Household air pollution, Labour’s lag on child poverty, children forced to cope with conflict
Medicine and Science from The BMJShow Notes
As public health officials warn about rising emissions from urban wood burning, a BMJ investigation finds that just under a third of UK councils in high use areas have faced pressure from the stove industry to tone down or withdraw campaigns. Almost a third of UK children live in poverty. Leading expert Michael Marmot weighs in on the UK’s "steepest rise" in child poverty among OECD countries and why local government "Marmot Cities" like Coventry and Manchester are taking the lead where national policy falls short. And, a new BMJ collection has just been published on child mental health in conflict zones. 1 in 5 children globally live in conflict zones, creating a staggering mental health toll. We hear about community-led interventions.
Reading list:
The growing threat of domestic wood burning stoves—and industry’s legal attempts to shut down clean air campaigns Michael Marmot: Labour has reneged on its child poverty promises Child mental health in conflict settings
More from Medicine and Science from The BMJ
In this podcast, we explore one of 2026's key issues - the way in which climate and conflict are interacting to endanger human health. Neta Crawford, professor of international relations at the University of St Andrews has been studying how war contributes to climate change, despite the difficulty in obtaining clear information - as most military emissions are exempt from reporting under Kyoto-era rules, She explains why mandatory transparency, reduced reliance on military solutions, and a change to defense doctrines are necessary. Mohammed Aba Aji, post-doctoral research associate at Washington University argues that rising spending on the military - nearly $3 trillion and increasing for 11 years, is diverting resources from health, education, and climate adaptation. He explains why the only way to tackle this is to redefine defence away from property and infrastructure to human flourishing. Reading list War and military mobilisation are drivers of climate change Increasing defence expenditure may cost us our security Countering the arms industry as a commercial determinant of health
In this episode of podcast we explore two clinical dilemmas - unrecognised drug side effects, and the outcomes from hip and knee replacements. When an unrecognised adverse drug effect is mistaken for a new symptom, the resulting prescribing cascade can end in polypharmacy and potentially preventable patient harm. New research on nearly 2.3 million adults in Ontario, has found 24 high-priority, potentially inappropriate prescribing cascades—including laxatives after iron, pain relievers following statins, and sedatives after cholinesterase inhibitors. Paula Rochon, Jerry Gurwitz, and Antonio Cherubini, three of the study's authors join us to discuss. Over 100,000 hip and, 100,000 knee replacements are performed annually in the NHS, and health systems are investing hundreds of millions to rapidly scale robot-assisted surgery, but is this expensive new tech delivering better patient outcomes? Two target trial emulation papers, using the UK's National Joint registry aim to find out if robots are better at join replacement. Hassan Mohammad, one of the papers' authors shares their findings, and Teppo Järvinen joins the conversation to discuss challenging orthopaedic surgery standard practice. Guest List Prescribing Cascades Discussion
Referrals for ADHD and autism assessments have reached unprecedented levels, leaving NHS waiting lists stretched into years and families struggling to access support. But is the rise driven by a genuine increase in neurodevelopmental conditions, increased awareness, or systemic overdiagnosis? This prompted the government to commission the Independent Review into Mental Health Conditions, ADHD, and Autism; and we're joined by vice Chair of that review, Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Regis chair of psychiatry at King’s College London. In this episode, we discuss: Community prevalence vs. administrative prevalence, the roles of underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis. Why the current focus on diagnosis is a mistake, and why environmental factors are really key to the changes we're seeing. We also cover thecore recommendations of the report.
Last year, in July 2025, the independent review of the physician associate and anaesthesia associate roles, carried out by professor Gillian Leng, was published. The review followed the contentious role out of PAs in the NHS - where their scope of practice differed across trusts, and GP practices, and concerns were raised about clinical safety. Some of the key recommendations were around seeing undifferentiated patients, training needs, and supervision - and we spoke to Gill at the time, and the government accepted her proposals. But questions remained about exactly how some of those recommendations might work. Today, with the publication of a draft clinical protocol - and we clarify some of those questions.
The VAERS system in the US monitors adverse events following vaccines, but a new investigation on BMJ.com has found problems with the data mining systems used to spot patterns - and more worryingly, that the agencies involved were alerted about the issues, and didn’t take steps to fix the problem. David Willman, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, joins us to explain what he found.