Center

• When colds, flus and allergies hit, many people automatically turn to over-the-counter medications to push through and treat their symptoms.
• Nearly 70% of adults in the U.S. use over-the-counter medications as a first-line response for treating cold and flu symptoms.
• We are a pharmacoepidemiologist and pharmacist team and we investigate adherence to medications and potential harms of medications associated with drug-drug interactions.
• Another study estimated that every year, 26,735 people went to the emergency room for adverse events related to over-the-counter cold and cough medications.

The dangers of mixing medications

• Pharmacists and physicians are typically knowledgeable about potential drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their health care providers which over-the-counter medications are safe for them to use.
• It is important to read the package ingredients of over-the-counter medications closely to avoid duplication of doses.
• Cold medications are typically made up of multiple ingredients, including pain relievers, nasal decongestants and cough suppressants or expectorants.
• Combining these decongestants with monoaminooxidase inhibitors or tricyclic antidepressants could lead to very high blood pressure and heart rhythm problems.

Each person responds to drugs differently

• As we age, our bodies begin to lose the ability to efficiently clear drugs, which increases the risk of adverse events and unintentional overdoses.
• Some drugs can be dangerous for people who have particular health conditions.
• In addition, since these drugs are associated with increased blood pressure, patients with hypertension, hyperthyroidism or heart disease should be careful when using them, or avoid them altogether.

Alternatives for children

• The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medications to children under age 4.
• Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.
• Research has shown that honey can be helpful for reducing cold and flu symptoms in children older than age 1.

Pregnancy best practices

• Acetaminophen is the doctor-recommended over-the-counter medication for management of pain and fever at any stage of pregnancy.
• Any other pain relievers or anti-inflammatory medicine such as ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen and aspirin should not be taken during pregnancy without a doctor’s approval.
• For symptoms such as nasal congestion during pregnancy, a decongestant called oxymetazoline in its intranasal form is the drug of choice.

• During each of the last two summers, the ice around Antarctica has retreated farther than ever before.
• And just as a change in our heartbeat affects our whole body, a change to sea ice around Antarctica affects the whole world.
• The seasonal expansion and contraction of Antarctic sea ice (Animation by NASA/GSFC Science Visualisation Studio)

The shrinking white cap on our blue planet

• We’ve been able to measure sea ice from satellites since the late 1970s.
• By exchanging water between the surface ocean and the abyss, sea ice formation helps to sequester heat and carbon dioxide in the deep ocean.
• During the long days of the Antarctic summer, sunlight usually hits the bright white surface of the sea ice and is reflected back into space.
• This will accelerate ocean warming and will likely impede the wintertime growth of sea ice.

Headed for stormy seas

• The Southern Ocean is a stormy place; the epithets “Roaring Forties” and “Furious Fifties” are well deserved.
• Waves pound on coastlines and ice shelves that are normally sheltered behind a broad expanse of sea ice.
• In the spring we see phytoplankton blooms that follow the retreating sea ice edge.

A diagnosis for policy makers

• We don’t yet know if this ocean warming directly caused the record lows seen in recent summers, but it is a likely culprit.
• International cooperation, data sharing, and government support are the only ways to provide the resources required.
• After noticing the first signs of heart trouble, a doctor might recommend more exercise or switching to a low-fat diet.

• Just days after 16-year-old Gabriel Magalhaes was fatally attacked at a Toronto subway station, his mother had an urgent message to public officials on how to address the spate of violent crime on the Toronto Transit Commission over the past year.
• Andrea Magalhaes, a nurse, urged them to stop thinking the crisis can be solved by adding more police officers, locking more people up and solely blaming the individual.

Strengthening the social safety net

• As a criminologist and a former service provider for a court-based victim assistance program, I was struck by Magalhaes’s plea for change because of its emphasis on expanding the social safety net — not the criminal justice system — to achieve both public safety and justice for victims.
• Her perspective is at odds with the advocacy for retribution and “law-and-order” approaches typically expressed in campaigns for victims’ rights, which gained ground throughout North America in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Research into the impact of victim’s rights movements on crime policy reveal that government officials eagerly embraced these demands because they fit the “tough on crime” approaches popularized by conservatives at the time.

More police is a short-term fix

• In the days following Gabriel’s death, Ontario Premier Doug Ford used the tragedy to call for more police officers assigned to the TTC and tougher bail reform laws.
• As legal experts note, neither of these approaches offers much beyond overly simplistic, short-term fixes and could potentially make society more dangerous.

Social services need funding

• Scant details about the man charged with killing Gabriel illuminate the urgent need for services that address substance abuse, homelessness and mental health, as well as significant investments in re-entry supports for those who have committed crimes.
• The need for increased funding of social services is widely known.
• In Ontario, the provincial government promised additional money in its 2023 budget to community organizations that deliver supportive housing.

Addressing the root causes

• Expanding the social safety net to address the root causes of crime therefore requires recognizing the vital contributions these organizations make to public safety — and providing them with stable funding to carry out their responsibilities.
• Hopefully, politicians will start to listen — and a grieving mother’s wise words will not be in vain.

• Sakharov Prize 2022: Parliament honours the Ukrainian People
  Parliaments 2022 Sakharov Prize was awarded to the brave People of Ukraine, in a ceremony on 14 December.
• Awarding the prize, President Metsola spoke of the courage and sacrifices of the Ukrainian people: The message from Europe has been clear: We stand with Ukraine.
• The Ukrainian people are not just fighting a war of independence but fighting a war of values.
• The European Parliaments Sakharov Prize
  The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament.