◇ Program summary
1. As legal marijuana grows, more kids are getting sick from ingesting it
The number of young children who accidentally consume marijuana-infused snacks has skyrocketed over five years as the drug has been legalized in more parts of the United States, according to a study published Tuesday.
Between 2017 and 2021, more than 7,000 confirmed cases of cannabis edibles among children under the age of 6 were reported to the National Poison Control Center, climbing from about 200 cases per year to more than 3,000.
Nearly a quarter of the children ended up in the hospital, some very ill, according to a new analysis in the journal Pediatrics.
These are only reported cases, said Dr. Marit Tweet, a medical toxicologist at Southern Illinois Medical College who led the study.
Cases of children accidentally ingesting products such as candy, chocolate and cookies containing marijuana coincide with more states allowing medical and recreational marijuana use. Currently, 37 U.S. states allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and 21 states allow adult recreational use and regulate it.
Dr. Tweet called on parents to be more vigilant and to enact more laws, such as those passed by several states, requiring marijuana products to be packaged in a less appealing look to children.
2. Male skin care becomes more mainstream
Skin care is a multi-billion dollar industry with a global market expected to reach $177 billion by 2025. U.S. consumers led the way in 2020, spending $17.6 billion, according to Statista. While skincare for women has a larger share, men’s skincare has been taking a slice of the pie.
A market growth report from Insight Partners found that rising awareness among men about skincare, hygiene and grooming is driving demand for skincare products globally.
A 2022 study by market research firm Ipsos found that men’s needs are starting to go beyond basic skin care, especially among younger generations. Overall, 15% of heterosexual men ages 18-65 in the US currently use men’s cosmetics and another 17% would consider using them in the future. Moreover, men aged 18-34 are more willing to use products such as BB cream or CC cream, mascara, foundation, shadow and concealer.
The Insight Partners study also said men face “distinctly different challenges than women in terms of skin health,” including relatively “tougher, oilier and thicker skin.”
However, there is not much difference between men’s skin care products and women’s skin care products. A major difference may be the smell. Then there is the packaging that appeals to men.
At the end of the day, good ingredients matter most. So most of what works for women works equally well for men and vice versa.
3. Food delivery service Grubhub pays $3.5 million in settlement
The District of Columbia sued food delivery service Grubhub in March 2022, alleging that its charging strategy violated the district’s consumer protection laws. Grubhub agreed to settle and will pay $3.5 million, and will return $2.7 million to affected customers as part of the settlement. People with Grubhub accounts will automatically receive a credit back. If the credit line is not used within 90 days, the payment will be sent to the customer by check. The remaining $800,000 will be collected by the District as a civil penalty. “Grubhub used all its tricks to manipulate customers into paying far more than they owed, and to make matters worse, at the height of the global pandemic,” then-Attorney General Racine said in a statement on December 30. In doing so, DC residents were already struggling to make ends meet.” “Grubhub’s hidden fees and misleading marketing tactics are making the company more money at the expense of Washington DC residents.” Food delivery service Grubhub will now highlight all charges by name and by individual item at checkout. It must also explicitly disclose whether the menu prices on its app are higher than those at restaurants where customers order from.
4. The U.S. child care system remains challenged as COVID continues
Labor economist Kathryn’s 3-year-old son has missed 47 days of childcare in the past year. Kathryn had to quit her full-time job at the RAND Corporation, a think tank, as respiratory syncytial virus RSV, COVID-19, and two horrific bouts of preschool hand, foot, and mouth disease hit. She switched to independent contract work last month to allow more flexibility for her son and 4-month-old daughter. Parents with young children believe that the worst of the epidemic is over and that the availability of vaccines for young children and the end of COVID quarantines should have brought relief. Instead, many families have been hit by the so-called “triple sickness,” in which cases of flu, COVID-19 and RSV collide, stressing children’s hospitals and threatening an already shaky child care system.
Even parents of infants with less severe cases of COVID-19 have encountered 10-day quarantine rules that have impatient employers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 104,000 people lost their jobs due to child care issues in October, a record high and even surpassing levels seen early in the pandemic. Childcare-related absences fell to 59,000 in November, but the figure is still higher than typical before the pandemic. It also overwhelmed an already understaffed child care system. Finding child care and returning to work proved to be far from easy. At the height of the pandemic, more than a third of daycare jobs were lost. Staffing has not fully recovered. As of November, there were 8% fewer child care workers in the country than before the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.