The U.S. Department of Agriculture today denied a three-year-old regulatory petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest asking the department to declare dangerous strains of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella as adulterants. The department also released a long-awaited redraft to a proposal ostensibly aimed at modernizing poultry inspection but that has been roundly criticized by advocates in the labor, animal welfare, and food safety movements. (Center for Science in the Public Interest) Read more...

The July 21, 2014 editorial of The Roanoke Times entitled “Our view: From zero to six?” highlighted the growing need for physicians in America and the efforts underway in Virginia, especially in Southside and Southwest Virginia, to meet this need. The decreasing physician population creates real challenges for many rural Virginia communities; yet, increasing access to quality health care in these communities requires a much broader approach than simply the education of physicians. (The Roanoke Times) Read more...

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine met with White House Drug Policy Acting Director Michael Botticelli to discuss the opioid crisis in Virginia and next steps to combat the epidemic. Last month, Kaine praised Botticelli’s announcement in Roanoke that the Administration plans to direct $25.5 billion toward public health and criminal justice initiatives that will help tackle rapidly growing rates of prescription painkiller and heroin abuse across the country. (Augusta Free Press) Read more...

How much are you willing to work out in order to dine out? That’s the tongue-in-cheek question posed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group that released its latest list of high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium and high-sugar meals served at chain restaurants. CSPI reviews menu and nutritional information for more than 200 of the top U.S. chain restaurants “and we just look for the worst items that we can find,” said Paige Einstein, registered dietitian with CSPI. This year’s “Xtreme Eating Awards,” the group’s sixth such compilation, come as some restaurants have started to list calorie contents for their items on their menus or online. (Chicago Tribune)

Get this: Rosa DeLauro, the brave and beloved 12-term congresswoman from New Haven, will be introducing a bill in the House of Representatives Wednesday that would require a national tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. And it’s about time. You know the big picture, even if you’ve forgotten the details, so I’m going to spare you the stats about obesity and diabetes that have been reiterated here and elsewhere ad infinitum. (If you want a refresher course, see this.) Suffice it to say that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity and diabetes, and that some form of control is needed.

With coalition-building (the American Public Health Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, among others, are supporting the SWEET Act), education and continuing research and revelations about the damage wrought by high sugar consumption, we should see increased support for regulation of the marketing and sales of what’s sometimes called “liquid candy.” (New York Times)

This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting public hearings for its Clean Power Plan, which proposed the first-ever nationwide carbon emissions limits for existing power plants. More than 1,500 people were scheduled to testify in Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., to debate the rule, which is under a 120-day comment period after its June 2 announcement.

After its release, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced that by 2030 the plan would reduce carbon pollution by 30 percent and smog and soot by 25 percent. (public health newswire)

Those of you tanning or burning your skin this summer should stop undefined seek the shade, wear a hat and some sunscreen and, whatever you do, stay out of indoor tanning salons. It’s a familiar skin-cancer prevention message, but it’s coming from a new source: the office of the U.S. Surgeon General.

The call to action from acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak, released Tuesday, says that skin cancer is a “major public health problem” and that too much exposure to indoor and outdoor ultraviolet light is a major cause. It comes just two months after the Food and Drug Administration announced it will soon require labels on tanning beds and lamps warning against use by anyone younger than 18. (USA Today)

Ebola, the killer of more than 670 people in four West African countries since February, has spread beyond Africa only once. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen now, infectious disease experts warn. 

The symptoms appear from two days to three weeks after infection, meaning it’s possible for an infected person who doesn’t feel ill to board a plane, said Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading in the U.K. Since Ebola in its earliest stages can resemble nothing more than flu, no one else would know either, he said. (Bloomberg)

Addiction and trauma compromise quality of life for members of the U.S. Armed Forces, veterans, and their families: drug or alcohol use was involved in 30 percent of the Army’s suicide deaths from 2003 to 2009 and in more than 45 percent of non-fatal suicide attempts from 2005-2009.

Join Sandra Rasmussen, PhD, RN, LMHC, CAS-F, author of AJN's Distinguished Book of the Year Addiction Treatment: Theory and Practice at Health on the Homefront June 16-17 to discuss a management model health professionals can use to help these men and women improve their health and increase quality of life. Rasmussen is currently an addiction therapist at Williamsville Wellness in Hanover County and teaches graduate students in psychology and public health at Walden University and in counseling psychology at the Chesapeake campus of Cambridge College. She was recognized by the Virginia Public Health Association in 2004 for her “outstanding leadership, commitment and support to the public health of Virginia” and in 2012 received Fellow Status from the American Academy Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders.

Click here for complete details on Health on the Homefront, and be sure to like the event on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @VPHAHomefront. 

Dr. Cynthia Romero, MD, former Virginia Health Commissioner and a past-president of the Medical Society of Virginia, will be joining us at Health on the Homefront on June 16-17 for a session titled “Special Considerations for Clinicians Serving Members of the Military and Their Families.” With her background in family practice in the Hampton Roads region and her term as Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Quality and Medical Affairs at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Dr. Romero has extensive experience serving the needs of military families and has directly dealt with many of the issues they face.

She has been a strong advocate for her patients and for the medical profession through her leadership roles in multiple professional medical organizations. Dr. Romero has served as President of the Philippine Medical Association of Southeastern Virginia, Inc., the Tidewater Academy of Family Physicians, the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians, the Norfolk Academy of Medicine and, in 2011, she was the President of the Medical Society of Virginia. Her leadership continued during her term as Virginia’s Health Commissioner from January, 2013 through January, 2014. She has been recognized with the Mead Johnson Award by the American Academy of Family Physicians for excellence in clinical medicine and community services. 

Dr. Romero was recently appointed Director of EVMS' M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health, founded in 2012 to focus on training the next generation of community-minded health professionals. In September 2013 she spoke at UVA's Medical Center Hour on Creating Healthy Communities - check it out here.

Click here for complete details on Health on the Homefront, and be sure to like the event on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @VPHAHomefront.