Push for tobacco-free college campuses spreads

 

From left, Armstrong Atlantic State University students Helen Lowes, Elizabeth Ross and Tammy Cole.

"Our policy sends the message that not only do we practice what we preach, but that we recognize the importance of providing a healthy environment for all of the students, residents, faculty, staff and guests at Morehouse," said Nicolle Martin, M.D., M.P.H., faculty member at Morehouse School of Medicine.

 

According to the 2012 U.S. Surgeon General's Report "Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults", 99 percent of all tobacco use starts by the age of 26.

 

This is due to social, environmental and physical influences as well as tobacco company advertising and promotional activities targeting youth and young adults. The adverse health effects of smoking are immediate including addiction and acceleration of development of chronic diseases across the course of life.

   

 

Each year more than 2,700 people are treated for devastating injuries in the Level 1 trauma center at Memorial University Medical Center (MUMC). Sadly, many of those injuries could have been prevented.

 

To improve the health and wellness of the entire region, MUMC has created the Institute for Injury Research and Prevention. This new Institute will use research, education, training, and outreach to reduce the impact of injury and violence in our region. The institute is the vision of Gage Ochsner, M.D., FACS, chief of trauma services and surgical critical care at MUMC.

 

"We see so many traumas that could have been much less serious and even prevented if only the patient had taken appropriate precautions," said Ochsner. "As an academic medical center, MUMC has the infrastructure in place to create an outstanding injury prevention institute based on research and prevention."

   

Leisure-time physical activity is associated with longer life expectancy, even at relatively low levels of activity and regardless of body weight, according to a study by a team of researchers led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study, which found that people who engaged in leisure-time physical activity had life expectancy gains of as much as 4.5 years, appeared Nov. 6, 2012, in PLoS Medicine 

 

In order to determine the number of years of life gained from leisure-time physical activity in adulthood, which translates directly to an increase in life expectancy, researchers examined data on more than 650,000 adults. These people, mostly age 40 and older, took part in one of six population-based studies that were designed to evaluate various aspects of cancer risk.

 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of NIH, recommends that adults ages 18 to 64 engage in regular aerobic physical activity for 2.5 hours at moderate intensity or 1.25 hours at vigorous intensity each week. Moderate activities are those during which a person could talk but not sing. Vigorous activities are those during which a person could say only a few words without stopping for breath.

    

 

Dec. 2-8 is National Handwashing Awareness Week

 

How many surfaces do your hands touch each day? It's tough to keep track, and even tougher to imagine all the germs your hands pick up from those surfaces. But public health officials say the solution is simple: wash your hands frequently and thoroughly.

 

December 2-8 is National Handwashing Awareness Week, and public health officials urge people to think about keeping their hands clean as an easy and important way to stay healthy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), handwashing is one of the most effective ways to prevent illness and stop the spread of germs, such as those that cause the flu, bronchitis, tonsillitis, conjunctivitis, pneumonia or the common cold.  

     

Watch U.S. earthquakes unfold, just seconds after they occur. QuakeTracker displays data from the U.S. Geological Survey on an interactive map, using pulsing yellow circles to indicate a quake's magnitude. Tilt the map using a two-finger swipe to see the quake's depth. Zoom in to see more detail. 

QuakeTracker has two modes. The first is Latest U.S. Seismic Activity. The app downloads data from the previous seven days, then displays any quake measuring 3.25 or greater in a time-lapse visualization, showing the magnitude and depth as each quake hits. The second mode is Top Ten Quakes, which displays the biggest seismic events in the lower 48 states since 1860. In addition to the graphical display, both modes list the time, date, location, magnitude, and depth of the quake.

Click here to download app.

-Story by DPH Communications