"Over the course of a few decades, the childhoods of U.S. girls have been significantly shortened" (Steingraber). Sandra Steingraber, author of The Falling Age of Puberty, came to speak at Cornell at the beginning of this semester about the early onset of development in young girls. This website outlines some of the main points of her talk and emulates the "Advocate's Guide" given out after the lecture. Together, with this website, Steingraber and the Breast Cancer Fund, are trying to increase awareness about this public health concern.
I have been thinking about this Steingraber's talk in relation to the past couple of lectures. Throughout her talk, Steingraber reiterated that there needs to be more open discussion about this phenomenon. Specifically, a common language must be employed to convey the seriousness of this issue and need for policy reforms. As discussed in class, I think this website is one attempt by Steingraber and the Breast Cancer Fund to increase health literacy and thus increase understanding that early puberty in U.S. girls is a public health concern because of its biological, cultural, and social consequences. The website is very straight-forward and explanatory; when used, scientific terms are well-defined and the language is simple. This website is a good example of a public health campaign that may not be well-known, but can gain strength through its health and, specifically, scientific literacy tactics.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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We all know how much growth horomone residue is left in our mil, eggs, and meat after being injected into livestock. I do n't remember where I got this information from, but the amount of hormonal chemicals in the food we eat everyday has affected the growth of most American. We are much taller and heavier than a few decades ago. This is probably another explanation for how young girls are hitting puberty earlier than "back in the day". They are intaking motr hormones than they naturally need to.
Wow, interesting. And the website is very clear and easy to read. A good level of hypertexuality, media, and interactivity is included. Notice how the coloring is even targeted to women. Not too much text per page. It facilitates the reading and learning process quite well. This is a great step for this public health campaign. I feel, though, this campaign is going to need a lot of solid evidence to back it up. There are so many variables contributing to the phenomenon.
I agree with both comments in that the website was very straightforward, with clearly defined categories ("Events", "Education", etc.), which made finding specific information easily accessible. The layout of the site, and the color scheme especially, reminded me quite a bit of the Relay for Life (American Cancer Society) website, which re-iterated the underlying issue of breast cancer risk and prevention. Overall, I believe that this (the early onset of puberty in young girls, and resulting increased risk of breast cancer) is a very important issue that encompasses so many different fields (Food Science, Political Science, Communication, Nutrition, Physiology, etc.) that it is quite a feat for this website to bring everything together in such a simple, yet informative way.
I agree with the previous comments - the website is very user-friendly, accessible, and gets your attention. This is not an issue that should be taken lightly and luckily it does not come across as such. However, I would have been interested in learning about the consequences of the early onset of puberty in more detail. I am curious to see what the research has discovered so far, whether it be a change in diet in the past few years, or a change in genetics.
This project definitely exemplifies how a public health campaign can bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and individual action. I was totally unaware of the link between the falling age of puberty and other health concerns. The site features a large amount of educational information and provides additional resources for advocacy. While giving information about the risk, it also seeks to change action.
I think it's interesting that this particular public health issue would choose to be highlighted on a breast cancer website, though I think the average peruser would be at a loss to explain the link between early puberty and breast cancer (they'd have to click the link halfway down the page that describes the association of risk factors). Since the breast cancer campaign is huge and attracts a large number of supporters, I think it's an effective tool to draw attention to other women-centered public health issues (like HPV vaccine, ovarian cancer, and, like here, falling puberty age) on a breast cancer website.
I agree with everybody who said they liked the website-- it's clear, easy to follow, and contains all the major points of interest in an easy-to-digest list, whereupon you can click an item on the list to find out more. Props to their webmaster.
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