136

45

1

0

0

Suzanne Ehlers is President of Population Action International (PAI). Image Credit: PAI

Figuring out that to effectively curb our exploding population growth we must invest in women’s health & rights is nothing new. But for some reason, we still have not ensured that we actually make those investments.

In fact, just last week the United Nations announced in its “World Population Prospects” report that by 2050, global population will reach 9.6 billion, a 300 million people increase from the 2010 revision. So how do women’s rights factor into all of this? I spoke with Suzanne Ehlers, President of Population Action International (PAI) about that, and why Americans should be listening.

The United Nations Population Division announced that the world population is expected to increase to 9.6 billion by 2050. You state in your blog post that this presents “a big opportunity for more and more women to take charge of their lives.” What is this “opportunity”, and why should Americans care?

As humans, we should all care about the basic rights of women to make decisions about their lives. Right now, an estimated 222 million women in developing countries who want to prevent pregnancy lack access to modern contraception. Efforts to ensure that these women get access to the family planning and reproductive health services they want not only help them to realize and fulfill these rights, but also to create healthier families, and in turn, stronger communities and countries.

As Americans, investments in family planning make our foreign aid dollars go further and save more lives. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) data from seven countries shows that for every dollar invested in family planning and reproductive health, there is significant savings in education, immunization, water and sanitation, and malaria. Savings range from $2 in Ethiopia to up to $9 in Bolivia.

Besides, though the need for family planning is greatest in the developing world, nearly half of pregnancies in the U.S .are also unintended.  Surely that is something we should all care about.

Why is it that even though we established a roadmap in Cairo over fifteen years ago, today in Washington attacks on women’s reproductive health, both globally and domestically, persist as foreign aid keeps getting cut?

There are always going to be people who want to hold women back, out of fear, discrimination, deeply embedded norms that view women as less, as not equal. And that’s why strong advocacy on this issue continues to be paramount. The Cairo conference was a milestone in that it framed reproductive health as a fundamental right, but in reality, we still have work to do to live up to that promise. It’s about accountability, and about pushing the U.S. and international governments – day in and day out – to live up to the commitments they made almost 20 years ago.

Attacks on reproductive health may seem small in the face of the economic and political crises of the day, but we must remember that it is small acts that contribute to the big, sweeping changes. Something as simple as being able to go to a nearby clinic and get birth control may not seem like a big event. But multiply that by hundreds of millions of women, and it’s a start to making the world more equal, and more sustainable.

Growth in crop yields inadequate to feed the world by 2050 – research

Agriculture productivity not rising fast enough to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population

A former Logan City council worker says he was told to dump asbestos cement in general landfill and fears hundreds of people may have been exposed to the deadly fibres.

Scott Campbell was in charge of a team of men who laid footpaths across the Logan region, south of Brisbane.

From 1999 to 2003, his team replaced old asbestos Telstra pits with plastic pits.

He says he was exposed to deadly asbestos fibres every day as he laid down nearly half the footpaths in Logan suburbs.

“When you’re doing footpaths you just scrape the grass off the top and a lot of time you hit these pits,” he said.

“Because they’re only five to 10 millimetres thick, they just explode.”

Despite raising concerns, Mr Campbell says the workers were not given safety gear and were told to dump asbestos cement in general landfill.

“You’ve got to compete with contractors so you’ve got to do everything on the sly – you’ve got to take shortcuts and that’s the way it was handled,” he said.

Crews smash asbestos pit in front of school

He says hundreds of asbestos pits were mishandled.

In one instance, crews hit a pit in front of Crestmead State School as children were leaving to go home for the day.

He says they often disturbed old asbestos pits in front of passers-by.

“Because council had a lot more overheads than contractors, we had to cut a lot more corners to compete in the open market with contractors,” he said.

Mr Campbell now worries he will contract an asbestos-related disease.

A spokesman for Logan City Council says it takes both the safety of employees and correct asbestos handling and management procedures very seriously.

“Council is not aware of the specific allegations being raised, however would be happy to investigate the detailed allegations should the former employee wish to raise them directly with council,” the spokesman said.

More workers falling ill from asbestos exposure

The ABC has also learnt that a growing number of former Telstra workers are contracting deadly asbestos-related diseases.

Raymond Colbert from the Asbestos Related Disease Support Society Queensland says the overall number of workers falling ill from asbestos is steadily on the rise.

“[There’s] a lot more places it’s coming from now. You’ve got the people who are disturbing the existing product and they’re doing it without that training and without that supervision,” he said.

Among those are Telstra staff who built or maintained the pits.

“They should be sent a letter: ‘You may have been exposed, monitor your health’ and all that is is getting regular chest x-rays,” he said.

More than 120 compensation claims have been made to Telstra in the past decade. Eighty people have received payouts and 11 claims are still pending.

A Telstra spokesman says the telco aims to manage compensation claims of any type to ensure they are handled sensitively and expeditiously.

“We handle asbestos claims on a case-by-case basis and claims are met from general operating costs,” the spokesman said.

Asbestos support group solicitor Thady Blundell says there is serious concern about Telstra workers.

“We’re starting to see people now develop asbestos disease who were exposed in the ’70s and ’80s, so there’s been a regular incidence of asbestos disease amongst Telstra workers,” she said.

“These pits and pipes were used all over the country.”

THE Senate will be effectively abolished as a watchdog for the people if the coalition wins control of both houses of parliament at the upcoming election, former Greens leader Bob Brown says.