Public Health Matters Blog

Breathe Easy, Part 2: How to Properly Use a Respirator in an Emergency

Close-up photo of a man putting on a respirator.

In the course of preparing for an emergency you might decide to buy a pack of respirators from your local hardware store, thinking that they are ready to use out of the box. However, before you can rely on one of these devices to protect you, there are some important selection and use criteria to Read More >

June 17, 2019 by Jaclyn Krah Cichowicz, MA, Health Communications Specialist, NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL); Christopher Coffey, Ph.D., Associate Director for Science, NPPTL; and Jonathan Szalajda, MS, Deputy Director, NPPTL3 Comments

Environmental Health, Flu, General, natural disasters, personal health, preparedness, prevention, response

carbon monoxide, emergency preparedness, filtering facepiece respirator, N95, NIOSH, Prepare Your Health, respirator, smoke

Breathe Easy, Part 1: How to Pick the Right Respirator for Your Emergency Kit

Three kinds of filtering facepiece respirators

There are many things to consider in the process of preparing your health and safety for a public health emergency. Memories of emergencies, like last summer’s wildfires and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, remind us of the threat they can pose to respiratory health, and of the equal importance of an item that gets left Read More >

June 10, 2019 by Jaclyn Krah Cichowicz, MA, Health Communications Specialist, NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL); Christopher Coffey, Ph.D., Associate Director for Science, NPPTL; and Jonathan Szalajda, MS, Deputy Director, NPPTL2 Comments

Environmental Health, Flu, General, natural disasters, personal health, preparedness, response

elastomeric half facepiece respirator, emergency preparedness, filtering facepiece respirator, mold, N95, NIOSH, personal health preparedness, Prepare Your Health, smoke

Managing Asthma: Have a Plan

Little boy using a chamber to administer asthma medication

May is National Asthma Awareness Month. Asthma is a serious, but common lung condition that affects 1 in 13 people, including adults and children. CDC’s National Asthma Control Program works to help Americans with asthma achieve better health and improved quality of life. Learn more. Now 17 months old, Zachary was 10 months when he Read More >

May 28, 2019 by Holly Gay2 Comments

General, natural disasters, personal health, preparedness, public health

Asthma, Asthma Action Planning, Asthma Awareness Month, Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR), National Asthma Control Program, Prepare Your Health, Public Heath Matters

Food for Thought: What Hurricane Sandy Can Teach Us about Food Allergy Preparedness

Elizabeth O’Connell knows that only way to prevent a food-allergy reaction is to avoid the problem food. For her that means having to interpret precautionary language, like “may contain,” and double check ingredients labels in a race to keep up with her teenage son. Elizabeth’s now teenage son has had a severe food allergy for Read More >

May 20, 2019 by Blog AdministratorLeave a comment

Foodborne, General, Injury, personal health, preparedness, prevention

allergies, anaphylactic, epinephrine, food allergy, Food Allergy Action Plan, Hurricane Sandy

Prepare Your Health for Hurricane Season

Road sign pointing in the direction of a hurricane evacuation route.

Andrea. Dorian. Humberto. In all, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), of which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a member, has a list of 21 names that they will use this year to identify hurricanes during the Atlantic hurricane season. What’s in a name? A major hurricane by any name is hazardous to Read More >

May 6, 2019 by Blog Administrator1 Comment

Environmental Health, General, natural disasters, personal health, preparedness, public health, response

Atlantic hurricane season, evacuation, Hurricane, Hurricane Preparedness Week, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, paperwork, personal health preparedness, pets, power sources, prescriptions, World Meteorological Organization

10 Years Later: The Lasting Impacts of the H1N1 Flu Pandemic Response

This highly magnified transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image depicted numbers of virions from a novel influenza H1N1 isolate.

As coincidence would have it, Dr. Stephen Redd was wrapping up an influenza (flu) pandemic planning meeting on April 15, 2009, when someone on the phone reported that a new (or novel) influenza A virus had infected a 10-year-old boy in California. Things moved fast after that. The Response Two days after CDC confirmed the Read More >

April 15, 2019 by Blog Administrator6 Comments

Flu, personal health, preparedness, prevention, public health, response

Emergency Operations Center, flu, H1N1, influenza, Influenza Risk Assessment Tool, pandemic, Pandemic Severity Assessment Framework, seasonal flu, Stephen Redd, vaccine

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