City Says New Yorkers Getting Healthier

Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg and NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden announced that New Yorkers are making progress in meeting seven out of 10 public health goals set in 2004 as part of the mayor's "Take Care New York" comma-phobic health policy. By 2007, the most recent year on record, New Yorkers had surpassed 2008 targets within four of the program's priority areas: colon cancer screening, regular access to primary health care, tobacco smoking, and intimate partner homicide. High-five? According to surveys, 300,000 fewer adult New Yorkers smoke than in 2002, there were 598 fewer deaths from HIV, and 319 fewer children developed lead poisoning. Because of the improvements, the city's life expectancy has also grown by a year and three months since 2001. New Yorkers born in 2006 can now expect to live an average of 79 years, but not long enough to see the Knicks make the playoffs.