A health justice organization has publicly criticized the Food and Drug Administration for repeatedly missing deadlines to ban formaldehyde and formaldehyde-inducing chemicals in hair straightening products, raising serious concerns about racial health disparities.Weaving Voices for Health and Justice condemned the FDA’s inaction as gross negligence that disproportionately impacts Black women and salon workers who primarily use these products as hair relaxers. The agency has missed five consecutive deadlines to enact regulations initially promised in 2023, leaving communities exposed to known carcinogens.Debra Erenberg, co-executive director of Weaving Voices for Health & Justice, emphasized the severity of the situation. The FDA has…
Author: Disparity Matters
Two major studies reveal contradictory but equally troubling racial disparities in pulse oximeter accuracy, complicating efforts to address medical device bias affecting patients with darker skin tones. Both studies demonstrate that even small measurement errors can substantially influence diagnosis and treatment decisions. In the EXAKT study from the U.K., all five home-use pulse oximeters tested gave higher oxygen saturation readings for patients with darker skin tones than for those with lighter skin, averaging 0.6 to 1.5 percentage points higher. Falsely reassuring readings despite actual low oxygen levels were two to seven times more likely for darker-skinned patients. This was 5.3…
When Hurricane Harvey swept through Texas and Louisiana in 2017, the official death count stood at 103. But a new University of Michigan study reveals the storm’s true human cost was far grimmer, with an estimated 3,738 additional deaths among older adults in the year following the disaster. The research exposes stark racial disparities in who survived Harvey’s aftermath. Black older adults faced a 6% higher risk of death in the year after the storm, while Hispanic and Latino populations experienced an alarming 13% increase in mortality risk compared to other groups. Lead author Sue Anne Bell, a nursing professor…
In Houston’s Harris County, Texas, Black women face maternal mortality rates that exceed those anywhere else in the nation, revealing a crisis rooted in systemic racism and inequitable healthcare access. From 2016 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the county reached 83.4 per 100,000 live births—far surpassing the national rate of 55.3 for Black women and 19.1 for white women during the same period.The infant death rate tells an equally troubling story. Black babies in Harris County died at a rate of 11.66 per 1,000 births between 2016 and 2020, more than double the national rate…
Financial strain and food insecurity are driving accelerated biological aging of the heart, according to research published in the December issue of Mayo Clinical Proceedings.Dr. Nazanin Rajai from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, led a team that analyzed 280,323 patients to understand how social and conventional risk factors interconnect to affect cardiac aging and mortality. The researchers developed a model to predict both cardiac aging and mortality risk.The findings revealed that financial strain had the strongest impact, followed by food insecurity. Social determinants of health contributed more to predicting age gaps than comorbidities and demographic factors in both the…
Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native patients who survive in-hospital cardiac arrest face significantly worse outcomes than White patients, according to new research analyzing data from over 350 hospitals nationwide. The study examined nearly 94,000 patients who were successfully resuscitated between 2018 and 2023.Survival rates revealed stark inequities: only 34% of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native patients survived to hospital discharge compared to 39% of White patients. The research also uncovered troubling disparities in how quickly do-not-attempt-resuscitation orders were entered after cardiac arrest.White patients were more likely to have DNAR orders placed early—25% within 12…
A comprehensive analysis by WalletHub reveals significant progress in reducing health disparities between Black and White Americans in several states, with Texas emerging as a leader in improving health outcomes for Black residents.Texas has reduced the Black-White gap in health insurance coverage by 12.1 percentage points since 1995, the second-largest decrease among all states. Most notably, Texas has done more than any other state to decrease the share of Black residents suffering from poor health. The state has also made the 10th-most progress in reducing diabetes rates and ranks second nationally for progress in addressing obesity among Black residents.Mississippi has…
Black women in America face a maternal health crisis that reflects decades of systemic neglect. While the overall U.S. maternal mortality rate stood at 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, Black women experienced a rate of 50.3 per 100,000—nearly three times higher. This disparity has worsened since 2018, even as overall rates returned to pre-pandemic levels.The problem extends beyond statistics to reveal troubling patterns in healthcare access. More than 35 percent of U.S. counties qualify as maternal care deserts, defined as areas lacking hospitals or birth centers with obstetric care and obstetric clinicians. These regions overlap significantly with…
An FDA-funded study intended to clarify racial bias in pulse oximeters has instead produced puzzling results that contradict previous research. Pulse oximeters, devices widely used to measure blood oxygen levels in hospitals and clinics, have long been suspected of working less accurately on patients with darker skin tones.Previous research spanning decades suggested these devices systematically overestimated oxygen levels in patients with darker skin, potentially delaying necessary medical care. This issue gained national attention during the Covid pandemic when pulse oximeters were ubiquitous and data indicated disparities in how the devices performed across racial groups.Researchers at the University of California San…
Advanced Indigenous health by providing mobile HIV/STI testing, education, and culturally responsive interventions.