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The article profiles Charles Lee, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice. His groundbreaking research "Toxic Wastes and Race" concerning the disproportionate effects of environmental hazards on minorities and the poor is discussed. His involvement with the United Church of Christ's Environmental Justice program began when North Carolina chose Warren County, predominantly African American and poor, to be the site of a polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) landfill.

The author identifies the attributes of AIDS that challenge the effective functioning of prevention and treatment efforts. He cites the reasons why AIDS affect first the marginalized communities. The stigmatizing attributes of the epidemic, makes AIDS a disease of denial. The authors comments that AIDS prevention efforts works but more progress is needed.

Objectives. We documented inequitable, cumulative environmental risk exposure and health between predominantly White low-income and middle-income children residing in rural areas in upstate New York. Methods. Cross-sectional data for 216 third- through fifth-grade children included overnight urinary neuroendocrine levels, noise levels, residential crowding (people/room), and housing quality. Results. After control for income, maternal education, family structure, age, and gender, cumulative environmental risk exposure (0-3) (risk greater than 1 SD above the mean for each singular risk factor [0, 1]) was substantially greater for low-income children. Cumulative environmental risk was positively correlated with elevated overnight epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol in the low-income sample but not in the middle-income sample. Conclusions. Cumulative environmental risk exposure among low-income families may contribute to bad health, beginning in early childhood. (Am J Public Health. 2004;94:1942-1944). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the first five months after the restriction of public funds for abortion, a large percentage of low-income women seeking abortions in a metropolitan area in Texas obtained abortions that were partially subsidized using a combination of reduced clinic fees and public funds for ancillary non-abortion services. Their own personal funds made up the difference between the subsidy and the full cost of the procedure. (Am J Public Health 69:948-950, 1979) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of self-reports of mammography use by low-income women. Mammography van records were used to verify self-report of mammography use in the past year by women aged 50 through 75 years who had visited five community health centers (n = 237). Van records verified mammography use for 99% of these women (82% within the previous year and 98% within the past 2 years). Forty percent of those with van records who reported both the month and year of the mammogram were accurate. Inaccurately reported dates were more frequently after (74%) rather than before (26%) the actual date. These findings indicate that self-reports of mammography use by low-income women are generally reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low income families were interviewed to determine factors related to the number of family food servings per week. A multiple regression model indicated that participation in WIC (supplemental food program for women, infants and children) household size, and number of different income sources were associated with more family food servings per week. Number of food servings per week decreased the last week of the month most often in families with younger members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, food insecurity, dietary quality, and obesity among US adults" by Binh T. Nguyen and colleagues in the July 2015 issue, accompanied by a reply from the authors.

The article discusses data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which indicates that low-income individuals continue to smoke at disproportionately high rates compared with America's general population as of 2017, and it mentions social determinants of health.

The article focuses on the density and demographics of tobacco outlets in Erie County, New York. The authors noted that no studies have been performed concerning the densities of tobacco retail outlets in the same manner that research has been conducted with alcoholic beverages indicating a reduction in the physical availability of the products that are associated with positive health and behavioral outcomes. Based on the idea that African American and lower-income smokers are particularly sensitive, the authors set out to determine whether tobacco outlets were more densely concentrated in areas with these kinds of populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the optimal immunization practices for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). WIC can have a significant role in improving immunization rates for children from low-income families. The program has been establishing actions to support immunization assessments and referrals, access to health care and support services may have altered for the many WIC clients who are also on Medicaid in response to the growth of managed medical care.

Abstract: Using data from the National Survey of Family Growth. Cycle II, the per ¢ of women without a Pap test in 1973-76 is shown according to race, residence, and income, updating an earlier report based on 1973 data. Poor women and nonmetropolitan women continued to be significantly less likely than other women to have had a Pap test. (Am J Public Health 1981:71:851-852.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the rural health services in the U.S. While the tradition that personal health services are paid for out-of-pocket and to be delivered under private proprietary sponsorship no longer holds for the more technical, narrowly specialized and intensive end of the service spectrum, it remains the dominant pattern for primary health care. The author asserts that the poor are not distributed in rural areas as they are in the cities, which accounts both for different approaches to meeting their needs for personal services and for the different kinds of problems that those who would implement such approaches must face. The role of state government in the delivery of rural primary care depends more than anything else on what the federal government has already preempted.

The author looks at the public health consequences of hunger due to constrained resources. He discusses self-reported hunger measures as a valid surrogate measures for low intakes of required nutrients. To accomplish the elimination of poverty, he argues that all people be provided a decent education and that all who are able and want to work can find satisfying work at adequate pay. He also offers steps to achieving such goal.

The article reports that in 1993 the primary health care clinic of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis joined forces with a local law firm to provide pro bono legal services to the poor in a setting familiar to them. To ensure that services are comprehensive and patients needs addressed, primary health care clinics serving high risk, vulnerable populations often have medical social workers on staff. Yet, despite this staffing; some problems can only be solved by an attorney. For the poor he sole outlet for legal services is generally a legal aid clinic, which is usually understaffed and underfunded. For these patients, the barrier of lack of accessibility, availability, affordability and cultural acceptability--often met when they attempt to secure medical care--likewise exist when they seek legal representation. To address the problem, the neighborhood-based primary health care clinic of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis of population 368,383 joined forces in November 1993 with a local law firm to provide pro bono legal services in a setting familiar to the patients. The clinic provides medical, dental and mental health care to an economically disadvantaged, medically and socially high-risk, culturally diverse vulnerable population.

In this article, the author discusses the study of B. G. Link et al, which is published within the issue, about homelessness in the U.S. According to the author, the researchers used an innovative household sampling method to estimate the number of U.S. people who experienced homelessness between 1985 and 1990. The author observed that the number of U.S. people who experienced homelessness within the given period is much larger than previous estimations. And when a person is homeless, it is given that he/she is unemployed and is more likely to be medically or psychiatrically disabled.

The article discusses some of the key issues in the lives of economically disadvantaged women in the U.S. in the early 1990s. The gap in earnings of female and male workers is said to be a central factor that keeps a vast number of women, and their children, in poverty. Many critical problems that particularly afflict women and children have added to the extraordinary toll that poverty takes on their health and well-being. It addresses the question of how to provide a decent standard of living for poor families in the country.

The author reflects on the connection between the built environment and health in the developed and developing countries. Slums are uniformly characterized by inadequate provision of basic infrastructure and public services necessary to sustain health. Settlements in slum areas are made of flimsy materials that offer scant protection against the elements, leaving their residents vulnerable to injury, violence, illness, and death. Further, since many of these settlements are illegal, slum dwellers often have no official addresses and entitlements, including the right to vote, public education and health care. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the states of the United Nations reaffirmed their commitment to prioritize sustainable development and eradicate poverty.