CDPH in the News
Court Orders Release of Secretive California Cell-Phone Danger Docs
from Sputnik International
A California judge has ordered the state of California to make public the results of an investigation into the risks of cellphone use. The papers are believed to contain information about radiation warnings by the state’s Environmental Health Investigations branch. Joel Moskowitz PhD, a director at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health requested the findings, which the state refused to provide. Determined, the director filed a lawsuit under the California Public Records Act. On Friday, a Superior Court judge ruled that the documents are public record, and therefore the public has a right to see them. He asserted that there is significant public interest in learning the risks, as well as how to counter them.
Why people with Lyme Disease feel there isn’t enough awareness
from ABC 10
On Friday, the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee Meeting (LDAC) held a presentation in Sacramento, along with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). Gregory Hacker, a biologist with the CDPH, gave an update on ticks in the Folsom Lake area.
Dorothy Kupcha Leland was there to hear the results of Hacker’s study. She’s the author of ‘When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide.’ It’s everything she wishes she had known a decade ago, when her now 25-year-old daughter was first diagnosed. Leland said the presentation confirmed what she had always assumed, that there are far more Lyme-infected ticks in Northern California than people think. Her daughter was first diagnosed at just 14-years-old. Lyme Disease affects people of all ages, but are common in children and older adults. Those who spend time outdoors often are more exposed. Many experts, including Leland, say the number of cases are often underreported because the disease is often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. Leland’s daughter was diagnosed within 9 months of her first symptoms, but she adds they were lucky. Many people go year’s without being diagnosed.
86 people diagnosed with Zika in San Diego
from The CW6
Since 2015, 86 people in the San Diego region have been diagnosed with the Zika virus, while roughly the same number are awaiting test results, according to statistics kept by county health officials. All but three were acquired while traveling, 31 cases to Mexico; nine to Nicaragua, according to the county of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency. The California Department of Public Health reported 524 Zika infections statewide as of March 17. Of those, 99 involve pregnant women, and five babies have been born with Zika-related birth defects.
Rare E. Coli Outbreak Linked To Soy-Based Nut Butter; Kids Mostly Affected
from CBS SFBayArea
An outbreak of a rare E. coli strain that may stem from a soy-based nut butter has made a dozen people ill across the United States, including four people in California, according to state health officials. “All four California patients reported eating I.M. Healthy brand Creamy SoyNut Butter in the week before becoming ill,” the California Department of Public Health announced in a statement Friday. The CDPH is now warning consumers not to eat I.M. Healthy brand SoyNut Butter or granola coated with SoyNut Butter due to a possible E. coli contamination.
Statewide survey shows rising popularity of e-cigarettes
from Moorpark Acorn
Stores in Ventura County sold fewer tobacco products overall and offered more fruits and vegetables last year than they had three years before. But sales of e-cigarettes have soared, a health survey released this month showed. California Department of Public Health’s 2016 Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community survey, which came out March 8, looked at the percentage of stores around the state that sold tobacco, alcohol, fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk and sugary soft drinks. Created by the health department’s tobacco control program, the survey of retailers was first conducted in 2013, so the new set of statistics gathered in the 2016 survey provides a view of how far retailers have come in offering healthier products and curtailing tobacco sales.
High lead poisoning rates found in California communities
from Cal Coast News
Though not typically associated with California communities, childhood lead poisoning is prevalent in several areas of the state, particularly Fresno County. At least 29 California communities have childhood lead poisoning rate that are at least as high as in Flint, Michigan, which recently came under the national spotlight because of its water crisis. According to blood testing data obtained from the California Department of Public Health, there is one zip code in Central Fresno where 13.6 percent of blood tests on children under six years old returned high for lead.
Fresno County has a total of nine zip codes in which high lead levels among children are at least as common as in Flint, according to the state data. High poverty rates and issues with substandard housing – both of which are problems in Fresno – are risk factors for lead exposure.