Articles Tagged with ''health and wellness''

Australia’s largest union representing workers in construction, forestry, maritime and mining and energy is demanding urgent national action on silicosis after revelations that 1-in-5 Queensland stone workers tested positive to the potentially fatal disease. The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU ) says the severity of the risks associated with engineered stone products calls for a nationally coordinated approach rather than piecemeal regulations and health monitoring programs.

Most American workers are not at significant risk of contracting the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV ) – but there are certain categories of employees who may be in danger of exposure, according to OSHA, which has published a webpage about rapidly-evolving outbreak. Chinese health officials have reported thousands of infections with 2019-nCoV in that country, with the virus reportedly spreading from person-to-person in many parts of that country.

Heart disease and stroke deaths have declined, according to data reported in the just published American Heart Association’s (AHA) Heart & Stroke Statistics - 2020 Update, but that decrease has slowed significantly in recent years. Further discouraging is that more people are living in poor health, beginning at a younger age, as a direct result of risk factors that contribute to these leading causes of death worldwide.

As public health officials work to contain the mysterious, pneumonia-like virus that has gripped Asia, people are taking measures to protect themselves against the expanding outbreak. The yet-unnamed coronavirus, a family of viruses that affect the respiratory tract, has killed 41 people and sickened more than 1,000 at last count, including a man in Washington state and woman in Chicago who both had recently traveled to Wuhan.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) recently published “Viewpoint” articles by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professors who warn that global climate change is likely to unlock dangerous new microbes, as well as threaten humans’ ability to regulate body temperature.

As of Friday, Jan. 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began conducting enhanced health screenings to detect ill travelers traveling to the United States on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, China. The CDC said the screenings are in response to an outbreak in China caused by a new and dangerous coronavirus.

Deaths related to alcohol use in the U.S. have increased over the past years, resulting in alcohol having a larger impact on public health services, according to a recent study. The authors of Using Death Certificates to Explore Changes in Alcohol‐Related Mortality in the United States, 1999 to 2017 warn that because death certificates often fail to indicate the contribution of alcohol, the scope of alcohol‐related mortality in the United States is likely higher than suggested from death certificates alone.