Arizona Vigilant Guard Exercise Update
In less than a month (Nov. 4) thousands of people from a variety of response agencies will be testing their plans and coordinating response efforts for the Vigilant Guard exercise- which will allow us to practice what we would do during a disaster. One of our main tasks will be medical surge management. Medical surge is the influx or surge [...]
Child Care Readiness
Ever since 911, there’s been an increased understanding that a strong disaster emergency and evacuation plan is required for any line of business. Child care is no exception. Over the last few months, our Child Care Licensing shop took the lead to develop and provide information and training to Arizona child care providers in effective short- and long-term emergency and disaster preparation related [...]
Arizona’s Food Safety Network
The Listeria monocytogenes outbreak has captured the public’s attention these days- so I thought I’d do a piece on Arizona’s food safety network. Let’s start at the farm & ranch. The Arizona Department of Agriculture is responsible for ensuring that the base of the food safety pyramid is solid in Arizona. They have several divisions that are responsible for everything from Arizona [...]
Free CME program for behavioral health providers on tobacco cessation
Arizona Smokers' Helpline, the University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman, and the College of Public Health will present a free CME conference "Evidence-based Interventions for Tobacco Cessation in Populations with Mental Illness Challenges," Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. to behavioral health providers. The conference will take place at the Fiesta Resort Conference Center (2100 [...]
Cottage Industry Foods Taking Off
A few weeks ago, I wrote about our new Home Baked and Confectionary Goods Program. Since then, the program has really taken off. About 700 people have registered with the program since we turned the key a few weeks ago, baking a variety of snacks, ranging from cookies and cupcakes to healthy goodies. Bakers who want to sell their products [...]
Pancreatic Cancer Prevention
You probably heard that Steve Jobs- the former head of Apple died this week of pancreatic cancer. While pancreatic cancer is the 10th most common kind of cancer in the US, it’s the 4th most common cause of cancer death. It often has a poor prognosis partly because people often don’t have any symptoms until it’s pretty advanced- meaning that [...]