Mold in substandard housing makes breathing hard for kids with
asthma. Poorly planned streets and sidewalks make exercising
outside, or swapping a drive for a walk, more difficult. Housing
and transportation aren’t policy areas obviously related to
health, but such decisions directly affect our well-being.
A study released earlier this month suggests that taking a
holistic approach to policy, one that considers health in all
decisions, may not be as hard as it sounds.
Streets take on the look of an unruly Eden in the leafier parts
of San Diego. Lawns, large lots, even sidewalk medians are
interlaced with fruiting varieties of trees, palm trees and lush
vegetation. Sometimes the abundance of common produce – lemons,
oranges, avocados – can overwhelm homeowners.
So locavores and food security advocates have teamed up with a
growing number of volunteers, matching overburdened homeowners
with pickers eager to help haul the excess produce to food
pantries throughout San Diego County.
April 19, 2012 (ATLANTA) – Nationwide, women’s lifespans are
improving at a much slower pace than men, and in hundreds of
counties women are living shorter lives today than they did two
decades ago, according to new county-by-county estimates of life
expectancy released today by the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation (IHME).
The new data also show that life expectancy for black Americans –
both men and women – is improving at a faster rate than for white
Americans, especially in large urban areas in New York and
California.
Health doesn’t only happen in a doctor’s office or with diets.
Health happens where we live, learn, and play; in our
communities, in our schools. See what The California
Endowment is doing to build healthy communities
throughout California.
California’s northern counties ranked highest for overall health
in the state,
according to a report released Tuesday [April 3,
2012] by the University of Wisconsin Population Health
Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U-T San
Diego reports (Lavelle, U-T San Diego, 4/3).
The study used government data to rank more than 3,000 U.S.
counties based on health indicators such as drinking, obesity,
physical inactivity, smoking and premature death (Tavernise,
New York Times, 4/3).
County Rankings
According to the report, the top five California counties for
overall health were:
San Diego County has again earned above-average but not stellar
rankings for the health of its residents compared with the rest
of California and the nation, a new study shows.
Easy access to fast food joints and comparatively high rates of
sexually transmitted disease were problems in San Diego compared
with statewide, according to the third annual “County Health
Rankings” released Tuesday [April 3, 2012] by the University
of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation.
On the other hand, San Diego performed well compared with both
state and national figures in providing adequate outpatient care
to avoid preventable hospital stays. Smoking and obesity rates
were lower than state and national averages, and while the
county’s air pollution statistics ran higher than national
benchmarks, San Diego had fewer smoggy days than statewide
figures, according to the study.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the United States marks the 50th
anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week from March 18-24,
the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is teaming up with product
safety counterparts in Canada and Mexico to call attention to the
dangers of unintentional poisoning.
CPSC, Mexico’s Consumer Protection Federal Agency (Profeco), the
Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks
(Cofepris), and Health Canada have committed to working together
to engage consumers during this week. Consumers need to know how
to safely choose, use and dispose of potentially harmful
products.
Unintentional poisoning is one of the leading causes of injury to
children. Poisoning is a preventable injury. Yet each year
thousands of children in the United States and across North
America are treated in emergency departments after consuming
poisonous substances.
“Fifty years of poison awareness efforts have resulted in
thousands of lives saved,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum.
“However, new and reemerging hazards, such as button cell
batteries and chemicals that look like everyday drinks, have
renewed CPSC’s efforts to raise awareness and encourage poison
prevention.”
While child-resistant packaging, critical safety messaging and
education efforts have contributed to a significant decline in
deaths, the North American safety agencies are aiming to reduce
even further the number of unintentional poisonings.
CPSC recommends that consumers layer the protection in three key
steps:
With innovative programs, county officials encourage
fearful parents to vaccinate
Amanda Tarpening doesn’t want the state telling her to vaccinate
her child.
And California public health officials don’t want her
17-month-old daughter, who has not been immunized, to fall ill or
help spread a vaccine-preventable disease.
It’s a quandary that has physicians frustrated and parents such
as Tarpening citing their First Amendment rights.
As a growing number of Californians exempt their children from
required immunizations, public health departments statewide are
launching campaigns to try to persuade them to vaccinate, and
legislators are trying to make it harder for them to get
exemptions.
Statewide, the number of fully vaccinated children has been
falling steadily since 2004, when 92.9 percent of students
entering kindergarten had all required immunizations, according
to the California Department of Public Health. Only 90.7 percent
— or 11,470 fewer kids — were fully vaccinated in 2010, the most
recent year for which data are available.
“The trend results in a greater number of Californians being
vulnerable to preventable illnesses,” said Dr. Gilberto Chavez,
the state’s Center for Infectious Disease deputy director. “The
risk of outbreaks and widespread illness in our communities
increases as the number of families opting not to vaccine their
children increases.”
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) — U.S. health experts
recommended Wednesday that all adults get vaccinated against
whooping cough (pertussis), an infectious bacterial disease that
triggers uncontrollable coughing and is especially dangerous to
infants.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices voted to expand the
vaccination recommendation to include all adults, including those
aged 65 and older.
