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A looser state budget will hand about $46 million back to cancer-fighting groups who had lost money for tobacco cessation and medical screening for the past three years.
Eroding state budgets pushed the legislature to confiscate Amendment 35 cancer-fighting money for emergency funds. The new 2012-13 state budget restores the money to the pots voters intended when they approved a higher cigarette tax in 2004.
The money will quickly boost tobacco "quit lines" for Colorado, and restore screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, as well as treatments for the uninsured when those tests discover illnesses.
The Amendment 35 tax generated about $145 million in 2011, though the amount declines slightly each year along with cigarette-buying trends. Cancer fighting groups expect the tax to contribute about $23 million to tobacco-related projects and another $23 million for the cancer screens in the next year.
Most of the rest of the tax revenue generated by Amendment 35 goes to an expansion of Medicaid's Child Health Plan Plus, and primary care for the medically indigent.
"These programs really do save lives," said R.J. Ours, Colorado director of government relations for the American Cancer Society Action Network.
The cuts had dropped quit line services from 3,000 callers a month to 1,000. Breast and cervical cancer cuts meant 5,000 fewer women were screened, he said.
The quit line money pays for counseling and for a 30-day supply of nicotine-replacement products.
Though adult smoking rates are down to about 16 percent in Colorado, and teen rates at just under 20 percent, public health advocates believe more hard work and money can further reduce addictions and resulting costly disease.
Smoking opponents are broadening tobacco restrictions in Colorado. Golden last week passed a new licensing requirement for tobacco stores selling non-cigarette products like snus and tobacco-infused mints. The licensing revenue will be used to hire education and enforcement staff for tobacco sales laws.
The Colorado Farm to School Task Force received a $105,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation (www.coloradohealth.org) to help schools, local farmers and communities bring fresh local food into K-12 school meal and snack programs.
“Farm-to-school is a promising strategy for addressing the rising tide of childhood obesity in Colorado,” said Chris Lindley, director of the Prevention Services Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
According to Lindley, Colorado ranks 23 out of 50 states in the prevalence of childhood obesity, which belies its reputation as the “leanest” state in the nation. Children who are obese have an increased risk of developing chronic diseases later in life.
Lindley said, “Many of these children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, and this is simply unacceptable. We’d like to see farm-to-school initiatives spread to every school district in every corner of the state.”
As more Colorado schools replace highly processed foods, the opportunity for “scratch” ingredients to come from Colorado farmers is significant. When it comes to institutional buying power, schools lead the pack, with more than a half million meals served to Colorado school children every day.
“Showcasing Colorado’s high-quality farm food products in schools teaches children about agriculture and creates new market opportunities for farmers and ranchers,” said Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture John Salazar. “It is exciting to see the accomplishments of the Colorado Farm to School Task Force in such a short time.”
The grant will fund outreach and technical assistance to local communities, research on best practices in farm-to-school policy, development of a farm-to-school evaluation plan, and promising pilot programs.
“We see the Colorado Farm to School Task Force as an essential partner for making local produce a part of healthy school meals for kids across Colorado,” said Kelly Dunkin, vice president of philanthropy for the Colorado Health Foundation.
The task force just released its first annual report , available at www.coloradoagriculture.org. The executive summary highlights the task force’s accomplishments, such as leading hands-on, working sessions between school districts and farmers to bring local fresh foods into school meals and publishing policy analyses on key Colorado farm-to-school topics.
“This generous grant will help ensure the task force continues to support an increase in the number of school districts that participate in robust farm-to-school programs,” said Jeremy West, task force chair and nutrition services director of Weld County School District 6.
The task force members travel the state, meeting with local schools and producers. The next quarterly meeting will be Tuesday, June 26, in Las Animas, Colo., and is open to the public. Click here to view the executive summary of the Colorado Farm to School Task Force report, or contact Lyn Kathlene at Lyn@SparkPolicy.com for information.
DENVER—The Drug Enforcement Administration will hold its fourth National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participating police and sheriff’s departments across Colorado will collect and safely dispose of unused, unwanted and expired household medications.
The take-back service is free and anonymous, with no questions asked. To find take-back locations in your area, visit the DEA National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day Web page and click on “Collection Site Locator,” or call CO HELP at 1-877-462-2911.
Authorized DEA take-back sites are coordinated with local law enforcement agencies so that prescription narcotics and other controlled substances will be accepted for disposal along with other prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The following items will not be accepted: needles and sharps, mercury (thermometers), oxygen containers, chemotherapy/ radioactive substances, pressurized canisters and illicit drugs.
More than 498 tons of medications were turned in at collection sites across the United States during the first three DEA National Prescription Drug Take-Back Days, including 18 tons collected in Colorado. These drugs have been removed from homes and no longer pose a danger of abuse. Seventy percent of children who abuse prescription drugs get them from family and friends. Home medicine cabinets often provide easy access to the drugs they abuse/use.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment encourages you to securely store medications in the home, just as you would other valuables. Keep track of the drugs you have on hand and dispose of expired or no longer needed medications. For disposal, seek out collection events, such as the DEA take-back day on April 28, or other local programs. The department operates the Colorado Medication Take-Back Pilot Project, with 10 Denver Metro area locations and two Summit County locations. Visit www.coloradomedtakeback.info or call 303-692-2903 for more information about the pilot project and additional disposal guidance. Please note that the Colorado Medication Take-Back Pilot Project does not accept prescription narcotics or other controlled substances.
WASHINGTON—The World Bank named Jim Yong Kim as its next president, maintaining a seven-decade U.S. lock on the post after the first challenge by candidates from other countries.
Dr. Kim said after his election on Monday that laying the groundwork for job creation would be his top priority, as the institution faces pressure to shift from making loans to supporting broader economic concerns.
"In every single country I've been to, they are really hoping private-sector growth can happen quickly so that jobs can be created," he said, in a telephone interview from Lima, Peru, where he was concluding a "global ... Click here for more!
Statement from PHI President and CEO Mary Pittman
"The Public Health Institute is deeply disappointed that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 4628, which cuts the Prevention and Public Health Fund in order to subsidize student loans. We applaud the Statement of Administration Policy released today by the White House that makes it clear the Administration opposes the attempt to repeal the Prevention Fund.
"Affordable Care Act opponents have tried repeatedly to eliminate the Prevention Fund, and they've failed. The Administration joins public health leaders and communities across the country to stand behind these critical funds. The public's health must take precedence over politics.
"The Prevention Fund will continue to be one of the best and most comprehensive tools we have to stem our growing chronic disease rates and skyrocketing healthcare costs. Federal prevention dollars are already having a positive impact across the United States, creating the environments that will ensure better health down the road.
"In California, neighborhoods and communities are using resources provided through the Prevention Fund's Community Transformation Grant initiative to create healthier communities and reduce chronic disease. These dollars are making a real and positive change in people's lives and health.
"The Prevention Fund is an essential investment of federal resources designed to move the country off the unsustainable path of poor health. Asking students to bear spiraling student loan costs is unfair and unnecessary. Asking them, our country, and our economy to bear the burden of out-of-contral healthcare costs will be even more debilitating. Congress must address both problems, not force people to choose between them. Protecting the Prevention Fund today is an investment in all of our futures.
The Public Health Institute urges Congress to find a serious, bipartisan solution to strengthen the infrastructure that supports higher education loans and protects the Prevention and Public Health Fund."
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You can also read Mary Pittman's blog in The Hill, The false choice of student loans and prevention.
About the Public Health Institute
The Public Health Institute, an independent nonprofit organization, is dedicated to promoting health, well-being and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. PHI's primary methods for achieving these goals include: sharing evidence developed through quality research and evaluation; providing training and technical assistance; and promoting successful prevention strategies to policymakers, communities and individuals. For more information, go to: www.phi.org
DENVER—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC Foundation are honoring Dr. Robert Brayden, professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado and a physician at Children's Hospital, among other immunization advocates around the country with the first ever CDC Childhood Immunization Champion awards. These awards acknowledge individuals who have made immunization successes possible in their community.
“These Champion awards honor community leaders on the front lines who are ensuring all children are vaccinated,” said Dr. Howard K. Koh, assistant secretary for health, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. “As a former state commissioner of public health, I know state and local commitment inspires the nation, protects children and saves lives.”
Dr. Rachel Herlihy, immuniization section chief at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said, “Over the last 20 years, Dr. Bradyen has worked tirelessly to increase childhood vaccination rates by educating the public, health care professionals and his patients on the importance of these immunizations. His commitment and leadership to the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition, the Vaccine Advisory Committee for Colorado and other statewide immunization coalitions has significantly contributed to and improved public health in Colorado.”
CDC Childhood Immunization Champions were nominated by state immunization programs and selected from a pool of health care professionals, coalition members, parents and other immunization leaders as having made a significant contribution.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said, “Vaccine-preventable diseases still circulate in the United States and elsewhere. Without the diligent efforts of our champions, these potentially deadly diseases would be an even greater threat to our nation’s children. Each of us has the potential to be a champion by protecting children’s health through immunization.”
For more information about other CDC Childhood Immunization Champion award winners, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/events/niiw/champions/index.html. The awards were announced by CDC this week during the observance of National Infant Immunization Week.
Jefferson County Public Health is now offering an online class for food handlers.
Employees of the food service industry and anyone else who is interested in serving food safely can log onto statefoodsafety.com and sign up for the two-hour class. It is offered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese.
“We decided to do that to give another option to all the food handlers,” said Kodi Bryant, public information specialist with Jefferson County Public Health. “Online is a convenient way to do that and it is very easily integrated into what we currently do.”
Jefferson County also still offers an excellence in food safety class once a month at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds.
Jefferson County Public Health Retail Food Program Manager David Hooker said education is the key to avoiding food-borne illnesses.
“I can tell you from going out into the field, there are some people that don’t wash their hands,” he said. “That could be a source of food-borne illness.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 48 million Americans get sick, more than 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year from food-borne illness and poor hygienic practices.
Hooker said each restaurant in the county has required random inspections by the health department twice a year by a team of 10 inspectors.
“The inspectors know their area and know which (restaurants) are going to give them problems,” Hooker said.
Common violations include improper hand washing, glove violations, not keeping foods hot above 130 degrees or cold foods below 41 degrees. Raw chicken might be stored in a container above foods that are served uncooked, like salads or an area might not be properly sanitized with bleach.
These could all be avoided by taking the class, Hooker said.
“The more education you can get, the better,” he said. “If you don’t understand what you are doing in the food industry, you can get into trouble.”
Although the food safety classes are voluntary and not required by the county, proving their employees have the certification is an advantage for restaurant owners, Bryant said.
“The incentive is bragging rights that you are a good, clean facility,” she said.
The online and classroom classes cost $10 per person and participants receive a certificate upon passing a quiz. For more information or to register for classes, go to jeffco.us/health or call 303-271-5700.
DENVER—State health officials are using this year’s National Infant Immunization Week, April 21-28, to urge parents not to delay getting their children needed vaccinations in keeping with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended vaccine schedule.
“The recent whooping cough outbreak in Boulder, and other similar outbreaks across the country, underscore the need for parents to get their children vaccinated according to the schedule created by the CDC,” said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, director of the Immunization Section at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
While clearly in the minority, some Colorado parents are choosing to vaccinate their children on delayed or “alternative” schedules. One such delayed schedule recommended by author Dr. Bob Sears has been especially popular among parents choosing to put off some of their child’s vaccinations. A 2010 study in the respected journal Pediatrics showed that delayed vaccination schedules provide no additional benefit over the CDC recommended schedule.
Dr. Herlihy noted that concerns about vaccinations often come from a sense that babies’ bodies can’t handle the vaccines. “That is simply not true,” she said. “There is no such thing as overwhelming the immune system with shots. Even infant immune systems have an almost limitless ability to respond to new germs. And the number of antigens or germs in childhood vaccines is a drop in the bucket compared to what young children’s immune systems are naturally exposed to every day.”
Dr. James Todd, medical director for epidemiology at Children’s Hospital Colorado, has conducted new research on vaccine use in Colorado. “The ‘too many too soon’ myth puts the health of our youngest children and their playmates at risk,” Dr. Todd said. “Research we have just completed shows we're falling behind in the early childhood vaccine schedule in Colorado. We’re falling behind with the youngest children. This is significant because typically we see most vaccine-preventable disease in children up to 36 months of age.”
A March whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak in Boulder County sickened at least 37 people. Six of the diagnosed cases were children under age 9, and one infant required intensive-care hospitalization. Whooping cough is a vaccine-preventable illness, and delaying children’s pertussis immunizations significantly increases their risk of contracting this disease.
National Infant Immunization Week is an annual observance to highlight the importance of protecting infants from vaccine-preventable diseases and to celebrate the achievements of immunization programs and their partners in promoting healthy communities.
Infants are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases. That is why it is critical to protect them through immunization. Each day, nearly 12,000 babies are born in the United States, and all of them need to be immunized against 14 vaccine-preventable diseases before age 2.
A 2010 national survey showed that 88 percent of parents follow CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule. However, some parents still have concerns about vaccine safety due, in part, to a now completely discredited British study that connected autism to childhood vaccines.
Recognizing some parents may have concerns about vaccine safety, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment partnered with other organizations to create the website, www.immunizeforgood.com, to inform parents about which vaccines are needed, and why they’re important.
In the United States, vaccines have reduced or eliminated many infectious diseases that once routinely harmed or killed thousands of infants and young children each year. However, the viruses and bacteria that cause vaccine-preventable disease and death still exist and can be passed on to people who are not immunized.
Vaccine-preventable diseases have many social and economic costs. These diseases result in doctor visits, hospitalizations and even death. Sick children miss school and can cause parents to lose time from work.
In addition to the www.immunizeforgood.com website, parents are encouraged to access other credible resources regarding immunizations. Both www.cdc.gov and www.cdphe.state.co.us also provide great vaccination resources.
This Morning's (4/22) Perspective Section of this morning's Denver Post has a list of 75 of Colorado's most influential women. Marguerite Salazar (our proposed keynote speaker for this year's Public Health in the Rockies Conference) is in the list of 7 women in the Health Care category, as are others from public health.
Health care list:
Vicki Cowart, Planned Parenthood
Patricia Gabow, Denver Health CEO
Donna Lynne, Kaiser Family Foundation
Sue Miller, breast cancer advocate
Marguerite Salazar, HHS Regional Director
Elizabeth Sober, United Healthcare president and CEO
Anne Warhover, CO Health Foundation president,
TO VOTE FOR YOUR OVERALL TOP TEN (and support women in public health): You can click on the following link and vote for who you think should be in the top ten this year.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8MVNBR8
Full article links click here
WASHINGTON—The World Bank named Jim Yong Kim as its next president, maintaining a seven-decade U.S. lock on the post after the first challenge by candidates from other countries.
Dr. Kim said after his election on Monday that laying the groundwork for job creation would be his top priority, as the institution faces pressure to shift from making loans to supporting broader economic concerns.
Read more on Wall Street Journal online!
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