(RICHMOND, Va.)undefined The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced today that a portion of the James River will be closed to shellfish harvesting due to flooding and contamination from sewage spills.

The emergency closure is effective September 9 - 30, 2014, and is scheduled to reopen effective October 1, 2014. The Division of Shellfish Sanitation will monitor the shellfish during this period to determine if the area can be reopened sooner.

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About 19.3% of women have been raped at least once in their lives, according to survey results released Friday from the..Read More....

We applaud CVS Health for becoming tobacco-free and ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at its 7,700 CVS/pharmacy locations. CVS accomplished their goal one month ahead of their deadline of October 1.

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Thirsty students in Henrico County most often pushed the Powerade button on school vending machines last year. But when school stats on Tuesday, kids will find their favorite sports drink banned in favor of healthier substitutes such as bottled water of fruit juice. Read more...

The 2014 version of the Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (Core Competencies) is now available. Following a yearlong review and revision process, the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice recently released this updated version of the Core Competencies for use by public health practitioners, educators, and researchers.

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Excessive salt consumption may be behind one in 10 deaths from heart disease and stroke worldwide — one in five for people younger than 70. The global total for annual deaths linked to sodium may be as high as 1.65 million.

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Teenagers who don’t get enough sleep may wake up to worse consequences than nodding off during chemistry class. According to latest research conducted at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, the risk of being obese by age 21 was 20 percent higher among 16-year-olds who got less than six hours of sleep a night, compared with their peers who slumbered more than eight hours. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends nine to ten hours of sleep for teenagers.

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How long patients wait for kidney transplants often depends on where they live. But minor changes to kidney transplant allocation policies could reduce those geographic disparities, suggests a Northwestern Medicine study.

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Depression is known to be a common symptom of Parkinson’s disease, but remains untreated for many patients, according to a new study by Northwestern Medicine investigators in collaboration with the National Parkinson’s Foundation (NPF).

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The Association for Community Health Improvement is seeking proposals for its 2015 National Conference, March 4th - 6th in Dallas, Texas. "This year's theme is Building the Next Generation of Healthy Communities. The conference will feature presentations that share successful case examples and practical tools and skills in areas including building: health-promoting hospitals and care systems, healthy policies and environments, healthy and impactful partnerships, a community health workforce and leaders, tools to measure community health impact, healthy and sustainable funding sources, and healthy populations. 

For more information. 

Proposals are due Friday, September 26th.