public health
The Pump Handle
Tag archives for public health
Wage theft in South Florida: Nation’s first county with wage theft protections reports on progress and perils
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 14, 2013 Earlier this month, Florida lawmakers wrapped up their latest legislative session. And nearly 500 miles south of Tallahassee in Miami-Dade County, workers’ rights advocates breathed yet another sigh of relief.
Newborn screening: One of public health’s greatest achievements celebrates 50 years and thousands of lives saved
Posted by The Pump Handle on May 3, 2013 On Feb. 13, 2012, Honey Stecken gave birth to her daughter Maren. Everything appeared perfectly fine — she ate and slept and did all the things a baby does. Even after a couple weeks at home in South Fork. Colo., with her newborn little girl, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Study: Banning smoking in subsidized housing could save millions in health care costs
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 26, 2013 Another day, another study that shows investing in public health interventions can make a serious dent in health care spending. A new study has found that banning smoking in all U.S. subsidized housing could yield cost savings of about $521 million every year.
Study: Peer-to-peer training can improve safety, knowledge among Hispanic construction workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 19, 2013 Eric Rodriguez and his colleagues at the Latino Union of Chicago quite literally meet workers where they’re at — on the city’s street corners. Many of the day laborers who gather there are hired to work construction at residential housing sites. Work arrangements are hardly formal and day laborers are frequently subjected to unnecessary and illegal dangers on the job. Unfortunately, worker safety is often kicked to the curb in the street corner marketplace.
Cracking down on deadbeat bosses: Wage theft victory a milestone in Chicago’s worker center movement
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 15, 2013 For Angel Nava, Chicago’s newly adopted wage theft ordinance is particularly personal. Until recently, Nava had worked at the same car wash business in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood for 14 years. The 55-year-old employee did it all — washing, detailing, buffing — for about 50 hours each week. Then, his boss decided to stop paying overtime.
New report: Kids will eat their veggies…if you give them the chance
Posted by The Pump Handle on April 5, 2013 If you serve it, they will eat it. That’s one of the many lessons gleaned from a new report on the national Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
Growing gap between wages, rents means healthy housing is increasingly out of reach
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 29, 2013 In California, a minimum wage worker has to work at least 98 hours in a week to afford a two-bedroom unit at fair market rental prices. In Texas, that worker would have to work between 81 and 97 hours in a week, and in North Carolina it’s upward of 80 hours per week.
Study finds high support for public health interventions, few worries about encroaching ‘nanny state’
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 18, 2013 A new study finds that the public does, indeed, support legal interventions aimed at curbing noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. However, they’re more likely to support interventions that create the conditions that help people make the healthy choice on their own.
In tight fiscal times, National Public Health Week highlights the return on public health investments
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 8, 2013 In a little less than a month, public health workers in Macomb County, Mich., will set up at the local Babies”R”Us store to offer parents a free child car seat check. The Macomb County Health Department has been organizing such car seat checks for years, knowing that proper child vehicle restraints can save lives and prevent injury. The event also fits in perfectly with this year’s National Public Health Week theme of “Public Health ROI: Save Lives, Save Money.”
Hundreds of Texas workers protest in memory of fallen construction workers
Posted by The Pump Handle on March 1, 2013 Texas construction workers who’ve lost their lives on unsafe worksites may be gone, but they certainly haven’t been forgotten. Earlier this week, hundreds of Texas workers and their supporters took to the streets to demand legislators do more to stop preventable injury and death on the job.