Poison Prevention Week March 19 - 25

2,200,000 annual human exposure cases. Nearly 50% of all exposures involved children younger than 6

DID YOU KNOW?

Unintentional poisoning is the leading cause of accidental injury deaths for people ages 25-64 ... even more than motor vehicle fatalities.

Poisons can include medicines, cosmetics, plants, pesticides and the combination of familiar items such as cleaning products.

Learn more and see our poison prevention video and infographics.

Tooth decay is contagious

Photo of four smiling children on the grass

Children with poor oral health are nearly 3 times more likely to miss school because of dental pain – and one third of grade school absences among kids from disadvantaged households are for dental problems.

Most pernicious of all, research shows that one of the major forms of decay-causing bacteria can be easily spread from a mother or caregiver to a small child, said HRSA Senior Dental Advisor Dr. Renee Joskow in a recent presentation.

"Tooth decay is actually five times more common than asthma in children and seven times more common than hay fever … and left untreated, tooth decay can cause problems in other parts of the body."

Learn more about children's dental health.

Arthritis in America - new CDC report

Photo of an elderly couple walking on a nature trail

The CDC has released a new Vital Signs report about Arthritis in America. Among the findings:

About 1 in 4 (54 million) US adults have arthritis.
About 24 million adults are limited in their activities from arthritis.
Adults with arthritis can decrease pain and improve function by about 40% by being physically active.

Read the report on Arthritis in America.

One doctor’s cause in rural America

Dr McKnight with Fit for Life participant Larry Parrish

When Dr. Tim McKnight first landed in Dennison, Ohio, it didn't take him long to see that a major public health threat was bedeviling his adopted community.

In a five-county area at the northern tip of Appalachia, long plagued by health care shortages, about one of every three patients McKnight saw at the 13-bed Trinity Hospital Twin City was obese – and it was stoking dangerous cases of diabetes, pre-diabetes, strokes, cancers and heart disease.

"We have more problems in rural America," McKnight said. "We have higher rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol…" Add a higher prevalence of smoking and opioid misuse, and a predictable result would be "devastating consequences," including widespread early deaths.