{"id":11185,"date":"2025-02-28T07:58:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T12:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/?p=11185"},"modified":"2025-02-27T20:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T01:12:17","slug":"scientists-study-a-new-risk-factor-take-a-guess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jordanbarab.com\/confinedspace\/2025\/02\/28\/scientists-study-a-new-risk-factor-take-a-guess\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Study a New Risk Factor \u2013 Take a Guess"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"firstcharacter\">A<\/span> new risk factor? Wait, what exactly is a \u201crisk factor? Good question.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to be an epidemiologist to understand risk factors. Let\u2019s do a quick review of what a risk factor actually is.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, a risk factor is any condition, characteristic, exposure, or behavior that increases the likelihood of developing a disease, injury, or other adverse health outcome. Some are modifiable and some are not.<\/p>\n<p>Risk factors can be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Biological, like gender, age, and genetics<\/li>\n<li>Behavioral, like smoking, excessive alcohol use, drug use, poor nutrition, reckless driving<\/li>\n<li>Social, like poverty, lack of education or housing, and inadequate access to health care<\/li>\n<li>Environmental, like air pollution, unsafe drinking water, unsafe streets, crime-ridden neighborhoods, exposure to toxic substances<\/li>\n<li>Occupational, which is commonly considered part of \u2018environmental\u201d, but I break it out here for obvious reasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Readers of <em>Confined Space<\/em> are well-versed in occupational risk factors.\u00a0 They include exposure to chemicals, dusts, gases, and fumes; unguarded cutting and grinding machines; noise, vibration, and temperature extremes; moving vehicles; repetitive motion, poor workstation design; lack of personal protective equipment; long work hours; and psychosocial risks like workplace stress, harassment, job insecurity, or working alone, with money, or with disturbed or angry people, any of which can lead to assaults by patients, clients, customers, or former or current co-workers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>AND THE NEW RISK FACTOR IS (DRUM ROLL\u2026.)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Corporations!<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at UC\/San Francisco\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/prhe.ucsf.edu\/center-end-corporate-harm\">Center to End Corporate Harm<\/a> say that <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/19022025\/scientists-launch-corporate-harm-research-center\/\">corporations themselves are <em>the leading<\/em> vector of disease.<\/a> Corporate-driven risk factors are major contributors to chronic diseases, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Parkinson\u2019s.\u00a0 In addition to the well-recognized risks of chemicals, plastics, and fossil fuels, corporate-driven risk factors include: the \u00a0barrage of tempting and addictive ultra-processed foods that contribute to this nation\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9611578\/\">obesity epidemic<\/a> and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/overdose-prevention\/about\/understanding-the-opioid-overdose-epidemic.html\">opioid epidemic<\/a> driven in part by aggressive marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n<p>But, you may think, what\u2019s so new? Haven\u2019t corporations always posed risks? \u00a0Right again! (This was a trick question.) Corporations have waged <a href=\"https:\/\/sensiblesafeguards.org\/waronregs\/\">a decades-long assault on government regulations<\/a>, agencies, and policies that protect public health, prioritizing the health of their own bottom lines instead.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Corporations have waged a decades-long assault on government regulations, agencies, and policies that protect public health, prioritizing the health of their own bottom lines instead.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What\u2019s new is that the Center is popularizing another risk factor category: corporate-produced risk.\u00a0 Researchers at the new Center are trying to address this new risk factor by studying tactics\u00a0industries use to promote and protect their lucrative health-harming products, while at the same time undermining the science and regulations that help protect our health and wellbeing. By shining a spotlight on industry conflicts of interest, financial ties, and lobbying activities, the Center aims to hold industry accountable for its leading role in causing the chronic diseases that exact an enormous toll on our lives, our families, our communities, and our entire economy.<\/p>\n<p>The Center notes a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenewlede.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Center-to-end-Corporate-Harm.png\">sharp rise in chronic diseases in the U.S.<\/a> from 1990-2021 from 28% to 283%, including cancer (175%), diabetes (283%), Parkinson\u2019s (133%), and dementias (75%), leading to what the scientists say is an \u201cindustrial epidemic\u201d of disease. YIKES!<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s another disturbing statistic: the fossil fuel industry spent $130 million lobbying in 2023; environmental groups together spent $30 million!\u00a0 Environmental and public interest groups just don\u2019t have the resources to compete with industry\u2019s lobbying blitzkrieg.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hats off to UCSF for launching a focused, science-based effort and approach to describing what can be called the \u201ccommercial determinants of health and for exposing and countering industry tactics to hide the harmfulness of their products.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Center Director Tracy Woodruff says, \u201cIf we\u2019re really going to address the major risk factors of disease, we have to address how corporations are causing disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>\u201cIf we\u2019re really going to address the major risk factors of disease, we have to address how corporations are causing disease.\u201d &#8211;Tracy Woodruff<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It reminds me &#8212; and likely many of you &#8212; of our friend David Michaels\u2019 groundbreaking book <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.powells.com\/book\/-9780195300673?partnerid=44468&amp;p_bt\">Doubt Is Their Product<\/a>,<\/em> published back in 2008. (And its 2020 sequel, <em>The Triumph of Doubt)<\/em>.) If you haven\u2019t read them, you can read reviews <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC2685872\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.ucsusa.org\/kathleen-rest\/book-review-the-triumph-of-doubt-exposes-the-disinformation-playbook-in-action\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 Michaels described how business interests take advantage of scientific and regulatory processes to obscure the need to address the occupational and environmental problems that they caused. The problems have only mushroomed in the intervening years.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t let anyone tell you that you\u2019re just weak, and that your unhealthy weight, lack of exercise, and chronic health conditions are all your fault. Sure, you have some control.\u00a0 But it\u2019s hard to limit or just say no to those tasty, addictive snacks and ultra-processed foods that sate our cravings, simplify our food prep, and bombard us with advertising and easy accessibility.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s pretty much impossible to match the resources and reach of the corporations that produce these unhealthy foods. \u00a0I highly recommend that you follow and amplify the new Center\u2019s work. And let\u2019s add <em>Commercial<\/em> to the bulleted risk factor categories above.<\/p>\n<p>And I close with a comment and a \u00a0question: Our new Secretary of HHS claims he wants to MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) by tackling the problem of chronic disease. But will he have the courage (and freedom) to tackle <em>ALL<\/em> of its risk factors?<\/p>\n<p>Call me skeptical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new risk factor? Wait, what exactly is a \u201crisk factor? Good question. You don\u2019t need to be an epidemiologist to understand risk factors. Let\u2019s do a quick review of what a risk factor actually is. Basically, a risk factor is any condition, characteristic, exposure, or behavior that increases the likelihood of developing a disease, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Scientists Study a New Risk Factor \u2013 Take a Guess - Confined Space<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public health advocates have identified a new risk factor that is threatening the health and lives of working people. 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