American Lung Association releases its State of the Air report; more coverage of last week’s health journalism conference; plus, find out why public health officials worry soap-less sanitizer is getting into the wrong hands. Those stories and more topping public health headlines today, Wednesday, April 25, 2012.
CNN – 10 most polluted cities
The U.S. has significantly reduced its air pollution, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. These 10 cities had the highest levels of year-round particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association’s 2012 rankings.
Reuters – U.S. cattle rebound from mad cow sell-off
U.S. live cattle futures rode back into the black on Wednesday after posting their biggest drop in seven months a day earlier when authorities confirmed the fourth case of mad cow disease in the United States in a dairy cow in California. Futures tumbled the daily 3-cent trading limit Tuesday as this new case of the disease caused investors, especially money managers, to bail out of a market already battered by demand fears after the consumer uproar over “pink slime.”
Boston Herald – Cases of teens getting drunk off hand sanitizer worry public health officials
Six teenagers have shown up in two Los Angeles emergency rooms in the last few months with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer, worrying public health officials who say the cases could signal a dangerous trend. Some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, making a potent drink that is similar to a shot of hard liquor.
NPR Shots Blog – Cancer Doc Brawley Says The U.S. Health Care System Is Sick
Journalists make for a pretty tough crowd. But Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, fired up hundreds of them at the annual meeting of Association of Health Care Journalists over the weekend with a no-holds-barred critique of the U.S. health system.
New York Daily News – A dangerous attack on school breakfast
Today, there are 474,000 New York City children whose families struggle to put enough food on the table . These kids are more likely to have health problems and are more likely to stumble in school. In-classroom breakfast is a practical way to ensure that as many kids as possible benefit from the most important meal of the day. Yet according to the Food Research and Action Center, New York City is dead last among 26 large urban areas in school breakfast participation, even though 74% of the city’s public school students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. And because there are millions of federal dollars approved to expand breakfast programs, righting that wrong does not have to cost the city anything.
