PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/health/)
Hacker, the county’s highest paid employee with a salary of more than $220,000, said she thinks she should be judged on the progress she’s helped to usher in, including reduced lead poisoning in children, fewer opioid overdose deaths and a steady decline in air pollution that is on the verge of coming into compliance with the law.
But a number of constraints made the work difficult.
After a Dec. 24 fire at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, Allegheny County Health Department officials discussed internally how to respond. The department considered issuing an emergency order to require U.S. Steel to take steps to reduce its emissions, email records show. Officials went as far as drafting such an order, they said. But they didn’t issue it because the company was already voluntarily taking many of the steps the county believed would keep residents safe.
Zita Iwuoha is a midwife whose mission to save black mothers and babies began in Nigeria, but once she realized that black mothers in Allegheny County were facing a similar reality, she began to expand her scope.
Mental illness was a label I always knew, but one that I never thought described me. The label was given to me in my early childhood and, from then on, I tried to make peace with the fact that I was “ill.” I twisted and turned the label in my head, trying to figure out what it meant for me and how it fit into my life.
The concept of “prediabetes,” now a decade old, is the latest in a recent trend of diagnosing prediseases to delay the onset of chronic diseases. Some medical experts worry these new terms are pathologizing otherwise healthy people.
Thousands of Pennsylvanians are being exposed to dangerous chemicals in their drinking water—many without knowing it—and some experts feel state agencies aren’t moving quickly enough to protect residents.
The Affordable Care Act [ACA], a 9-year-old overhaul to the U.S. health care system, is intended to make health insurance accessible for everyone by expanding Medicaid and making insurance easier for individuals to buy without an employer. Since its passage and a 2015 expansion of Medicaid, Pennsylvania saw big jumps in the percentage of residents covered by insurance. But there are significant gaps.
An Allegheny County program meant to remove lead from homes is faltering. Families are worried that their children are at risk.
Lead levels in Pittsburgh are up again, according to the latest round of water testing by the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority.
Experts in trauma care differentiate between sudden violent events, such as the Tree of Life shooting, and chronic forms of violence, such as war zones or ongoing gun violence within neighborhoods. In Pittsburgh, chronic gun violence occurs in some neighborhoods, but not others, and that trauma is disproportionately carried by the city's black communities.
