scholarly journals Bacteriological analysis of indoor and outdoor water parks in Wisconsin

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 452-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracynda L. Davis ◽  
Jon H. Standridge ◽  
Alan J. Degnan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Heterotrophic Bacteria ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Physical Injuries ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Bacteriological Testing ◽  
Public Health And Safety

Water parks are a rapidly growing element of the United States tourist industry. To reduce incidence of abrasion and impact injuries in such parks, designers are searching for padding materials that can withstand the harsh oxidative environments of chlorinated water. Although padded features help reduce physical injuries, they may also compromise the microbiological safety of water attractions. This study describes bacteriological testing performed on 31 different pad materials, play features and pools from 10 Wisconsin water parks. Materials and surrounding pool waters were sampled and tested quantitatively for total coliforms, Escherichia coli, E. coli 0157:H7, enterococci, staphylococci, heterotrophic bacteria, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, using standard methods. Each location was sampled during three visits, and results were averaged. Pool waters were within acceptable levels of target organisms and disinfectant residuals, but target organisms were found on water features, even those submerged in chlorinated water. Bacteria were detected more frequently in pools using pad materials compared with pools without. These findings provide data that will help the public health community understand the relations between designs, materials and maintenance of water features. Additionally, the information will help state regulators and owner/operators develop guidelines to improve public health and safety at water parks.

Relaxing Regulatory Controls: Vendor Advocacy and Rights in Mobile Food Vending

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ginette Wessel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Regulatory Decision ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
Regulatory Controls

Beginning in 2008, city policymakers across the nation became increasingly involved in regulatory debates and policy revisions surrounding mobile food vending. Despite vendors’ abilities to reactivate neglected urban areas and increase food access for underserved neighborhoods, many issues related to unfair competition, public health and safety, and prejudices continue to dominate regulatory frameworks that limit vendors’ entrepreneurial freedoms and spatial opportunities. Using three regulatory conflicts between food vendors and policymakers, this chapter highlights the motivating factors that can guide regulatory decision-making and the ways vendors destabilize and shape formal mechanisms of regulatory control. Topics include public health, restaurant protectionism, and cultural injustice at both state and city levels. This research suggests that despite rigid regulatory policies and the variety of economic, social, and political factors that influence governments’ responses to mobile food vending, active municipal investment in the public realm combined with vendors’ grassroots efforts can generate just policies. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the significance of vendor advocacy and the supportive roles of food vending organizations across the United States to illustrate the ways vendors increase social justice in cities.

VENDING SANITATION AND SAFETY-A CURRENT REPORT1

1969 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 474-476
Author(s):  
David E. Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The Public ◽  
Food And Beverages ◽  
Vending Machines ◽  
External Training ◽  
Public Health And Safety

While the automatic vending of food and beverages—and non-food merchandise—has been a part of The American scene since the late 1880's, problems of public health and safety did not enter the picture until the end of World War II when the first hot beverage vending machine went on location. In 1947, the vending industry and health officials first came together to discuss the development of uniform national standards for vending machines and vending operators. In 1957, after necessary research and preparation, The Public Health Service published The Vending of Food and Beverages—A Recommended Ordinance and Code. In the same year, the industry launched a full-time public health and safety program, guided by a nationally-constituted Health-Industry Council. The progress in sanitation and safety made as a result of cooperative industry and agency efforts over the past 12 years is discussed in terms of vending legislation, internal and external training, machine standardization and testing, and research. Concluding, a review of current problems in such matters as microwave safety, copper poisoning safeguards, temperature controls, icemaker design, and commissary layout is made, together with a “crystal ball” look at the future.

scholarly journals Effects of Laws Expanding Civilian Rights to Use Deadly Force in Self-Defense on Violence and Crime: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e14
Author(s):  
Alexa R. Yakubovich ◽  
Michelle Degli Esposti ◽  
Brittany C. L. Lange ◽  
G. J. Melendez-Torres ◽  
Alpa Parmar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Risk Of Bias ◽  
Deadly Force ◽  
Us States ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Social Inequities ◽  
Public Health And Safety

Background. Since 2005, most US states have expanded civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense outside the home. In most cases, legislation has included removing the duty to retreat anywhere one may legally be, commonly known as stand-your-ground laws. The extent to which these laws affect public health and safety is widely debated in public and policy discourse. Objectives. To synthesize the available evidence on the impacts and social inequities associated with changing civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense on violence, injury, crime, and firearm-related outcomes. Search Methods. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Google Scholar, National Bureau of Economic Research working papers, and SocArXiv; harvested references of included studies; and consulted with experts to identify studies until April 2020. Selection Criteria. Eligible studies quantitatively estimated the association between laws that expanded or restricted the right to use deadly force in self-defense and population or subgroup outcomes among civilians with a comparator. Data Collection and Analysis. Two reviewers extracted study data using a common form. We assessed study quality using the Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions tools adapted for (controlled) before–after studies. To account for data dependencies, we conducted graphical syntheses (forest plots and harvest plots) to summarize the evidence on impacts and inequities associated with changing self-defense laws. Main Results. We identified 25 studies that estimated population-level impacts of laws expanding civilian rights to use deadly force in self-defense, all of which focused on stand-your-ground or other expansions to self-defense laws in the United States. Studies were scored as having serious or critical risk of bias attributable to confounding. Risk of bias was low across most other domains (i.e., selection, missing data, outcome, and reporting biases). Stand-your-ground laws were associated with no change to small increases in violent crime (total and firearm homicide, aggravated assault, robbery) on average across states. Florida-based studies showed robust increases (24% to 45%) in firearm and total homicide while self-defense claims under stand-your-ground law were more often denied when victims were White, especially when claimants were racial minorities. Author’s Conclusions. The existing evidence contradicts claims that expanding self-defense laws deters violent crime across the United States. In at least some contexts, including Florida, stand-your-ground laws are associated with increases in violence, and there are racial inequities in the application of these laws. Public Health Implications. In some US states, most notably Florida, stand-your-ground laws may have harmed public health and safety and exacerbated social inequities. Our findings highlight the need for scientific evidence on both population and equity impacts of self-defense laws to guide legislative action that promotes public health and safety for all. Trial Registration. Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/uz68e ). (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print February 23, 2021: e1–e14. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306101 )

scholarly journals Anticipating emerging arboviruses: What comes after Zika?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle V. Evans ◽  
Courtney C. Murdock ◽  
John M. Drake
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Partially Observed ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vector Borne

AbstractNew vector-borne diseases have emerged on multiple occasions over the last several decades, raising fears that they may become established within the United States. Here, we provide a watchlist of flaviviruses with high potential to emerge in the US, identified using new statistical techniques for mining the associations in partially observed data, to allow the public health community to better target surveillance.

A RISMC Perspective of the Reasonable Risk-Protection Measures

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gangyang Zheng ◽  
Paul Nelson ◽  
Vera Moiseytseva ◽  
Ernie Kee ◽  
Fatma Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Safety Margin ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Cost Curve ◽  
Protection Measures ◽  
The Public ◽  
Core Damage ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Public Health And Safety

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is mandated to ensure “adequate protection” to the public health and safety, regardless of cost. It also has steadfastly declined to specify precisely what constitutes “adequate protection,” except that it does not mean “zero risk.” Rather it judges on a case-by-case basis whether the “adequate protection” standard has been met. NRC also seems to reserve the right to require an even higher level of protection, when that can be achieved in a manner that it judges to meet similarly imprecisely specified criteria such as “practicality” and “reasonableness.” In Regulatory Guide 1.174 NRC comes close to a concrete specification of “adequate protection,” albeit one that depends upon the historical licensing basis for a specific plant. And the technical portion of this paper begins with a description of how the approach of Regulatory Guide 1.174 can be viewed from the perspective of Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization. Meanwhile, in this research, in order to better understand the role of regulation, a microeconomic model of a price-taking nuclear power plant is constructed, particularly of the cost (C) of achieving any specified level of core damage frequency (CDF). Solution of this model reveals an economic optimum, at a point that balances plant value against risk of losing the plant via an accident involving core damage. For CDFs slightly smaller than this economic optimum there is scope for a regulatory mandate of even smaller CDF, should that be deemed either necessary to attain “adequate protection,” or reasonably attainable in order to achieve greater than adequate protection of the public health and safety. It is argued that regulatory bodies must have scope for discretionary decisions, because the information necessary to formulate a reasonable approximation to the cost curve C (fortunately) does not exist.

Acute Enteric Disease Outbreaks

2019 ◽  
pp. 421-436
Author(s):  
Ian T. Williams ◽  
Laura Whitlock ◽  
Matthew E. Wise
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foodborne Illness ◽  
The Public ◽  
Enteric Diseases ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
And Control ◽  
Investigation Process

Public health officials investigate outbreaks to control them, to prevent additional illnesses, and to learn how to prevent similar outbreaks in the future. The process the public health community uses to detect, investigate, and control enteric (intestinal) disease outbreaks from food, water, and other sources involves certain procedural steps. These include detecting a possible outbreak, defining and finding cases, generating hypotheses about likely sources, testing the hypotheses and evaluating evidence, finding contamination sources, controlling the outbreak, and determining when the outbreak is over. Investigating outbreaks of acute enteric diseases can be a dynamic and complex undertaking involving multiple public health and regulatory partners in different jurisdictions. This chapter provides an overview of the investigation process with an emphasis on multijurisdictional foodborne illness investigations in the United States.

Building Safety Partnerships Using Social Network Analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Sorensen ◽  
Devon Brewer ◽  
Lynae Wyckoff ◽  
Melissa Horsman ◽  
Erika Scott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Marketing ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tractor Safety ◽  
Public Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Initiative

Although public–private partnerships have been useful components in public health and safety initiatives, little has been published on how to cultivate effective public health and safety partnerships for upstream social marketing initiatives. Using the development of a U.S. tractor safety alliance as an example, we illustrate how social network analysis can be used to identify organizations that are likely to be strategic partners and targets for upstream social marketing. In our project, knowledgeable informants first identified members of a national agricultural stakeholder network in the United States. Then, we surveyed the representatives of these organizations about their organizations’ interest in joining a new U.S. tractor safety initiative, the connections between their own and other stakeholder organizations, and their perceptions of the organizations most able to advance a U.S. tractor safety initiative. From our analysis of these data, we identified 10 organizations that have the partnerships, resources, and interest necessary to lead an effective tractor safety partnership. These organizations will be the focus of an upstream social marketing initiative aimed at building a strategic tractor safety alliance.

The Regulation of Dental Licensing: The Dark Ages?

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Friedland ◽  
Richard W. Valachovic
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
National Standards ◽  
State Laws ◽  
The Public ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
Current State ◽  
Dental Profession ◽  
Public Health And Safety

Current state laws regulating the licensure of dentists place severe restrictions upon the freedom of movement of practitioners. Most state laws were enacted during a period when a strong rationale for regulating public health and welfare existed. Today, these laws hamper the free movement of dentists and are anachronisms in an era of national standards and practices. The authors contend that the extant laws rest upon outdated assumptions and serve economic and protectionist goals rather than public health and safety.This Article examines the history and application of the traditional justifications for state licensure and their present ramifications. The authors suggest that replacing the current regulatory system with a national clinical examination and a national licensure program will best serve the interests of the public and the dental profession.

scholarly journals Turning Negatives into Positives for Pet Trading and Keeping: A Review of Positive Lists

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2371
Author(s):  
Elaine Toland ◽  
Monica Bando ◽  
Michèle Hamers ◽  
Vanessa Cadenas ◽  
Rob Laidlaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Agricultural Animal ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Public Health And Safety ◽  
Regulatory Challenges

The trading and keeping of exotic pets are associated with animal welfare, conservation, environmental protection, agricultural animal health, and public health concerns and present serious regulatory challenges to legislators and enforcers. Most legislation concerning exotic pet trading and keeping involves restricting or banning problematic species, a practice known as “negative listing”. However, an alternative approach adopted by some governments permits only the keeping of animals that meet certain scientifically proven criteria as suitable in respect of species, environmental, and public health and safety protections. We conducted an evaluation of positive lists for the regulation of pet trading and keeping within the context of the more prevalent system of restricting or prohibiting species via negative lists. Our examination of international, national, and regional regulations in Europe, the United States, and Canada found that criteria used for the development of both negative and positive lists were inconsistent or non-specific. Our online surveys of governments received limited responses, although telephone interviews with officials from governments either considering or developing positive lists provided useful insights into their attitudes and motivations towards adopting positive lists. We discuss key issues raised by civil servants including perceived advantages of positive lists and anticipated challenges when developing lists of suitable species. In addition, we compare functions of negative and positive lists, and recommend key principles that we hope will be helpful to governments concerning development and implementation of regulations based on positive lists.

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