It’s the week before Valentine’s Day! For those heading out to buy last-minute gifts, consult the Food Empowerment Project’s regularly updated list of chocolate companies they recommend, to assure your chocolate hearts were not harvested or processed by indentured children, a far-too-common reality in West Africa’s cocoa regions. Flower workers in South America go into overdrive ahead of a big holiday like Valentine’s; look for ethical and fair trade certifications like Fair Trade Certified or Rainforest Alliance, to assure better worker conditions and wages. Or, you can forgo the standard gifts entirely: the International Rescue Committee wants you to give one year of school through the nonprofit’s “Rescue Gifts” program, for $58. For those who have already finished their shopping (or forgo the purchases altogether for something red construction paper-based), pull up a chair and read this week’s five recommendations from MCN staff:

Safety Groups Team Up to Protect Workers During Ongoing Disaster Cleanup in Puerto Rico

Alma, Senior Program Manager of Environmental and Occupational Health, shared National COSH’s recent blog post on their Train-the-Trainer sessions in Puerto Rico on post-disaster workplace hazards.

Congress has quietly created a new health care crisis for 26 million Americans

Candace, Specialist in Clinical Systems & Women’s Health, said: “A good article, ‘Congress has quietly created a new health care crisis for 26 million Americans,’ interviews the same health center CEO who was on the 1A program on Tuesday.”

Fear Pushes More Immigrants to Avoid Seeking Medical Care

Amy, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, forwarded on “Fear Pushes More Immigrants to Avoid Seeking Medical Care,” from the California Health Report.

Social Justice League

Lasz, Co-Chief Medical Officer, was looking for examples of medical-legal partnership when he found “this recent article from my Brown Medicine alumni magazine as one example. This is regarding prison health.”

Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease

Candace and several other MCNers circulated this NPR piece, “Black Lung Study Finds Biggest Cluster Ever Of Fatal Coal Miners' Disease.”

Have a safe and healthy weekend!

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