America Tries To Upend Global Resolution On Breast-Feeding With Threats Of Trade Retaliation
The resolution on the benefits of breast-feeding from the World Health Assembly was expected to pass easily, but U.S. officials resorted to threats after their attempts to water the measure down failed. In the end, Russia stepped in to introduce the resolution.
The New York Times:
U.S. Opposition To Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials
A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly. Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes. (Jacobs, 7/8)
In other news from the administration —
ProPublica:
How The EPA And The Pentagon Downplayed A Growing Toxic Threat
Now two new analyses of drinking water data and the science used to analyze it make clear the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense have downplayed the public threat posed by these chemicals. Far more people have likely been exposed to dangerous levels of them than has previously been reported because contamination from them is more widespread than has ever been officially acknowledged. (Lustgarten, 7/9)
