Author: msholinb

CDPH in the News

LA residents affected by pollution from shuttered battery plant say slow cleanup adds insult to injury

from Free Speech Radio News

ttorneys with the NAACP filed a federal class action lawsuit last week on behalf of residents of Flint, Michigan affected by lead contaminated water. While national attention has been focused on the Flint crisis since late last year, another environmental disaster in Los Angeles has been unfolding for much longer – nine decades in fact – and most Americans aren’t aware of it. For years, a battery recycling plant most recently managed by Exide Technologies leached lead and other carcinogens into the soil, air and water in surrounding residential neighborhoods. Residents say the company’s shutdown took too long and that cleanup efforts are also sluggish.
The interim director of public health for LA County has said that lead contamination could affect up to 10,000 homes within a 1.75-mile radius of the shuttered Exide plant. And a recent analysis by the California Department of Public Health found slightly elevated levels of lead in children living within two miles of Exide, but it didn’t determine what the source was. It was confirmation of what many residents feared: that they’re not safe, and the government still doesn’t know how unsafe they are.

Researchers slowly homing in on risk of Zika birth defect

from Washington Post

As the international epidemic of Zika virus disease has unfolded and led to devastating birth defects for at least 1,300 children in eight countries, an agonizing question has persisted: What is the chance that an infected pregnant woman will have a baby with these defects?
Researchers don’t yet have a complete answer, but they are slowly homing in on one. The largest study to ever look at the question says the risk of one especially severe type of birth defect is “substantial” – in the range of 1 percent to 14 percent. It also reinforces the understanding that women infected in the early stages of pregnancy face the greatest risk. “These numbers are probably only the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Neil Silverman, a UCLA professor of obstetrics who has been advising the California Department of Public Health on Zika issues.

Napa LGBTQ program gets state grant to expand services Upvalley

from Napa Valley Register

Napa’s LGBTQ Connection has been awarded grants totaling $1 million from the California Department of Public Health to expand mental health-related services to Upvalley, Fairfield and Sonoma Valley over the next five years. “It’s very exciting,” said Ian Stanley, LGBTQ Connection program director. “What was once a little program in Napa is now going to be a model for other communities in the state and beyond.” This grant is “an amazing gift to the valley,” said Greg Miraglia, a dean at Napa Valley College and the national program manager for Stop the Hate, an educational initiative that provides training on how to create programs to support LGBTQ students.
In total, the California Department of Public Health will award $60 million to 41 contractors and grantees throughout the state. The goal is to reduce mental health disparities across African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander, Latino, LGBTQ and Native American communities.

State employees offered bikes to rent as option for downtown trips

from Sacramento Bee

State employees needing transportation for business purposes within the city of Sacramento can now request a car or a bicycle. Several departments have their own bike-sharing programs for employees, most funded through grants, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Department of General Services. Based on the positive response to those programs, he said, General Services decided to make bicycles available to employees of any department through the State Garage on 10th Street in downtown Sacramento. The State Employee BikeShare Program launched Tuesday.
Ferguson said the state purchased 12 bicycles, costing less than $200 each, which employees may rent for business purposes. “It’s an opportunity to get people out of their cars and get them on bikes,” Ferguson said. Employees can reserve bicycles online just as they do state cars, and the bicycles will be maintained by staff members at the state garage. The California Department of Public Health recently celebrated the two-year anniversary of its BikeShare program. The bicycles are available to department employees to travel to downtown meetings, run errands or exercise during lunch breaks.

State Investigators Fault Sutter Hospice In Overmedication Of Prominent Calif. Health Care Leader

from California Healthline

The California Department of Public Health has issued a report that found Sutter VNA & Hospice provided Jerome Lackner’s caregivers with excessive amounts of morphine that may have contributed to his death. A state investigation into the death of Jerome Lackner, an iconoclastic California health care leader who served as a physician for Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr., has found that Sutter VNA & Hospice provided his caregivers with excessive amounts of morphine that, if administered, may have contributed to his death or killed him. The report by California Department of Public Health investigators faults the Sutter hospice for continuing to provide morphine to Lackner’s lay caregivers, despite nurses’ concerns that he was being overmedicated. It notes that during one nine-hour period, he was given morphine at almost double the maximum dosage prescribed.

CDPH in the News

California health department warns against illegally made cheese

from KUTV

“Illegal Cheese Can Make You Sick!” warns a press release from The California Department of Public Health, cautioning consumers against eating illegally made soft cheeses. In the release, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith, advised people against consuming “…illegally manufactured Mexican-style soft cheeses, often sold by street vendors.”

“These cheeses are often made with raw, unpasteurized milk and under unsanitary conditions,” Smith warned, describing how they have witnessed “…a dramatic increase in the number of reported Salmonella cases, particularly in the Hispanic community.”

Health alert issued over counterfeit pills

from Turlock Journal

Health officials and law enforcement are warning the public of a rash of overdose deaths from a counterfeit painkiller that is actually a powerful opiate. The overdoses have all been linked to pills sold on the street that are designed to look like hydrocodone, but are actually synthetic fentanyl, which is a narcotic more powerful than morphine.

In a two week time span there were 10 overdose deaths in Sacramento County from the narcotic. Other overdoses have been reported in other California counties as well, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Razor clam fishery closed

from Times Standard

The California Fish and Game Commission closed the razor clam fishery in Humboldt and Del Norte counties on Monday after an emergency meeting. Following the latest batch of test results last week, Lauren Zeise, acting director of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, cited an “emergency situation” after toxicity levels of clams came in over five times the allowable limit.

According to the commission’s official emergency meeting report, “Ingesting razor clams with high levels of domoic acid is a matter upon which urgent action is necessary to avoid severely impairing public health and safety.” Concerns about razor clam toxicity levels have been present since last summer, but recent test results from the California Department of Public Health showed elevated levels. The current federal action level for domoic acid in clams is 20 parts per million. The CDPH test results show that all but one of the 18 samples were over this limit, with one-third of the samples topping out above 100 ppm.

Rodents carrying potentially fatal hantavirus found in Inland region

from Press Enterprise

Riverside County’s director of disease control on Tuesday urged caution around certain rodent species after 10 mice carrying the potentially deadly hantavirus were found in San Timoteo Canyon near Beaumont. The California Department of Public Health confirmed the animals, which lived in the Norton Younglove Preserve near Beaumont, tested positive for the disease after being live-trapped in March with 14 other rodents.

The virus was found in deer mice, harvest mice and the California or parasitic mouse. Hantavirus is common in the Inland region, said Dottie Merki, Riverside County’s environmental health program chief.

Big increase in suicides for middle-aged women

from San Diego Union Tribune

In the past 15 years, the national suicide rate has increased 24 percent, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. In 1999, the national age-adjusted suicide rate was 10.5 per 100,000 people, and in 2015, that number increased to 13 per 100,000. The report noted that increase picked up pace after 2006.

The trends are similar in California, although the data is kept differently. In 1999, there were 9.1 suicides per 100,000 people, and that population-based rate increased to 10.4 in 2013, the latest data kept by the California Department of Public Health.

Mass. firefighters seek ban on flame retardants

from Boston Globe

Amid growing concern that flame retardants are responsible for elevated cancer rates in firefighters, Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing legislation that would go further than any other state’s in banning the use of chemicals meant to slow the spread of fires.

Fire officials and environmental advocates, who have joined forces to support the restrictions, contend that at least 10 chemicals used in flame retardants endanger firefighters, while doing little to stop fires. They support two bills that would prohibit manufacturers and retailers from using the chemicals in children’s products and upholstered furniture and authorize state environmental officials to ban other retardants they designate as health risks. Saunders, director of Clean Water Action in Massachusetts, pointed to an ongoing study by the California Department of Public Health that has found that firefighters who have been on the job for more than a year have been exposed to substantially higher levels of chemicals in flame retardants than civilians.

CDPH in the News

Three more hospitals hit with ransomware attacks

from Network World

Two southern California hospitals were hit with cyberattacks on Friday, according to Healthcare Finance. The affected hospitals were Chino Valley Medical Center and Desert Valley Hospital, which are part of the national hospital chain Prime Healthcare Services. The malware attack “disrupted servers” and resulted in “some IT systems” being shut down so the infection wouldn’t spread.
Prime Healthcare spokesman Fred Ortega said the FBI had been contacted, but refused to say if the malware was ransomware or what ransom was being demanded. Ortega added, “The concern now is to let law enforcement do their thing and find the culprit.” Besides the FBI, “data security experts and the California Department of Public Health” are involved in the case.

Residents protest aerial spraying as weapon against mosquitoes

from Orange County Register

Emotions bubbled up Monday night at a town hall meeting on the battle against mosquitoes, with handfuls of parents, many trailing children and carrying protest signs, voicing their opposition to aerial spraying of pesticides to combat the potentially deadly West Nile virus. … The California Department of Public Health says, “While the pesticides used for mosquito control can cause adverse health effects under certain circumstances … the available data suggest that they are relatively safe when applied by (ultra low volume) spraying according to label instructions.”

Heart condition triggering investigation can come without warning

from Ventura County Star

As public health officials investigate a potentially fatal heart condition emerging in a cluster in Ventura County, cardiologists say the disease can be linked to a litany of causes including many viruses. Late Wednesday, Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin said his office was investigating at least nine cases of cardiomyopathy, most emerging in February. At least five cases occurred in the Oxnard area, triggering concern there could be common causes. There has been one confirmed death. Levin declined to offer details, citing patient privacy. In its investigation, the county is working with the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Silicon Valley Daycares Still Have Big Vaccination Problems

from wired.com

EVERY YEAR, THE California Department of Public Health collects statistics on vaccination rates at licensed daycare facilities and preschools. In 2015, WIRED reported that, based on the immunization rates at daycares associated with some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies, employees-presumably science-minded and futurist in their thinking, were nevertheless incompletely vaccinating their children.
The 2016 data just came out, and, well, we have good news and bad news. Some of the numbers have come up, but some workers at tech companies still aren’t vaccinating their children to the extent recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control. That’s bad. It leaves both the kids and their toddler classmates vulnerable to infectious pathogens.

Humboldt Bay to Turn Red in Name of Science

from North Coast Journal

Some water testing next week may leave those in and around Humboldt Bay seeing red.
The California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that they will begin a series of water tests March 14 that will include dumping a non-toxic, fluorescent red dye – Rhodamine WT – into the bay to help track how wastewater flows and dilutes in Humboldt Bay. The test – which comes as a part of the state’s evaluation of Arcata’s proposal to move the outflow of treated sewage from its wastewater treatment plant to a new location within the bay – seeks to make sure the bay’s commercial shellfish industry is protected from potential sources of contamination.
“The goal here is the safety of people who like to eat commercially harvested shellfish, such as oysters, clams and mussels,” said California Department of Public Health Director Karen Smith in a press release. “While this may cause the bay to look unusual, the water should return to its normal color within days. The dye is commonly used for these studies and has an excellent safety record.”

CDPH in the News

NORML Endorses California Adult Use Of Marijuana (AUMA) Act

from The Weed Blog

Today, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest and largest marijuana law reform organization, announced that its Board of Directors has formally voted to endorse the California ballot measure known as the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act. NORML joins Drug Policy Alliance, Marijuana Policy Project, California Cannabis Industry Association, California Medical Association and California NAACP, among others, in support of AUMA.
The official proponents of the measure are:
Dr. Donald O. Lyman, MD, award-winning physician, member of the California Medical Association and former Chief of the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Control at the California Department of Public Health and
Michael Sutton, longtime conservationist and environmental attorney, former President of the California Fish and Game Commission and former Vice President of National Audubon Society

New Report Links Pesticides Used in Combination Near Schools to Increased Cancer Risk

from IndyBay

A new report by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has shown an increase in cancer risk from fumigant pesticides frequently used in combination near schools, including those in the Pajaro and Salinas Valleys. In response to the report’s findings, a coalition of parents, health professionals, teachers, farmworker advocates and labor unions has urged state policymakers to create stronger protections for schoolchildren across the state. Fumigant pesticides are difficult-to-control, highly volatile gasses injected into the soil to control pests around crops like strawberries, grapes, and orchard and root crops. They can persist in the air for days.
Over 25 million pounds of three fumigants – chloropicrin, metam salts, and Telone (1,3-dichloropropene) – were applied in California in the last year on record (2013). According to the California Department of Public Health, they are also three of the four most widely used pesticides near California schools. And 4.9 million pounds were applied in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties combined.

CDC to Launch Investigations into Palo Alto Suicides as an Urgent Public Health Problem

from Star Mine News

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will begin probing this week the enigma of the high incidence of youth suicide happening in the Palo Alto area as this has become an urgent public health problem.
The CDC investigation, or Epi-Aid, is in response to the request of the California Department of Public Health to the federal agency to address the number of suicides among youths that has risen since 2009, five times more than the national level.

Landmark Decision Opens First Needle Exchange in Conservative Orange County

from Huffington Post

Last Thursday, the California Department of Public Health approved the first ever needle exchange in Orange County – a major victory for public health and safety. Orange County has long opposed needle exchanges, despite decades of evidence demonstrating that these programs save lives and prevent the spread of infectious disease. However, due to the hard work of a team of community members and medical students, the Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP) will open on February 20.

AHF: CDC Confirms Porn Actor Infected with HIV on Set in 2014

from BusinessWire

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a Press Teleconference TODAY, Thursday, February 11th at 1:30pm Pacific Time to discuss breaking news today that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed an on-set transmission of HIV in the adult film industry from performer to performer in late 2014. In a comprehensive analysis published earlier today in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC confirms details of a 2014 California Department of Public Health (CDPH) investigation confirming an on-set HIV transmission in the adult film industry that occurred in late 2014.

About 13 percent of O.C. hospital workers skipped flu shot, state says

from Orange County Register

Public health officials repeatedly say the best protection against the flu is the flu vaccine. That advice is especially important for caregivers who work in hospitals and could pass the bug on to patients, who could face deadly complications from contracting a virus.
But not every health care worker heeds that advice. Figures released this week by the California Department of Public Health show that vaccination rates for the flu among employees varied greatly last flu season at Orange County hospitals, from 36.2 percent at Kindred Hospital Westminster to 98.6 percent at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Countywide, the rate was 86.6 percent.