FREE APHA membership offered!!  As a reminder, all MPHA memberships run October 1 – September 31. If you have not renewed your MPHA membership, this will be your last reminder (and last e-news) and we will miss you!  As an added incentive to get your membership in, we will be raffling off a free APHA membership – a $195 value- to one lucky MPHA member on February 28.  Go to www.mainepublichealth.org/join.php today to either join online or print a membership form. 
   

Join us at a Lunch & Learn, held at the MeCDC this Friday, January 22 at Noon in room 16 of the Key Bank Plaza. We will provide some tasty snacks and drinks and lots of great information on MPHA.  We will also raffle off one free MPHA membership if at least 15 people are in attendance.   
  

Policy update: The MPHA policy team has been busy at work on behalf of our members.  We’ve already submitted testimony on the Governor’s budget and on LD821 and LD1408. If you are unfamiliar with these bills or want to see what is on our agenda for this session, please visit the mpha website.  Remember, any current member can submit bills for the MPHA policy committee to consider! Just e-mail policy chair, Bethany Sanborn with bill information. 

Public Health and Climate Change
MPHA has a rich history of being involved in environmental health issues in Maine.  Currently, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is drafting climate change adaptation recommendations that will include a public health component. MPHA is contributing to those recommendations, which will be ready for release in early 2010. 

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released a new report recently that says most states have no published plans for a public health response to climate change. This includes planning for health challenges and emergencies expected to develop from natural disasters, pollution, and infectious diseases as temperatures and sea levels rise.  The Health Problems Heat Up: Climate Change and the Public's Health report examines U.S. planning for changing health threats posed by climate change, such as heat-related sickness, respiratory infections, natural disasters, changes to the food supply, and infectious diseases carried by insects.  A PDF version of the report is available for download.  

Call for Abstracts Announced for APHA’s 2010 Annual Meeting- put Maine on the map!
The American Public Health Association’s Call for Abstracts for the 2010 Annual Meeting & Exposition to be held Nov. 6-10 in Denver is now open. The theme of the meeting is Social Justice: A Public Health Imperative. Abstracts that focus on all areas of public health as well as those that focus on the Annual Meeting theme are encouraged. All abstracts must be submitted online via an easy-to-use online form. The deadlines for submission of abstracts fall between Feb. 1 and 5 depending on the Section, SPIG, Caucus, Assembly or Forum to which an abstract is submitted. For more information, visit www.apha.org/meetings   

Thank you for your continued support of public health in Maine!