public health

Liz Perkins was thrilled when her first child was a boy. She named him John, after his father and grandfather, and throughout his childhood years he was an adorable, active baby who climbed out of his crib early and got into everything.

John did well in school and was always the life of every party. But in college, a series of stressful events lead him to experiment with drugs, particularly opiate pain relievers like Percocet and Oxycontin.

Liz was shocked when she realized her little boy was addicted to drugs. “I spent every waking minute getting him help,” she says. “He and I had a close relationship. He was smart and had his whole life ahead of him and I couldn’t believe this was happening to us. I felt scared and alone.”

Samantha Korb, NC Harm Reduction Coalition

If someone had asked me what the number one cause of accidental death was in the United States, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say car accidents were the culprit. When we hear the word ‘accident’, it isn’t much of a stretch to think only of car accidents, hence the name. But a missing piece of the puzzle is often cast aside. That incredibly growing puzzle piece is death caused by overdose, which now holds the not so coveted crown of the number one cause of accidental death in the United States.

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue was recently asked to comment on where she stood regarding Titan America’s ongoing efforts to secure an air permit for what would be the nation’s 4th largest cement plant in Castle Hayne, a small community just outside of Wilmington, NC. She reportedly said, “I am going to wait for the science to determine what will happen.”

Precisely what piece of science the Governor is waiting on is anyone’s guess. If she’s waiting to see how Titan’s emissions (fine particulate matter like PM2.5, sulfur dioxide and mercury) are going to affect sensitive populations in our county, she’ll have to wait decades because that sort of science isn’t included in North Carolina’s air permit review.

Cross-posted from an article by Sue Sturgis on Facing South.

Standing out among the more than 250 people who testified at the recent Environmental Protection Agency hearing on proposed coal ash regulations in Charlotte, N.C. was one speaker with an especially distinguished background: Charles Steele Jr. (in photo at right), the first African-American member of the Tuscaloosa City Council and a former Democratic state senator from Alabama who went on to lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the legendary civil rights organization whose first president was Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Steele left SCLC last year and now runs a consulting firm in Atlanta.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/28/divorce.marriage.health/index.html

According to the above article, "a study was completed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people. They also have 23 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble climbing stairs or walking a block."

Fascinating column in the Times today on human sleep patterns, especially in the case of teenagers.

Yes, people still get TB. In fact, we currently have about 20 cases of active TB in Durham. MMWR this week is all about TB. It's got a lot of words, but if you scroll down, there are tables and graphs.