Peer Response Posts: You will also respond to at the two classmate posts. 1-2 paragraph each

Peer Response Posts: You will also respond to at the two classmate posts. 1-2 paragraph each

Review your colleagues’ posts. Using these suggestions (or come up with your own):

1. Do you believe the policy they described is needed to improve the health of the public? Why or why not? 

2. Expand on the “actors” involved in the legislative process: policymakers; interest groups; lobbyists; media; citizens or health scientists/practitioners. How may they get involved with one of the policies discussed in this forum?

Linda Lwesanya 

Policy

COLLAPSE

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Hello everyone! My name is Linda, I’m from Ohio but live in Georgia with my family and our little puppy. I am currently pursuing a degree in Public Health at National University. I plan on adding on a master’s later down the line, just having a hard time narrowing down which area I would like to steer towards for completion. One think I have learned about public health in general is that there are a lot more programs and initiatives out there aimed at helping target populations. A vast majority of them work and are more realistic in their ventures too. 

A priority population I would like to work with would be either Native Americans or African Americans. 

 

SBX2 5 Electronic Cigarettes (E-cigs) is one of the bills of interest to me. It is hard to believe that 263k students use e-cigarettes within middle school and high school. During the 2016 time period the product was not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration yet contained formaldehyde. I can’t imagine that my teenager becoming a nicotine junkie in today’s world with e-cigs is more common now than addition to regular cigarettes (California Legislative Information, 2021a).

SBX2 7 Setting a legal for purchase of E-cigs. This bill sets an official age cap at 21. $9 Billion were spent on ad campaigns for e-cigarettes. The intent to reach the younger audience in terms of addiction. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in America. Each day 1,300 children smoke their first e-cigarette every day. The bill ultimately gives the decision of smoking to the more mature adult at 21 years of age. Rather than letting a child who does not know the full amount of damage they are causing themselves by smoking as a teenager cigarettes (California Legislative Information, 2021b).

 

Within the videos I saw a big “P” policy coming to fruition. At least it made it to stage one of the process. They were both mainly used as societal tools. Interventions by the California government used to solve societal problems (Elyer, Chriqui, Moreland-Russell, Brownson, 2016). 

Mark Leno is a 2016 former member of the California State Senate. He represented District 11 and was part of the Democratic party. The membership to his former party makes him fall in line with the electronic cigarette policy and the description of the Democrat as the “Public health friendly” type (Elyer et al., 2016).

Government intervention may be necessary to prevent things such as health risks. For instance, with the bills mentioned the policy makers were advocating the parents of children and high schoolers who fall into addition of nicotine early via e-cigarettes. The cigarette companies have no regulation standards and are willing to poison young adults with any kind of chemical concoction they put together for profit. The government has to step in and intervene (Elyer et al., 2016).

 

 

Elyer, A. A., Chriqui, J. F., Moreland-Russell, S., Brownson, R. C., (2016). Prevention, policy, and public health. Retrieved from  https://www.chegg.com/reader/9780190224660/3/ .

 

California Legislative Information. (2021a). SBX2 5 Electronic cigarettes. Leno. Retrieved from  http://calchannel.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=3442 .

 

California Legislative Information. (2021b). SBX2 7 Tobacco products. Minimal legal age. Hernandez. Retrieved from  http://calchannel.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=3442 .

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Katelynn Sanchez 

Week 1 DB

COLLAPSE

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Polices have been defined as tools of social change and service delivery and improvement. In the public health sector, policies play an integral role in ensuring the enactment of guidelines that facilitate better public health administration practices. For example, on 20 August 2015, the California Legislature passed a set of landmark public health bills that had a profound impact on the healthy wellbeing of a vast majority of the California residents and the American citizenry (Murray et al., 2019). The bills were centred around tobacco use and regulation, which was identified as a leading concern for most public health cases.

2 Selected Bills

i. SBX2-7 Tobacco products: minimum legal age (Hernandez)- the above bill was enacted to curb the prevalent underage tobacco abuse among minors, especially from poor neighbourhoods (Eyler et al., 2016). It was identified that young children from poor social-economic backgrounds were more susceptible to drug and substance abuse, putting them at a higher risk of contracting respiratory-related conditions after prolonged exposure to tobacco use. The bill was, therefore, instrumental in improving the existing public healthcare policies, especially for minors.

ii. ABX2-7 Smoking in the workplace (Mark Stone)- the above bill was passed in the interest of public health where it was identified that passive Smoking passed an equal threat to the healthy wellbeing of non-smokers (Eyler et al., 2016). As a result, it was identified that there was a need to pass this legislation that protected individuals in public gatherings such as the workplace. Therefore, Smoking in the workplace got prohibited, which was an essential move in public health policy.

 

Policy-Making Process

The video provided as review material for chapters 1 and 2 shows that a policymaking process is a collaborative approach in which all the legislators are involved. Various factors influence the policymaking process, including; the preferences of the policymakers, influences from the media and other interest groups such as lobbyists, and other contemporary social factors such as; demographic, ethical, legal, technical factors.

A bill is presented to the house as a proposition the goes through a series of vetting and analysis processes. First, the senate standing committee is divided into four main domains, i.e., environment, health, public utilities, and education, then decide on the bill and its applicability. If accepted by the legislators, the bill then gets passed into law. If vetoed, the bill returns to the legislative branch, and it needs 2/3 of the vote (federal level) to override and become law (Eyler et al., 2016).

Importance of Government Intervention

Government intervention in the policymaking process plays an important role in ensuring that the policies passed by the legislators and policymakers are executable by government employees. Moreover, given that the passed bills and legislation directly affect the lives of specific individuals, government intervention is essential in that it ensures the protection of citizen rights and mitigation of any criminal activities that may arise from certain legislation.

Public healthcare administration is an important element of legislation and public welfare that requires the adoption and enactment of effective and sound policies that govern the general public's wellbeing. For example, the 20 August 2015 California Legislature landmark public health bills have had a profound impact on the healthy well-being of most California residents and the American citizenry. With such effective public administration approaches, it has been possible to improve healthcare and public policy administration.

References

Eyler, A.A., Chriqui, J.F., Moreland-Russell, S.M., & Brownson, R.C. (Eds.). (2016). Prevention, Policy, and Public Health. Retrieved 9 August 2021, from  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/prevention-policy-and-public-health-9780190224653?cc=ke&lang=en&

Buse, K., Dickinson, C., Gilson, L., & Murray, S. F. (2019). How can the analysis of power and process in policymaking improve health outcomes? The Official Journal of the International Hospital Federation, 45(1), 14.  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Toni-Vekov/publication/26732071

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