Re-post from NPR

The McDonald’s at the Truman Medical Centers’ main campus in Kansas City, Mo., has closed, ending an epic, two-decade stint inside the hospital and making it the fifth health facility in the past few years to give the Big Mac the boot.

Earlier this year, hospital CEO John Bluford told The Salt that the presence of the McDonald’s — located just feet from a revamped cafeteria touting low-calorie-food options and reduced sodium, fat and sugar in its meals — was sending an “inconsistent message.”

The relationship between hospitals and fast-food chains is a complicated one. Decades ago, McDonald’s restaurants popped up in hospitals from New York to Iowa to California, with leases for as long as 30 years. Hospitals found the long-term agreements financially appetizing. And many patients, visitors and staff have appreciated the availability of an inexpensive, familiar shake or burger.

Enlarge image

A sign outside an entrance at the Truman Medical Centers’ main campus in Kansas City, Mo., announces the closure of the McDonald’s located on-site.

Elana Gordon

The leases, though, have made it difficult for places like the Cleveland Clinic, a national leader in wellness, to oust their McDonald’s.

Truman wouldn’t disclose details of its deal, but the McDonald’s lease ended early. “This was a mutually agreed upon decision between two businesses,” Bluford said in a statement to hospital staff at the end of October.

So are other hospitals losing their taste for McDonald’s, too?

Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital) moved into a new facility this spring but didn’t take along the McDonald’s that was on its old campus for 15 years. Julie Pesch, a Lurie spokesperson, says the hospital just didn’t have enough space for the restaurant.

“We chose McDonald’s many years ago as a special treat for sick kids going through difficult treatments,” Pesch says. But, “everything needs to be in moderation. We were not trying to break our lease with the McDonald’s.”

Similarly, Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Ky., has no plans to keep its McDonald’s once the lease expires in four years. McDonald’s has been present since the hospital’s opening in 1986, but the facility would prefer to use the space to create its own cafeteria. It currently relies on one at a sister hospital across the street.

The Salt

Fast Food Chains In Cafeterias Put Hospitals In A Bind KCUR

Big Macs aren’t the only food item on their way out of these medical centers. Children’s Mercy Hospital, located just a few blocks from Truman in Kansas City, doesn’t have a McDonald’s, but it will soon be removing all regular soda and sugared beverages from its campuses. The move follows a slew of wellness efforts across the country, in part aimed at improving hospital food options.

“The obesity epidemic among children and adults is doing a lot of driving of the changes at hospitals,” says Persis Sosiak, director of public health and research at the Cleveland Clinic. “I think a lot of systems are starting to evaluate what they view as wellness.”

Source: Health Affairs

Lowell Dempsey from Burness Communications has brought to my attention a recent debate of environmental mediated diseases in US children.

As Congress continues to debate how to reduce the federal budget deficit and tackle rising health care costs, one area overlooked is the price tag for preventable illness in children caused by unhealthy environments. A new study says poor health in children caused by environmental factors such as air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals costs the United States more than $70 billion a year. This figure represents a dramatic increase in recent years, rising from 2.8 percent of total health care costs in 1997 to 3.5 percent in 2008.

· A second study found that schools located in areas with the highest air pollution had the highest proportion of students failing to meet state educational standards. These same schools had the lowest attendance rates (a potential indicator of poor health). To protect the country’s 53 million schoolchildren, we must insist on a minimum distance between sources of pollution and school locations, says author Paul Mohai of the University of Michigan.

Abstract

(Full article and original source can be found at: Health Affairs)

A 2002 analysis documented $54.9 billion in annual costs of environmentally mediated diseases in US children. However, few
important changes in federal policy have been implemented to prevent exposures to toxic chemicals. We therefore updated and expanded the previous analysis and found that the costs of lead poisoning, prenatal methylmercury exposure, childhood cancer, asthma, intellectual disability, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were $76.6 billion in 2008. To prevent further increases in these costs, efforts are needed to institute premarket testing of new chemicals; conduct toxicity testing on chemicals already in use; reduce lead-based paint hazards; and curb mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

I haven’t posted an environmental health article in a while so I wanted to share a clip  recommended to me. Josh Fox   was interviewed  about his documentary “Gasland,” which details the potential effects that natural gas drilling has on the U.S. water supply.

About this video

(source: PBS)

In the debate over energy resources, natural gas is often considered a “lesser-of-evils”. While it does release some greenhouse gases, natural gas burns cleaner than coal and oil, and is in plentiful supply—parts of the U.S. sit above some of the largest natural gas reserves on Earth. But a new boom in natural gas drilling, a process called “fracking”, raises concerns about health and environmental risks.

Truly shocking when put into perspective of the migration of the spill, where oil has made landfall, efforts attempted to stop the leak, and effects on the wild life. The original animated image and full report can be found HERE.

African farmers are needing to change their farming techniques “in an effort to increase food security…”

Original Article

(source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

The report “warns that ‘ineffective farming techniques and wasteful post-harvest practices’ have left sub-Saharan Africa as the region most likely to miss the [Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)] on poverty and hunger,” the U.N. News Centre writes. Africa needs a “green revolution” that helps the continent utilize innovative farming technologies. “The report notes that Africa’s smallholder farmers can benefit from new technologies such as low-cost drip irrigation and plastic water tanks to store runoff, as opposed to modern irrigation systems which can increase crop yields but are designed more for larger farms,” the news service notes (5/19)

Supplemental Article from the World Bank: Tackling Weaknesses in Agricultural Statistics in Africa: the LSMS-ISA Project