Issues

Although indicators of economic activity were on the soft side earlier in the year, the outlook for the remainder of 2018 remains quite positive, supported by sizable fiscal stimulus as well as still-accommodative financial conditions. In the latest report, real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 2.2 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter of 2018, a slowdown from the 3 percent pace in the final three quarters of 2017. While the unemployment rate is now lower than before the financial crisis, the employment-to-population ratio for prime-age workers remains about 1 percentage point below its pre-crisis level. It is an open question what portion of the prime-age Americans who are out of the labor force may prove responsive to tight labor market conditions. more »

"Since 2007, when EWG published its first Sunscreen Guide, many sun protection products sold in the US have become safer and federal regulators have cracked down on some of the worst phony marketing claims. Two-thirds of the products we examined offer inferior sun protection or contain worrisome ingredients like oxybenzone, a hormone disruptor, or retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A that may harm skin. And despite scant evidence, the government still allows most sunscreens to claim they help prevent skin cancer. Over the course of 12 years, EWG has uncovered mounting evidence that one common sunscreen chemical, oxybenzone, poses a hazard to human health and the environment. It is an allergen and a hormone disruptor that soaks through the skin and is measured in the body of nearly every American." more »

The study estimates a death rate of 14.3 deaths per thousand between September 20 (date of Hurricane Maria) and December 31, 2017, up from a rate of 8.8 deaths per thousand at the same time in 2016. About one-third of the reported deaths in the households surveyed in the study were attributed to delayed or prevented access to medical care. The mortality rate in Puerto Rico rose by 62% after Hurricane Maria, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. more »

The NIH Pain Consortium was established to enhance pain research and promote collaboration among researchers across the many NIH Institutes and Centers that have programs and activities addressing pain. The consortium supports initiatives, development of research resources and tools. This symposium features NIH supported researchers whose work has made an important contribution to pain research.   more »