ADHS Scores New Heat Illness Prevention Grant
The scorching summer of 2005 motivated us to get our act together and do a better job preventing heat related illnesses in Arizona. That summer, we completed a needs assessment and developed a Heat Emergency Response Plan and Heat Brochure that identifies interventions using triggers from the National Weather Service. These days, we identify risk factors and strategies to improve [...]
Marijuana (Cannabis) in AZ’s Nursing Homes?
Close your eyes and imagine you're one of our surveyors, you're doing an inspection of a nursing home or assisted living center and you find residents smoking marijuana. Could that really happen? Maybe. One of the provisions of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act talks about the ways nursing homes and assisted living centers (that we license) can manage marijuana use among residents (if [...]
Check out Arizona’s 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Survey
Decades ago, how long you lived depended mostly on fate. Infectious diseases, poor sanitation and unsafe conditions called the shots. However, because of advances in public health, much of the fate part is gone and the risk factors for premature death are dominated by behavioral and lifestyle choices. Of course, income and access to resources are a factor, but behavior [...]
Folic Acid Outreach
Each year in the U.S., 2,500 babies are born with neural tube defects (NTDs). These include such conditions as spina bifida and anencephaly, which can lead to paralysis or even early childhood death. Many of these birth defects can be avoided by simply remembering to take a multivitamin every day. A daily dose of 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid [...]
Abortion Clinic Inspections
In 1999 a bill was passed to regulate abortion clinics. Before the law could take effect, a lawsuit was filed that “stayed” the regulation of abortion clinics until a settlement agreement could be finalized with the Department and the plaintiffs. Last year the settlement agreement was finalized and the Department was able to write rules for the regulation of abortion [...]
How Do You Take Your Eggs?
Cooked all the way through, I hope. I’m certain that you heard about the national egg recall this month. I’ll try to put it in perspective. Epidemiologists across the country and at the CDC found a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella that has made a few hundred people sick. The investigation found that people that ate raw or undercooked eggs were [...]