Georgia PH week [Jan. 30, 2012]

January 30, 2012- In This Issue
Home | Georgia's Go Red Campaign | Special Olympics | WIC Program Gets a New Look | Georgia Tobacco Quit Line | Healthier Lifestyle | Asthma Project | PHBRIEFS | PHRECIPE | PHTRAINING | PHEVENTS | PHNEWS
Georgia's Go Red Campaign Protects Women's Heart Health
The Go Red for Women's little red dress is getting lots of attention in February. It is heart awareness month and Georgia women are leading the way to heart health. The Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Health Promotion and Disease Protection program is galvanizing women in Public Health and Georgia to reduce heart disease by joining the Go Red for Women campaign and movement. On February 3, the American Heart Association (AHA) and DPH encourage Georgians to wear red to show their support for women's heart health.
There is one mission in mind - to encourage awareness of the issue of women and heart

disease and save more lives. Since its inception, Go Red for Women has mobilized women by using the energy, passion and power of women to band together and collectively wipe out heart disease. The campaign challenges women to know their risk for heart disease and take action to reduce their personal risks. It also gives them the tools they need to lead a heart-healthy life.
Heart disease among women is not a new health crisis, but there is a perception of whether women should be concerned more than men. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is sometimes thought of as a "man's disease," but the same number of women and men die each year of heart disease in the United States and heart disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S.

Police Officer turned DPH Investigations Supervisor has Strong Connection to Special Olympics

To look at Mike Pearson, you might be a little intimidated. After all, he did spend 25 years as a police officer with the Gwinnett County Police Department. But Pearson, who, after retiring from the police force, became an investigations supervisor with the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Office of the Inspector General, has a soft side. For 22 years, he has volunteered with the Special Olympics of Georgia.

Pearson participated in the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) 2012 Indoor Winter Games for Special Olympics of Georgia Opening Ceremony that took place January 20 at the Cobb County Civic Center. Over 1,500 Georgia athletes competed in six different sports: artistic gymnastics, bowling, floor hockey, basketball, power lifting and roller skating during the three day event.

The LETR is a running event in which law enforcement officers and Special Olympic athletes carry the Flame of Hope to the Opening Ceremony of local Special Olympics competitions, state/ provincial Games and National Summer or Winter Games. During the opening ceremony of the Winter Games, the top five fundraising law enforcement agencies had the opportunity to carry the torch in a relay around Cobb Civic Center with other participants from law enforcement running with them. Pearson, along with Investigator Marc Williams, was one of those participants.

DPH Office of the Inspector General Investigations Supervisor Mike Pearson, athlete Tina Ryleigh, and Investigator Marc Williams gather for a picture at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Indoor Winter Games for
Special Olympics Georgia.

Georgia's WIC Program Gets a New Look for 2012
For the past eight months, the Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Division of Communications, in collaboration with the agency's Maternal and Child Health (MCH) program, has been working with WIC staff from all 18 public health districts to create new marketing collateral for Georgia's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children also known as WIC.
This week, public health districts across the state began receiving shipments of the new marketing and nutrition education materials. From the development of a new WIC logo to brochures, flyers, posters and even a revised online nutrition education website, this program now has a fresh, clean look and, rooted in careful research and district collaboration, is poised to increase WIC participation levels. "When we began looking at the existing marketing materials we immediately noticed a problem," DPH Director of Communications Ryan Deal said. "The print collateral that had been in place for years was no longer having an impact."
Northwest Georgia Public Health pumps up Georgia Tobacco Quit Line
The health promotion folks at Northwest Georgia Public Health are first in Georgia, and among the first nationwide, to use at-the-gas-

pump television to deliver public health messaging. "We're working with Gas Station TV (GSTV), the largest national away-from-home television network, to deliver 30second spots promoting the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line to a captive audience at a natural pause point in their day when they can't channel surf or skip past the message with a DVR," explains Health Services Program Manager Lisa Greeby.

"We have people's undivided attention; there's no multi-tasking, just pumping" Greeby says. "Using GSTV, we're able to reach viewers at the pump in nine of our ten counties with one-to-one public health messaging. The four-week buy will deliver about a quarter-of-a-million impressions at nine northwest Georgia Walmart multi-pump, multiscreen gas stations."

Northwest Georgia Public Health's Health Services Program Manager, Lisa Greeby, smiles at the ironic juxtaposition of tobacco advertising and the Georgia Tobacco Quit Line promotion on the Gas Station TV pump screen at a Floyd County Walmart. "When you're going head-to-toe with the tobacco industry on a comparatively infinitesimal budget, it's crucial every
penny is spent wisely and cost-effectively," says Greeby. "We get that with GSTV."

Greeby says at-the-pump television is an effective, targeted media buy. GSTV delivers Nielsen Media Research-verified information on viewership, demographics, dwell time, network size and recall. "When you're going head-to-toe with the tobacco industry on a comparatively infinitesimal budget, it's crucial every penny is spent wisely and costeffectively," says Greeby. "We get that with GSTV."

Watching My Friend Run to a Healthier Lifestyle

A couple of weeks ago, I encountered something unexpected, original and thought-provoking. I was turning onto Fulton Industrial Parkway and I saw what seemed like 200 African American women, running in 28 degree weather. It looked like a road race, but I saw no officials, water stations or cones. These women were running, for fun?
I was raised in Jamaica where, due to the climate, outdoor training is communal. However, I have spent more than half of my life in the United States and one thing that I have witnessed is the lapse in physical activity within many communities.
As I waited for the massive crowd of women to pass, I recognized one of the women and shouted out to her, "What are you doing?" She smiled and screamed, "Running!" As she passed by, she motioned for me to call her later to catch up. As I drove away I felt an enormous since of pride in what I had witnessed.

$9.5 Million Federal Grant to Support Asthma Project with African-Americans
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the first national standards for mercury and other toxic air emissions recently, a move that could prompt Georgia Power Co. to close some coal-burning generating units. The regulations will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year, the agency said in a news release, while preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 cases of acute bronchitis among children each year. "These standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said. "[They] will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance." Electric utilities across the country have been bracing for the economic impact of national standards for mercury emissions. The Georgia Public Service Commission is in the midst of hearings on an updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filed by Georgia Power Co. last summer.
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