Medact’s blog brings together the online health community. We blog our own pieces as well as co-host articles written by other bloggers who work on the issues of poverty, violence, injustice and inequality.
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Taxing diesel—now’s not the time to choke
David McCoy on why we are campaigning for the phase out of diesel on health grounds, and why tax on diesel cars should be increased at the point of sale.
How do UK dietary guidelines compare for sustainability?
UK dietary guidelines are designed to promote healthy eating by providing accessible advice to the public. But what we eat doesn’t only impact on our individual health, it also has much larger impacts on the health of our planet - upon which human health is reliant....
Less meat, more veg
New analysis identifies the huge gap between a healthy & sustainable diet and what we’re actually eating
The decision to frack in Lancashire: shale gas is unburnable and must be left in the ground
That Lancashire County Council has been forced to grant Cuadrilla permission to undertake exploratory fracking should come as no surprise. Planning law meant that the Council could only block Cuadrilla on the back of a set of narrow, limited and localised...
Letter from one GP to another – a personal plea to Dr Liam Fox MP to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia
What follows is the text of a letter sent by Medact Member and trainee GP Sarah Alhulail to Dr Liam Fox MP, Secretary of State for International Trade, and a former GP. It follows on from Wednesday's call by over 200 health professionals for a cessation of UK arms...
Syria’s double refugees: Palestinians forced to risk everything to reach Europe
Rohan Talbot is Campaigns and Media Officer at Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a partner organisation in the Health through Peace movement. The Medact Refugee Solidarity Group (MRSG)** supports MAP's campaign for equal rights for Palestinian refugees from Syria....
The Health Impacts of the Small Arms Trade
By Oliver Yerby, member of the Medact Arms and Militarisation (MAM) group.* Oliver is a fourth year medical student studying in Nottingham with a particular interest in peacebuilding, human rights and social justice. Contact MAM at armscontrol@medact.org . Last year...
The Hinkley Point C decision – what nuclear energy means for health
1st October 2016: an addendum has been added to the discussion article written by Dr Frank Boulton on the potential role and impacts of nuclear power in the UK. See P.19 for additions re. the recent decision to approve Hinkley Point C. Originally published 30 August...
Climate Change, Health and Global Justice
Concerns about the health impacts of climate change are growing. Climate change has very significant implications for public health and the topic is climbing higher on the international agenda. The World Health Organization (WHO) and France recently co-hosted...
Nagasaki, and the futility of history’s only nuclear weapons attacks
With thanks to Medact Trustee Frank Boulton Nagasaki: a catalogue of errors Seventy one years ago in the early hours of August 9, the mission to drop a second atomic bomb on a Japanese city was launched. Three days previously, the first ever nuclear bomb attack had...
Considerations for Parliament’s Main Gate decision in 2016
Medact’s Anti-Trident replacement leaflet and commentaries The attached documents describe Medact’s response to the Main gate debate held about Trident Replacement in the UK House of Commons on 18 July 2016. The text of the leaflet was prepared and widely distributed...
Shifting Towards Sustainable Diets – how dietitians can help
As we are faced with an increasingly uncertain food future, there is an urgent need to take a sustainable ecological approach to our food system. Dietitians can and should play an important role in this emerging area.