Results tagged “healthdepartment”

A deputy commissioner for the Health Department said yesterday that the DOH is considering a tax increase on alcohol, which could increase the price of a bottle of beer as much as ten cents. After hearing about the possibility, the Daily News rushed to interview barflies on Eighth Avenue, where the news was received calmly and rationally. "They tried that before, it is called temperance," declared Marc Jacobs (ha), on his way into the Molly Wee Pub. Another patron at The Blarney Stone, Phil Carroll, sarcastically asked, "That worked with cigarettes, right?" Well, Phil, it probably did: 300,000 fewer adult New Yorkers smoke than in 2002, which may have a little something to do with price hikes and indoor smoking bans. more ›

Did the coyote and bald eagle sightings keep you from thinking about all of those rabid raccoons roaming around Central Park? Well, they're still there—however, the city plans to vaccinate all Upper Manhattan raccoons against rabies so that we don't get some sort of I Am Legend/Cujo hybrid scenario on our hands. more ›

With the Health Department cracking down on the carriage horse industry, it seems stable horses are next on their list—if their proposed regulations go through, the animals may receive the same breaks animal rights activists have been fighting for. But one Brooklyn Stable owner tells the Daily News that if he has to give his horses 5-week vacations, bigger stalls and install a sprinkler system in his barn... it would break the bank. more ›

After suspicious pasta salad (allegedly) took out fifteen New York Times employees who ate it in the paper's cafeteria, The Daily Finance had the bright idea to peruse the health inspection records of the Gray Lady's fancy office eatery. While the cafeteria's most recent inspection resulted in 10 violation points (lower than the city-wide average of 14 points), it's a horse of a different putrid color over at their printing plant in Queens. In February of last year it was cited for "evidence of roaches or live roaches in food and/or non-food areas," "conditions conducive to vermin" and improperly installed or maintained plumbing, earning it 18 violation points. That's not enough to shut it down, but apparently the Times thinks that's good enough for their blue collar workers. more ›

Fifteen New York Times employees are ill after eating suspicious pasta salad from the paper's cafeteria. The Health Department has closed the dining room while it investigates whether the sick staffers got food poisoning there. "While we do not know if the cause is food-related, as a precaution, we are closing the cafeteria for the day," said a Times editor in an email to the New York Daily News. All sick employees are urged to come forward, so that the culprit can quickly be identified. The Gray Lady says its stomach pain sufferers are in fine condition, and getting better. more ›

Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. has failed in his mission to talk City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley into pulling the controversial heroin how-to guide off the streets (it's been there since 2007). The folks at Housing Works report that the two have met and agreed to disagree; one saying it's harmful and a starter guide, the other saying it's helpful. While the pamphlet will no longer be online, it will continue to be distributed throughout the city. Vallone says the latter includes distributing to "people being released from Riker’s [and other locations]." more ›

The war against the Heroin How-To guide rages on, with Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. lobbying for the 17-page brochure to be destroyed... though it's been in circulation for nearly two years. more ›

Earlier this year the Board of Health began weighing a plan to require restaurants to prominently display a letter grade of A, B or C, depending on the sanitary conditions. (Those restaurants receiving Bs and Cs would be inspected more often than those inspectors' pets with the As.) A similar public grading system has been used in LA for years, and NYC's 24,000 restaurants will soon get with the left coast. But first, the Board of Health wants to hear your opinion! more ›

After freaking out street vendors and the bloggers who love them yesterday, the Health Department has emailed us to say it was all a big misunderstanding. A provision in the Health Department's new code [pdf] raised eyebrows by declaring that "no fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal...shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit." That's what it says, but it's not what they meant! more ›

On January 1st a little-noticed Health Department rule will take effect, prohibiting street vendors from selling any seafood products. This is going to put a dent in the business of such vendors as the Schnitzel Truck, the Endless Summer Mexican truck, and the NYC Cravings Truck, to name a few. The Health Department's new code [pdf] declares that "no fish, shellfish, or any food consisting of or made with an aquatic animal...shall be prepared, stored, held for service or sold from a mobile food vending unit." Blogger Midtown Lunch, which spotted the change today, is not taking this well: more ›

Well, the title of this video pretty much says it all. Making good on their promise to make a commercial for their vivid ad campaign discouraging sugary drink consumption, the NYC Health Department has just released this little opus. If you like Garbage Pail Kids, you'll love this: more ›

The Health Department announced that this weekend's H1N1 vaccine clinics will be open to pretty much all New Yorkers, because demand for the vaccine has fallen from its peak a few weeks ago. The department sid, "This weekend’s five vaccine centers - one in each borough - will admit any New Yorker who is at least 4 years old, including any healthy adult who would like to be vaccinated." more ›

In 2005, the city started an education and testing program to help STD-infected high school students, but kids today just can't seem to get enough of these STDs, and now statistics suggest that more students are infected with chlamydia or gonorrhea than when the program started. Nearly 6 percent of the 11,410 teens who submitted voluntary confidential urine samples during the past school year tested positive for one of those two infections. While that percentage is lower than the 2007-08 school year (when 7.3 percent tested positive) it's still up from 2006-07, when the infection rate among a smaller sample of students was just 4.8 percent. more ›

After a Thanksgiving break, the city's Health Department is resuming its weekend clinics for people in priority groups (info here) to receive free H1N1 vaccines. There's one clinic in each of the five boroughs (PDF). Over 26,000 have been vaccinated so far. more ›

The city Health Department held its third weekend of free swine flu vaccine clinics open to people in priority groups and 6,008 got the vaccine on Saturday while 5,478 more received it on Sunday. One reader commented yesterday, "Just went to the Queens flu clinic, and the lines were about 15 minutes max. Kudos to NYC DOH on a really well-run efficient operation." (The previous weekend, over 15,000 opted for the vaccine.) The next weekend for the clinics is December 5 & 6. more ›

The Health Department is holding weekend clinics for people in the priority groups—more details here—to get H1N1 vaccines. Here's a PDF of the locations and hours in each borough and there are two more weekends of clinics scheduled after the Thanksgiving Day weekend. Last weekend, 15,000 people opted to get the vaccines. more ›

After opening up its weekend H1N1 vaccination clinics to priority groups beyond public school students, the Health Department gave out 15,606 free vaccines this past Saturday and Sunday (the previous weekend's clinics saw less than 4,000 people receive the vaccines). Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley told the Daily News that in spite of NYC's low infection rate, "We haven't escaped it entirely. Rates are falling in most of the country now, but they're still rising here." more ›

Since turnout for last weekend's swine flu vaccine clinics for public school students was low, the Health Department decided to open up this weekend's clinics to other priority groups—pregnant women; anyone 4 years through 24 years of age; persons 25 through 64 with underlying health conditions that increases risk of severe illness or complications; anyone who lives with or cares for children less than 6 months old. And on the Upper East Side, at P.S. 290, the lines went for three blocks with at least a 90 minute wait. more ›

So much for those parental consent forms! Two public school students, one in Brooklyn and one in Staten Island, were given the swine flu vaccine without signed consent forms. The NYC Health Department told the NY Times, "We are working to determine how this occurred, and to implement additional safeguards." more ›

Since 1993, the city's Health Department has been giving out fast food restaurant coupons to TB patients, as an incentive to get them to return to clinics for six-month treatment programs. It's a bit awkward, because this is the same Health Department that's launched an aggressive, multi-pronged public health campaign to educate consumers about junk food. Start the countdown for the first lawsuit from a TB patient who contracts diabetes! more ›

The junk food industry is going to war against the Bloomberg administration's big public health push, spending $1 million on an ad campaign asking New Yorkers, "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" But Bloomberg isn't sweating the industry's measly million in ads, and defended his hands-on approach to health yesterday, telling reporters, "A little impetus from the government really does improve the public health of the average person. If you want to drink sugared drinks, you're going to have a weight problem, and maybe government should tax it to keep you from doing it." And if taxes don't persuade you to put down the Big Gulp, maybe a little trip to Room 101 will do the trick. more ›

Unhealthy food purveyors are fed up with what they see as City Hall's scaremongering about their products, so they've gone on the offensive with a $1 million nationwide ad campaign. In New York, the Center for Consumer Freedom—a "consumer advocate" front for a collective of food corporations—is asking people, "When did the Big Apple become Big Brother?" We thought it started around the time Peter Stuyvesant imprisoned people harboring Quakers, but no; the answer to that rhetorical question is Mayor Bloomberg. His Health Department is behind a number of public health initiatives, including requiring chain restaurants to display calorie info, and, most recently, a public awareness campaign against soda. more ›

Just a few more days until the return to school comes for students across the city as medical experts anxiously await just how badly swine flu might affect the upcoming academic year. Already at Cornell University in Ithaca, 140 students have come down with flu-like illnesses in the two weeks since school has reconvened. more ›

The American Beverage Association is more than a little defensive about the city's new public awareness campaign which depicts human fat pouring out of cola, energy drink, and sweetened ice tea bottles. The ads, which are intended to educate the public about the high caloric content of sugary beverages, debuted yesterday, and Kevin Keane, a senior vice president at the Association, was quick to run to the Post: "It's absurd and over the top and unfortunately is going to undermine efforts to educate about a serious and complex issue like obesity." Also, why does government keep picking on soda? Earlier this year Governor Paterson proposed a tax on soda, which was successfully shot down by the beverage industry. Keane wonders, "Why aren't they going after cake? Why single out soft drinks?" But Cathy Nonas at the Health Department says, "It's just horrifying to see how many preschoolers are drinking these sugar-sweetened beverages" and even abusing sports drinks: "In terms of physical activity... water is the most important thing before, during and after an event." Well, the American Beverage Association has got kids covered on that because according to their website "all BEVERAGES provide hydration." Your move, cake! more ›

Do you enjoy soda and other delicious sugary beverages? If so, you may as well raise a cup of human fat to your lips and chug, according to a new public awareness campaign by the NYC Health Dept. The print ads depict, in graphic detail, human fat mottled with blood vessels being poured from a bottle of cola; a plastic "sports" drink bottle that looks like Gatorade; and a glass bottle of iced tea resembling Snapple, New York City's "official beverage." more ›

Low five? The Press Ganey Emergency Department Pulse Report 2009 rated NYC last among the nation's 10 largest metropolitan areas for satisfaction in emergency-department care, and New York State was 46th in overall emergency room waiting time. South Dakota came in at #1 with an average waiting time of 172 minutes, while New York narrowly beat out New Mexico with an average of 288 minutes—nearly 5 hours. (Utah came in dead last with a 408 minute wait time.) Dr. Peter Viccellio of Stony Brook University Medical Center tells Crain's "Sometimes, we can’t even spare someone to go into the waiting area and talk to patients and tell them what’s going on." He also admits to having to relocate patients to beds in hospital corridors to make room for incoming patients. Last summer a shocking video showed a woman being ignored after she died in an ER waiting room. The silver lining for NYC? This report emphasizes patient satisfaction with wait time, not with the care they eventually receive, so let's just assume we're #1 when patients eventually see a doctor—as they say, the best health comes to those who wait. more ›

While the city's Health Department has emphasized that cases of swine flu are declining, the Daily News reports that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data suggests "half a million New Yorkers have been infected by swine flu." The CDC thinks there are actually 50 times more cases of swine flu than what's been reported to health authorities: "The CDC study was not based on laboratory evidence. Instead, researchers relied on mathematical modelling of surveys conducted in areas, like New York City, that have had high levels of H1N1 infections." Hmm. The Health Department had no comment; so far, the city has had 32 deaths and 804 hospitalizations due to swine flu. The next Health Department update will be on July 1. more ›

The city's health department just wants you to be healthy, which is why you can no longer innocently order a pina colada at Pizzeria Uno while pretending it doesn't contain multitudes of calories. The latest proposal to dispel New Yorkers' ignorant bliss involves requiring any retailers selling cigarettes to display graphic warning signs (like the sample here) about the dangers of smoking, plus information on where to seek help quitting. The proposed measure would require retailers to post the warnings wherever tobacco products are displayed, and also at the cash register or point of purchase. Officials hope it will help more New Yorkers quit; according to DOH stats, tobacco-related illness kills 7,400 people in the city each year. In fact, smoking kills more New Yorkers than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined! So today the Board of Health voted to solicit public comment on the proposed amendment (which you can read here), and a public hearing will be held on July 30th. What do you think? Too graphic or not graphic enough? (And last year the Health Department unveiled a line of graphic anti-smoking matchbooks.) more ›

Today, the Health Department announced that seven more deaths have been linked to the H1N1 virus, aka swine flu. The total number of swine flu-related deaths is now 23. From the Health Department: "Of the 20 deaths for which background medical information is available, 16 (80%) have occurred in people with established underlying risk factor for developing severe influenza or complications. The newly confirmed deaths have not all occurred during the current reporting period (June 12-16), and most involve people who were hospitalized in late May, at the peak of the outbreak." (Which means the Health Department's belief that swine flu is waning could still hold.) Newsday reports, "A young woman who had just given birth became the first apparent death from swine flu in Nassau County Tuesday... A pregnant woman between age 20 and 30 was admitted to a hospital June 5 with fever and respiratory symptoms and was confirmed to have swine flu. Her baby was delivered by Caesarean section that day and the woman was transferred to the intensive care unit two days later. She died yesterday." The baby is reportedly doing well. more ›

The NYC Health Department released data yesterday suggesting "community transmission" of swine flu (aka H1N1 virus) is on the decline, because emergency room visits have declined: "As expected, however, hospitalizations and fatalities continue to occur. As of June 11, the Health Department had recorded 567 hospitalizations and 16 deaths. The latest death occurred in a person aged 40-49." more ›