The SunWise Program held its annual presentation of the “Be SunWise & Play Sun Smart Skin Cancer Prevention Poster Contest” on Saturday, May 5 at the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the Houston Astros baseball game. This year marked the 15th year of the annual poster contest, which invites students from all over the state of Arizona to showcase their [...]
Temperatures in Arizona during the summer soar, and heat-related illnesses are common. Anyone can be susceptible to heat-related illness, but those at greatest risk are children under age four, adults over age 65, homeless people, outdoor workers, people who are overweight, and people who are ill or on certain medications. Following some simple safety tips [...]
Note: This week is National Public Health Week. This week I have a five-part public health series that explores the vast network of programs and services that help improve the health and wellness of all Arizonans. Arizona is a diverse state with a wide range of weather. This can lead to extreme heat in the [...]
The Arizona SunWise Program is excited to kick off our 14th annual “Be SunWise and Play Sun Smart!” poster contest. The contest is open to Arizona residents age 17 or younger, and encourages youth to illustrate ways to keep safe in the Arizona sun. The winning artist and teacher will receive on-field awards and appear [...]
Our department receives funding from the CDC for the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant to fund several of our prevention efforts in Arizona, such as the program to reduce the number of prescription drug overdoses and deaths in the state. The block grant has provided strong support to states since the 1980s. In addition to [...]
May 1st brought an official close to the 2016 SunWise poster contest, as the winner, Kassandra Loya, was presented before a crowd of more than 25,000 cheering fans at the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Colorado Rockies game. The partnership of the Arizona Department of Health Services’ SunWise program with the Arizona Diamondbacks has been instrumental in [...]
We use a lot of CDC grants in Arizona to promote public health. I’ve talked about what we do with the Maternal and Child Health, as well as the Behavioral Health, grants in previous blogs. There’s another grant that lets us focus on issues that are specifically tailored to Arizona. The Preventive Health block grant helps fund our [...]
Not so long ago (actually a long time ago) when I was a student I was bummed when it was back to school time. Now as a parent… I can’t wait. This year we thought we’d pull together a hub website for parents and grandparents to find resources and information with helpful hints about the [...]
A recent report by the American Cancer Society, suggests what many Arizonans may have suspected, that skin cancer is on the rise. An estimated 82,770 Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2013. In Arizona, one in five of us is likely to develop some form of skin cancer. The most common cause is overexposure [...]
Aksel Laudon, a 6th-grade student at Kyrene Centennial Middle School in Phoenix, is this year’s “Be SunWise and Play Sun Smart” poster-drawing contest winner. Aksel’s drawing was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks from more than 7,000 student poster entries. Aksel and his teacher Jeffrey Garrett, and their families will be celebrated at the June 5 DBacks game in a pre-game award ceremony on [...]
