Leaded aviation fuel a threat to public health, children
Filed under: Children, Health data, Hot Health Headline, Public health, Public records
KUOW’s John Ryan used federal data and a few key sources to delve deep into issues surrounding one of the few remaining sources of airborne lead in the United States, a leaded aviation fuel known as “avgas.” In the process, he reveals damage that even low levels of lead exposure could be doing to children.
Avgas accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation’s liquid fuel use. Yet enough piston–engine planes fly enough miles on avgas to belch out half of all the lead going into the nation’s air.
Lead paint in old buildings remains a bigger threat, but even low levels of childhood exposure, one source tells Ryan, can manifest itself in “Decreases in IQ, changes in test scores, changes in attention, hearing threshold, all sorts of things like that.”
Earlier this month (January), an expert panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut in half the levels of lead in children that should alarm parents or doctors. Researchers have yet to find any level of lead exposure that doesn’t cause harm.
Michael Kosnett, a medical toxicologist at the University of Colorado, told Ryan, “In any one child, it’s not something that’s going to necessarily cause them to display any kind of signs and symptoms. But if you can lower the lead exposure of a population of children, you’re going to give that population more of an opportunity to have gifted children and to have children who have higher IQs, and that’s certainly a desirable public health goal.”
Marie Lynn Miranda, an environmental health scientist and a dean at the University of Michigan, points out that “Living close to an airport can increase your blood lead level anywhere from 2 to 4 percent,” acknowledging that is a small amount but that evidence indicates even small amounts of lead are bad. She also notes that “lead is especially a problem for the low–income families that are most likely to live near airports.”
Pilots who still use avgas say their businesses would be dead in the water if they couldn’t get the leaded fuel, an argument Ryan contrasts with quotes from a Europe-based lead-free avgas producer, who sells it for 40 cents less a gallon, but hasn’t been able to break into the U.S. market “Because no one thinks that there will be demand for an unleaded–grade aviation gasoline.”
The federal database Ryan used, The National Emissions Inventory, is posted online by the EPA.
Reporter recounts fellowship visit to CDC
Filed under: Government, Health journalism, Health policy
This is a guest post from Winnie Yu, a freelance journalist based in Voorheesville, N.Y. She was among this year’s class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows who spent last week studying public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fellows met with Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H., assistant surgeon general and director of the CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. (Photo: Len Bruzzese/AHCJ)
Life can get lonely when you work as a freelance writer. So it was a real thrill for me last week when I got the chance to attend the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowship and listen to experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discuss the most pressing health issues of our day.
Ten journalists from around the country came to Atlanta to hear presentations on topics as varied as motor vehicle safety, vaccines, patient safety and prescription drug abuse. It was quickly apparent that the CDC is much more than the authority on when to get your vaccines.
We heard from numerous experts, including Mike Bell, M.D., associate director for Infection Control for the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion; William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion; and Ann Albright, Ph.D., R.D., director of the Division of Diabetes Translation for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. We also enjoyed a brief presentation from the CDC’s director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
Each day ended with a tour. We saw the CDC’s emergency operations center, walked through the tobacco lab and peered in at scientists probing for foodborne illnesses. We looked at viruses under a microscope, marveled at slides the size of a pinhead (used under an electron microscope) and winced at the amount of nicotine that smokers continue to inhale from cigarettes.
And while I couldn’t get the tour guide to tell us where the United States hides its stockpile of smallpox - Russia has the only other one - I was amazed by the challenges that researchers must endure in order to work in the pathogen labs, including chemical showers and protective suits that preclude regular visits to the bathroom. Not surprisingly, we learned that a calm and even temperament is a requirement for the job.
No doubt, some of the information we already knew: Americans weigh more than ever. Autism is on the rise. Diabetes is a major health issue. But we also learned that polio remains a persistent problem in some parts of the world, tuberculosis still afflicts some segments of our population and the United States takes its role as a world leader seriously when it comes to public health.
It was truly an honor to be part of this fellowship, to get an up-close glimpse of the CDC and to share my time with a great group of journalists who were smart, funny and great dinner companions. I have no doubt the experience will spawn story ideas, beef up our source lists and provide ample background for future articles. I know it will for me.
Guidelines for journalists, public health officials strive to avoid Contagion-like situation
In an effort to prevent some of the fictional events of the movie “Contagion” from happening, health officials and AHCJ leaders collaborated to establish guidelines on what information should be released in a public health crisis.
Actually, the group began work on the project last year - long before “Contagion” hit the theaters – but the recent movie demonstrates the dangers of misinformation during a crisis, as described in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed.
” … one character observes that the falsehoods of a self-serving blogger are as dangerous as the virus itself. Public-health officials strive to release the right information at the right time, but they struggle to counter the irresponsible blogger.”
Felice J. Freyer, an AHCJ board member, teamed up with Paul E. Jarris, M.D., executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and Robert M. Pestronk, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, to write an op-ed about the guidelines and why they were necessary.
Health officials clashed over alerting public to fungal infection in wake of Joplin tornado
Filed under: Health journalism, Hospitals, Hot Health Headline, Public records
Following the devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., county public health officials found themselves in conflict with state officials about alerting the public to an aggressive fungal infection that was showing up in people who were injured in the storm and its aftermath.
According to emails obtained by Sarah Okeson of the Springfield, Mo., News-Leader, state officials were concerned about panicking the public and declined to issue the alert.
Photo by Red Cross: Carl Manning GKCARC via Flickr
Local officials, on the other hand, say they wanted to “ensure that any hospital/health care provider would recognize the illness in a timely manner and begin aggressive anti-fungal treatment.” Faced with a denial from the state, the local officials issued a limited alert to 43 health care contacts and to health care providers.
A week after the county’s request – and two days after the News-Leader ran a story written by Okeson about the fungal infections – the state issued a health advisory.
The infections drew the interest of federal officials, including Benjamin Park, who leads an epidemiology team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Park repeatedly emailed acting state epidemiologist Dr. George Turabelidze offering assistance and emphasizing that “There could be some important public health information that is obtained from this (risk factors, exposures, environmental sampling?) that would be important for future disaster events.” In one email, Park refers to receiving “inquiries all the way up to HHS secretary about this.”
Guidance for releasing information in a public health crisis
The Association of Health Care Journalists recently worked with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to develop guidelines for releasing information in a public health crisis.
“Stories like these raise questions about how public health agencies respond to outbreaks,” said Charles Ornstein, president of AHCJ’s board of directors. “That’s why I’m particularly glad that AHCJ has worked alongside ASTHO and NACCHO to come up with guidance about the type of information that should be released in public health emergencies. Working collaboratively, journalists and public health officials can improve the information shared during outbreaks and earn the public’s trust.”
The guidelines include advice to health official to consider publicizing an illness or death when “A major epidemic or novel illness is emerging, or a natural disaster or other major event affecting public health has occurred or is anticipated.”
The guidance emphasizes the importance of openness, stating that information should be withheld only when there is a clearly justified reason.
Related
- Joplin hospital staff took action during disaster
- Doctors operated by flashlight, workers scrambled in tornado-ravaged hospital
- Health officials, journalists agree on standards
- Guidance on the release of information concerning deaths, epidemics or emerging diseases
- CDC: Rare fungus risk in future tornadoes
- CDC releases report about Joplin fungus
- Fungus infects tornado victim
- Woman who survived Joplin tornado dies with rare fungus
Stories to be found in local poison control centers
Poison control centers narrowly escaped losing almost all federal funding this year and their appropriations are down, despite evidence that they keep people out of emergency rooms, writes Maryn McKenna, an independent journalist and AHCJ board member.
McKenna cites statistics showing that, when poison control centers’ budgets are cut, hospital visits to treat poisonings increase. “In 2004, the Institute of Medicine estimated that every dollar of public funding spent on a poison control center saves $10 that would otherwise have been spent on health care.”
The piece, in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, is packed with facts about the 57 centers in the United States, including:
- Poisoning is the second most common cause of injury deaths in the United States
- About 15 percent of calls to poison control centers come from emergency departments, hospitals, and office practices.
- Poison centers increasingly are providing advice for emergency personnel encountering toxicities from prescription drug abuse.
McKenna spoke to a Harvard professor of pediatrics who called budget cuts to poison control centers “the definition of ‘penny-wise, pound-foolish.’”
What’s happening at the poison control center in your area? Is it experiencing budgetary woes? How are staff coping with that? How is that affecting the community and area hospitals?
The American Association of Poison Control Centers has a directory online to help you contact your local center.
LA Times op-ed explains need for guidelines on information in a public health emergency
Filed under: Health journalism, Public health, Public records
In an op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times, Felice J. Freyer and Charles Ornstein, members of AHCJ’s board of directors, write that releasing accurate information in a public health emergency reassures the public that officials are being honest about what they know and what the risks are.
The piece includes several examples of public health emergencies in which officials have been less than forthcoming.
As board members of the Assn. of Health Care Journalists, we have been troubled by the way some health officials cite privacy laws as the reason for withholding information that, by law, doesn’t have to be private.
The op-ed piece also introduces the set of guidelines that AHCJ established with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the National Association of County and City Health Officials about what information should be made public.
Previously: Health officials, journalists agree on standards
Health officials, journalists agree on standards for releasing information
Filed under: Government, Public health, Public records
New guidance addresses public health emergencies
Public health officials and journalists now have guidance on what information should be made public when someone dies or falls ill during a public health emergency, thanks to a unique collaborative effort being made public today.
A new document – developed by leaders in public health and health-care journalism – provides a framework for releasing such information as the age and location of private individuals who have been affected by an epidemic or other public-health event.
These nonbinding recommendations, “Guidance on the release of information concerning deaths, epidemics or emerging diseases,” are meant to help public health officials balance the need to keep the public informed with requirements to maintain individuals’ privacy.
The guidance emphasizes the importance of openness, stating that information should be withheld only when there is a clearly justified reason.
The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) teamed up to develop the guidance after the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009.
Read the complete press release.
Earlier
- Health officials, journalists agree information is key in public health crisis
- Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country
- AHCJ leaders hold series of media access meetings with government officials
Conference discusses reporting on disasters
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline, Public health
While everyone’s attention was focused on some conference in Philadelphia, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Boston University were busy putting on a show of their own, this one focused entirely on reporting on disasters (agenda).
As is the fashion, the highlights of the conference were on Twitter (#disasterstrikes) within seconds (and aggregated in this CoverItLive feed seconds after that), which means it’s time to speed-read through the conference with a little Covering Health roundup. @BUPublicHealth coordinated the live discussion and thus we relied heavily on their work. I edited tweets to add attribution where appropriate.
Photo by EDV Media Director via Flickr- @BUPublicHealth: (John Hammock of Tufts University, former director of Oxfam America) International aid is very helpful but most people survive using their own coping strategies #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Carroll Bogert from the Human Rights Watch): We at Human Rights Watch are reporters who advocate for policy change. (Human Rights Watch is an NGO btw) #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (USA Today reporter Donna Leinwand Leger): Self sufficiency crucial. “You can’t, as a journalist with any ethical compunction, be a burden on these countries.” #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Dorsinville: Size of conference and attendance dispels myth that Haiti has been forgotten #DisasterStrikes
- @gonevertigo: #DisasterStrikes (Nancy Dorsinville, senior policy adviser of UN Office to Special Envoy to Haiti): the relationship between stretched-thin government resources and deadline journalists can be tense
- @BUPublicHealth: (Boston Medical Center physician Thea James): The training we have is not to speak to the media unless given direct permission. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Monica Onyango, BU professor in the department of international health) It’s important to recognize the local responders. They are heroes as well. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Konbit Sante executive director Nate Nickerson) 1. if tell a story, it has to be factually accurate; 2. it needs to be contextualized somehow; (cont) #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Doing it right: 3. Story sheds light doesn’t just generate sensationalism; 4. Story gives voice to ppl being impacted #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Mass. General physician Larry Ronan): Having a large media presence at these events can influence policy at a large level. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Kerry Sanders, Miami-based NBC correspondent): Journos need to know first aid. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Sanders: Journos can be obnoxious. After Chilean miners rescued, journos tried to sneak into hospital dressed as drs. #DisasterStrikes
Related
- Aiding those in distress
- Journalists must heed ethics in disaster coverage
- Journalist makes case against sanitizing disaster coverage
Program taps public lands to improve public health
Filed under: Health policy, Hot Health Headline, Public health
This week, National Park Service brass took to California to push its new Healthy Parks, Healthy People initiative.
Visitors walk between Mather Point and Yavapai Observation Station at Grand Canyon National Park. Photo: P. Mike Quinn, NPS
You can get the details from the Marin Independent Journal’s Mark Prado (or this NPS release). The meetings were dedicated to realizing the potential of what NPS director Jon Jarvis called “a major untapped source of public health.”
“Public health pretty much has been confined to the discussion around new pharmaceuticals or modern medicine,” Jarvis said. “But studies are showing there are unique benefits in getting outside and getting active. Being outdoors can have a positive effect on everything from stress to attention disorders to healing.”
Jarvis added that, while “Our national parks have always been loved for their symbolism and scenery,” now “we aim to increase the awareness of all parks as places for exercise and healthy living.” His remarks are now available for review online.
Prado writes that the efforts are being modeled partly on a successful program in Australia, where “the parks have a website that provides information on the latest international research, innovations and programs that focus on the health benefits of human contact with the natural world.” For more on Australia’s pioneering “Healthy Parks Healthy People” initiative, created by Parks Victoria, see the Parks Australia website.
The American initiative includes not only the nation’s flagship national parks, but to a variety of public lands, many of them within easy reach of urban and suburban areas. It’s a chance to highlight public lands in your coverage area and explore current research into the health benefits of the great outdoors. Of course, if Congress doesn’t come to an agreement on the budget and the federal government is shut down, the National Park Services’ 394 sites will be closed.
For more details from the meetings and resulting discussions, I recommend quickly browsing the #hphpUS hashtag.
Guidelines for releasing information in public health crisis still in the works
Filed under: Health journalism, Health policy, Public health, Public records
When North Carolina officials recently announced the death of a teenager as a result of the flu but gave out little other information, reporter Rose Hoban, R.N., of North Carolina Public Radio, had a sense of deja vu. Hoban is a member of AHCJ’s Right to Know Committee, which has dealt with exactly this issue.
Some background:
During the H1N1 pandemic, reporters found a wide variation in what information local and state health officials were disclosing about H1N1 deaths. As a result, representatives of AHCJ, including Hoban, met with health officials representing the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the group agreed on flexible guidelines specifying what information should be released about victims in a public health crisis.
Last week, Hoban filed an update about the issue on her blog with comments from Gene Matthews, who is a senior fellow at the North Carolina Institute of Public Health and was the lead counsel for the CDC for 25 years. She also checked with ASTHO about the status of the draft guidelines and was told, “I don’t think it’s going to disappear, fall into oblivion …”
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