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Former Pennsylvania Health Employees Say Bosses Enforced Silence on Shale Drilling

      

Two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health say its employees were silenced on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling.  Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY

stateimpact.npr.org - by Katie Colaneri - June 19, 2014

Two retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Health say its employees were silenced on the issue of Marcellus Shale drilling.

One veteran employee says she was instructed not to return phone calls from residents who expressed health concerns about natural gas development.

“We were absolutely not allowed to talk to them,” said Tammi Stuck, who worked as a community health nurse in Fayette County for nearly 36 years.

Another retired employee, Marshall P. Deasy III, confirmed that.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

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A Talk by Dr. Riki Ott: EPA National Contingency Plan and the Gulf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7IIN098IM

Pensacola, Florida - June 10, 2014

Objective: By April of 2015, the ALERT pilot study will conduct health evaluations and environmental baseline monitoring, and establish networks of informed health care providers, in two regions of the country at-risk from petrochemical exposure----Gulf Coast communities harmed by the 2010 BP DWH disaster and Keystone XL corridor communities. ALERT will test for evidence of chemical exposure and provide training for treatment for oil-chemical related illness in these exposed communities. An important component of the ALERT project will be focused on educating community leaders and the public on the risks and health effects of petrochemical exposure to work toward solutions for treatment of current illnesses and protect against future exposure events.

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Drug-Resistant Pathogens Spread in Florida Hospitals

submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 17, 2014

Drug-resistant germs kill more than 40 percent of individuals with serious infections, and they tend to have a higher kill-rate among patients with weaker immune systems, including the elderly and young children. In Florida, several hospitals handled antibiotic-resistant germ outbreaks without alerting the public. Since 2008, twelve outbreaks have affected at least 490 people statewide, but the Florida Department of Health (FDH) did little to inform the public.

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U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries

submitted by Luis Kun

      

Click to download Powerpoint chart.

forbes.com - by Dan Munro - June 16, 2014

The Commonwealth Fund in their latest report “Mirror, Mirror On The Wall — 2014 Update” (pdf here).

For this year's survey on overall health care, The Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. dead last.

It’s fairly well accepted that the U.S. is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but many continue to falsely assume that we pay more for healthcare because we get better health (or better health outcomes). The evidence, however, clearly doesn’t support that view.

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CLICK HERE - Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally

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Pesticides on Kauai - Stop Poisoning Paradise

      

stoppoisoningparadise.org

About Ordinance 960

STARTING IN 2013 a broad coalition of Kaua'i moms, health care professionals, farmers, and civic leaders successful in winning Ordinance 960 (formerly Bill 2491), a Kaua'i law that addresses excessive pesticide use by GMO companies on our island.

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Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health

submitted by Cheryl Stroud

nap.edu - Institute of Medicine. Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.

Authors

Rose Marie Martinez and Erin Rusch, Rapporteurs; Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice (BPH); Institute of Medicine (IOM)

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Chikungunya Virus Disease Cases Reported to ArboNET - United States, 2014 (as of June 2)

      

*Chikungunya is not a nationally notifiable disease.

†Countries or territories visited include Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Indonesia, Martinique, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten.

‡Three additional cases were identified in residents of other countries visiting the United States.

http://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/geo/americas.html

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Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience Action Plan for the Puget Sound Region

                           

regionalresilience.org

Recognizing that private industry, businesses, and other non-governmental organizations constitute integral and essential components of every region, PNWER (Pacific Northwest Economic Region) acknowledges the need to coordinate for a bio-event across the healthcare sector and other organizations with roles in emergency management. This includes work in partnership with the private sector and other key regional stakeholders. Through this understanding, PNWER has led and participated in a number of pandemic and bio-event resilience initiatives.

CLICK HERE - for additional information

CLICK HERE - CCBER Final Report - 2010 -
Comprehensive Community Bio-Event Resilience Action Plan for the Puget Sound Region (170 page .PDF report)

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Tar Sands Linked to Health Problems

      

priceofoil.org - by Andy Rowell - April 1, 2014

In a landmark report to Alberta’s energy regulator, a panel of experts has concluded that odours from a controversial tar sands processing plant are linked to human health impacts.

The report, which was published [March 31, 2014], examined the emissions from Baytex Energy’s Peace River plant, which has been the subject of a number of health complaints from local residents over the last few years.

The situation has been so bad that seven families have been forced to leave.

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Regulator says Peace River area emissions potential cause of health problems
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Regulator+says+Peace+River+area+emissions+potential+cause+health+problems/9682279/story.html

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Second U.S. Case of Deadly MERS Virus Found in Orlando

      

MERS, also known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, has made its way to the U.S. The second patient is in Orlando, Florida while the first reported case was in Indiana.

usatoday.com - Karen Weintraub and Doug Stanglin - May 13, 2014

Another patient has turned up at an American hospital with the lethal respiratory virus MERS, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today.

The agency would not identify the man but said he was a 44-year-old health care worker based in Saudi Arabia, which has been the center of the outbreak.

The man flew to the U.S. from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 1, to visit family in Orlando, traveling through London, Boston and Atlanta on the way.

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CDC Press Release - CDC announces second imported case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the United States

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