Category: Public Health

  • Why Americans Should Be Alarmed Over the Use of E-Cigarettes

    Humans have been smoking tobacco for a long time. But the popularity of tobacco cigarettes took off in the U.S. during WWI, when they were given out freely. By the middle of the 20th Century, close to 60% of men were smoking cigarettes. When the evidence overwhelmingly showed that cigarettes caused not only cancer but […]

  • The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis

    The steady and alarming rise in antibiotic resistance poses one of the greatest challenges to public health and modern medicine. The U.S. CDC estimates that drug-resistant bacteria sicken more than 2 million people annually, causing 23,000 deaths and resulting in $20 billion in excess health-care costs and an additional $35 billion in lost productivity. The […]

  • Wildfires and Smoke

    The 2020 California wildfires are among the worst in history and the wildfire season is just starting. Wildfires have been a feature of the mountain west for eons but the fires of the last few years have been catastrophic in loss of property, life and health. With increased fires at the wildfire urban interface the […]

  • E-Cigarettes: What We Know, What We Need to Learn

    In 2014 with vaping newly on the rise, Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander joined us to talk about the potential health risks. Five years later, we revisit the topic to see how the research is bearing out how e-cigarettes and their usage has evolved. Dr. Alexander shares a physician’s view of the specific dangers of vaping. […]

  • What is in the Air We Breathe?

    “What we do in my group is we zoom in on the aerosols.” Vicki Grassian and her team look at aerosols at a microscopic level to determine their impact on our health and our climate. Aerosols can be mineral dust and sea spray from the ocean or created by human activity or stem from any […]

  • Climate Change

    “When you talk about diversity of the soil, human beings we carry our soil with us. And we give that a very fancy term which is all the rage these days which is ‘microbiome.’ And as we see microbes diminishing in the soil, we are also seeing the same things happen in ourselves,” says Kelli […]

  • Developmental Disabilities Update

    Check out highlights from this year’s conference addressing a variety of topics, including the impact of trauma and immigration on child development and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Offering a unique update for primary care and subspecialty health care professionals and others who care for children, youth, and adults with developmental disabilities and complex […]

  • Trust in Nutrition Science

    Can scientists research nutrition if they take money from the food industry? Nutrition scientist and author Marion Nestle has long been concerned about the way food company sponsorship influences (or, at best, appears to influence) the outcome of research on nutrition and health. She says that the idea that one food or food product has […]

  • Beyond Food and Exercise: the Other Factors in the Obesity Epidemic

    Everything you come in contact with, every second of every day, makes an impact on your health. It’s known as the exposome. It’s a relatively new concept, first defined in 2005. The exposome includes the food you eat, the beauty products you use, the air you breathe, your friends and family, and everything in between. […]

  • Guns, Obesity, and Opioids

    They may not seem related, but Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, says we can approach guns, obesity and opioids in the same manner: population health. Dr. Galea breaks down the key concepts of population health – a relatively new field – during the inaugural Colloquium on Population Health […]