National Police Week honors law enforcement officers who’ve been killed in the line of duty; OSHA tells Hyatt Hotels that housekeeping workers are at risk of ergonomic injuries; and a fire in a Phiippines clothing factory kills 17.
A new report from the Institute of Medicine recommends changing our environments to prevent obesity.
A study on use of new cookstoves in India finds that solving soot problems isn’t as simple as just giving people new stoves. Long-term use of equipment provided by aid groups is also an issue in water and sanitation projects.
Public Health Practice
“Invisible Cadaver Particles,” behavior change, and the public health perspective
A Freakonomics podcast gives two very different examples of how knowing what’s best doesn’t always translate to healthy behavior — and demonstrates how to apply a public health perspective to challenging problems.
I’ve written before (here and here) about some of the research that’s been demonstrating the importance of avoiding long stretches of sedentary time. (The Sedentary Behavior Research Network has proposed that “sedentary” refer to waking time spent sitting or lying down and expending little energy, while “inactive” refer to people with low levels of overall […]
Today is World Malaria Day, and the World Health Organization has launched a new initiative, dubbed T3: Test, Treat, Track. It urges countries where malaria is endemic to test every suspected malaria case, treat every confirmed case with anti-malarial medicine, and track the disease with “timely and accurate surveillance systems.” The good news is that […]
Thanks to regulations limiting the use of lead in gasoline, paint, and plumbing supplies, the median blood lead concentration for US children age five and younger has dropped from 15 µg/dL in 1976-1980 to 1.4 µg/dL in 2007-2008. This is important because lead is a neurotoxicant that can lead to developmental delays and behavioral problems, […]
April 28th is Workers Memorial Day, and groups California to Nebraska to Kentucky are planning events — see a complete list at the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) website. Events in Washington, DC are happening in advance of Workers Memorial Day: On Thursday, April 19th at 10am, the Senate Health, Education, Labor […]
Yesterday, the FDA announced a new program that has the potential to slash the routine use of antibiotics by livestock producers. The routine administration of antibiotics to livestock with no signs of sickness helps animals grow more quickly, but it’s also a significant contributor to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. An estimated 70% of the […]
Slate has just started a new series by Tom Vanderbilt called “The Crisis in American Walking: How we got off the pedestrian path.” Vanderbilt observes that it’s odd to see things like “Campaign to Get America Walking” when ambulation is one of the most natural activities for our species. Reliance on cars seems to be […]