Current
unemployment rates stand at nearly 10 percent, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics expects this number to continue to rise. While this has been the
cause of serious worry among the labor force, there may also be a reason to
celebrate. A poor economy appears to add years to a persons life expectancy,
according to research from the University of Michigan.

Communities are finally starting to see payoff from bans on public smoking. The bans, which prohibit smoking in restaurants, health facilities, and businesses, correspond with a decline in the rate of heart attacks.

Information comes from a recent study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association. The study is a compilation of nine previously published research articles on the topic. The study notes a decrease in the risk of AMI (acute myocardial infarction), another name for a heart attack.

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Communities are finally starting to see payoff from bans on
public smoking. The bans, which prohibit smoking in restaurants, health
facilities, and businesses, correspond with a decline in the rate of heart
attacks.

Information comes from a recent study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart
Association. The study is a compilation of nine previously published research
articles on the topic. The study notes a decrease in the risk of AMI (acute
myocardial infarction), another name for a heart attack.

Read the rest of this entry »

Worry about losing your job may cause more harm
than actual job loss. More than 1,700 participants in the Americans Changing
Lives (ACL) and the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) studies were asked:
How likely is it that during the next couple of years you will involuntarily
lose your job? Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University
of California wanted to find the effects of job insecurity on employee health.

“It may seem surprising that chronically high
job-insecurity is more strongly linked with health declines than actual job
loss or unemployment,” says Sarah Burgard, lead author of the study and
research assistant professor in the University of Michigans Department of
Sociology and School of Public Health, “but there are a number of reasons
why this is the case. Read the rest of this entry »

The states with the highest smoking rates are mostly located in the Southern United States. On April 1st, the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes was raised from the 39 cents to $1.01 per-pack. This tax will exert a larger toll among the states listed below.  

In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Office on Smoking and Health released a report ranking states by smoking prevalence. The goal of this report was to highlight the importance of tobacco control programs and to encourage smoking cessation. For the purposes of this report, current smokers were defined as adults who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes and who currently smoked every day or some days.  The latest data available are from 2004 and states were ranked in ascending order, meaning that the state ranked 50th had the highest smoking prevalence rate.

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In February of this year, President Obama signed into law an expansion of the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to help provide health insurance for uninsured children. The Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 will be funded by a significant increase in the federal tax for cigarettes. The new taxes go into effect on April 1 and will raise the federal excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from the current 39 cents to $1.01 per-pack. Public health experts predict that the new tax may result in as many as 1 million U.S. smokers quitting.

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Deaths due to cigarette smoking have declined since the 1960s thanks to a parallel decline in smoking rates. When the Surgeon General first reported that smoking may be hazardous to your health in 1964, about 42 percent of American adults smoked. The most recent data available show that this rate has now dropped below twenty percent (19.8%) for the first time on record. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs report shows that overall death rates from smoking declined in all but one state (Oklahoma) between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004. Below is a list of the states with the lowest rates of smoking-related deaths, followed in parentheses by the smoking-attributable death rate per 100,000 residents and the percent change in that death rate between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004.

The top 10 states with the lowest rates of smoking-related deaths for 2000-2004 are:

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Deaths due to cigarette smoking have declined since the 1960s thanks to a parallel decline in smoking rates. When the Surgeon General first reported that smoking may be hazardous to your health in 1964, about 42 percent of American adults smoked. The most recent data available show that this rate has now dropped below twenty percent (19.8%) for the first time on record. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs report shows that overall death rates from smoking declined in all but one state (Oklahoma) between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004. Below is a list of the states with the lowest rates of smoking-related deaths, followed in parentheses by the smoking-attributable death rate per 100,000 residents and the percent change in that death rate between 1996-1999 and 2000-2004.

The top 10 states with the lowest rates of smoking-related deaths for 2000-2004 are:

Read the rest of this entry »