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- Maryland /
Regional
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Volunteers sought for breast cancer program
(Baltimore Sun)
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Safe lead practices
(Baltimore Sun)
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- National /
International
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How to cut meal
portions
(Baltimore Sun)
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- Opinion
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Health: a fight for
rights
(Baltimore Sun)
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- Maryland /
Regional
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Volunteers sought for breast cancer program
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- Baltimore Sun
- Sunday, May 17, 2009
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- The Center for Breast Care at Howard County General
Hospital is offering a support program for women with breast
cancer, matching volunteer breast cancer survivors with
newly diagnosed women for insight and support through the
time of the patient's treatment and recovery. Called
"Survivors Offering Support," the program was introduced at
Howard County General in 2006.
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- The hospital is recruiting breast cancer survivors to
serve as SOS mentors. Volunteers are required to complete an
application and attend an initial training session that
includes information on therapeutic listening and
communications, breast cancer diagnosis and treatments,
patient advocacy and support resources for those diagnosed
with the disease.
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- Each year, mentors must also attend two of four training
sessions on the latest developments in breast cancer
research and treatment. Mentors must obtain a release from
two doctors indicating that they are emotionally ready to
act as a mentor.
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- The program is funded in part by Susan G. Komen for the
Cure.
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- Information: Tina Beerman, 410-884-8450, or Joan
Montanari, 410-884-4574, or e-mail
jmontanari@hcgh.org.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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Safe lead practices
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- Baltimore Sun
- Tuesday, May 17, 2009
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- The City of Annapolis will hold Lead Safe Practice
Training sessions for residents and contractors to help
reduce the risk of lead contamination, especially to
children.
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- Lead Safe Annapolis provides outreach using a campaign
designed by the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning
and implemented by the City's Office of Youth and Community
Affairs.
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- Lead is one of the most generalized environmental
hazards for children in Maryland. Children are at greatest
risk from birth to age 6 while their neurological systems
are evolving. Sustained exposure to lead can cause
long-lasting neurological damage or death. More than 3,000
Annapolis children younger than 6 have been exposed to the
effects of lead poisoning.
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- To help with the outreach and awareness campaign, the
city will receive a $100,000 grant. The program will
include: educational presentations and events; replacement
of 100 leaded windows in the city; hands-on, lead-safe work
practices kits for homeowners participating in the seminars;
Free Lead Worker contractor training and accreditation for
five local contractors; an 800 Lead Telephonic Hotline; and
creation of a website with lead prevention, testing and
other information.
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- The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 6
at the Annapolis Fire Department Eastport Station.
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- Information: 410-534-6447.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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- National / International
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How to cut meal portions
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- Chicago Tribune Newspapers
- By Alison Johnson
- Baltimore Sun
- Sunday, May 17, 2009
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- Nutritionists blame oversize portions for many people's
extra weight. Here are tips for staying in control:
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- --Go with half. Eating half the usual amount of your
favorite foods, while substituting vegetables and fruit for
the rest, is a good way to start.
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- -- Avoid big snack bags. Buy chips and cookies in
pre-portioned bags or -- if that's too pricey -- get the
bigger bags and immediately divide food into single-serving
plastic bags.
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- --Read labels. What you think is one serving of a food
may actually contain three or more helpings.
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- --Store leftovers differently. Instead of keeping food
in big dishes, divide it into individual-size containers.
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- --Eat more slowly. Your stomach needs about 20 minutes
to recognize it is full. Take sips of water between bites
and pause before you decide on seconds -- and put leftovers
away during meals so you have to make an effort to get
seconds.
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- --Use smaller dishes and glasses. You can also use small
serving spoons for less healthy items such as gravy and
heavy sauces and big spoons for vegetables.
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- --Curb your appetite. Before a big meal, have a
low-calorie appetizer such as a salad (with low-fat
dressing) or a broth-based vegetable soup.
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- --Work with restaurants. Ask for a lunch-size portion of
a dinner entree, share a dish or get a takeout container as
soon as you order; then put half the meal away before you
start eating.
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- --Steer clear of all-you-can-eat buffets. If possible,
order off a menu.
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- Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune.
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- Opinion
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Health: a fight for
rights
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- By Margaret Flowers
- Baltimore Sun
- Sunday, May 17, 2009
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- Health care must become the civil rights movement of our
time. And it is becoming clear that achieving guaranteed
health care for every American will require all the tools
that helped win earlier civil rights fights.
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- Earlier this month, eight health care advocates,
including me and two other Maryland physicians, stood up to
Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and the Senate Finance
Committee during a "public roundtable discussion" with a
simple question: Will you allow an advocate for a
single-payer national health plan to have a seat at the
table? The answer was a loud, "Get more police!"
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- Single-payer is a system of public financing that will
guarantee everyone, without exception, all medically
necessary care with no co-pays or deductibles. You would go
to the doctor (most of whom would remain in private
practice) and hospital of your choice.
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- By replacing today's wasteful, fragmented, for-profit
private health insurance industry with a single, streamlined
system of paying medical bills, similar to how traditional
Medicare works, we would save more than $400 billion
annually, enough to assure comprehensive, quality care to
all.
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- Single payer is supported by the majority of the public,
as well as most doctors and nurses. It would end the tens of
thousands of preventable deaths and more than 1 million
cases of medical bankruptcy that occur in the United States
every year. But none of that seems to matter to Mr. Baucus.
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- As the May 5 meeting approached, we applied the standard
tools of advocacy, organizing call-in days and faxes to
committee members, requesting the presence of one
single-payer advocate at the table of 15. The only reply -
received on the day before the event - was, "Sorry, but no
more invitations will be issued."
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- The next day, we donned our suits and traveled to
Washington. As the meeting started, one of us, Russell
Mokhiber, stood up to say that we were here and we were
ready to take a seat. He was promptly removed from the room.
I stood up next and spoke out for single payer. I was also
arrested, as were the six others who spoke out in turn.
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- In that moment, it became clear: We could write letters,
call staffers, and fax until the machines fell apart, but
the Senate Finance Committee had no intention of allowing
single-payer experts to have a voice in the process.
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- Instead, the people seated at the table represented the
corporate interests: private health insurers, big business
and those who support their agenda. These same players paid
more than $13 million to the members of the Finance
Committee in the 2008 election cycle alone. They profit
greatly from the current arrangements and do not want
changes that will hurt their pocketbooks.
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- For decades, doctors and nurses have tried to deliver
quality health care in an environment that makes it
increasingly difficult to do so. We all have stories that
break our hearts. The time has come to tell our stories so
that we can create a health care system that focuses on
care, not corporate profit.
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- And so, we have entered a new phase in the movement for
health care as a human right: acts of nonviolent, civil
disobedience. At the most recent roundtable in the Senate
Finance Committee, on Tuesday, 30 nurses silently stood up
and turned their backs to the committee with the message:
"Nurses say: Patients first. No to AHIP [America's Health
Insurance Plans]. Pass single payer." After a few minutes
they walked out. Then five more people were arrested as they
spoke out for single payer.
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- The opportunity to make health care a civil rights issue
is here. If calling our legislators isn't enough to get the
job done, we must use the tools that have achieved civil
rights victories in the past.
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- Dr. Margaret Flowers is co-chair of the Maryland
chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. Her
e-mail is nose1@aol.com.
Her statement was co-signed by representatives of Labor
Campaign for Single Payer; Single Payer Action;
Healthcare-NOW!; B'more Housing for All; and
ProsperityAgenda.us.
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- Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun.
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