Categories: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
May 20th, 2013 8:00 am ET -
What do a Major League Baseball hall of fame player from the 1920s and 1930s, a former Baltimore Ravens football player, and about 5,600 persons annually in the United States have in common? All were diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
ALS claimed the life of former New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig in 1941. O.J. Brigance, a former Raven’s linebacker who was diagnosed with the debilitating disease in 2007, now raises awareness for ALS and money to help families pay for medical expenses.
Brigance and other ALS awareness advocates will not be alone this month in spreading the word about ALS, because May is ALS Awareness Month.
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Categories: National Center for Environmental Health
May 13th, 2013 6:45 am ET -
Bike to Work week is May 13-17, 2013. Whether for health, environmental, economic, or social reasons, bicycling can be a great way to go places. CDR Arthur M. Wendel, MD, MPH is Team Lead of the Healthy Community Design Initiative at CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. He has been using his bicycle as a major means of transportation for many years. Read more to learn how he incorporates physical activity into his daily routine by riding his bike to work.
Bike lanes and paths make biking easier and safer.
“My life is too busy!”
“I just don’t have time!”
Ever heard these reasons for not exercising regularly—or have you even said them yourself? Many of us live busy lives with multiple responsibilities at work, home, school, and elsewhere. But would improving your health or saving your life be reason enough to figure out some way to add exercise to your life?
Regular physical activity can prevent many of the leading causes of death and disability, but too few people exercise regularly. Walking and biking are good ways to add regular exercise to your life. But you may still wonder how you can find time. What if I told you that you can incorporate physical activity into your life as part of your daily routine? How about walking or biking to work or to run errands?
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Categories: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
May 7th, 2013 11:29 am ET -
May 7-11 is National American Occupational Safety and Health Week. In recognition of this observance, we are featuring a study of respiratory protective equipment for emergency responders conducted by ATSDR scientists Dr. Vinicius Antao, Dr. Laszlo Pallos, Dr. Youn Shim, and Jay Sapp. They worked with colleagues from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Columbia University to study the health of responders to the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster.
New York, N.Y., September 17, 2001 -- FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams work to clear rubble and search for survivors at the World Trade Center. Photo by Andrea Booher/ FEMA News Photo
On September 11, 2001, people around the world watched as the two towers of the New York City World Trade Center (WTC) fell to the ground. Dense clouds of smoke and dust rose into the air. While the streets filled with people escaping the burning buildings, emergency responders charged into the darkness with little thought for their own safety.
In the following days, police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs) continued to search for survivors. Construction and sanitation workers joined them to clean up the six-story pile of debris that burned for more than 3 months.
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Categories: Biomonitoring, National Center for Environmental Health
May 1st, 2013 11:34 am ET -
May is National Clean Air Month. NCEH’s Tobacco Lab has provided essential research and data that has contributed to a significant decrease in the levels of secondhand tobacco smoke in nonsmokers. Read about their exciting work below.
Work in NCEH’s Tobacco Laboratory Helps Reduce Exposure to Secondhand Smoke
If you saw a cloud of smoke that you knew contained more than 4,000 chemical components, of which at least 250 caused cancer, then you’d run for cover and seek cleaner air. This is the case each time you’re near someone who smokes a cigarette, cigar, or pipe.
Exposure to secondhand smoke causes 3,400 deaths a year due to lung cancer. The toxic cloud also has immediate effects on your cardiovascular system and can cause heart attack and stroke.
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Categories: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), National Center for Environmental Health
April 15th, 2013 2:13 pm ET -
April 22 marks the 43nd anniversary of Earth Day, which reminds us of our personal and collective responsibility to preserve and protect our environment. At CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), we begin our celebration of Earth Day by observing National Environmental Education Week during the week leading up to it.
For many the word “environment” means the natural world—mountains, forests, rivers, oceans, animals, and the air around us. To others, the environment brings to mind “tree huggers,” the green movement, and “reduce—reuse—recycle.” These are logical connections and are all, indeed, part of what we mean when we use the term.
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Categories: Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health
April 5th, 2013 12:40 pm ET -
April 7 is United Nations World Health Day, marking the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948. CDC works in close partnership with WHO and its regional offices, other UN agencies (like UNICEF) as well as other international health agencies to help people throughout the world live healthier, safer, longer lives.
In honor of World Health Day, read some of our previous blog posts about NCEH’s international work:
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Categories: Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health, Tornadoes
April 2nd, 2013 8:49 am ET -
Spring is the time of year when many things change—including the weather. Sunny days may be followed by a week of stormy weather. Sometimes extreme weather changes can occur within the same day.
Thunderstorms cause most of the severe spring weather. Whenever warm, moist air collides with cool, dry air, thunderstorms can occur, bringing with them lightning, tornadoes and flooding.
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Categories: Biomonitoring, Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health
March 25th, 2013 10:14 am ET -
In 1993, the UN General Assembly declared March 22 as World Water Day. This post recognizes NCEH/ATSDR work to assure clean water.
Spring water
Can you remember a time when you were so thirsty you would have done almost anything for a glass of cool, refreshing water? Now imagine that the only water available to you is full of bacteria or chemicals that can make you sick. People across the globe face this dilemma daily. The world’s water supply is not unlimited and is not always safe.
Even in the United States, clean water is not always assured. Improper chemical disposal, naturally occurring substances such as arsenic, pesticides, animal and human wastes, improper water treatment, extreme weather events, and aging water distribution systems can contaminate our drinking water supply.
NCEH/ATSDR’s water programs help protect people from environmental water hazards as well as diseases caused by contaminated water.
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Categories: National Center for Environmental Health
March 15th, 2013 7:01 am ET -
CDC’s Healthy Community Design Initiative (HCDI) is dedicated to creating neighborhoods where health and safety are priorities. In this blog post, HCDI staff member Dee Merriam explains how communities can provide more opportunities for exercise right where people live.
Can exercise be convenient?
Getting into the habit of exercising can be a challenge. But this year I promised myself I would become more active and get more exercise. We all know that physical activity helps us live longer by reducing our risk from leading killers like stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer. And now, as the weather gets warmer, I can begin to exercise outdoors. The easiest activities I can do are walking and biking —these activities are free and don’t require access to a gym.
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Categories: National Center for Environmental Health
March 7th, 2013 3:12 pm ET -
March is National Nutrition Month. Read about a National Center of Environmental Health study that measured trans fatty acids in blood.
CDC study shows notable decrease in the levels of trans-fatty acids in the blood.
To reduce your intake of trans fatty acids, choose foods with either no trans fats or the lowest amounts of trans fats.
As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. The problem is that sometimes the things we eat can increase the levels of trans-fatty acids we have in our bloodstreams. Trans-fatty acids can increase a person’s “bad” cholesterol levels, or LDL. Researchers indicate higher LDL, or “bad” cholesterol can lead to cardiovascular disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed and used a new method to measure the levels of trans-fatty acids in our blood. Dr. Hubert Vesper, a research chemist in CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), led the development of the new method.
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