New Air Standards will Improve Health
New air standards issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December are expected to have far-reaching effects on both pollution and public health. The new standards fall under the Clean Air Act’s power to control pollutants from coal and oil-fired power plants, and slashes allowable emissions of all hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) including metals like mercury and arsenic, acid gases, and particulate matter. Power plants have 3 years to conform to the new requirements and once fully in effect, the EPA estimates that the standards will reduce mercury emissions alone by as much as 90%.
A Grand Challenge in Need of a Grand Solution
The President announced plans late last year to create a National Bioeconomy Blueprint. This Blueprint would detail government-wide steps “to harness biological research innovations to address national challenges in health, food, energy, and the environment.” The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy recently solicited comments to inform the Blueprint.
This week in the Wall-Street Journal Dr. Els Torreele, director of the Access to Essential Medicines Initiative of the Open Society Foundation's Public Health Program based in New York, and Dr. Josh Bloom, director of chemical and pharmaceutical sciences at the American Council on Science and Health also based in New York, were asked an interesting question; should patents on pharmaceuticals be extended to encourage innovation?
Learning About Safe Medication Use--It's a Must!
Older Americans make up 13% of our population but account for 34% of all prescription medication use and 30% of all over-the-counter (OTC) medication use. This is due in large part to the fact that 4 out of 5 older Americans has 1 or more chronic conditions—often requiring multiple medications at once.
Responding to the Aging of the Population
A group of aging and Alzheimer’s advocates will be meeting this week with the senior leadership of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to call for an increase in funding for the National Institute on Aging (NIA). In advance of this meeting, the group has orchestrated a sign-on letter to demonstrate widespread support for $1.4 billion, an increase of $300 million, in the FY 2013 NIH Budget to support the NIA. A similar letter was generated last year and garnered more than 400 signatures.
Are we there yet?
Many of you may still have this phrase ringing in your ears if you traveled with children for any length of time this past holiday season. Representatives from the ACT-AD Coalition, chaired by the Alliance for Aging Research, heard these same words almost two years ago, not uttered from the mouths of babes, but rather by prominent officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a conversation regarding evidence to support the use of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in clinical trials for “disease-modifying” therapies.
This January as the snow flurries begin to fall, the risk of heart attack among older Americans may be on the rise. The onset of colder weather results in peaks in general practitioner visits, hospital admissions, and cardiovascular deaths among those age 65 and older. A study published online in the British Medical Journal reported each 1.8 degree Fahrenheit reduction in average daily temperature was associated with a cumulative 2% increase in risk of heart attack over a 28-day period, with the highest risk reported within two weeks of exposure to cold weather. Cold temperatures have been shown to raise blood pressure and protein levels that increase the risk for blood clots. In addition, strenuous activities such as snow shoveling are commonly performed as the temperature drops, which may attribute the increased risk of heart attack.
Alliance Announces new Science Advisors
We are really excited at the Alliance to announce the addition of five new members to our Science Advisory Board including a prominent bioethicist, a world-renowned neurologist, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, a leading longevity researcher, and the only cardiologist to receive all four major cardiovascular research awards. Our Science Advisors are actively engaged in understanding the aging process, age-related disease, and the implications of an aging society. They offer us scientific insight, guidance, and expertise and help ensure that our health education and policy efforts meet the highest standards.
