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February 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
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POLITICS OF HEALTH
Kentucky Health
By Fiona Young-Brown
Flu Leads Hospitals
to Change Visiting
Restrictions
With flu season underway,
some local hospitals are changing their visiting policies so that
patients and hospital staff may
be protected against contracting the illness. The University of
Kentucky has announced that,
until further notice, the following
rules will apply to inpatient units at
UK Chandler Hospital, Kentucky
Children’s Hospital, UK Good
Samaritan Hospital, and Eastern
State Hospital:
• No visitors under the age of 12.
• No visitors with flu-like symptoms.
• Two visitors per room at any
one time.
• Possible additional restrictions
in critical care and oncology
units.
Remember that if you are feeling ill, no matter how much you
want to see a loved one in hospital,
you will be aiding their recovery
more by staying away until you are
healthy.
Where Are Tobacco
Settlement Funds
Being Spent?
Although the Commonwealth of
Kentucky received approximately
$347 million in tobacco settlement
money in 2014, only a tiny portion of those funds are being used
for tobacco-prevention programs,
according to a recent report. A landmark 1998 court settlement against
the major tobacco companies provided huge annual sums to states
involved in the lawsuit. At the time,
the states promised to use much of
the money to deal with problems
caused by tobacco usage. However,
the Campaign for Tobacco-Free
Kids (www.tobaccofreekids.org)
has found that very few states are
actually keeping that promise. For
example, of the sum awarded to
Kentucky, only 0.7% will be used to
fund programs that will help smokers quit or prevent children from
smoking in the first place. Kentucky
has a rate of high schoolers who
smoke that is higher than the
national average (17.9 percent versus 15.7 percent). The Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates
that if the state were to invest more
now in cessation and prevention,
they would save $2.6 billion in
future health care costs. The majority of the settlement funds are spent
elsewhere in the state: to support
agriculture, rural sewer projects,
early-childhood development, and
other programs.
Support For
Smoking Bans
Grows as New
Legislative Session
Begins
The new legislative session looks
sure to bring further attempts to
approve a statewide smoking ban,
and it seems that public opinion may be swinging in its favor.
According to a poll taken in late
2014, 66 percent of adults now
support a law that would prohibit
smoking in such public spaces \ X