February is National Children’s Dental Health Month! Please visit these websites for tips on brushing and developing a healthy dental routine!
American Heart Month isn’t just for lovers. February also reminds us to take care of our heart and consider our risk factors. Believe it or not, heart disease can happen at any age. Some risk factors for heart disease and stroke are preventable. American Heart Month teaches us the ways we can help reduce our risks while eliminating those we have control over.
More Heart Healthy Resources!
- https://www.livewellsd.org/content/livewell/home/love-your-heart.html
- LoveYourHeartSD@sdcounty.ca.gov
- https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/american_heart_month.htm
- https://www.heart.org/
Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month
During February, Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month provides an opportunity for prevention and healing for teen victims of violent relationships. According to the Domestic Violence Awareness Project, approximately 1.5 million high school students in the United States experience physical abuse from a dating partner. One-quarter of parents don’t talk to their teens about domestic violence. Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month encourages parents and adolescents to take an inventory of their relationships. Abuse includes physical, psychological or sexual abuse. For more information please visit:
Covid-19 Information
For current information on vaccination sites and testing, please visit the San Diego County website.
Health Department-Reported Cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) in the United States. Since mid-May 2020, CDC has been tracking reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19.
Flu Information
Children are at high risk of getting the flu and developing flu-related complications. So it’s important for children and parents to get vaccinated. Each year, about 20,000 children younger than 5 are hospitalized from flu complications, such as pneumonia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccination for
everyone 6 months or older, with rare exception. It is especially important that young children and children with long-term health conditions get vaccinated.
Caregivers of children with health conditions or of young children (especially those younger than 6 months) should get vaccinated to help protect these children against the flu. Children younger than 6 months are at high risk of serious flu complications but are too young to get a flu vaccine.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists report regarding marijuana use during pregnancy:
The research shows the dangers associated with it. This research compares to decades ago when similar warnings began regarding alcohol, and then tobacco, and recently meth & opioids while pregnant.
Mental Health Resources
- Know the Warning Signs and Risk Factors of Suicide
- Being Prepared for a Crisis
- Navigating a Mental Health Crisis
- Need more information, referrals or support? Contact the NAMI HelpLine.
Childhood Cancer Resources:
While childhood cancer is often associated with leukemia, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that brain cancer is now the deadliest pediatric cancer. Review this report for more information.
- American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO) 855.858.2226 Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
- CureSearch 800.458.6223 info@curesearch.orghttps://curesearch.org/
Legislative Action!
AB 1110 (Burke D) – Requires, a pupil’s eyes and vision to be examined by a physician, optometrist, or ophthalmologist during the kindergarten year or upon first enrollment or entry at an elementary school, including a charter school, in accordance with specified provisions, unless the pupil’s parent or guardian submits a written waiver to the school or charter school. Two year bill.
With the first total solar eclipse in the US in 37 years, millions of Americans were looking up at the sky. Viewing the sun directly, even for brief periods, can cause permanent damage to the retina, and in some cases, result in blindness. The optical system of the eye is about the same in terms of total concentration as that magnifying lens. And so if you stare straight at the sun, you’re basically focusing that much energy right on the center of the retina—in the fovea—and it’s enough that within a few seconds you start to cause photochemical damage to the retina and specifically to the areas around the fovea.
In May, National Prevent Blindness sent a letter, signed by 101 vision and eye health organizations, to the United States Senate asking that the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s definition of “essential health benefits (EHBs),” which include coverage for children’s vision services (including eye examinations and glasses) as well as preventive health services which includes vision screenings.
AB 746 (Gonzalez Fletcher, D-San Diego) – Requires all school districts to test their water for lead and fix or cap any contaminated water source. This is considered crucial because children are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults.
In the wake of toxic lead contamination of water in Flint, Michigan. California legislators are anxious that children exposed to lead may go undiagnosed. A free and new California Water Boards program—will test a school or school districts water. Less than 10 percent of schools have taken advantage of the free program; 507 out of 1,259 schools tested statewide have been in San Diego County. The new state mandate requires water agencies to test five drinking fountains or other water fixtures at each campus, but San Diego Unified decided last week that it will test all fixtures going forward and cover the added costs itself. The district also decided to raise the standard of what’s considered a dangerous level of lead from 15 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. That will make the district’s standard the same as U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s standard for lead in bottled drinking water.
AB 725 (Levine – D, San Rafael) SB 386 (Glazer – D, Orinda) – Creates an infraction for a person to smoke on a state coastal beach or in a unit of the state park system or to dispose of used cigar or cigarette waste on a state coastal beach or in a unit of the state park system; Department of Parks and Recreation post signs. FYI – It is already an infraction for a person to smoke within 25 feet of a playground or tot lot sandbox area.
AB 62 (Wood – D, Healdsburg) – Requires all public housing agencies to prohibit the smoking of tobacco products in public housing living units, interior areas, and outdoor areas within 25 feet of public housing and administrative buildings, except in designated smoking area Two year bill.
SB 277 and AB 2109 REVISITED re Immunization and the elimination of the Personal Belief Exemption.
Immunization plays an important role in keeping your family and community healthy. Vaccination helps prevent the spread of disease, especially to those who are most likely to suffer serious complications, such as infants and young children, elders, and those with chronic illness or weakened immune systems.
The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board on 8.17.17 entitled ‘Kindergarten vaccinations scarily scarce at 57 San Diego County schools’ reported “A state health officials’ report last month that vaccination rates for California 7th graders had reached record highs was great to see, especially after an April report that vaccination rates for kindergartners had hit a 15-year high. A state law that took effect last year and ended the practice of allowing parents to cite personal beliefs and refuse to vaccinate their school-age children is paying off. It’s crucial that nearly all children be vaccinated to build up “herd immunity” to communicable diseases. And now a Los Angeles Times analysis shows that kindergarten vaccination rates were 90 percent or less — an unsafe level — at nearly 750 California schools. The database shows San Diego County has 57 such schools …” Judi’s note – actually only two public school within the 57 schools.
SB 384 (Wiener and Joel Anderson – R, San Diego) – Allows bars to stay open until 4 a.m. Public health advocates and MADD are concerned that 40 years of peer-reviewed evidence shows that increasing alcohol sales by two or more hours will increase vehicle crash injuries, emergency room admissions, and alcohol-related assault and injury, violence and suicide.
California State PTA Resources
http://toolkit.capta.org/job-descriptions/health/
Visit www.acco.org for more information.