IMPACT
Good News on Naloxone
BAD TO THE BONE
Elevated levels of air pollutants, particularly nitrous oxides, are tied to bone damage among women after menopause, and the effects are most evident on the lumbar spine, note researchers from Environmental Health Sciences.
3.9
Number, in millions, of visitors to our website in 2022, a 35% increase from the previous year
Photographs: iStock
Tainted Data About Toxins Researchers at the School continue to examine 1970s documents related to toxicity studies conducted for Monsanto by Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories (IBT). An examination published in the American Journal of Public Health reveals fraudulent research practices used to thwart government investigations. “Monsanto contracted with IBT in 1969 to perform chronic toxicity studies, one of which did not turn out to be ‘as favorable as Monsanto had hoped or anticipated,’” says author David Rosner, PhD, professor of Sociomedical Sciences and co-founder of the School’s Center for the History & Ethics of Public Health. Monsanto then arranged with IBT to repeat some of the studies for better conclusions. This is the first paper to look at the relationship between the corporate funders of research and its fraudulent practices in the 1970s. In addition to compromised test conditions, IBT employees made up data. “The influence of industry on laboratory practices made the corruption of science more likely,” notes Rosner. “We need to maintain vigilance over companies whose self-interest has distorted science and may continue to do so.”
$227M
Value of the School’s endowment, up from $81M in 2009
Concerns that access to lifesaving naloxone might inadvertently increase opioid misuse and overdose remain a barrier to distribution efforts. Now, researchers who examined data on adolescent substance use from a national survey of high school students report that adopting laws that make naloxone more easily available does not seem to be associated with changes in adolescent lifetime heroin or injection drug use. In fact, naloxone access was more consistently associated with decreases rather than increases in use. The findings, which cover 2007 to 2019, are published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. “Efforts to improve naloxone access continue to be an urgent public health priority,” says senior author Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, professor of Epidemiology. “This is important for people of all ages.”
94%
Proportion of School employees who agree that “the work I do is meaningful to me”
publichealth.columbia.edu
11
