Category: Health
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Too Hot to Learn: Cooling Argentina’s Overheating Schools
In many countries, schools are seeking other solutions due to the purchase and operating costs of AC, combined with an electrical grid that cannot handle demand from these devices and suddenly shuts down. There are ways to reduce dependence on AC: changing the buildings, and changing the cities they exist in. But these are not…
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Decades After Nike Promised Sweatshop Reforms, Workers in This Factory Were Still Fainting
Workers have fainted for years inside Cambodia’s garment factories, where more than 57,000 people now produce Nike goods. People at Nike’s suppliers fainted en masse in 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to news reports at the time, part of a string of events in which thousands of Cambodians got sick, vomited or collapsed…
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Beat the Heat: How US Workers Are Winning Fans, AC, and Even Heat Pay
In 2022, the latest year for which we have data, 43 U.S. workers lost their lives to heat on the job. That’s up from 36 in 2021, and we can expect this cruel number to keep climbing. But from warehouses to coffeehouses to construction sites, workers using solidarity and creative action—even without the protection of a union…
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The Psychological Terrorism of Witnessing Genocide in Gaza
I’m expected to live in a world that wants me to disappear, a world that says violence against me is acceptable, that atrocities against me and my people are acceptable. I feel battered. I feel like my soul has been shattered, my heart broken, and they will never heal. We Palestinians, like our fellow Indigenous…
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Why is free time still so elusive?
Many economists see the status quo mostly as a choice: People would simply rather have more money. So they prioritize work over free time. However, in the past, many economists assumed that people’s need for more stuff would eventually be met. At that point, they would choose more free time.
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‘It is hijacking my brain’ – How to Help People Addicted to Social Media to Cut the Craving
Problematic social media addiction is associated with a host of negative effects including moodiness, anxiety and an excessive amount of time and energy spent on or thinking about social media. People with clinical social media addiction levels experience those same effects but to a great degree, with their habit patterns around social media resembling that…
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Toilet Paper is Wiping Out Forests, but Sustainability may be on the Way
In concept, toilet paper is simple. It’s made of cellulose fibers plus chemicals to glue it together, explains industry expert Greg Grishchenko, a retired mechanical engineer who spent more than four decades in the tissue production industry. The fibers are mostly sourced from trees, but can also come from recycled paper or alternative sources like…
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Exposure to stories on war, hate, and violence can cause anxiety and depression in children – here’s how to discuss bad news with them
“There’s been a shooting in Maine.” “There’s been a hurricane in Mexico.” “There’s been a terrorist attack in Israel and now there’s a war, and that’s really hard, but I want to talk to you about it. Tell me what you’ve heard about it.” Allow them to have that ability to tell you what they’ve…
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How to stay cool in hot weather
Though access to air conditioning helps prevent deaths from heat, relying mainly on AC may not be an ideal solution. In urban areas with a lot of AC use, waste heat from the units can make the local environment even hotter. And the carbon pollution caused by running AC can fuel further climate change, leading…
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Saving lives from extreme heat: Lessons from the deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave
Extreme heat disasters like this are becoming increasingly common in regions where high heat used to be rare. Blackouts during severe heat waves can also leave residents who believe they are protected because they have in home air conditioners at unexpected risk. To prepare, cities, neighborhoods, companies and individuals can take steps now that can…
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