Articles Tagged with ''disease prevention''

If you want to reduce your risk of having a heart attack, skip the supplements and cut down on salt instead. That’s the conclusion of a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, which also found that one supplement might actually increase your risk for having a stroke. The goal of the study was to explore the potential for nutritional supplements and dietary interventions to prevent “cardiovascular outcomes,” such as death, myocardial infarction, stroke, and coronary heart disease.

The staff of Industrial Safety & Hygiene News wishes you a happy 4th of July. Although many people will get today off work others – especially public service personnel who perform vital services – will be on the job. Whatever your work status, we hope you get a chance to enjoy the festivities and fireworks, grilling and sunshine, friends and family. There’s still plenty of summer left, so we thought we’d provide you with some reminders about how to enjoy the season safely.

An alarming increase in the incidence of the black lung disease among the nation’s coal miners has led to a call by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Steelworkers International Union (USW) for a new standard to protect miners from the silica dust that causes the disease. In a letter to David Zatezalo, the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), UMWA President Cecil Roberts and USW President Leo W. Gerard noted that changes in mining practices have led to increased exposure to silica for miners.

Binge watching TV may be a greater risk factor for heart disease and premature death among African Americans than sitting at a desk job, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/ American Stroke Association. According to the author, these latest findings suggest that television-watching may be the most harmful sedentary behavior.

Does vaping have a long-term impact on someone’s lungs? Does the air quality where a person grows up put them at higher risk for respiratory conditions later in life? These are among the issues that will be examined in a large, first-of-its-kind longitudinal study of lung health led by Northwestern Medicine scientists in partnership with the American Lung Association (ALA).

The rise of measles cases overall in the U.S. has been widely reported on and includes, this year alone, outbreaks in California, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Although the disease was thought to be eradicated in the United States at the start of the 21st century, a resurgence has occurred in recent years, attributed in part to a resistance to vaccinations that stems from a study linking vaccinations to autism which has since been discredited.

More than a hundred groups and hundreds of individuals from Pennsylvania have signed onto a letter to the state’s governor, calling for an official investigation into recent reports of rare cancers in counties heavily impacted by shale gas development over the last decade. The letter also calls for the Governor Tom Wolf to suspend all gas drilling permits until the investigation shows that fracking is not the cause of what appears to be an emerging public health crisis.

Although the U.S. has had considerable success at preventing and controlling rabies during the past 80 years, exposure to rabid animals sends approximately 55,000 Americans to hospital emergency departments each year. Dr. Anne Schuchat, Principal Deputy Director of the CDC, said that vaccination programs for dogs and the availability of post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, the vaccine and medicine people get to prevent rabies if they may have been exposed to a rabid animal, have contributed to a 95% decrease in annual rabies deaths in people.

With many communities experiencing flooding caused by heavy rainfall in recent months, the American Lung Association (ALA) is reminding people that property damage isn’t the only thing to worry about. In addition to containing dangerous substances like sewage, oil and gas, floodwaters can cause mold, which may affect your respiratory health long after the water has receded.

A vast majority of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, consider access to health care in rural communities an important issue, according to a new poll released by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). At the same time, people in rural communities say they have difficulty getting quality health care due to a lack of available facilities, a shortage of doctors and other factors.