Public Health Library
CDPH In The News April, 2018
CDPH in the News
Battery Blood: How California Health Agencies Failed Exide Workers
from Capital & Main
For nearly a century a hulking industrial plant near downtown Los Angeles melted down car batteries to reclaim their lead. The facility, most recently owned by Exide Technologies, was shut down in 2015 in a deal the company made with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution for polluting nearby residential communities. Neighborhood activists have criticized California’s Department of Toxic Substances, which allowed Exide to continue operating for years with a temporary permit, despite evidence it was a major polluter. But a year-long investigation by Capital & Main and the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism has found that two other agencies, the California Department of Public Health and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, failed to take action during a simmering public health crisis involving hundreds of lead-poisoned workers at the plant.
This Video Shows What It’s Really Like When a Tick Latches Onto Your Skin
from Cosmopolitan
One of the many unsolved mysteries of nature is this: why can’t you just flick a tick when it grabs onto your skin? If you’ve ever wondered this, here’s your chance to learn a little somethin’ somethin’.
Apparently, a tick’s mouth is designed to be a bunch of little hooks that work together to ensure it can stay latched onto your skin for DAYS at a time. “Ticks have a lovely, evolved mouth part for doing exactly what they need to do, which is extended feeding,” supervising public health biologist at the California Department of Public Health in Richmond Kerry Padgett told NPR. “They’re not like a mosquito that can just put their mouth parts in and out nicely, like a hypodermic needle.”
Gambling prevention group seeks to expand services in SF’s Chinese community
from SF Examiner
When Michael Liao began an internship focused on gambling prevention with The City’s NICOS Chinese Health Coalition in 2005, he was unaware that some 6,500 miles away, his stepfather was struggling with a crippling gambling addiction in his home country of Taiwan.
“It’s ironic because I was learning about the issue and [working] to prevent it from happening to other families, not knowing that there was an issue in my family,” said Liao, now the director of programs at NICOS, a public-private community partnership of more than 30 organizations working to enhance the health and well-being of San Francisco’s Chinese community.
“The younger you start, the more likely and severe addiction is later on,” said Liao.
Aside from creating financial hardships for families in San Francisco’s Chinese community, gambling addiction has contributed to domestic violence and higher rates of divorce. Woo estimates that up to 50 percent of Chinese households exposed to gambling addiction have also experienced domestic violence.
The Office of Problem Gambling, a division of the California Department of Public Health, estimates that gambling affects about 3.7 percent of the states’ populations, or just over one million individuals.
ADA advances national policy to reduce opioid dependency
from California Dental Association
The ADA has adopted a new policy to combat the opioid epidemic, calling it the potential first of its kind by a major health professional organization to support mandates on opioid prescription limits and continuing education.
The major studies cited today say dentists write 11 to 12 percent of immediate-release prescription opioids annually in the U.S. Perhaps more critically, oral surgeons write the majority of opioid prescriptions to patients who are in a particularly vulnerable age range: the 10- to 19-year-olds. Opioid overdoses account for more than 1,900 deaths in California in 2016, according to California Department of Public Health data. The ADA cites 42,000 opioid-related deaths nationwide in 2016 — the highest of any year on record — with 40 percent of those involving a prescription pain reliever.
USGS maps changes to beach, seafloor after Montecito Mudslides
from VC Reporter
Driving northbound on the 101 Freeway from Ventura is a far different experience now than it was prior to Jan. 9, when a storm rolled through, mud slid from the hillsides, and 21 lives were lost. The days following the event forced closure of the freeway, and images of the path of destruction that tore through Montecito and parts of Santa Barbara County made international headlines. The damage can still be seen as residents continue working to return to normal.
Now, the U.S. Geological Survey is mapping changes to the beach and seafloor adjacent to the Montecito mudslides, including in their survey an area that stretches from Goleta to the beach at Mandalay Bay in Oxnard, in an effort to better understand long-term coastal changes. With these data, both Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties can better plan for future coastal living. These data are provided to county planning divisions, who use them to determine coastal planning for the long term. Climate change models show that California may see up to a 66-inch rise in sea level during this century, according to a report released by the California Department of Public Health in 2017.
Gala Pharmaceutical to Launch Its First State-Of-The-Art Cannabis Testing Laboratories
from Globe Newswire
Gala Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OTCBB:GLPH), an emerging cannabis cloning and breeding company, today announced that it expects to build its first state-of-the-art testing laboratory that will fulfill the new ISO requirements set by the City of Long Beach and the State of California in accordance with the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act. The Act will require the California Department of Public Health to enforce its provisions related to the manufacturing and testing of medical cannabis across the State.
Richmond Instruction: Health Statistics and Data Resources HANDS-ON class
Wednesday, April 11, 2018, 10-11:30am
Room P-1246
850 Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond, CA
————————-
RSVP by Tuesday, April 10th to Michael Sholinbeck at msholinb@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.
Please obtain your supervisor’s approval before you RSVP.
————————-
NON-BUILDING P OCCUPANTS: Please make sure to register so your name will be on the class participant list given to the Building P Security Desk for entry into Building P.
PLEASE NOTE: This class is limited to 16 participants.
Supervisors: Please encourage your staff to attend if appropriate.
Having difficulty finding the health statistics or data that you need?
Do you want to know where to look for the answers for the following questions?
• How many people in Sacramento County have been immunized with the flu shot?
• How many children live in poverty by census tract or ZIP code in any US location?
• How do I find health status reports for California counties?
• How can I get raw data from a national survey that describes nutritional and behavioral factors associated with morbidity and mortality?
Do you want to be able to download and save health data?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then please come to the Sheldon Margen Public Health Library’s Health Statistics and Data Resources Hands-On class! This class is HANDS-ON in a computer lab, so you can follow along and explore the websites we visit in class.
Some of the topics that will be covered:
1. Vital Statistics
2. Incidence and Prevalence Statistics
3. National Surveys
4. Mapping Applications & GIS Data
5. California and Local Statistics
Class Objective:
After this session, you will be able to more quickly and easily locate quality health-related statistics and datasets. You will also be able to identify
some of the issues associated with the collection of health statistics.
These training sessions are free to CDPH staff. A certificate of completion will be available for those who attend the class.
A schedule of other upcoming training sessions is available online here.
Sacramento Instruction: EndNote Basics Hands-On class
Wednesday, April 25, 10:30am-12:00pm
Computer Training Room 72.169
1500 Capitol Ave, Sacramento
————————-
RSVP by Tuesday, April 24th to Michael Sholinbeck at msholinb@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.
Please obtain your supervisor’s approval before you RSVP.
————————-
PLEASE NOTE: This class is limited to 12 participants. A few seats may be available on the day of the class so if you don’t register in advance, you can just show up to see if there is availability.
Supervisors: Please encourage your staff to attend if appropriate.
* Interested in a program that lets you easily create a customizable database of citations?
* Do you already have the EndNote program but are not sure what it can do for you?
* Do you write journal articles or reports and need to cite literature you’ve read or referenced?
* Are you already using EndNote and have some burning questions?
* Are you interested in a hands-on session so you can learn and practice using EndNote?
If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then please come to the Sheldon Margen Public Health Library’s EndNote X8 Basics Hands-On class!
Topics covered will include:
1. Some new features in EndNote X8
2. How to populate your EndNote database with citations from PubMed and elsewhere
3. EndNote X8 features: display, search, groups, etc.
4. How to use “Cite While You Write” with Microsoft Word
5. How to get help
Class Objective:
Learn how to save time and work more efficiently:
– Save article and other citations in a customizable database
– Add PDF files to the references in your database
– Create groups to organize references by topic, project, etc.
– Add citations to a Word document, and automatically format the bibliography and notes in any of thousands of styles
This class is intended for CDPH staff who wish to gain a basic understanding of the EndNote X8 software program and how to use its features. Users of older
versions of EndNote are welcome to attend. The EndNote X8 software will not be distributed at this class. If you need EndNote for your work, the instructor can tell you how to obtain a licensed copy from CDPH.
These training sessions are free to CDPH staff. A certificate of completion will be available for those who attend the class.
A schedule of other upcoming training sessions is available online here.
Professional Development: Organizational Behaviour
Have you ever wanted to learn more about about the effects of organizational structures on the behaviour of employees? This free self-paced course, part of the Business Fundamentals MicroMasters program, will teach you to think about the organization as a whole and to examine how it behaves.
What you’ll learn
* Describe and apply key organizational behaviour concepts
* Identify sources of power, motivation, and commitment in an organizational setting
* Improve teamwork skills by understanding team dynamics
* Review and recommend adjustments to organization structures, design and culture
Begins: April 9
Course length: 6-7 weeks
Time involved: 3-5 hours/week
Price: Free, with a Verified Certificate available for $150
Institution: University of British Columbia
Instructor: Perry Atwal, UBC Sauder School of Business
Beyond the SEA: Partnering to Transform the Care Environment for Transgender and Gender-Expansive Patients
Want to learn about some evidence-based resources that inform health professionals on the unique medical needs of transgender patients? Wish to help health professionals understand the social determinants of health that impact transgender and gender-expansive individuals? Then this webinar may be of interest to you!
During this presentation, you will review the vocabulary around gender identity and expression, provide an overview of the information needs of both health professionals and patients, and highlight available online resources and other training opportunities that can be shared with health professionals.
Date: April 5, 2018
Time: 11:00am-noon PT
cost: Free
Audience: Health professionals, health science librarians, and other health focused groups
Presenter: Dr. Scott Nass. President-Elect, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality. Pronouns: He/Him/His
Host: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Southeastern/Atlantic Regional Medical Library (NNLM SEA)
Beryllium Health Effects on Workers: A COEH webinar
This webinar will review recommendations for practitioners regarding the diagnosis and management of beryllium sensitivity and chronic beryllium disease published in an official American Thoracic Society (ATS) statement in 2014. The ATS statement was prepared with the support and input of both NIOSH and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). It will also discuss federal OSHA’s new Final Rule to Protect Workers from Beryllium Exposure.
Learning Objectives:
* Describe how to make the diagnosis of beryllium sensitization
* Describe how to make the diagnosis of chronic beryllium disease
* Identify key features of the new OSHA beryllium standard
When: Wednesday, April 4
Time: 10:30-11:30am
Cost: Free! or $30 for CE credit. CE credit requires additional registration to complete payment and an evaluation after viewing the webinar
Speaker: Dr. John Balmes of UCSF and UCB. Dr. Balmes’ laboratory, the Human Exposure Laboratory (HEL), has been studying the respiratory health effects of various air pollutants for the past 27 years.
You’ll find more information and registration details on the COEH website.
New Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology (DART) Subject Filter
NLM PubMed provides search filters to aid in searching selected topics.Subject filters restrict retrieval to specific subjects. A new subject filter strategy
was recently added. The Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology (DART) subject filter was created to facilitate searching for subjects in the area of teratology and other aspects of developmental and reproductive toxicology.
This filter can also be used in a search as . For example, if you wanted to find articles on the developmental and reproductive toxicological effects of mercury, you might try a search like:
mercury AND dart[sb]
Found under the Subjects tag on the PubMed Special Queries page, you can scroll down to the name and simply click on it to run the search in PubMed. Once here, you’ll find this and other special pre-canned PubMed queries.
Want to see what the underlying search strategy looks like? You can view it online here.
When using these, you will want to review any of these search strategies that you may use to make sure they cover everything you want them to cover.
New Books!
Here are some new titles available online from the National Academies Press of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
3. Community-Based Health Literacy Interventions: Proceedings of a Workshop (2018).
4. Aging and Disability: Beyond Stereotypes to Inclusion: Proceedings of a Workshop (2018).
Please note that these books are only a small selection of what is newly available. If you are interested in checking out any book(s), submit a request using our online form and we will mail the book(s) to you.
You may also log into your web portal account to request book(s).
If you do not currently possess a UC Berkeley library card, you will need to apply for one before we can check out a book to you.
CDPH In The News March, 2018
CDPH in the News
Jury awards family $12.39M in punitive damages in case of doctor who left before finishing operation
from ABC30.com
A jury has awarded a family another $12.39-million in punitive damages in case of Fresno doctor who walked out before the operation was complete. A jury awarded the family $55.6 million in general damages Monday. Silvino Perez went into Community Regional Medical Center in Downtown Fresno needing heart surgery in 2012 and he never really came out.
Six years later, he hasn’t woken up.
Investigators say the surgeon, Dr. Pervaiz Chaudhry, left before finishing the operation by closing the 70-year-old’s chest. Months later, the California Department of Public Health fined the hospital $175,000 without naming the patient. CRMC reached a settlement with Perez’s family before this trial, but still faces at least five more lawsuits related to Dr. Chaudhry’s performance and one more from the whistleblower.
Second lawsuit against San Francisco fertility center after tank malfunction
from Mercury News
A second lawsuit has been filed against a San Francisco fertility center by a Sacramento couple that says their frozen embryos were destroyed by a rare tank malfunction, dashing their hopes of starting a family. Megan and Jonathan Bauer’s lawsuit says they were planning to transfer one of their eight embryos stored at Pacific Fertility Center next month — and were shocked to be told that something went wrong.
“Their dreams of future children were irrevocably destroyed,” said attorney Adam Wolf of the firm Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane, which filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Francisco Division. “They entrusted their eggs and embryos after exhausting other avenues to have children.” The law firm said it is also working with regulators and legislators to create tougher oversight of the lightly-regulated field.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires testing to prevent the spread of infectious disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control tracks the success of treatments. California’s Department of Public Health requires that clinics submit policies to obtain a license.
California nursing home compare website needs to go, advocates say
from McKnight’s Long Term care News
A new website in the state of California is supposed to make it easier for residents to compare nursing homes. But industry advocates say it’s doing more harm than good and should be taken down immediately, California Healthline reports. The site in question is Cal Health Find, launched by the state’s Department of Public Health earlier this year, as a way to compare nursing homes and other care facilities. State activists, however, are calling the effort “incomplete, inaccurate and a huge step in the wrong direction.”
“The department has acknowledged and identified the source of the problem [with complaint counts] and has already implemented a correction plan,” Corey Egel, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, told Healthline in a written statement. “The department believes Cal Health Find improves the user experience. … We find no reason to remove the site while we correct errors.”
Eureka City Ordinance set to lower syringe litter
from KIEM TV
One of the major issues affecting our community is the amount of syringes spread across private and public property. Now a new Eureka City Ordinance aims to regulate the problem at the source. There are more syringes on the ground then there are people to pick them up, but that doesn’t stop police and volunteers from trying. People who inject drugs continue to be at risk for HIV and hepatitis C infection. The California Department of Public Health has lowered the number at risk by implementing the syringe exchange program in most medical facilities, but as a result more syringes are being left behind.
City Manager Greg Sparks said that treatment for everyone in need is the real source of change, but until then, the draft ordinance provides a number of criteria including quarterly reporting, clean-ups, and keeping syringes away from schools. The new ordinance will be addressed at the next council meeting Tuesday the 6th it begins at six in eureka city hall’s council chambers.
At Some California Hospitals, Fewer Than Half Of Workers Get The Flu Shot
from Kaiser Health News
How well are doctors, nurses and other workers at your local hospital vaccinated against the flu? That depends on the hospital.
According to data from the California Department of Public Health, flu vaccination rates among health care staffers at the state’s acute care hospitals range from a low of 37 percent to 100 percent. Overall, flu vaccination rates among hospital workers climbed significantly in the past several years — from an average of 63 percent during the 2010-11 influenza season to 83 percent during the 2016-17 season, according to the California Department of Public Health.
California considers using budget surplus to aid homeless
from Santa Cruz Sentinal
Responding to pleas from 11 big-city mayors grappling with the alarming rise of homelessness, California lawmakers on Wednesday announced two proposals that would devote over half of the state’s $6.1 billion budget surplus to the crisis.
One longtime advocate for the homeless said the crisis is as severe as he has ever seen it. “It’s obviously causing individuals a lot of pain,” said Louis Chicoine, CEO of the Alameda County-based Abode Services, “but it’s also affecting the quality of life in the Bay Area for everyone else.” San Diego was struck by a deadly Hepatitis A outbreak in its homeless encampments last fall that killed 20 people, according to the California Department of Public Health. Los Angeles, Monterey and Santa Cruz also have had cases, including one death in Santa Cruz.
Richmond Instruction: Environmental Health Resources class
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 10-11am
Room C-136
850 Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond, CA
————————-
RSVP by Tuesday, March 13th to Michael Sholinbeck at msholinb@library.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-2510.
Please obtain your supervisor’s approval before you RSVP.
————————-
Supervisors: Please encourage your staff to attend if appropriate.
* Does your work at CDPH require you to access environmental health information, data, or other resources?
* Are you interested in learning about tools to help you find everything from environmental legislation, to continuing education sources, to environmental screening methods?
* Interested in environmental health topics like environmental justice, climate change, or nanotechnology?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then please come to the Sheldon Margen Public Health Library’s Environmental Health Resources class!
Topics covered will include:
1. Tools for data visualization, continuing education, site assessment, and more
2. Information on selected topics in environmental health
3. Finding environmental health literature
4. Environmental health data sources
Class Objective:
To introduce CDPH staff to quality environmental health tools and resources that are freely available online. Use of these resources will assist with finding environmental health data, literature, and more; and in developing evidence-based environmental health programs.
These training sessions are free to CDPH staff. A certificate of completion will be available for those who attend the class.
A schedule of other upcoming training sessions is available online for you.