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Loading ...Brazil’s PAC for Sanitation
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009When Brazil’s multifaceted Program for Accelerated Growth (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento – PAC) was announced in 2007, it included a segment earmarked for improving infrastructure in provision of drinking water and sanitation services. Today the head of the Civil House, Dilma Rousseff, and the Minister of Cities, Márcio Fortes, announced a list of 109 […]
Trash Photos XIX: A Visit to Minas’ Center on Waste
Thursday, June 25th, 2009Yesterday I visited an institution in Belo Horizonte (BH) that, to my knowledge, is unique in Brazil, if not the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Minas Waste Reference Center (Centro Mineiro de Referência em Resíduos – CMRR) opened in 2007 with the mission to serve as the focal point in the […]
Brazil Steps Up Funding for Women’s Cancer Exams
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Brazil’s Health Ministry (MS) announced today two measures to improve access to breast and cervix cancer screening within the country’s Unified Health System (SUS). R$ 94.5 million will be invested over the next three years to increase Pap tests and mammograms (see table below). In addition, in June 2009 the Information System for Breast Cancer Control (SISMAMA) will be brought […]
Smoking Falling Among Brazilian Youth
Thursday, April 9th, 2009The consumption of cigarettes among Brazilian youth has fallen more than half in the last 20 years. In 2008, according to the Health Ministry’s (MS) Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection from Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigilãncia do Fatores de Risco e Proteção Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico – VIGITEL), 14.8% of youths between […]
Alcohol Abuse Growing Among Brazilians / Crece consumo abusivo de álcool entre os brasileiros
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009Abusive consumption of alcohol is increasing among Brazilians, and Brazilian women are drinking more. That’s two of the findings from the Health Ministry’s (MS) 2008 version of the Surveillance of Risk Factors and Protection from Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (Vigilãncia do Fatores de Risco e Proteção Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico – VIGITEL), and the […]
Minas Moves to Improve Air Quality
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008Synopsis in English: The State Environment Foundation (FEAM) of Minas Gerais (MG) is upgrading its monitoring of air quality in this key Brazilian state. All its automated measurements will be conducted around the clock 365 days a year, with results accessible via the internet soon to be more frequent than daily. This includes new monitoring […]
Outlook for “Green Jobs” / Prognóstico para “empleos verdes”
Monday, December 15th, 2008While the idea of creating a “green economy” with “green jobs” has been around quite a while, it really started to gain serious consideration as the climate change debate heated up, and recently moved front-and-center during the US presidential elections and the debates about how best to respond to the global financial crisis (here, here, […]
World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: Brazil Targets Teens, Adopts Brutal Images
Saturday, June 7th, 2008How did Brazil celebrate World No-Tobacco Day (May 31)? With assaults on tobacco and smoking from many sides, and some of them hard-hitting. This year’s theme selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) for this year’s Day was “Tobacco-Free Youth.” Most of Brazil’s activities followed the theme directly. One was a new publicity campaign of […]
Minas Seeks Packaging Waste Dialogue with Tetra-Pak
Friday, September 28th, 2007Paraná forced a deal on Tetra Pak regarding waste from its long-life packaging (aseptic) packaging; now Minas Gerais (MG) wants a dialog about the same issue. If I were Tetra Pak executives, I’d start being concerned about the direction the drink packaging waste issue is taking in Brazil (if they aren’t already). As I mentioned […]
Minas’ New Focal Point for Waste Matters
Thursday, September 27th, 2007In June the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais opened an institution that, to my knowledge, is unique in Brazil, if not the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The Minas Waste Reference Center (Centro Mineiro de Referência em Resíduos – CMRR) is intended to be the state's focal point for everything and anything […]