Cable news and newspapers across the country are headlining the continuing explosions at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, that was flooded by Hurricane Harvey.

While a majority of Americans place a high value on being physically fit, most don’t feel as if they are in good shape, according to a recent survey on fitness and health.

More deaths have been reported, evacuation centers are packed, gas prices are up and the task of assessing the damage from the historic storm has barely begun. Here are a few stories about the storm and its effects:

Only 3.3 percent of all visits to emergency departments are classified as “avoidable,” according to a study published today in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care (“Avoidable emergency department visits: a starting point”).

Oil refineries in the Houston area damaged by Hurricane Harvey may have accidentally released millions of pounds of contaminants into the air, according to news reports.

Explosions and fumes emanating from a flood-crippled chemical plant in southeast Texas sent a deputy sheriff to the hospital and caused local officials to brace for a fire and more blasts at the facility. News sources report that the flooding caused by Harvey knocked out power to the plant, disabling its refrigeration system and allowing the volatile chemicals it stored to heat up and explode.

Young adults, particularly men, lag behind middle-aged and older adults in awareness and treatment of high blood pressure, putting this population at an increased risk for heart attack and stroke, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) journal Hypertension.

If filmmakers won't stop showing characters in PG-13 movies smoking, then movies depicting smoking or tobacco use should be rated "R." That's the demand being made health experts, who are frustrated by the failure of efforts to  eliminate smoking imagery from movies targeted toward young people. Research has shown that smoking in movies has a direct impact on children who go on to smoke.

Just after noon on March 29, a pickup truck crossed the center line of a rural road in South Texas and slammed into a church bus, killing 13 members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels. A police report said the 20-year-old pickup driver, who survived, had taken medication and was texting.

Better fuel management by aviators could prevent an average of 50 general aviation accidents a year, according to the NTSB’s latest safety alert, ‘Flying on Empty,’ issued yesterday.