As the calendar winds to a close, it’s worth taking a quick look back at some of the research from the past year that enlarged our understanding of the ways in which early childhood exerts an enduring influence on lifelong health.
Environment & Climate
A reporting trip that set out to investigate the causes behind a mysterious childhood cancer cluster turned into a valuable lesson in embracing a truer kind of complexity — not the twists and turns of a mystery novel’s plot, but the unpredictable emotions that guide real people’s lives.
By 2012, when I started my fellowship project, several journalists -- in Philadelphia and nationally -- had written extensively about the “built environment,” food deserts and healthy food access. For my project, I looked to answer the question: “What else in a neighborhood matters to health?”
It is difficult not to view poverty-stricken farmworkers as victims and pesticide manufacturers (and those of us who benefit from them) as perpetrators. Yet, my reporting demonstrated the complexity of the issues involved, leaving me with the uneasy sense that there was no clear-cut solution.
More than a decade of research in the Salinas Valley of California - one of the most thriving agriculture regions in the world - has shed light on environmental hazards and their potential health risks.
Unyque Jackson started kindergarten in Oakland. Her parents divorced when she was five. And Unyque moved to the San Joaquin Valley where she lived in her father’s house and was raised by her grandmother.
As he tells it, Geronimo Garcia was on the path toward dropping out by the time he started school.
Three cohort studies in the United States are tracking the long-term consequences on the developing brain of pesticide exposure during pregnancy and the early years of life. The studies are finding troubling effects, such as IQ deficits and ADHD-like behavioral problems.
This Reporting On Health webinar will explored the latest research on the links between health and physical environment and how reporters can cover this issue with fresh story ideas.
Researchers are growing increasingly aware that the prenatal period and early childhood are exquisitely sensitive to external insults such as environmental contaminants.