Suicide is one of the most challenging and sensitive public health issues that we face, partly because so many folks have a hard time talking about the subject. It’s especially challenging for families that experience suicide first hand. 1,060 Arizonans died from suicide in 2009 the highest number ever, making it the 6th leading cause [...]
I started my career in public health working as a county Sanitarian doing inspections of restaurants, motels and the like in the mid- 1980s. My area was right around here down toward South Mountain and I inspected the cafeteria in the basement of the Executive Tower and the cafeteria that used to be on the [...]
If Prop 203 passes today, we’ll definitely get flooded with phone calls from people that want information on how they can get a license to become a dispensary starting Wednesday. There’s absolutely no way we could ever try to answer the inevitable questions over the phone. Number 1, we won’t have full answers until at [...]
Did you know that Arizona achieved an historic low Infant Mortality Rate (5.9 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births) in 2009? Infant mortality has long been a public health barometer to assess the general health of a community because good birth outcomes require a host of things to go right. There are many risk [...]
If Proposition 203 passes (the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act), one of our key decisions will be how to set up some kind of selection process for approving marijuana dispensary applications. The Act states that the number of Cannabis dispensaries will be limited to 10% of the number of pharmacies in the state. As of right [...]
Now that the weather has finally broken here in the desert you can visit your local farmers market without having to get up at the crack of dawn. Check out our Farmers’ Market Locator to find the nearest farmers market. Simply go to the application link and put in any address and city and push “Find Market”. The program will [...]
Thanks to the 2009 Vital Statistics report, we also know that AZ residents went to the ER more than 1.8 million times. The top reasons (about 25%) for those visits were abdominal pain, acute upper respiratory infection, chest pain, cuts, mental disorders, and spinal disorders. More than 1,300 Arizonans were treated in an emergency room for [...]
More interesting information from Vital Statistics– this time about babies and births in Arizona. The number of births each year in AZ has been on a downward trend for the last couple of years, and 2009 was no exception. There were a lot fewer babies born in 2009 (92,616) than in 2007 (102,687)- which is [...]
When we implemented our Salt Initiative earlier this year we asked people to know their blood pressure and consider reducing their sodium intake by shopping more carefully and preparing recipes that are lower in sodium. One of the main messages was to encourage people to know their own blood pressure. Then it occurred to me- [...]
As predicted by our 1990 ADHS Vital Statistics Bureau in 1990- cancer is now the number one killer in Arizona – surpassing heart disease. Does this mean that cancer is getting worse? Probably not- it really says that because of better management, treatment, and prevention of heart disease- people with heart conditions are living longer. [...]
