This year's celebration of National Public Health Week (NPHW) focuses on the theme, "Public Health is ROI: Save Lives, Save Money." Join us in recognizing the ways that public health efforts create a return on investment, including improvements in school meals, health impact assessments, safe medical devices and much more.
Join the conversation and share these stories--and yours--on Facebook and Twitter using #NPHW.
 | Nicole Mahoney, a Pew expert in antibiotics, discusses last summer’s bacterial outbreak at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, explaining how this case illustrates the need for the development of new antibiotics to treat life-threatening illnesses. Watch the video of the NIH bacterial outbreak. |
 | Drug Safety Project |
 | “How much is too much?” That was the fundamental question at the heart of a November 2011 workshop on food additives, hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and the journal Nature. Read the proceedings. |
 | Food Safety |
 | Health Impact Project |
 | Human Health and Industrial Farming |
 | Innovate FDA Innovate FDA examines the ability of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to carry out its critical mission of ensuring that medical products are safe and effective while at the same time facilitating the development of new products that can improve human health. Watch this video of Kathleen Stratton, a Pew expert in health policy, explain why she has personal stake in ensuring that the vaccines being used by the general public are safe and effective. Learn more about Pew's Innovate FDA project. |
 | Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods Project |
 | Medical Device Initiative |
A recent article by Pew experts concludes that the science the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) uses to assess the safety of food additives has not kept pace with recent scientific developments, and the agency should review and retool its approach to making decisions about the safety of chemicals used in food and packaging in the United States.
More infoThe Pew Charitable Trusts and the Premier healthcare alliance sent the White House Office of Management and Budget a letter regarding the review of a Food and Drug Administration rule to establish a unique device identifier (UDI) system. Given the importance of this new device identification system to improve patient care and the missed statutory deadline, in this correspondence Josh Rising of Pew and Blair Childs of Premier strongly urged the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to promptly complete review of the UDI final rule.
More infoJessica Donze Black speaks with Online Athens about the USDA's decision to set nutrition standards on school snack foods and beverages.
More infoNearly a year after the enactment of the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now Act, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released draft guidance for industry on developing antibacterial therapies for patients with unmet medical needs.
More infoWhile it might take time before we can evaluate the impact of the new standards, which won’t take effect until September 2014, we can look at what we already know to assess them in comparison to the current status quo. The first hint of the new regulation’s potential comes from the Pew Charitable Trusts Kids’ Safe and Healthful Foods Project, showing that children and teens gained less weight over three years if they lived in a state with strong policies on school snacks than if they lived in a state without such standards.
More infoIn January 2011, President Barack Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law, signaling the first major update to our nation’s food safety oversight framework since the Great Depression. Despite widespread support for the legislation and its implementation, the Obama administration still has not issued all of the proposed rules under FSMA.
More infoThe Pew Charitable Trusts applauds Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) for her efforts to strengthen food safety protections under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and provide grant funding to help school cafeterias across the nation upgrade their equipment to serve healthy, appealing meals to millions of school children. Funding for both programs was included in a larger bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
More info"Being a Minnesotan, Jeff Almer searched for a polite term to describe how he feels about a congressional push to roll back the new food safety laws his family fought for when his elderly mother died after eating salmonella-laced peanut butter in late 2008."
More infoJessica Donze Black, director of the Kids' Safe and Healthful Foods project, discusses the USDA's decision to finalize interim rules for snack foods and beverages sold in schools.
More infoThe Obama administration on Thursday released long-awaited nutrition standards for foods that schoolchildren can buy outside the cafeteria, changes that are intended to combat climbing childhood obesity rates.
More infoThe U.S. Department of Agriculture has set new nutrition standards for food sold as snacks in schools, giving fruit and vegetable shippers opportunities for vending machines and snack bars. After considering nearly 250,000 comments, the agency on June 27 published the regulation, called “Smart Snacks in Schools,” also known as the “competitive snacks” rule, for junk food that competes with healthier lunch menus.
More infoSenator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today introduced the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate certain antibiotic-related practices that contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria and endanger human health. The legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).
More info"Minnesota schools are adjusting after the USDA issued new guidelines on the amount of fat and calories contained in snacks made available in lunchrooms. The guidelines are related to the school lunch changes that went into effect last year that cut calories, fat and sodium on kids’ plates. They’ll now include snacks, sides, and everything else in school."
More info"Children consume as many as half their daily calories in school, where they spend more time than any location except their homes, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which underwrites food safety programs. Studies show snacks add 112 calories to the average elementary-school student’s daily diet, and those who live in states with strong snack policies gain less weight over three years than those without regulations."
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