WPHES Journal Peer-Reviewed Research in Health, Environment & Policy

WPHES Journal

Peer-Reviewed Research in Health, Environment & Policy

Latest Articles

The Shadow Formulary: How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Ration Medications Beyond the Reach of Public Accountability
Health Policy

The Shadow Formulary: How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Ration Medications Beyond the Reach of Public Accountability

Pharmacy benefit managers and insurance formularies have evolved into de facto regulatory bodies that determine medication access for tens of millions of Americans, operating with minimal transparency and no democratic oversight. This article examines the structural mechanisms through which tiering systems and formulary exclusions disproportionately burden lower-income patients, and considers how European formulary frameworks offer instructive models for accountability reform.
Delayed by Design: How Pay-for-Delay Patent Settlements Keep Generic Drugs Off American Shelves
Health Policy

Delayed by Design: How Pay-for-Delay Patent Settlements Keep Generic Drugs Off American Shelves

Reverse payment settlements between branded pharmaceutical manufacturers and generic competitors have become a structurally embedded mechanism for extending monopoly pricing well beyond the intended scope of patent law. While the Federal Trade Commission has long identified these agreements as anticompetitive, regulatory agencies lack the statutory authority to unilaterally block them, leaving millions of low-income Americans unable to afford medications they legally should have access to. This

Notified in Name Only: The Structural Breakdown in FDA Medical Device Recall Communication
Health Policy

Notified in Name Only: The Structural Breakdown in FDA Medical Device Recall Communication

When the FDA issues a medical device recall, the regulatory action is only as effective as the communication infrastructure that carries it to patients and clinicians. Persistent gaps in notification systems, fragmented accountability across manufacturers and hospitals, and outdated dissemination protocols routinely leave end-users uninformed until harm has already occurred. This investigation examines the institutional failures that transform official safety actions into practical information v
Subdividing Sickness: How the Orphan Drug Designation Has Become a Pricing Instrument Rather Than a Patient Protection
Health Policy

Subdividing Sickness: How the Orphan Drug Designation Has Become a Pricing Instrument Rather Than a Patient Protection

The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 was designed to incentivize pharmaceutical development for conditions affecting small patient populations that would otherwise be commercially unviable. Decades later, a growing body of evidence suggests that manufacturers have learned to exploit the law's definitional architecture, partitioning common diseases into narrow subpopulations to access orphan status and the premium pricing that accompanies it. The regulatory framework intended to protect the most vulnerabl
Preserved for the Privileged: How Patent Walls Around Organ Viability Technology Are Costing Lives on the Transplant Waiting List
Health Policy

Preserved for the Privileged: How Patent Walls Around Organ Viability Technology Are Costing Lives on the Transplant Waiting List

A small number of manufacturers hold near-exclusive control over advanced organ preservation systems, effectively determining which transplant centers can access life-extending technology—and which patients bear the consequences. This analysis examines how intellectual property protections, procurement disparities, and an absence of federal standardization have created a fragmented transplant infrastructure in which organ viability is increasingly a function of institutional wealth rather than m
Approved but Not Absolved: The Structural Failures That Allow Unsafe Drugs to Linger on the American Market
Health Policy

Approved but Not Absolved: The Structural Failures That Allow Unsafe Drugs to Linger on the American Market

FDA approval of a new medication marks the beginning of a drug's public health story, not its conclusion — yet the regulatory systems designed to monitor long-term safety remain chronically underfunded and structurally misaligned. This article examines the pharmacovigilance gaps that have allowed emerging adverse event signals to go unaddressed for years, and proposes a framework for substantive reform before the next preventable crisis materializes.
A Double Standard in Practice: How American Corporations Export Environmental Compliance While Lobbying Against It at Home
Environmental Health

A Double Standard in Practice: How American Corporations Export Environmental Compliance While Lobbying Against It at Home

A mounting body of evidence reveals that some of the United States' largest industrial corporations voluntarily operate under Europe's more stringent environmental and occupational health standards at their overseas facilities while simultaneously funding legislative campaigns to prevent equivalent protections from taking effect domestically. This article examines the economic logic, political mechanisms, and public health consequences of that regulatory arbitrage, with particular attention to t
Sixty Miles for a Prescription: The Market Failures and Policy Gaps Driving Rural Medication Inequity
Health Policy

Sixty Miles for a Prescription: The Market Failures and Policy Gaps Driving Rural Medication Inequity

Pharmaceutical consolidation has left millions of rural Americans navigating vast geographic distances to obtain basic medications, often at prices exceeding those paid by urban consumers. This analysis examines the structural, economic, and regulatory forces behind pharmacy deserts, and makes the case for federal equity standards in medication distribution. Without deliberate policy intervention, market dynamics will continue to deepen the health divide between rural and metropolitan population
Regrettable Substitution: How Next-Generation PFAS Compounds Are Entering Consumer Markets Ahead of Toxicological Understanding
Environmental Health

Regrettable Substitution: How Next-Generation PFAS Compounds Are Entering Consumer Markets Ahead of Toxicological Understanding

When regulators and litigation pressure forced PFOA and PFOS out of widespread commercial use, manufacturers pivoted to structurally related fluorinated alternatives—compounds that entered the marketplace without the decades of safety data their predecessors had accumulated. This analysis documents the pattern of regrettable substitution in the PFAS chemical family, evaluates the inadequacy of existing US premarket assessment requirements, and draws on comparative European regulatory models to p
Watching and Waiting: The Structural Deficiencies of US Post-Market Drug Surveillance and the Patients Who Pay the Price
Health Policy

Watching and Waiting: The Structural Deficiencies of US Post-Market Drug Surveillance and the Patients Who Pay the Price

European regulatory bodies consistently identify adverse drug reactions earlier and with greater precision than their American counterparts, a disparity rooted in structural design rather than scientific capability. This comparative analysis examines specific episodes where transatlantic regulatory divergence translated into measurable patient harm on American soil. The findings raise urgent questions about whether the United States can afford continued reliance on a post-market surveillance arc
Coverage as a Condition of Employment: How America's Insurance Architecture Becomes a Public Health Liability in Times of Crisis
Environmental Health

Coverage as a Condition of Employment: How America's Insurance Architecture Becomes a Public Health Liability in Times of Crisis

The American practice of linking health insurance eligibility to employment status creates a systemic vulnerability that becomes acutely visible during epidemiological emergencies, when the populations most exposed to infectious disease are simultaneously those most economically threatened by the behavioral changes necessary to reduce transmission. This analysis situates employment-contingent coverage within the broader literature on occupational and environmental health risk, arguing that the c
Zip Codes as Diagnoses: How Non-Health Policies Drive Chronic Disease Across American Communities
Environmental Health

Zip Codes as Diagnoses: How Non-Health Policies Drive Chronic Disease Across American Communities

Chronic disease in America is frequently treated as a medical problem requiring medical solutions, yet a growing body of peer-reviewed evidence demonstrates that its root causes lie substantially outside the healthcare system—in housing codes, food access infrastructure, transportation networks, and the architecture of economic inequality. This analysis examines case studies in which policy interventions far removed from clinical medicine produced measurable reductions in disease burden, and arg
Undetected and Unregulated: The Case for Federal Environmental Health Standards in American Hospital Systems
Health Policy

Undetected and Unregulated: The Case for Federal Environmental Health Standards in American Hospital Systems

American healthcare facilities remain among the most environmentally complex workplaces in the country, yet no unified federal framework mandates systematic detection and mitigation of occupational and environmental health hazards within them. Drawing on comparative evidence from European hospital systems, this analysis argues that the current patchwork of voluntary guidelines and state-level regulations is structurally inadequate to protect both healthcare workers and patients. A consolidated f
Heat, Labor, and a Half-Century of Regulatory Inertia: Reforming US Worker Protections in a Warming Climate
Health Policy

Heat, Labor, and a Half-Century of Regulatory Inertia: Reforming US Worker Protections in a Warming Climate

As global temperatures continue their upward trajectory, millions of American outdoor and indoor workers face escalating heat exposure that federal labor standards—drafted in a different climatic era—are structurally unprepared to address. Drawing on recent epidemiological evidence and the protective labor frameworks developed by Scandinavian nations, this article argues that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration must undertake substantive regulatory reform grounded in the realities

Invisible Contaminants, Absent Regulations: Confronting the Microplastics Threat in US Drinking Water
Environmental Health

Invisible Contaminants, Absent Regulations: Confronting the Microplastics Threat in US Drinking Water

Mounting scientific evidence confirms that microplastics are pervasive in American municipal and private water supplies, yet no binding federal regulatory standard exists to limit their presence. This analysis examines the widening chasm between detection science and regulatory action at the US Environmental Protection Agency, draws instructive comparisons with European legislative frameworks, and advances a set of evidence-grounded policy recommendations for closing this gap before irreversible
Transatlantic Health Policy Transfers: Diagnosing Why European Models Struggle to Take Root in the United States
Health Policy

Transatlantic Health Policy Transfers: Diagnosing Why European Models Struggle to Take Root in the United States

Decades of evidence support the effectiveness of European preventive care frameworks and integrated mental health delivery systems, yet repeated attempts to transplant these models into the American healthcare landscape have yielded inconsistent results. This peer-reviewed analysis examines the structural, regulatory, and cultural forces that create friction at the point of policy transfer. Understanding these barriers is essential for any serious effort to close the transatlantic gap in health

From Copenhagen to Cleveland: A Five-Point Evidence Framework for Climate-Resilient Urban Health in American Cities
Environmental Health

From Copenhagen to Cleveland: A Five-Point Evidence Framework for Climate-Resilient Urban Health in American Cities

European municipalities have accumulated a compelling body of evidence demonstrating that strategically deployed green infrastructure meaningfully reduces heat-related mortality, respiratory disease burden, and mental health strain among urban populations. American cities now face analogous environmental health pressures but must navigate distinct regulatory, financial, and demographic landscapes. This research synthesis translates peer-reviewed findings from European urban health studies into a