The State University of New York, University at Albany, School of Public Health will present "Expanding Health Care Preparedness," via satellite broadcast on January 25, 2007 from 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM EST and rebroadcast from 4:00 - 5:15 PM EST. For details, visit: http://www.ualbanycphp.org/GRS/eventCurrent.cfm?id=83 or email Eric Gebbie at egebbie@albany.edu.
February 5, 2007 is the first deadline to submit an abstract for the 2007 American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting, Politics, Policy and Public Health, which will be held November 3-7 in Washington DC. The APHA is now accepting abstracts. Submission deadlines vary by topic. Persons submitting abstracts will be notified by e-mail of acceptance/rejection on June 1, 2007.
The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, The Center for Law and the Public's Health, and the Information Security Institute present The Legal and Moral Justifications for Government-Mandated Privacy, a special lecture by Anita L. Allen, JD, PhD, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania Law School. Friday, February 9th, 12:00pm - 2:00pm, Wyman Park Building, Room 421.
The American Bar Association's Health Law Section presents its "flagship" two-day conference in Orlando, Florida to exchange ideas, network with colleagues, and acquire CLE credits.
In a recently issued report, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found a high probability that tobacco companies deliberately increased nicotine levels in cigarettes between 1997 and 2005. The recently released study relied on data provided by tobacco companies under reporting requirements set out in a 1996 Massachusetts state law. The study also found that design changes were made in cigarettes to yield more puffs per cigarette. Dr. Howard Koh, an associate dean with the Harvard School of Public Health and one of the study's authors, said, "It was systematic, it was pervasive, it involved all the manufacturers, and it was by design." Statistical analysis utilized in the study found a less than 1 in 1,000 chance that the nicotine increase occurred by chance. Philip Morris responded to the study by stating, "There are random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upwards and downwards, and those variations are not consistent in either direction across reporting years." Massachusetts state health officials and Greg Connolly, another of the study's authors, disagreed with Philip Morris' statement and reiterated that their research found a consistent upward trend in nicotine levels. Diane Pickles, executive director of Tobacco Free Massachusetts, said, "The tobacco industry is clearly looking to addict people quickly and to keep them heavily addicted by making it really, really hard for them to quit."
[Editor's note: To view Trends in Smoke Nicotine Yield and Relationship to Design Characteristics among Popular U.S. Cigarette Brands, 1997-2005, A Report of the Tobacco Research Program, Division of Public Health Practice, Harvard School of Public Health, January 2007, visit http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nicotine/trends.pdf.]
San Francisco is set to become the first city in the nation to require all businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees. The new law, which takes effect February 5, will apply to businesses of all sizes and even to individuals who hire part-time babysitters or house cleaners. Labor activists are praising the new requirement, which will provide paid leave to some 115,000 additional workers in the city, but logistical issues remain to be worked out before the law is implemented. "I am getting questions from employers every day about how to comply, and I don't always know what to tell them," said employment lawyer Nancy Berner. "Everybody's gotten caught in this crunch. You have until Feb. 5 to comply, but the office telling you how to comply hasn't had time to determine what compliance is." Once the law takes effect, employees will accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The leave can be used for the individual employee's own doctor appointments or illnesses, or those of a family member. Those employees without a spouse or registered domestic partner can use their sick leave to care for a sick neighbor, friend, or other person. The measure was approved by 61 percent of voters last fall as part of Proposition F.
An innovative provision in the new building ordinance adopted by the city of East Point, Georgia requires that all second-story bedrooms in newly-built homes include permanent fire escape ladders. Another provision of the code requires that dwellings within seven feet of another dwelling have fire sprinklers built into their ceilings. Councilman Lance Rhodes, who proposed the laws after an East Point fire in which three people died, said, "[I] have always wanted to make East Point the most fire-safe city in the country." East Point's fire chief Rosemary Cloud helped to write the ordinances. Cloud explained why the city decided to require permanent, rather than temporary, fire escape ladders: "You have three to six minutes before the brain loses oxygen. Most house fires happen between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. from human error, and the toxins they produce can render you too disoriented to go get the temporary ladder, put it in place properly and get out in time." Permanent fire escape ladders can be mounted below a window inside the home, inside an exterior window sill, or under the window outside the home. Automatic versions deploy the ladder with the push of a button, while manual versions require opening the storage box and lowering the ladder. Robert Polk, a senior policy adviser for the National Association of State Fire Marshals, said the International Code Council is proposing that permanent fire escape ladders be included in the International Residential Code, which is used by governments to regulated home builders.
[Editor's note: To read East Point's code sections 6-2045 Permanent emergency escape ladders for multi-story permanent dwellings, and 6-2046, Automatic residential sprinkler requirement, see http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=10677&sid=10.]
The parents of a five-year-old boy in Albany, New York, have filed a lawsuit against a local school district for denying their application for a religious exemption to the school's vaccination requirement. Howard Kushner and Claire Bianchi filed the $1 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court, contending that their son was denied entry to school not because he has not received required inoculations, but rather because his parents do not belong to a church that prohibits vaccinations. The couple applied for a religious exemption last summer, when they told school officials that their daily prayer and meditation had brought them to the decision not to vaccinate the child, and cited their interpretation of a Bible verse from the book of Exodus. School officials denied their request for an exemption, finding that the couple's beliefs were based on their "personal, individualized interpretation of the scripture... not as a result of sincerely held expressed religious beliefs." The couple is seeking a temporary injunction to allow their son to immediately enroll in kindergarten. "We'll obviously fight vigorously because we're basically following state and health department mandates," said John Noetzle, a spokesman for the South Colonie School District.
A new statewide reporting system for pesticide use is expected to improve the understanding of where and in what amounts pesticides are being applied in Oregon. Established by legislation in 1999, the Pesticide Use Reporting System was funded in 2005 and only recently began to accept reports of pesticide use. Lori Barck, of the Oregon Public Health Division's environmental and occupational epidemiology program, said, "[W]e are hoping we might see use patterns to help us inform our health surveillance." In an effort to maintain confidentiality, persons reporting pesticide use to the state government will not need to disclose the exact location of the pesticide application. Rather, they will only need to disclose the watershed or zip code in which the pesticide was applied. Barck observed that researchers would prefer to have more exact information so as to more readily explore the relationship between pesticide applications and health problems. California's pesticide-use reporting system began in 1990 and since that time has gathered data which has allowed it to analyze pesticide use trends, better assess exposure risks, and evaluate potential human health and environmental problems. Sunny Jones, a Pesticide Use Reporting System specialist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, noted that educating the public about the system would be a challenge. "If you are using it (in a public space) it must be reported," said Jones. "The fly spray at Wal-Mart, it is still a registered pesticide. If you are using it at work, it needs to be reported."
[Editor's note: To access Oregon's Pesticide Use Reporting System, go to http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/PEST/purs_index.shtml.]
Health officials in Canada have expressed concerned that new rules for natural-health products could make certain ephedrine-based remedies readily available to methamphetamine makers. Pharmaceutical guidelines in Canada require conventional over-the-counter drugs such as cold medicines to be kept behind the counter to combat the manufacture of methamphetamine. But new rules for natural-health products in health food stores and gyms could circumvent that goal. Such products can be sold in most provinces with virtually no regulation. "What about all the work we've done with our provincial governments to try and keep a handle on these products? Does that mean suddenly it's a free for all?" asked Newfoundland and Labrador pharmacy board head Don Rowe. A spokesman for federal Health Minister Tony Clement said that the government shares those concerns and is actively investigating the implications of licensing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as natural health products. The government is conducting "ephedrine mapping" to determine how and by whom the products are being used, and could take further action to restrict such sales. Currently, at least nine remedies containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine are licensed as natural health products in Canada.
A paper published in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal has proposed involuntary detention of patients infected with extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in South Africa. The paper, authored by three physicians, recommended forced isolation and treatment of XDR-TB patients who do not consent to treatment. According to the World Health Organization, as of last September, there were 53 confirmed cases of XDR-TB patients in South Africa, of whom 52 died. Most of these patients were also HIV positive. Ronnie Green-Thompson, an adviser to the South African Department of Health, said, "Holding the patient against their will is not ideal but may have to be considered in the interest of the public. Legal opinion and comment as well as ... the opinion of human rights groups is important." During the 1990s, New York City authorized forced detention and treatment of TB patients who refused voluntary treatment. The patients were detained in hospitals for up to two years. The authors also suggest legal changes to South African law, which currently suspends social benefits for many patients during their hospitalizations. Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, of Medecins Sans Frontieres, expressed concern that patients might be scared away from health care facilities by the threat of involuntary detention. Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization's Stop TB department, said he was unsure whether involuntary confinement was warranted given the lack of data to indicate if lack of compliance is a problem in South Africa. But Raviglione would not rule out the strategy since, "We can't put the public at risk of a disease that is almost incurable."
California: State deadline for hospital earthquake safety looms
Georgia: New food inspection rules will give letter grades to restaurants
Hawaii: High Court decision on DUI roadblock avoidance
Illinois: Towns vote to halt new smoking ban for Super Bowl
Maryland: Farmer files lawsuit over raw milk "cow-share" sales
Mississippi: House Education Committee passes Healthy Students Act
New Jersey: Sweeping changes made to food safety code
New York: City's 911 and 311 callers will be able to send photos to dispatch
North Dakota: House votes to endorse childhood vaccines bill
Utah: Senate committee approves in-person parental consent for kids' tanning
National: Emergency management agency policy requires earlier involvement
National: Survey shows students increasingly chose healthy foods
Canada: Tax credit aims to promote children's fitness
Canada: Provincial high court will review whether smoking law discriminates
China: Asian Development Bank report assesses Chinese food safety
European Union: Health and nutrition claims now regulated
Indonesia: Jakarta and neighboring provinces ban residential poultry-raising
Ireland: National pandemic influenza plan published
"This is not a short-term fix. We didn't get like this overnight. This is the deep South and we fry everything."
-- Hank Bounds, Mississippi Superintendent of Education, on proposed state legislation designed to curb childhood obesity. The Mississippi Healthy Students Act would cover physical education, the use of trans-fatty acids in school foods, healthy food guidelines, BMI checks, and physical activities curricula. The bill was recently approved by the House Education Committee, and now goes to the state House for consideration.
The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled that police cannot stop a car for turning off a highway to avoid a drunken driving roadblock. In the 47-page opinion, the Court found that simply turning off the highway to avoid such checkpoints does not provide reasonable suspicion for officers to stop a vehicle, without some other observed traffic violation. The case stemmed from the DUI arrest of a California tourist, Raymond Heapy, who turned off Mokulele Highway on Maui, just ahead of a drunken driving roadblock. Officers had positioned a "chase car" to apprehend drivers who avoided the roadblock, believing the avoidance provided the required reasonable suspicion for the stop. Heapy claimed he turned off because he was lost, but was found to have a blood alcohol content of .083, over the state's legal limit of .08. After being found guilty, Heapy appealed the case, asserting that the stop violated his constitutional rights. The Court agreed, holding in a 4-1 decision that "The mere possibility of criminal activity does not satisfy the constitutional requirement that a stop be based on suspicion that criminal activity was afoot." The ruling did not affect the legality of roadblocks, nor prohibit police from tracking cars that avoid roadblocks. Rather, officers will have to observe some additional driving manifestations or traffic violations that constitute reasonable suspicion before making a stop, according to the opinion. Chief Justice Ronald Moon was the lone dissenting justice. Both opinions are available below.
To read the majority opinion in State v. Heapy, visit: http://www2a.cdc.gov/phlp/docs/heapy1.pdf. To read the dissenting opinion, visit: http://www2a.cdc.gov/phlp/docs/heapy2dissent.pdf.