Forensics Talk

The American Red Cross Urges Safety In States Affected By Flooding

 

Medical News Today                                                                                                                                                         

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 23 Jun 2008 - 3:00 PDT

     The American Red Cross forges on with relief efforts as hundreds of thousands of residents in states across the Midwest continue to feel the effects of recent flooding, as some are allowed to return to damaged homes and many others remain in shelters. Along the Mississippi River, residents in Missouri and Illinois brace themselves as the river surpasses record flood levels and continues to break or compromise levees.

More than 4,000 Red Cross disaster workers are aiding relief efforts in eight states from Kansas to West Virginia. In preparation for potential flood conditions along the Missouri-Illinois border, 19 shelters are operating and thousands of meals and snacks have been provided.

In areas where flooding is likely to occur soon, it is crucial for residents to take action to get better prepared and be "Red Cross Ready": Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Informed... Read More

    

Tips To Help People With Diabetes Plan For Disaster

Medical News Today                                                                                 

Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 24 Jun 2008 - 1:00 PDT

     Natural disasters in 2008 have proved that hurricane season isn't the only time a person should be prepared for the worst. That is why the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), and Eli Lilly and Company are urging people with diabetes to be ready in advance in the event disaster strikes.

Hurricane season, which began June 1, arrived in the midst of an already devastating year of natural disasters. Wildfires swept through Florida and California, floods struck Iowa, earthquakes hit China and Missouri and a record-breaking tornado season have all left millions without homes.

"When people think about preparing for disasters, they don't necessarily think of earthquakes striking Missouri," AACE spokesperson Victor Roberts MD, MBA, FACP, FACE of Endocrine Associates of Florida said. "But events like that and the recent tragedy in Myanmar serve as a painful reminder that disaster will strike at a moment's notice." Read More

Emergency Preparedness Tools To Enable Millions More People To Shelter In Place

Medical News Today
Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism;  Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 17 Sep 2007 - 2:00 PST

     Although the nation has invested billions of dollars preparing to respond to emergencies, current plans leave millions of Americans at risk because they do not account for critical problems people face when they actually try to protect themselves. To fix this fundamental flaw, The New York Academy of Medicine has released a report and tools -- available at http://www.redefiningreadiness.net/ -- that will enable households, work places, schools and early childhood/youth programs, and governments to anticipate and address problems they would face in emergencies. The tools are released during National Preparedness Month, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The report, "With the Public's Knowledge, We Can Make Sheltering in Place Possible", is based on two years' work gathering the insights and experiences of nearly 2,000 people who live and work in four communities around the country. It identifies serious and unanticipated problems that currently make it neither feasible nor safe for many people to shelter in place. In conjunction with that report, the Academy is releasing four Shelter-in-Place Issue Sets (in both Spanish and English) to help members of households and organizations recognize and address their own vulnerabilities in these kinds of emergencies. Sheltering in place means staying inside whatever building you happen to be in -- a workplace, school, store, or at home -- for a period of a few hours to several days in order to stay safe, even if that requires you to be separated from other family members... More

Energy-Efficient Device Could Quickly Detect Hazardous Chemicals

Medical News Today
Main Category: Medical Devices
Also Included In: Bio-terrorism / Terrorism;  Public Health;  Conferences
Article Date: 14 Jan 2008 - 0:00 PST

Engineers at MIT are developing a tiny sensor that could be used to detect minute quantities of hazardous gases, including toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents, much more quickly than current devices.

The researchers have taken the common techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and shrunk them to fit in a device the size of a computer mouse. Eventually, the team, led by MIT Professor Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande, plans to build a detector about the size of a matchbox.

"Everything we're doing has been done on a macro scale. We are just scaling it down," said Akinwande, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and member of MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL).

Akinwande and MIT research scientist Luis Velasquez-Garcia plan to present their work at the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) 2008 conference next week. In December, they presented at the International Electronic Devices Meeting... More

Patients With Chronic Conditions Worsened By Lack Of Disaster Plan During Hurricane Katrina, Study Says

Medical News Today
Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Aid / Disasters
Article Date: 21 Dec 2007 - 5:00 PST

     Inadequate disaster preparedness plans resulted in many people with chronic diseases having difficulty finding daily medications and physicians to manage their conditions after Hurricane Katrina, according to a report released on Monday by the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, the AP/Biloxi Sun Herald reports.

The study interviewed patients and health care providers from Biloxi, Miss., to Mobile, Ala., and found that patients with chronic conditions -- such as diabetes, hypertension and HIV -- had to focus on basic survival, and as a result, their diseases progressed, according to study co-author Errol Crook, chair of international medicine at the university. The stress of the situation, low supply of treatments and lack of healthy food recommended for people with conditions such as hypertension and diabetes all were contributing factors, the study found.

A co-author of the study, Martha Arrieta of the university's Center for Healthy Communities, said that usually disaster plans focus on acute illnesses, trauma and infectious disease. Because of this, patients with chronic conditions "are often left to their own devices after a disaster," according to the AP/Sun Herald. Arrieta said that stocking up on healthy food and coordinating efforts to distribute supplies more efficiently should be part of future disaster plans.

The study recommended that medical facilities and pharmacies improve disaster preparation, including stockpiling medicines, creating and practicing disaster plans, and sharing those plans with patients and surrounding health care facilities (AP/Biloxi Sun Herald, 12/18). 

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

   

       

   

Red Cross Aligns With CEOs for Stronger Disaster Preparedness

Occupational Hazards
October 4, 2007
By Laura Walter

     The American Red Cross and Business Roundtable announced a new Partnership for Disaster Response collaboration to accelerate on-the-ground relief and recovery activities following major national disasters.

“The business community, with its assets and expertise, should contribute to disaster relief, not only with money and products but with its greatest resource: hard working, dedicated people,” said Richard L. Keyser, chairman and CEO of Grainger and chairman of Business Roundtable’s Partnership for Disaster Response. “Expanding the Red Cross’s Ready When the Time Comes program, which trains employees to serve as volunteers during a disaster, is one way businesses can help the Red Cross provide solutions to people in crisis.”

The Partnership for Disaster Response collaboration includes several activities to help the private and nonprofit sectors work together to strengthen the nation’s disaster response system:

• Introduce new communications channels to improve the flow of information and efficiencies between the business community and the Red Cross;
• Share companies’ first-hand reports from disaster sites with the Red Cross to expedite relief and recovery efforts through the partnership’s Web site,
    http://www.respondtodisaster.org;
• Strengthen systems to match community needs with the resources companies can provide during a disaster;
• Enhance corporate and individual employee preparedness efforts by encouraging them to “Be Red Cross Ready”;
• Expand a model program to train employees to serve as Red Cross volunteers during a disaster; and
• Install a representative of the business community in the Red Cross’s Disaster Operations Center.

“Companies play a pivotal role in responding to disasters as we saw with the private sector’s unprecedented response to Hurricane Katrina,” said Harold McGraw III, chairman of Business Roundtable and chairman, president and CEO of the McGraw-Hill companies. “We are proud to support Mark Everson, the new CEO of the American Red Cross, and are encouraged that he sees business as a partner. We are confident that this initiative can serve as an important new model for public-private partnerships in disaster response, one that will strengthen our nation’s system for responding to communities in crisis.”
   
“The generosity of the private sector in this country is unparalleled,” said Everson. “The Red Cross is grateful to Business Roundtable for leading American businesses in identifying solutions to help prepare families and communities before disasters occur and in providing relief in the aftermath of disasters.”
   
The organizations also have developed resources to help individuals, families and companies learn how to improve their disaster preparedness plans. These resources are available on http://www.respondtodisaster.org and
  http://www.redcross.org/flash/brr/English-flash/default.asp.

The collaboration announcement, made Sept. 21, was timed with National Preparedness Month, a nationwide effort to encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies in their homes, schools, communities and businesses.