Some steps forward on climate, advice on protecting yourself and the planet from plastics, a national score card on mental health, and the theft of brain data are among the wide-ranging topics covered in this week’s column.
We also address questions about global health financing, Germany’s experiment with a Universal Basic Income, and calls for a shorter working week for the health workforce to be considered by the Albanese Government’s upcoming productivity summit.
And Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and the World Health Organization’s Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, takes on United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
The quotable?
Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it.”
Focus on plastics
Professor Tracey Woodruff, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of California at San Francisco, recently published an article in The Washington Post with tips for avoiding microplastics.
Microplastics are small pieces of plastic, less than five millimetres long, sometimes visible to the naked eye, but others are so tiny that they are smaller than the width of your hair or even a red blood cell.
While more science is needed to fully understand how this impacts our health, there’s enough evidence for us to be concerned, she says.
Woodruff limits her exposure to microplastics by:
- Avoiding packaged and ultra-processed foods
- Not microwaving plastics or using plastic water bottles
- Following a plant-based diet
- Minimising exposure to dust. For example by using a vacuum with a HEPA filter and a wet mop or microfiber cloth to clean up around the house, which won’t stir up dust.
- Using fragrance-free personal care and cleaning products
“The bottom line is that it’s hard for an individual to control the production of plastic, and we need systemic changes to lower our exposures,” she writes. Read more at her university website here.
Open letter from health professionals on the plastics treaty: more thank 18 million health professionals, represented by 63 health organizations across 88 countries, and more than 1,000 individual signatories, urge plastics treaty negotiators to protect both the planet and patients in an open letter.
Global health
Health Policy Watch reports:
United States (US) Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr should promote public confidence in vaccines or be fired, according to Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, who has been the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Injuries since 2018.
“Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it,” wrote Bloomberg in a hard-hitting opinion piece published in Bloomberg News.
“The greatest danger in elevating him to HHS secretary was always that he would use his position to undermine public confidence in vaccines, which would lead to needless suffering and even death. And so it has come to pass,” said Bloomberg, in one of the hardest-hitting critiques of Kennedy’s six-month term from a global health leader.
Human rights
Australia’s human rights record is coming under scrutiny ahead of a major United Nations human rights review, the Universal Periodic Review.
A coalition of over 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, human rights, legal, disability, refugee, LGBTIQA+ and climate organisations has submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
This identifies critical human rights issues where Australia is falling short of its legal obligations and recommends steps Australia must take to improve its human rights record.
These include:
- An Australian Human Rights Act is the missing piece at the heart of Australia’s laws and policies, which would establish clear minimum human rights protections and mean governments have to consider people’s rights when designing policies and delivering services.
- Ongoing systemic racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is a critical human rights failing, with urgent action needed to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 to stop 10 year old children growing up in jail, fully incorporate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into Australian laws, establish a Makarrata Commission, and implement self-determined solutions to justice problems.
- Gender-based violence remains a persistent and serious problem, and legal protections must be strengthened for survivors and to stop family violence from happening in the first place.
The report underscores the Human Rights Measurement Index’s 2025 findings that Australia is backsliding across freedom of expression, safety from arbitrary detention and other fundamental human rights.
Addressing the climate crisis
#AusPol
#TasVotes
While we await an actual outcome from the recent Tasmanian election, below are links to some recommended reading and viewing for the next Parliament, however it shapes up.
From The Mandarin: The state that fails: Could Canberra take over Tasmania?
Business As Usual will not deliver budget repair or a successful Parliament, writes Meg Webb MLC
Also watch this recent Australia Institute discussion about effective power-sharing arrangements, highlighting the importance of trust and relationships.
First Nations
“This paper provides a critique of current Western health research ethics processes and proposes an evidence-based tool to guide researchers in promoting inclusivity and cultural safety. Implementing these recommendations can improve health and well-being outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities.”
Mental health
The National Mental Health Commission released its report card for 2024, summarised in the graphics below.
Conference Watch
Thanks to Australian College of Nursing for providing following reports from the National Nursing Forum.
Watch recording: Strengthening the Sustainability of the Australian Nursing Workforce by Alison McMillan MACN PSM
Watch recording: Ministerial Address, Hon Mark Butler MP, and Nursing Trailblazer Awards
Watch recording: Powering the Digital Future of Health by Angela Ryan FACN
Watch recording: Beyond Tokenism – Why Planetary Health Must Be Embedded in Nursing Practice and Education Standards by Aletha Ward FACN
Watch recording: Ministerial Address Senator the Hon. Anne Ruston, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care
Watch recording: Combating Racism in Nursing – A Tri-Nations Perspective Panel members:
- Adj. Professor Karrie Long MPH, Chief Nurse and midwifery Officer, Safer Care Victoria Professor
- Sabina Knight AM, Director, James Cook University Central QLD, Centre for Rural and Remote Health
- Professor Lynore Geia, Professor of Nursing & Midwifery, Edith Cowan University
- Lorraine Hetaraka, Chief Nurse Ministry of Health, New Zealand Government
- Nadine Gray RN, National Chief Nursing Officer, New Zealand.
See the National Nursing Forum playlist.
Other conferences…
#CroakeyREAD
Media matters
Do countries with better-funded public media also have healthier democracies? Of course they do. “But the direction of causality is tricky. Do a democracy’s flaws lead it to starve public media, or does starving public media lead to a democracy’s flaws?”
Events upcoming
