Food Safety

Food borne diseases have made the news again lately. It's good that people hear the standard food safety messages:

• Cook meat to the proper temperature
• Wash your hands before preparing food, after handling raw meat, and before you eat.
• Avoid cross contamination of ready to eat food with bacteria from raw meat, this means using a clean plate to bring the cooked burgers in from the grill, don't cut up your tomatoes on the same counter or cutting board you used for meat, unless you wash and sanitize the surfaces first.
• Practice time and temperature control: keep cold food cold and hot food hot, don't leave food out at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
• When in doubt, throw it out.

But the message should educate, not scare people.

A friend went to a barbecue where the hamburger meat was from Kroger's and they had tomatoes for the sandwiches. He joked that he was having a death burger. Unlike many people he knew that in public health we always assume that meat is contaminated with some type of bacteria or virus, and that the required cooking temperatures will kill the organisms.

Chicken and eggs are known for Salmonella, so cook them to at least 165 degrees, Hamburgers for E. Coli, cook to 155 degrees, Pork for Trichinosis, cook to 140 degrees, other meats cook to 140 degrees.

Vegetable and fruits that do not get cooked can be contaminated from soil, and water, as well as human, or animal contact. Wash these thoroughly before eating them. Refrigerate melons after they are cut up.

This is a great time of year to get fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as local meats and cheeses, at our farmer's markets. Granville, Newark, and Pataskala all host weekly markets. Buy farm fresh foods, and cook them properly...maybe that should be the message in the news.

When was the last time you had no health insurance?

The 2007 Ohio Family Health Survey found that 30% of Ohioans 18-64 years old reported being uninsured for some period during the 12 months before the survey was conducted. On average 17.7% of Ohioans age 18-64 were uninsured during 2007. This is an increase of approximately 209,000 new uninsured since 2004 when the rate was 15%.

Presidential candidates and state and federal lawmakers are all trying to find a fix to the patchwork of health insurance coverage that leaves an estimated 47 million people in the U.S. without coverage.

Many other countries have national plans, including Britain, France and Canada, and while the US spends more per person on health care, we are not getting better care. However, none of the major party presidential candidates are calling for a national health plan.

A recent survey of over 2,000 doctors shows that 59 percent of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and 32 percent oppose the idea.

This is a significant shift from the 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.

As Senator Bill Frist put it in a Jan. 20, 2005 New England Journal of Medicine article: “All Americans deserve the security of lifelong, affordable access to high quality health care.”

There are a lot of special interest groups who are trying to make sure that they hang on to their profits, and a lot of people who are afraid of change. Unfortunately these people usually have more influence on lawmakers than the unemployed, low wage earners, independent contractors, and others that cannot afford health insurance under the current system.

Most Americans would not spend a bunch of money trying to fix a broken computer; they know that they would just end up with an expensive, outdated, system anyway, so they would just go out and buy a new one. I say it’s time to take the same approach to our health insurance system. Nobody should be happy with a system that doesn’t work 17% of the time.

This isn't the free perscription drug coverage I'd hoped for.

What’s new? Well how about the recent stories about prescription drugs in the drinking water supplies of some cities?
The five-month AP investigation tested the drinking water in 62 major metropolitan areas supplying water to 41 million Americans. Testing showed 24 of the large metro areas contained traces of pharmaceuticals. Tiny amounts of pharmaceuticals for birth control, mood stabilizers, anti-convulsants, heart medicine, painkillers, antibiotics and anti-seizure medications were discovered by tests.
This isn’t really new. In 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released the first study of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater-related chemicals in streams across the nation. Most sites were downstream of urban and farming areas where wastewater is known or suspected to enter streams. The 2002 study showed that pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater-related chemicals had been detected at very low concentrations in streams across the U.S. Many of the chemicals examined (81 of 95) do not have drinking-water standards or health advisories. Measured concentrations of compounds that do have standards or criteria rarely exceeded any of them. Among the chemicals detected were: human and veterinary drugs (including antibiotics), natural and synthetic hormones, detergents, plasticizers, insecticides, and fire retardants.
Chemicals of all kinds enter our surface and ground water through wastewater treatment systems, industry, and agriculture. Domestic sewage treatment plants are not equipped to remove the trace amounts of chemicals and pharmaceuticals that are flushed down our drains. Sewage sludge from treatment plants, and manure from livestock operations, is spread onto farm fields across the country. The antibiotics and other drugs found in these wastes, and fertilizers and pesticides applied to fields and yards, can find their way into our ground and surface water.
The small amounts of pharmaceuticals identified in drinking water may be so small that they are not a health risk. These studies will probably spur improvement in water and wastewater treatment. My hope is that they also spur increased environmental awareness and promote efforts to keep these chemicals out of the environment in the first place.

Moving Forward

The merged health department kicked off with a reception on February 1st attended by local elected officials and others. Director of the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Alvin Jackson, attended and gave short speech citing the benefits of the merger and congratulating those who worked to make it happen.
In the first two weeks of the combined department, we are working to integrate staff. We’ve moved the birth and death records from both departments together and moved some clerical staff to the front office. We’ve begun moving the environmental health staff one area.
The computer networks have been joined and most of the city data has been migrated over.
The cleaning contact for the agency that the county commissioners had cleaning the rest of the building had to be amended to have them clean the back wing. They started cleaning that area on the 15th.
Weekly divisional staff meetings have started for Environmental Health, Clerical, and Nursing.
I am still learning more about how the city’s programs were run, and what the staff does. Daily logs, which the county nurses and sanitarians have used for years, will be new to the former city workers. These logs allow us to get a clear picture of what the employees spend their time doing, and make it possible for us to make better decisions about service delivery and will allow us to do accurate cost analysis for our programs.

Counting Down

The merger is just four more working days away. If those days are anything like the last week was, we will be working our butts off to get ready.
Even after nearly four years of work to get to this point, we continue to be surprised by things we hadn't thought about. Like the books say, "don't sweat the little things". Lots of little problems are still just little problems. The big thing is that we are moving forward, working as a team to reach our goal.
Four more days - that is worth savoring. So many people said ,"it will never happen" but we didn't give up, we didn't go away, and we didn't push. Perceptions take time to change, and eventually more people began to believe, "it might happen", and finally, "it will happen."
I've always believed that the merger would happen, I just wasn't sure when it would happen. Now we all know when...four more days!

Newark Council Approves Merger

The Newark City Council voted 9-1 in favor of joining the Licking County, Heath City, and Pataskala City health districts in the formation of a combined general health district. The merger will final become a reality after nearly 60 years of on and off attempts that have all fallen short. The real work begins now, joining the employees into a cohesive, integrated, unit. I am sure that the Newark Health Dept. and Licking County Health Dept. staff will come together with only minor growing pains.
Thanks to all the people who have helped obtain this historic opportunity to improve public health services in Licking County.

District Advisory Council Approves Merger!

On Saturday January 5th, the Licking County General Health District Advisory Council voted unanimously to approve the contract for the union of the Licking County, Heath, Pataskala, and Newark City Health Districts. It was remarkable that nearly 30 representatives from the townships, villages, cities, and county commissioners, all agreed in the spirit of intergovenmental cooperation, to support the merger.
Newark City Council is to vote on January 8th. I'll report back then.