Wiist moderates, presents at APHA annual meeting

William H. Wiist, faculty member in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences’ Online MPH in Public Health Practice program, organized and moderated a session on Oct. 29 at the annual meeting and exposition of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in San Francisco.

 

Titled “Snack Food and Beverage Industry and Global Noncommunicable Chronic Disease,” the session included presentations from Sanjay Basu of Stanford University, Marion Nestle of New York University, Michele Simon of Eat Drink Politics, and Jennifer L. Pomeranz of Yale University. During the APHA meeting, Wiist also presented on a panel about “The Epidemiologic Cascade: Identifying Multiple Sites for Policy Intervention” along with moderator René I. Jahiel of Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes in Riverdale, N.Y., and Thomas Babor of the University of Connecticut Health Center.

 

Wiist recently published a letter in the British Medical Journal titled “We must reclaim public health from private corporate interests.” In the letter he writes about future directions for the profession and broadening of the mission of public health. Read the letter.

 

Wiist also recently reviewed health journalist Martha Rosenberg’s book Born with a Junk Food Deficiency: How Flaks, Quacks and Hacks Pimp the Public Health in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medical Journal’s community blogs. In his review, Wiist uses the case studies in Rosenberg’s book as the framework for a discussion of pharmaceutical and agriculture industry practices that are harmful to human and animal health. Read the review.