The data on human trafficking is sparse, but what is known is terrifying. It's already the second largest criminal industry in the world -- behind only the trade in illegal drugs -- and it's growing fast. The global commercial sex trade exploits one million children annually. At least 100,000 and perhaps as many as 300,000 children in America are victims of sex trafficking each year.

The grim reality of child sex trafficking in the United States is this: Human traffickers are selling sex with children in big cities and small towns throughout America.  Read more...

The common fat-o-meter among nations is body mass index (BMI), a calculation based on a person’s height and weight. The World Health Organization defines “overweight” as an individual with a BMI of 25 or more and “obese” as someone with a BMI of 30 or higher. (To see how you weigh in, use this calculator by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.)

Today, one in three of the world’s adults is overweight and one in 10 is obese. By 2015, WHO estimates the number of chubby adults will balloon to 2.3 billion — equal to the combined populations of China, Europe and the U.S. Read more...

• 1 in 3 black Americans is obese, study finds

• Obesity rates across the country

Some might think the word racist is overused and too harsh for the new breast cancer guidelines, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The fact is, though, the new rules that call for raising the recommended age for women to begin getting mammograms from 40 to 50 ignore the thousands of Black women who die from the disease each year. Black women, in fact, are typically diagnosed with cancer at a younger age than white women, and at a more advanced stage of the disease. The appropriate protocol for women of color would be to receive mammograms earlier not later.   Read more...

The employment and wage disparities now widening between Black and White women appear alongside substantial - and possibly increasing - health disparities. As the recent concern over breast cancer advise shows, Black and White women often inhabit different worlds in our healthcare system.

Consider the infant mortality rate, a good measure of women's health and healthcare. The Black infant mortality rate (13.63) is 2.4-times the White rate overall of 5.76 (a shade worse than 10 years ago). Teen motherhood doesn't explain this, as the race gap is actually smallest for mothers under age 20 - if there were more Black teen mothers, the overall gap would be smaller.  Read more...