Report calls for end to discrimination against pregnant students
A National Women’s Law Center report has recommended ways that schools and lawmakers can end discrimination and eliminate barriers to education for pregnant students.
“A Pregnancy Test for Schools” highlights ways that federal, state and local laws, policies and programs can change the landscape for pregnant and parenting students. The report also ranks states on how well laws and policies meet the needs of these students.
The report also outlines the requirement of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 that schools receiving federal funds not discriminate on the basis of sex, including a student’s pregnancy, childbirth or recovery.
“When educators ignore pregnant and parenting students or stereotype them as low academic achievers, they violate Title IX and miss an opportunity to transform these young people’s lives by providing the support necessary to improve their educational outcomes,” according to the report.
Recommendations include those for the Department of Education, Congress, state and local lawmakers and individual schools. Schools, for example, should create resources to educate students about their rights under Title IX, the report said.
The full report is available from www.nwlc.org.
Children with neurological disorders at higher flu death risk
A disproportionately high number of children with neurological disorders such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy died from influenza-related complications during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
A study published in the September issue of Pediatrics looked at influenza-related deaths in children based on data submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from state and local health departments. Overall, the number of pediatric deaths associated with the 2009 H1N1 virus infection was five times the median number of pediatric deaths reported in the five flu seasons prior to the pandemic. Of the deaths, 68 percent were among children with underlying medical conditions. The majority of them had a neurological disorder.
“Flu is particularly dangerous for people who may have trouble with muscle function, lung function or difficulty coughing, swallowing or clearing fluid from their airways,” said study co-author and pediatrician Georgina Peacock, MD, MPH, of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. “These problems are sometimes experienced by children with neurologic disorders.”
In the study, the most commonly reported complications for children with neurologic disorders were influenza-associated pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, Family Voices and Families Fighting Flu are working to spread the message of the importance of flu vaccination and treatment for children with neurologic conditions.
Smoky coal for cooking linked to lung cancer in China
The use of “smoky coal” for household cooking and heating has been linked to a substantial increase in the lifetime risk for developing lung cancer.
A study published online in British Medical Journal in late August compared deaths from lung cancer between lifelong users of smoky coal and smokeless coal for household cooking and heating in Xuanwei County, Yunnan Province, China, where cancer rates are high. The study found deaths were substantially higher among users of smoky or bituminous coal than for smokeless or anthracitic coal. The risk of lung cancer death before age 70 for men and women using smoky coal was 18 percent and 20 percent, respectively, compared with less than 0.5 percent among smokeless coal users of both sexes.
The study also linked higher lung cancer death risk to the hours a smoky coal user spent at home and the age at which someone started cooking. The study’s authors suggested the use of less carcinogenic types of coal or other fuels would translate to a substantial reduction of lung cancer risk.
“Additional studies are warranted to better characterize the carcinogenic potentials of various coal types,” the study’s authors wrote.
A 1993 survey found about 70 percent of China’s rural population used coal for cooking.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
