees that the problem is so dire – there are doctors who suggest that this warning is simply an attempt by medical training institutions to demand more funding.

Facts & Figures

• For a 30-minute office visit, Medicare will pay a general physician $103.42; it will pay $449.44 for a colonoscopy performed in the same amount of time.
• Between 2000 and 2030, the number of Americans over 65 will double.
• The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that by the year 2020, there will be a deficit of 65,560 primary-care physicians.

Best Quote

“When we talk about a shortage, we are looking at the current way we provide care to people and say it has to be provided by a primary care physician. From community health workers to other services provided by physician assistants and nurse practitioners, so much of what can be addressed in terms of routine care can be performed by others.” – Kevin Barnett, Senior Investigator, Public Health Institute (Oakland, CA)

• The public health implications of rising sea levels and shrinking Arctic ice are vast and include malnutrition caused by droughts, disease carried by mosquitos, and severe asthma from increased air pollution.
• The study, released by the Trust for America’s Health, states that these threats will be dramatically reduced if the federal government prioritizes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
• One way to prepare for the onslaught of issues that will face urban areas is to plant more trees in cities, as they both clean and cool the air.

Facts & Figures

• Heat waves are expected to worsen in cities where the lack of plant life makes for “urban heat islands.”
• Warmer weather allows insects like mosquitos to migrate northward, expanding their territory and their ability to spread diseases like West Nile virus and Lyme disease.
• Increased heat supports air pollution by contributing to smog, causing increased respiratory illnesses in humans.

Best Quote

“Some of the most personal effects of climate change are going to be health-related ones. We should want the government doing as much as possible now to prevent these effects, or minimize them when they occur.” – Jeff Levi, Executive Director of the Trust for America’s Health