�������ýҕ�l

People experiencing a mental health crisis have a new way to reach out for help in the U.S. Starting Saturday, they can simply call or text the numbers 9-8-8. (Chatterjee, 7/16)

Substituting your typical midday packaged snack for a bowl of fruit may help your overall well-being, a new study finds. In the study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, people who consumed a diet rich in fruits and vegetables reported a more positive psychological state and were less likely to have symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety compared to those who do not eat these nutrient-rich foods as regularly. (Mikhail, 7/15)

With women leaving the workforce in droves, many Black mothers find themselves as stay-at home moms for the first time. Before this phenomenon, spurred by the pandemic, it was quite rare in recent history. (Claytor, 7/15)

Clifford Douglas, the director of the University of Michigan’s Tobacco Research Network and a professor at the University’s School of Public Health, said Juul should not be cast as the “poster child of evil” for the youth vaping epidemic. “Clearly Juul played a significant role, most visibly in 2018, in fueling an increase in youth experimentation with vaping products. By the same token … in the years since then, partly under duress from the FDA, they significantly changed their conduct,” Douglas said. (Dress, 7/17)

Living in a big city may come with better job opportunities or more weekend activities — but it might not be the healthiest choice you can make. (Onque, 7/17)

The overturn of Roe v. Wade has put a spotlight on the availability of affordable, highly effective birth control in the U.S. Many younger women, however, don’t want their mothers’ contraceptives. (Hopkins, 7/17)

A woman filed a lawsuit against Mars Inc. this week accusing the multinational food company of failing to discontinue its use of a chemical toxin in its popular candy Skittles. In a lawsuit filed in California court on Thursday, Jenile Thames alleged she opened a Skittles package in April that still contained titanium dioxide (TiO2). (Oshin, 7/17)

Nail salon workers in New York are pushing for industrywide health and labor standards over fears that working conditions have become more dire amid the Covid pandemic. (Yam, 7/17)

KHN: Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation To Curb Public Health Powers

Through a wave of pandemic-related litigation, a trio of small but mighty conservative legal blocs has rolled back public health authority at the local, state, and federal levels, recasting America’s future battles against infectious diseases. Galvanized by what they’ve characterized as an overreach of covid-related health orders issued amid the pandemic, lawyers from the three overlapping spheres — conservative and libertarian think tanks, Republican state attorneys general, and religious liberty groups — are aggressively taking on public health mandates and the government agencies charged with protecting community health. (Weber and Barry-Jester, 7/18)