While extreme storms like tornadoes and hurricanes get most of the media attention, a far simpler weather condition – heat -- is much deadlier. Heat kills an average of 658 people every year -- more than tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and lightning combined. In the disastrous heat wave of 1980, more than 1,250 people died. In the heat wave of 1995 more than 700 deaths in the Chicago area were attributed to heat. In August 2003, a record heat wave in Europe claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

When you’re at the drug store reaching for a sunscreen product, you may notice some changes on the labels. Health experts recommend using sunscreen products that offer Broad Spectrum protection and have an Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 30 or higher.

An illness which originated in September in the Middle East and has killed at least 30 of the 54 people infected appears to be raising alarms in the U.S.  – but a move by public health officials may just be a strategy to prevent its spread.

Final rules related to employment-based wellness programs have been published, representing the last step in implementing the Affordable Care Act. Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis C. Borzi answered three frequently-asked questions about the rules:

The EPA this week proposed two rules that would require composite wood products produced domestically or imported into the United States meet the formaldehyde emission standards established by Congress.
 

Costs to treat stroke are projected to more than double and the number of people having strokes may increase 20 percent by 2030, according to the American Heart Association (AHA)/American Stroke Association.

The third day of AIHce 2013 featured a General Session address by L. Casey Chosewood, MD, Senior Medical Officer for Total Worker Health™, NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

An experimental, inexpensive iPhone application transmitted diagnostic heart images faster and more reliably than emailing photo images, according to a research study presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013.

Four out of five U.S. adults report having voluntary smoke-free rules in their homes and three out of four report having voluntary smoke-free rules in their vehicles, according to a study published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).