Addressing White Body Supremacy in the Black Body: An Embodied Approach

Oppression, discrimination, and racism are deeply rooted within our country’s institution and are the framework for the ideology, political, social, and economic values that are still upheld today. The enforcement of White body supremacy has caused trauma related mental and bodily distress to develop into anxiety, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS), and other mental conditions manifested in the body. As oppression is not officially acknowledged as trauma, it significantly complicates the process of healing for Black people. Degruy (2005) calls Black people to action to heal the traumas that have been passed down intergenerationally and have impacted them on multiple levels. I offer an approach to healing using dance/movement. This approach is derived from my ancestors, for dance served an essential role in life, addressing psychological distress, coping through trauma, ceremonies, spiritual practices, and a range of physical ailments. Dance/movement therapy serves identical purposes and created a mode of healing for the West. Influenced and dominated by a predominantly White female group, dance/movement therapy has been centralized in White body supremacy and impacts current dance/movement therapists. Currently, the field is incorporating various multi-cultural dance perspectives, but there continues to be a need for change. Through dance/movement therapists doing the inner work necessary to implement social justice and dismantle White body supremacy, change is possible

HPV Vaccination: Should It Be Recommended or Required?

Legislation introduced by two members of the District of Columbia Council on January 9, 2007 would require all girls to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer, by the time they enter the sixth grade, unless a parent or guardian specifically opts out of the mandate. A similar bill was introduced last week in Virginia, and Maryland and West Virginia are poised to consider legislation. To place the proposals in a broader context, this paper reviews some of the scientific, legal, ethical and financial issues surrounding the HPV vaccine and compulsory vaccinations

Mandating HPV vaccination--Private rights, public good

New York State\u27s regulations require health care workers who have direct contact with patients or who may expose patients to disease to be vaccinated against seasonal and H1N1 influenza. Courts must take into account constitutional guarantees of personal autonomy, freedom of contract, and freedom of religion when reviewing the current lawsuits. These rights, however, have been constrained when they conflict with government measures that are intended to protect the community\u27s health and safety. Health care workers have a profound effect on patients\u27 health. Although they have the same rights as all private citizens, it is likely that courts will continue to make the health and safety of patients the priority in permitting exceptions to individual rights

Vaccines and Autism: The Evidence and the Law

A potential link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism was dismissed by a federal vaccine court in February 2009. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the findings demonstrate a lack of medical evidence for any association, while Autism Speaks, a patient advocacy group, said questions remain about potential risks for certain subgroups. Other legal actions are pending as the scientific and patient advocacy communities debate the need to conduct further research on the vaccine-autism link. Meanwhile, public health advocates worry that continuing concerns about the safety of vaccines may depress the population immunization rate. A small rise in reported measles cases may be linked to exemptions that allow families to opt out of vaccine mandates. This paper reviews the scientific research on vaccines and autism, the legal decisions to date, and the importance of continued attentio

Health Effects of Indoor-Air Benzene in Anchorage Residences: A Study of Indoor-Air Quality in Houses with Attached Garages

Benzene is a known carcinogen. It affects white blood cells; it causes leukemia and aplastic anemia. It may also affect the immune system which is dependent on white blood cells.1 It has been removed from all household products, but it is still present in gasoline. Alaskan gasoline is particularly high in benzene (>5%). Gasoline refined in Alaska has high concentrations of benzene and other the aromatic compounds as much as 50% aromatics by volume. Leaving the aromatics in the gasoline helps cars start in the cold, but it also puts high concentrations of benzene in both the ambient and indoor air. We already knew from previous work done in Alaska by Bernard Goldstein in Valdez2 and the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services in Anchorage3 that people were exposed to high ambient levels of benzene in the winter, and that there were high indoor benzene concentrations in homes with attached garages if the garage was used to store gasoline or gasoline powered engines. Benzene does not bioaccumulate in the body as dioxin or some pesticides do. But are its effects cumulative? Does a little dose of benzene everyday have the same effect as a large dose over less time? Benzene reduces CD4 cells in a dose-response manner at workplace concentrations less than 1 ppm (OSHA 8-hour exposure limit) in workers.4 People who live in homes with high benzene concentrations may be exposed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There have been no studies of health effects of such environmental exposure to benzene. This study was done to determine three things: 1. What percentage of Anchorage homes with attached garages had high levels of indoor benzene? 2. Were the high levels of indoor benzene affecting the health of the residents? 3. Were residents more likely to develop asthma in homes with high levels of indoor benzene?Municipality of AnchorageIntroduction / Methods / Recruitment / Results / Laboratory Results / Smoking / Health Results / Demographics / Determining Risk Levels / Asthma Outcomes / Children / Work and Hobby Exposure / General Health / Conclusions / Bibliography / Appendice

A Pedagogy of Care for Adolescent English Learners: A Formative Experiment

In the case of educators of adolescents in the dynamic process of English acquisition, it is our goal to increase the fulfillment and success of the students we are privileged to serve through nurturing their academic, emotional, personal, social, and civic development. It is, therefore, essential that educators understand the implementation and impact of teaching through a framework of care

The Cost of Cost-Sharing: The Impact of Medicaid Benefit Design on Influenza Vaccination Uptake

ncome persons. State Medicaid policy may affect the uptake of recommended adult vaccinations. We examined the impact of three aspects of Medicaid benefit design (coverage for vaccines, prohibiting cost-sharing, and copayment amounts) on vaccine uptake in the fee-for-service Medicaid population 19–64 years old. We combined previously published reports to obtain state Medicaid policy information from 2003 and 2012. Data on influenza vaccination uptake were taken from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We used a differences-in-differences framework, controlling for national trends and state differences, to estimate the effect of each benefit design factor on vaccination uptake in different Medicaid-eligible populations. Each additional dollar of copayment for vaccination decreased influenza vaccination coverage 1–6 percentage points. The effects of covering vaccines or prohibiting cost-sharing were mixed. Imposing copayments for vaccination is associated with lower vaccination coverage. These findings have implications for the implementation of Medicaid expansion in states that currently impose copayments