Public health

If you have a cold, or the flu, antibiotics won't work for you

Pharmacists around the nation are joining the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to educate consumers about the appropriate use of antibiotics during this influenza season. Antibiotics are intended to treat bacterial infections, not viruses like the flu. The CDC is observing the second annual Get Smart About Antibiotics Week October 5-11, 2009.

The Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work program reaches parents, pharmacists and health care providers through print advertisements, fact sheets, brochures, posters, radio and print public service announcements, podcasts, and mainstream media interviews.    » read more »

Number of poor air quality days declines from 76 to three statewide

October 02, 2009 -- RICHMOND – Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced significant improvements in Virginia's air quality during the past decade. Between 1999 and 2009, the Commonwealth saw a 96 percent decrease in the number of days that exceeded the national air quality standard for ground-level ozone at monitoring stations statewide, with summer 2009 standing out as the best year on record.    » read more »

Sept. 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- Plumes of harmful air pollutants can be transported across oceans and continents -- from Asia to the United States and from the United States to Europe -- and have a negative impact on air quality far from their original sources, says a new report by the National Research Council.

Although degraded air quality is nearly always dominated by local emissions, the influence of non-domestic pollution sources may grow as emissions from developing countries increase and become relatively more important as a result of tightening environmental protection standards in industrialized countries.    » read more »

September 30, 2009 -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today reasserted its concerns about the potential environmental harm that would be caused by the issuance of dozens of new mountaintop removal coal mining permits in Appalachia.

The EPA, which announced on September 11, 2009 that all 79 of the mountaintop removal coal mining permits currently under agency review would violate the Clean Water Act, today formally announced that it would conduct an enhanced review of all 79 permits.

In response Mary Anne Hitt, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, issued the following statement:    » read more »

Sept. 30, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, eleven public health and consumer advocacy organizations filed a friend of the court (amicus) brief asking a federal court to reject a lawsuit by R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard and other tobacco companies that seeks to block key provisions of the new federal law regulating tobacco products. The immediate issue before the court is the industry’s challenge of a provision that requires FDA approval before tobacco companies can make claims about “modified risk tobacco products.”

The tobacco companies have also challenged other marketing restrictions in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which authorizes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.    » read more »

Implications for Public Health and Social Justice Outlined in New Report

September, 2009 -- Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, storms stronger, and droughts more severe. As the Senate prepares to take up clean energy legislation, the National Wildlife Federation, Harvard Medical School, the NAACP, and the Apollo Alliance hosted a Congressional briefing today to emphasize the public health and social justice issues that any legislation must address.    » read more »

September 29, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today lauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of new chemical safety principles as an important breakthrough for public health in America.

Lautenberg, a leader in the Senate on improving chemical safety, is preparing legislation that would put the burden on chemical companies to provide data to the EPA so that Americans can be assured the chemicals they are exposed to are safe.    » read more »

September 17, 2009 -- Today, President Obama announced the United States will continue to act aggressively to stop the global spread of the pandemic 2009-H1N1 influenza virus and is prepared to make 10 percent of its H1N1 vaccine supply available to other countries through the World Health Organization (WHO).

In recognition that diseases know no borders and that the health of the American people is inseparable from the health of people around the world, the United States is taking this action in concert with Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.    » read more »

September 17, 2009 -- In a statewide conference call today, Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell updated local health and chief elected officials on the state’s efforts in monitoring the growing number of mosquitoes carrying the potentially deadly Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus.

The virus has been identified in mosquitoes trapped in a number of towns, mostly in rural eastern Connecticut. The Governor was joined on the call by her state commissioners of Environmental Protection, Public Health, Agriculture, Emergency Management and Homeland Security and experts from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.    » read more »

Greater Protections Safeguard Citizens from Tainted Water Following Crestwood Well Contamination

CHICAGO – August 23, 2009 -- Illinois Governor Pat Quinn today signed a bill to help ensure Illinois citizens have safe drinking water and prevent future incidents like the water contamination discovered earlier this year in Crestwood.

“The people of Illinois have a right to know when their water could be contaminated,” said Governor Quinn. “This bill helps prevent terrible incidents like what happened in Crestwood from happening again.”    » read more »

July 8, 2009 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall today announced that six Native American communities in New Mexico will share nearly $5 million for water improvements. Funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Environmental Protection Agency and the Indian Health Service.

“This nearly $5 million investment of stimulus funding will be used to improve water infrastructure in six communities in New Mexico. It will create good jobs in the short term, and provide long-lasting quality of life improvements in communities where they are badly needed,” Bingaman said.    » read more »

Sierra Club and allies requested disclosure via FOIA on June 19

June 29, 2009 -- Washington, D.C.--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released information regarding the locations of 44 "high hazard potential" coal combustion waste facilities (or coal ash impoundments), previously kept a secret from the public. On June 19, 2009, Sierra Club and its allies filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to force EPA to make these sites known to the public.

Coal ash impoundments were placed on the list based on the potential for harm to surrounding communities in the event of an accident, but at the request of the Department of Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers, EPA previously refused to release the information.    » read more »

June 22, 2009 -- (Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) applauded President Obama for signing into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Senator Murray voted for the bill on June 11th, which passed the Senate 79-17. This law provides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority to regulate tobacco products, protect families and consumers, and help smokers overcome their addiction.    » read more »

Remarks By The President At The Signing Of The Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act

June 22, 2009 -- Rose Garden -- THE PRESIDENT: Please, everybody, have a seat -- have a seat. I am thrilled to be here for what is I think an extraordinary accomplishment by this Congress, a bill we're about to sign into law.    » read more »

American Lung Association Poised to Help Smokers Quit

June 22, 2009 -- Statement of Stephen J. Nolan, American Lung Association National Board Chair:

Today, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (HR 1256) marking a historic day in our fight against lung disease. Finally, after a two-decade long battle, the American Lung Association can join our public health partners in heralding in the day when tobacco companies can no longer prey on America’s kids with deceitful advertising and candy flavored cigarettes.    » read more »