HPH Weekly: Digital redlining perpetuates health inequity. Here’s how we fix it.

This edition of Harvard Public Health Weekly was sent to our subscribers on October 31, 2024. If you don’t already receive the newsletter, subscribe here. To see more past newsletters, visit our archives.

Digital redlining perpetuates health inequity. Here’s how we fix it.

“Doctors often ignore one important social determinant of health: access to broadband internet,” writes Monica L. Wang, a professor at Boston University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She says “digital redlining” is a modern version of the real estate practice that wasn’t outlawed by the U.S. government until 1968. The result: poorer-quality or no internet for some neighborhoods—and therefore, an inability to access essential services, including health resources and telehealth appointments.

Black residents in Cancer Alley try what may be a last legal defense to curb toxic pollution

In St. James Parish, Louisiana, a zoning ordinance divides industrial development along racial lines. When residents in a majority-White district pushed back against the construction of a solar farm, they got what they wanted—but residents in the majority-Black parts of the parish have had to weather one carcinogen-releasing development after another. The latest chapter in their fight may finally bring relief.

Snapshot: Nudging doctors to counsel parents on safe gun storage

More than four million U.S. children live in households with loaded and unlocked firearms, yet few pediatricians follow the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics to counsel parents and guardians on storing guns securely.

What we’re reading this week

Bombardments delay child polio vaccine campaign in Gaza →
Devex

Why could a silent asthma epidemic be sweeping Africa? →
Al Jazeera

Doctors are preoccupied with threats of criminal charges in states with abortion bans, putting patients’ lives at risk →
The Conversation

The push to prevent drownings in Uganda →
Global Health NOW

The pandemic agreement fractures in the latest negotiations →
Think Global Health

• Related: The W.H.O.’s pandemic treaty may spark a global health revolution →
  Harvard Public Health

Happy Halloween to our readers! Fallacious reports of tainted candy aside, you may think the field of public health and this spooky time of year don’t often intersect… and you’d be right. But Harris County Public Health in Texas had a clever idea to use the holiday as a PSA by dressing up as, well… see for yourself. Now that’s a conversation starter!

—Jo Zhou