Our mental health is shaped by our environment in many ways. As we look for ways to address climate change, It is critical that we recognize its connection to mental health and try to mitigate the fallout.
Health
Posted inOpinion
SJC can fuel spread of Brookline tobacco law
The Supreme Judicial Court hears a challenge to a Brookline law that restricts access to smoking products by birth date rather than age. By siding with Brookline, the SJC could boost anti-smoking efforts.
Posted inOpinion
A victory for toxic-free communities and cancer-free childhoods
After nearly 45 years, the US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to ban trichloroethylene (TCE), the chemical linked to a cluster of childhood cancers in Woburn.
Posted inHealth Care
Senate passes menstrual period equity bill
IN A STEP toward menstrual equity, the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would make disposable menstrual products available at no cost in prisons, homeless shelters, and public schools. “I don’t say that very often for bills coming through the Legislature, but this one is simple,” said Senate President Karen Spilka at a press […]
Posted inOpinion
Follow the sun, push for permanent Standard Time
ON NOVEMBER 5, residents of Massachusetts and most other states will return to a behavior that offers them better health outcomes, better sleep, better school performance, and increased workplace safety and productivity. Sounds like a great idea, right? Yet, unfortunately, those benefits will only last four months despite the majority of Americans from both sides […]
Posted inHealth, Media
Campbell leads legal challenge to Meta’s Facebook, Instagram
ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Meta Platforms, alleging that the company’s Facebook and Instagram platforms violated Massachusetts consumer protection laws by knowingly utilizing methods to hook and consequently harm young people. This lawsuit is part of an effort by attorneys general in 42 states who are filing similar lawsuits in their […]
Posted inOpinion
Advice from 2 mothers whose children died from meningitis
AS MOTHERS who have both lost a child, we often say we’re in a club that we want no one else to ever join. We started our individual foundations and the Meningitis B Action Project after we each lost our young, healthy daughters too soon to a now vaccine-preventable disease, Meningitis B. Kimberly (Patti’s daughter), […]
Posted inCourts, Education, Health, Health Care
Court says social worker, school district not liable in student suicide
IF SOMETHING IS going wrong in a child’s life – slipping grades, anxiety, depression, injury, or worse – their school community can see warning signs that may not always show up at home. But if a public school employee is made aware of the possibility – or even likelihood – of a student hurting themself, […]
Posted inEducation
Board approves first updated sex ed standards in decades
IT IS, LITERALLY, not your father’s — or mother’s — sex ed standards. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to update the curriculum framework for health and physical education, the first time the state’s sexual health standards have been updated in almost 25 years. Under the new guidelines, students should […]
Posted inHealth
A food co-op returns to Boston
IT’S BEEN A LONG and winding 11-year road for the Dorchester Food Co-op, which will be opening its doors to the public this month. It marks the return of community and work-owned food co-ops to Boston, five years after the last local grocery co-op shuttered. Co-op markets differ from other markets primarily in their ownership […]