Gulf Fish Testing?
In a post last Summer, I mentioned that our state public health laboratory Environmental & Analytical Chemistry unit has been selected as 1 of 8 chemistry laboratories across the country that would be examining commercial seafood for contaminants from the gusher in the Gulf. The goal was to find out whether commercial seafood has been contaminated by the oil spill [...]
2011 Department Priorities Spotlight – Arizona State Hospital
We’ve got an exiting year in store for the Arizona State Hospital in 2011. One of the highlights will be our New Forensic Hospital which will open in the Fall. During 2010 our Forensic team reorganized their treatment groups to focus on both psychiatric symptom stability and pro-social skill development and engagement. During 2011 we’ll further apply these principles and [...]
AZ Public Health Laboratory Capacity
A few years ago it became pretty clear that we were facing some budget reductions. At the time, we had no idea that our budget reductions would be as extensive as they turned out to be. However, we did know that if we were going to maintain our laboratory capacity to protect the folks of AZ, we’d have to diversify [...]
Child Nutrition Act of 2010
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 became law this month. This reauthorization of the federal school nutrition program includes a number of elements that will help move the needle on childhood obesity. The Act recognizes the importance of school meals to the health and academic success of kids and gives school nutrition programs new responsibilities and resources to bring [...]
Flag Drops on First Medical Marijuana Comment Period
One of our top priorities as we implement the AZ Medical Marijuana Act over the coming months is to ensure that we develop good Rules (called Administrative Code) so we can regulate medical marijuana effectively. Rules that are clear, objective, well-researched, and that balance competing interests are absolutely critical in order to effectively implement a responsible medical marijuana program. Our goal [...]
Physical Activity Improves Academic Performance
Everyone knows that physical activity is good for kids, actually its good for everyone. However, partly because of the increasing pressure to include more academic work in the classroom, most kids aren’t getting the recommended levels of physical activity at school. Now, there’s growing evidence that physical activity and academic achievement go hand in hand. A growing body of research is [...]