First-ever quantitative data about the toll of BPA exposure

From Health Affairs: The risks of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) have been well-known for some time. While exposure to BPA in the United States affects an estimated 92.6 percent of Americans over the age of five, there are gaps in the knowledge of the health consequences of BPA exposure. A new study, Further Limiting …

E-cigarette poisonings & more in the new edition of Public Health Law News

From the CDC's Office for State, Tribal, Local, & Territorial Support: The new edition of Public Health Law News reprints an article from USA Today on the rise in reports of poisonings in children by e-cigarettes. Other stories include reports from the states on changes in public health laws and an interview with Chester Antone, …

Making New York the healthiest state

From the Health Affairs Blog: In early December, the New York State Health Foundation and the New York State Department of Health cosponsored a summit focused on improving population health, with the title, “Making New York the Healthiest State: Achieving the Triple Aim.” We had hoped to convince a critical mass of health sector leaders to come together for …

Sugar-sweetened beverages playbook

One of the 4 legal tools discussed in the current issue of the CDC's Public Health Law News, is a Sugar-sweetened beverages playbook from ChangeLab.  The playbook offers a sequence of ten strategies—from public education campaigns to restrictions on the availability of sugar-sweetened beverages—communities and states can use to reduce consumption of SSBs. Find more …

Project Tycho – Data for health

Project Tycho, from the University of Pittsburgh (with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & the National Institutes of Health), is a database created to advance the availability & use of public health data for science & policy. The project has completed the digitization of the entire history of weekly Nationally Notifiable Disease …

“Access to HIV care: Real results” & live stream of White House observation of World AIDS Day

From the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): On December 1, 2013, the Health Resources and Services Administration celebrated World AIDS Day to show our support and commitment to those who are living with the disease and to remember those who have died from HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world. Learn how …

Better care at lower cost: Is it possible?

From the Commonwealth Fund: Evidence continues to pour in that America's sky-high health care spending is not only unsustainable, it isn't making us any healthier either—especially compared with other advanced countries. But what are we to do about it? In Better Care at Lower Cost: Is It Possible?, we examine the sources of high costs in the …

New health policy brief: Specialty pharmaceuticals

From Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Specialty pharmaceuticals--drugs and biologics used to treat chronic, serious, or life-threatening diseases--are complex to manufacture and distribute, often difficult to administer, and may require special patient monitoring. They are a rapidly growing share of the costs borne by both public and private health plans. A patient …

Unpacking the FDA’s new Trans fat ban

Ten University of Michigan School of Public Health graduate students are once again blogging at Mind the Science Gap.  Here's a recent post on a ruling by the Food & Drug Adminstration on trans fats. Enjoy--& comment!

Sports-Related Concussions in Youth

New from the National Academies Press: In the past decade, few subjects at the intersection of medicine and sports have generated as much public interest as sports-related concussions - especially among youth. Despite growing awareness of sports-related concussions and campaigns to educate athletes, coaches, physicians, and parents of young athletes about concussion recognition and management, …