Results tagged “thenycdoh”

The NYC Department of Health issued a drinking water advisory after the yesterday's flooding may have affected NYC's Hillview reservoir. The DoH says that "higher than normal levels of particles" have been detected in the water supply. While that water has been diverted, they ask that "infants, the elderly, pregnant women and New Yorkers with conditions that compromise their immune systems– those with HIV/AIDS, especially those with CD4 counts less than 200; those with leukemia; and those who are post bone marrow transplantation - use either boiled or bottled water as a precaution for the next 24 hours (until noon Friday)." The NYC DoH has information on what you should do with your water in the meantime; it's unclear whether a Brita filter works, so perhaps boiling water is just the safest thing. [Via Marisa]

The NYCDOH announced that there are nearly 200,000 fewer smokers in NYC since 2002 when the city launched a comprehensive tobacco control plan. They also stated that exposure to secondhand smoke in homes has dropped by more than one-third. Secondhand smoke has been associated with nearly all the bad things that happen to smokers (such as lung disease and heart disease), Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and deaths from asthma exacerbations. They boldly claim that "at least 60,000 early deaths will be prevented." Unfortunately, the Free Nicotine Patch Program ended on June 9th but was quite successful handing out 45,000 courses in 40 days.

The NYCDOH released today information about a Bronx man who injected himself with suspected contaminated heroin. He reportedly did not feel his typical euphoric state afterwards and presented to the hospital complaining of diffuse pain that progressively worsened into severe muscle spasms. He eventually was placed on a ventilator and his status remains unknown. The DOH believes that the heroin was possibly contaminated with strychnine or Clostridium tetani. Gothamist Health believes that street drugs are...well...bad. Who knows what kind of conditions in which these substances are manufactured? Obviously the FDA has no power to regulate potency, purity, and sterility in the process in even the cleanest meth labs out in Missouri. On second thought, neither does the FDA have the power to regulate any of the (air quotes) Dietary Supplements and Herbal Remedies (air quotes) we as Americans love to feed our bodies. Thanks to the Clinton Administration's failure to ensure that herbs sold to unsuspecting Americans receive strict regulation, we now must guess which grassy area of the Sheep Meadow is being sold to us as St. John's Wort (hopefully it's not the grass under the butt of that slimy dude that hit on me and my girl). So once again, please think long and hard about what you put in your body -- be it heroin or ginkgo biloba. And be smug knowing you might have to spend an arm and a leg on your herbs. The study referenced above found that the higher priced supplements also tended to be the most pure. By the way, if you are wondering what the hell that picture is, it's a painting by Sir Charles Bell of a soldier suffering muscle spasms while dying of tetanus.

Gothamist Health wants to wish everybody a happy World Tuberculosis Day 2005! And when you go out tonight to celebrate, you can eat, drink, and be merry knowing that tuberculosis rates have reached an historic low with only 1,039 cases reported in New York City in 2004. This is a 73% decline since the peak of TB in NYC in 1992. Although the decline is something for our friends at the NYCDOH to be proud of, NYC still has about double the national rate of TB. NYC is the very definition of an immigration melting pot and, unfortunately, TB disproportionately affects immigrants. Sixty-eight percent of all cases of TB were found in foreign-born New Yorkers and most were from either China, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, or India. TB is passed from person-to-person via micro-droplets exhaled from people infected with TB and usually requires prolonged exposure in enclosed spaces.

Mycobacterium infection can be deadly and anyone experiencing symptoms of coughing that lasts three weeks or longer, fever or chills, night sweats, loss of appetite and weight loss should contact their physician or call the ubiquitous 311. And next time Martha's new recipe calls for unpasteurized Mexican queso fresco, just think, she might be trying to get back at the society that threw her in the pen.