Should Maryland Be The First State To Ban Crib Bumper Pads?

Yesterday morning I was pleased to join Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein and other key public health leaders as he announced a proposal to ban the sale of crib bumper pads starting in January 2013. If approved following a public comment period, Maryland would become the first state to ban the sale of crib bumper pads.

A 2010 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found 28 baby deaths involving bumper pads. These are highly preventable deaths.

As the Secretary noted, this action is not happening in a vacuum. The proposed ban is part of a broader effort to promote safe sleep for infants by encouraging the ABCs: Babies should sleep Alone, on their Backs, and in a Crib.

The proposal is the end result of a thoughtful study by an expert advisory panel.  After conducting several public meetings, hearing from product manufacturers and reviewing the available safety evidence, the panel concluded “infant bumper pads posed a rare, real risk to infants.”

I applaud Dr. Sharfstein for his leadership on this issue, which establishes Maryland as a trailblazer for infant health and safety. In the last year, Maryland and Baltimore City have made tremendous gains in reducing the rate of infant mortality. We don’t yet fully understand the reason for the improvements we are seeing. But I believe the systems and policy changes we’ve supported through the B’more for Healthy Babies campaign are having a significant impact.

This public awareness campaign has educated countless individuals about how to put babies to sleep safely – Alone, on their Backs, in a Crib, no exceptions. The first component – Alone – means just that. We discourage parents from sleeping with their babies. And cribs should be free of all pillows, toys or blankets and bumper padding.

As part of our basic message to parents and caretakers, our home visiting nurses look for _ and routinely discourage _ the use of crib bumpers. We’ve reinforced this message in our print materials and in our educational video, where babies are pictured sleeping Alone, on their Backs and in Cribs with no extra padding.

Baltimore City's current and last two health commissioners.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is conducting a similar review. The manufacturing of infant cribs is highly regulated to prevent children from strangling. Because their bodies can slip through openings but their heads cannot, parts such as slats, spindles, corner posts and rods cannot be more than 2 and 3/8 inches apart at any point, according to its Website.

The risk of putting babies to sleep in a crib where they could potentially suffocate against or get entrapped in a bumper far outweighs the purported safety benefits. For these reasons, I support Maryland’s efforts to ban crib bumper pads, and I encourage you to educate others about the potential dangers these products can pose.

Healthy City Days To Start Sept. 30th

The Health Department, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, is focused on making Baltimore a healthier city. One major way we are working toward that goal is through the implementation of Healthy Baltimore 2015. Another way we are making Baltimore a healthier city is through initiatives like Healthy City Days.

Photos by Kevin Kane, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

Today at the Zeta Center for Healthy and Active Aging, I joined representatives from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and the University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore Ravens fullback Vonta Leach, Molly Shattuck and others to announce that beginning September 30^th, we will kickoff Baltimore’s 2^nd annual Healthy City Days. Healthy City Days encompasses eight days of events all over town. The purpose is to get people eating better, exercising more often and focused on prevention and overall wellness.

There will be health fairs with free screenings at University of Maryland, City Hall and several Enoch Pratt library locations. There will also be free screenings at Mondawmin Mall, Department of Social Services locations and many other locations. We’ll even have great family events over the weekend at Port Discovery and other Inner Harbor events.

And during the week there are some great events planned that will get people up and moving. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and I will be walking from City Hall to the Inner Harbor on October 3rd and working out downtown with Monte Sanders on October 4^th. She and I would love for people to step out of their offices for a few minutes and join us at both of these events.

Vonta and Molly led seniors in a dance and stretch routine.

Personally, I am really looking forward to joining Molly Shattuck and Baltimore’s lively seniors in Hampden on October 6^th for a rockin’ dance party.

All you need to do is visit the Healthy City Days Website to see a listing of all these events and more and find one close to you.

It’s my sincere hope that this interactive initiative will engage Baltimore City residents and workers to focus on healthy lifestyle choices and preventive care.

Which Healthy City Days events do you plan to attend?

Baltimore Sees Reduction in Infant Mortality

Yesterday, I had the privilege of joining Governor Martin O’Malley, Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, DHMH Secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and our community partners at the University of Maryland School of Social Work for an important announcement regarding infant mortality in Baltimore City.

Baltimore has struggled for years with high rates of infant mortality, and the reality is that this rate had been growing. I am pleased to report that last year, infant mortality dropped by 19 percent in Baltimore City. Of this, there was a 40% reduction in infant sleep related deaths in Baltimore. Eleven fewer babies died from sleep-related causes as compared to the previous year. While that number may not sound big, it means the world to families affected by these preventable deaths.

There are some who would argue that this reduction is due to a statistical cycle and does not reflect outcomes due to a particular intervention.  While we are cautiously optimistic that that is not the case, we are confident that these numbers are going in the right direction and that our ongoing efforts will continue to drive down the curve and reduce racially-based disparities.

Two years ago, the Health Department, together with the Family League of Baltimore City, charted a course forward through the B’more for Healthy Babies campaign using data we collect about all infant deaths. This campaign, which has 3 phases, is providing education and outreach to mothers, fathers, grandparents and other caregivers to make sure they know the safest way to take care of babies.

 
Last year the Mayor helped launch the first phase of the campaign by issuing a safe sleep proclamation: Healthy Parenting. Through our community partnerships, our Sleep Safe video is being shown in all eight of the city birthing hospitals, in the jury assembly room, and at intake at the Eager Street prison. These are non-traditional ways of delivering life saving public-health messages. Additionally, we have trained over 1,600 service providers, including DSS workers, community care givers, and health professionals in the ABC’s of safe sleep.

In the next few months we will launch the second phase of the B’More for Healthy Babies campaign. The focus will include family planning, early entry into prenatal care, and smoking cessation. The third and final phase will focus on the importance of good health on a person’s ability to lead life to the fullest and to have healthy babies.

It’s so important for parents to be educated about how to take care of their newborns. That begins with pregnant women and mothers taking care of themselves – by eating healthy and not smoking or drinking. Fathers can also contribute by learning how to put babies down safely. And nobody should smoke around pregnant women and infants; the health risks from second-hand smoke are real.

Today, we’re happy to report progress on one of these important issues, and it’s always good to share some good news. But there’s plenty of work to be done.  The fact remains: far too many children under the age of one are dying in our city, and many of these deaths are preventable. Baltimore is determined to do everything it can to reduce – and eliminate – preventable infant deaths. This starts with each one of us acting on what we can contribute. Together we can make a difference.

Health Department Hosts Blood Drive

As a physician, I am keenly aware of the importance of maintaining a well supplied blood bank. Everyday here in Baltimore and across the world, lives are saved by donated blood. For this reason, donated blood is worth its weight in gold – and then some.

So to waste a single drop is unthinkable.

Recently, Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown announced the Maryland Blood Wastage Collaborative, an innovative solution for reducing blood waste throughout the state by improving institutional coordination to ensure no blood inventories are allowed to expire. This supports not just individual health, but public health as well.

The Mayor and I encourage our neighborhood leaders to consider hosting a community blood drive and encouraging others to donate through word of mouth, community or church newsletter articles, and other available means.

Today, the Health Department is hosting a blood drive at

1001 E. Fayette Street

from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is open to the public and walk-ins are accepted. If you live or work nearby, I encourage you to stop in and make a donation. Donors will receive a “Be Extraordinary” T-shirt from the Red Cross.

Ultimately, the decision to donate is up to you. Help us help those in need by giving blood.

Meeting People Where They Are: The Needle Exchange Program

The best outcomes in public health often happen when we meet people where they are.

Our NEP staff - Chris Serio-Chapman, Derrick Hunt and Lamont Clark.

At 10 a.m. this morning, I witnessed a part of life that many of us shy away from.  I spent time observing the work Health Department staff do within our harm reduction program.  Within the confines of a small camper on a street corner in Southwest Baltimore, two staff members attended to drug injecting users exchanging dirty needles for clean ones.  There was a steady stream of clients – men, women, young, old, black and white.  Some were regulars who chatted for a bit and then went about their day, while others were in and out in less than five minutes.

 

One of the clients, a woman just a year older than me, shared she had ongoing liver disease, diabetes and MRSA.  She also shared symptoms that made us suspect her diabetes was not under control and we convinced her to follow up with her clinic.  Another young lady listed a bunch of STI’s she had been treated for and was concerned she might have HIV.  We were testing her for HIV on the spot.

Our Needle Exchange Program (NEP) is the cornerstone of BCHD’s Ha­­­rm Reduction Program. NEP is an evidenced-based intervention program that provides clean needles to injection drug users in return for used syringes, which are discarded. The purpose of the program is to reduce the frequency of infections passed through the use of unclean needles, infections that include HIV and hepatitis C. 

The time I spent on the van gave me a more personal glimpse of the ravages of drug abuse in our city.  Our program, run by Chris Serio-Chapman and her staff, is the only confidential needle exchange program in the country.  The success of the program has been documented: when the program began in 1994, it is estimated that approximately 650 incident cases of HIV in Baltimore were caused by injection drug use, representing 60.3% of reported HIV.  Sixteen years later, the number of new HIV infections caused by injection drug use dropped to 177 new cases per year, representing a 29.5% decrease in the proportion of new HIV diagnoses caused by injection drug use.

One of the many reasons we’ve been successful is the attention paid to doing things that are evidence-based and evaluating the work we do to make sure we’re getting the outcomes that will best improve the lives of the people we serve.  An even more important reason is the dedicated staff that we have.  In addition to Chris, I got to talk with Derrick Hunt and Lamont Clark about their experience with the program and how we could help people on the road to recovery. 

I also had the pleasure of observing the skill with which they were able to engage individual clients by meeting them where they were. NEP has been extremely successful in this regard, currently operating at 17 locations around the city. Since 1994, more than 9 million clean syringes have been distributed to clients, and more than 10 million contaminated needles have been properly destroyed since it was started.

For more information about Baltimore’s needle exchange program, including our location sites and times, please see our website. For the latest NEP updates, be sure to “like” their Facebook page.

Take Care, Baltimore.

Robert Woods Johnson Foundation shines spotlight on Healthy Baltimore 2015

Today on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog NewPublicHealth, I discuss the foundation's recent county health rankings and the early progress we've made implementing Healthy Baltimore 2015, our health policy agenda for the next five years. If you're new to my blog, you can read more about this exciting initiative here. We will have even more good news on this topic to announce soon. For future updates, please subscribe to this blog.

Code Red Heat Alert In Effect Today, Tomorrow

Just a quick note to let everyone know a Code Red Heat Alert is in effect today and tomorrow for Baltimore City. The city will open 11 cooling centers where folks can come out of the heat and get a cold drink of water.

Click here to read our full press release and download informational flyers to share with your family, friends, and co-workers about staying safe in the heat. Messages are specific to seniors, caretakers and coaches, among others.

Stay cool Baltimore!