Health

The United States Food and Drug Administration has announced that it would be now illegal for retailers to sell tobacco products to consumers younger than 21 years. The move comes even as the agency has six months to finalize the Tobacco 21 law. Retailers won’t be allowed to sell tobacco products to buyers under 21 years old. The age limit was earlier fixed as 18 years. The provision came after President Donald Trump signed legislation increasing the federal minimum age from 18 to 21. The legislation was signed on December 20 and also included USD 25 million for gun violence research and USD 1.4 billion for building a wall at the US-Mexico border.

Earlier, some news reports had claimed that the shift in the legal age was expected to be implemented in roughly nine months. But the agency has put a message on its website announcing the change. The legislation was signed on December 20, 2019. “With this, the federal minimum age of sale of tobacco or its products has been raised from 18 to 21 years,” the agency stated. The agency has said in the statement that it will provide additional details on the issue once they become available. Tobacco products include cigars, vaping cartridges, and e-cigarettes, etc.

It was introduced in May by Senate Majority Leader Senator Tim Kaine, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and D-Va. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, nineteen states and the District of Columbia have already raised the minimum age limit. Also, more than 530 municipalities and counties of 31 states had given a green signal for similar measures. The National Association of Convenience Stores said that the law should contemplate providing clear direction to retailers. NACS said that retailers should be aware of what documents required to verify the age of any purchaser. South Dakota Retailers Association has also asked people to abide by FDA law, even though it has not been updated to align with federal law.

When a country is facing an employment crisis which the current government is trying best to eradicate, some health experts have correlated higher employment with flu. Rise of jobs by one percent has increased flu-related doctor visits by more than 16%. A recent study done by Ball State University has made some shocking revelations about the current rise of employment. It states that employers should consider the fact about the increase in employment since it can affect the productivity. Experts said these effects of rising flu-related cases are caused more in health and retail industries.

These are those businesses where employees have to make interpersonal contact with customers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) already said the following states are seeing the outrage of flu and related cases- Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina. Even though this number is not exclusively, there are many areas where the current year’s flu season is making things worse for employees and employers. Health experts said that labor market activities like public transportation, carpools, working in offices, and other things that require employees to make contact with others spread flu very quickly.

Employers are warned to consider the fact of how many employees are taking sick leave since it affects their and co-worker’s productivity. Employers should consider giving unhealthy day levels to employees if they’re sick since their infection can affect other non-infected employees. Now information like this can be used by businesses in many ways to prevent significant drawbacks happening because of flu season. People usually don’t give that much importance to things like taking care of themselves, especially when they’re suffering from a cold or flu. If these reports came true, then it indicates that future problems like this could be severe.

A report has found out that one-third of the poorest nations are facing the wraths of extreme obesity and undernourishment. Experts have claimed that global access to ultra-processed food and lack of exercise are the prime reasons behind this condition. Asian and Sub Saharan African nations are majorly hit by this. As per the data, nearly 2.3 billion children and adults are dealing with obesity in the world. Also, approximately 150 billion children are malnourished across the globe. Several underdeveloped countries are dealing with both issues at once, which can be defined as a double burden of malnutrition. Statistics show that around 20 percent of people are overweight on the planet and 20 percent of women are skinny thin. Nearly 30 percent of children are underdeveloped in the world.

The study has pointed out that communities and families are at risk of both kinds of malnutrition. Individual people can also face the same at different times in their lives. According to the report, 45 nations out of 123 poor countries were affected by both kinds of burdens in 1990. In 2010, the number of countries affected by obesity and malnutrition increased to 48. The authors of the study have said that this is the time we need to bring some important changes in the modern food system. They have asserted that the governments and the United Nation should intervene to address the problem.

Researchers have cited many reasons behind the double problems affecting poor nations. They have said that there is a new trend in the way people eat drink and live. People have easy access to less nutritious food through rapidly increasing supermarkets. There is also a decrease in the physical activity of people, which has caused people to grow overweight. Eating ultra-processed food since childhood is causing malnourishment in children. The lead author of the report Dr. Francesco Branca has said that the food system is a common denominator for obesity and undernourishment, which is finding it hard to provide affordable healthy and safe diets to people. Branca has said the food system needs a complete overhaul from production, processing, trade distribution, to price and marketing.