American journal of public health
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Comparative Study
Availability of litigation as a public health tool for firearm injury prevention: comparison of guns, vaccines, and motor vehicles.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), enacted in 2005, grants the firearm industry broad immunity from liability. The PLCAA not only prevents most people from receiving compensation for their firearm-related injuries, it erodes litigation's ability to serve its public health role of providing manufacturers with a financial incentive to make their products safer. ⋯ The liability of nearly all other products, for example motor vehicles, is governed by traditional common law principles. The absence of both litigation and product safety rules for firearms is a potentially dangerous combination for the public's health.
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President George W. Bush has proposed modest increases, when he has proposed any at all, in funding for the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act during his administration, and Congress has appropriated little funding increase since fiscal year 2004. Growing numbers of Americans living with HIV or AIDS, 40 000 people newly infected with HIV each year, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-recommended efforts to identify people with undiagnosed HIV infection indicate an increasing need for services funded by CARE Act programs. Inadequate CARE Act funding harms the most vulnerable people with HIV.
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The pressure to regulate the marketing of high-energy, nutrient-poor foods to young people has been mounting in light of concern about rising worldwide levels of overweight and obesity. In 2004, the World Health Organization called on governments, industry, and civil society to act to reduce unhealthy marketing messages. ⋯ Still, there have been few new regulations that restrict food marketing to young people. Despite calls for evidence-based policy, new regulatory developments appear to have been driven less by evidence than by ethics.