Policies that encourage recycling may be used to reduce environmental costs from waste disposal when direct restrictions on disposal are difficult to enforce. Four recycling policies have been advanced: (i) taxes on the use of virgin materials; (ii) deposit/refund programs; (iii) subsidies to recycled material production; and (iv) recycled content standards. This study analyzes the structure of...

Numerous studies have examined the effectiveness of alcohol and traffic policies in reducing automobile crashes and fatalities, but only a few have analyzed the impact of state-specific policies on motorcycle safety. Given the growing popularity and inherent safety risks of motorcycle riding, this study provides a comprehensive investigation of both fatal and non-fatal injuries. State-level lon...

• Forewords • Timeline • Introduction • Section 1: The interaction between diet and public health 1.1: Changing patterns of mortality in the UK 1.2: Changing patterns of disease and links with diet • Section 2: The role of government 2.1: Overview of government departments related to food and nutrition 2.2: Recommendations for healthy diets 2.3: Nutrition-related health policies • Section 3: Tr...

Organized by three distinguished members of the JBS Editorial Board – Marc Bickle, PhD, of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Germany); Hakim Djaballah, PhD, of Institut Pasteur Korea (South Korea); and Lorenz Martin Mayr, PhD, of AstraZeneca (UK) – this special issue demonstrates how RNAi is enjoying a revival of popularity and is increasingly being applied to dis...

Is happiness good for your health? This common notion is tested in a synthetic analysis of 30 follow-up studies on happiness and longevity. It appears that happiness does not predict longevity in sick populations, but that it does predict longevity among healthy populations So, happiness does not cure illness but it does protect against becoming ill. The effect of happiness on longevity in heal...

T his paper is one of four interrelated action papers resulting from the 2008 National Summit on Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control. Summit participants engaged in discussions on the current state of the law with respect to obesity, nutrition and food policy, physical activity, and physical education. Participants also identified gaps in the law at all jurisdictional levels a...

As taxation is one of the key public policy domains influencing population health, and as there is a legal, strategic, and programmatic basis for health impact assessment (HIA) in Finland, we analyzed all 235 government bills on tax legislation over the years 2007–2014 to see whether the health impacts of the tax bills had been assessed. We found that health impacts had been assessed for 13 bil...