Alaska Health Policy Review

The Centers for Disease Control has released a disaster preparedness memo in their Public Health Matters Blog geared toward a zombie apocalypse.

The blog entry is tongue-in-cheek, but is geared toward raising community awareness about disaster preparedness. With heightened awareness being given toward disasters, both natural and man-made over the past few years, the notion of preparing for emergencies is not out the realm of reality.

[Read “Social Media: Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse” by the Centers for Disease Control.]

Filed under: Of interest

Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths

The decades-long neglect of pedestrian safety in the design and use of American streets is exacting a heavy toll on our lives. In the last decade, from 2000 through 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed in the United States, the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month. On top of that, more than 688,000 pedestrians were injured over the decade, a number equivalent to a pedestrian being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes.

Despite the magnitude of these avoidable tragedies, little public attention – and even less in public resources – has been committed to reducing pedestrian deaths and injuries in the United States. On the contrary, transportation agencies typically prioritize speeding traffic over the safety of people on foot or other vulnerable road users.

[Download and read the full national report Dangerous by Design 2011, published by Transportation for America, which explores the numbers, the causes and the solutions for solving this epidemic of preventable deaths.]

Filed under: Of interest