When you set your clocks back on Sunday morning, don’t forget to check your stocks. Plus, C. difficile infections at record high according to new CDC data, and school-based health centers get funding boost in L.A. Those top stories and more in today’s public health headlines.

Politico – Fetal ‘heartbeat’ bill advances in Oklahoma
The Oklahoma state Senate passed a controversial “heartbeat” abortion bill on Tuesday that would require doctors to tell women they have the opportunity to hear the fetal heartbeat before ending a pregnancy, according to a report.

NPR – Health Centers At Schools Get A Funding Boost
Under the federal health care law, money is going out around the country to help school campuses boost health services for their students. At Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles students often visit a modest trailer at the back of the sprawling campus. It’s in a neighborhood near downtown L.A. where houses are missing windows and have peeling paint. The small building houses a full-fledged community health clinic with doctors and nurses called St. John’s Well Child and Family Center.

Hanford Sentinel – Preparedness Facts: Daylight saving time a good time to check emergency stockpile
The American Public Health Association (APHA’s) “Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks” campaign is reminding people to refresh their emergency supplies before a disaster occurs. For free materials and other information from APHA’s “Get Ready” campaign, go to http://bit.ly/zctf62. Materials on this site are in both English and Spanish and include a stockpile checklist, grocery list, stockpiling facts, tips for healthy stockpiling, stockpiling recipes and even a stockpiling fact sheet for your pets.

Utility Products – New Ad: What If Polluter Lobbyists in Washington Were Replaced with Asthmatic Children?
Doctors, nurses, scientists and other experts say that industrial carbon pollution is dangerous for children because it makes smog pollution worse, which triggers asthma attacks and permanently damages and reduces the function of children’s lungs. Leading public health groups like the American Lung Association and the American Public Health Association support strict limits on industrial carbon pollution and have linked this dangerous air pollution to asthma attacks, heart attacks and even premature deaths.

NPR – How Birth Control Saves Taxpayers Money
While the controversy continues to swirl around radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh and his admittedly inappropriate comments about Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke, an analysis from the left-leaning Brookings Institution adds an economic twist to the debate over coverage of contraception.

New Public Health – Bill Beckner, National Recreation and Park Association: Faces of Public Health
Parks and recreation departments have long had a history of a commitment to social change and physical fitness in the United States. NewPublicHealth spoke with Bill Beckner, research director of the National Recreation and Park Association about projects and changes within the departments and the communities they have served for more than 100 years.

News at HSPH – Students Take Sides in Legal Battle Over Health Care Reform
Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear challenges to the constitutionality of the landmark health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). On February 2, the law was tested by HSPH students in a Public Health Law class taught by Professor Michelle Mello.

Wall Street Journal – The Latest on Clostridium Difficile, From the CDC
The Health Blog has been writing about the nasty bug Clostridium difficile for a while now. As other infections associated with health-care contact have gone down, C. diff infections have been on the rise — and only recently have leveled off. Some 14,000 deaths each year are linked to the bug, which lives in the gut and can cause diarrhea.

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