APHA membership ($195 value) given away on March 1st to one lucky (and current) MPHA member!
Make sure to tell your friends and colleagues to ensure their MPHA membership is current! On Monday, March 1st we will be raffling off one free APHA membership to current members. Renewing is easy- just go online and either join online or download the form and pay via check.
Click here to take our brief survey! We need your input by Monday, March 1st.
MPHA is YOUR membership organization. That said, we need your feedback! Please take a few minutes to complete this annual membership survey by Monday, March 1st. The goal of this survey is to reflect back on the past year and identify how well we have implemented the seven goals highlighted in our strategic plan. For your convenience, each goal is listed with concrete examples, but should you like more information, our strategic plan is available. If you have questions regarding this survey or would like a copy of the strategic plan, please contact Jessica Begley at beglej@mmc.org. Thank you in advance for taking 10 minutes to complete this survey.
APHA’s Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks Campaign Timed for March 14
Help Americans be prepared for emergencies by participating in APHA’s Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks campaign. The initiative is timed with the start of daylight saving time on March 14 and reminds people to check their emergency stockpiles when they change their clocks. To learn more, go to http://www.getreadyforflu.org/clocksstocks/index.htm
MPHA Policy Committee ALERTS (LD 821 and Tobacco Tax Increase)
LD 821, An Act to Support Collection and Proper Disposal of Unused Drugs
MPHA has testified in support of this bill and it has passed the Health & Human Services Committee. We now need individual members to CALL YOUR SENATOR to ask for their support as well. LD 821 requires the manufacturers of drugs to establish a collection and disposal program for unwanted drugs from residential settings. The disposal program must be without cost to the consumer at the time of sale or at the time of disposal.
LD 821 is supported by the Maine Association of Police, The Attorney General’s Office, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and law enforcement agencies throughout the State. It also has received broad support from the health community, organizations on aging, and the environmental community. All believe it will SAVE:
• Healthcare dollars through fewer crime-related injuries, accidents, accidental poisonings and overdoses which result in emergency room visits and admissions to hospitals, nursing homes etc.
• Public safety dollars due to lowering the rate of prescription drug related crimes and
• Environmental costs due to the elimination of a source of documented pollution to our ground and surface waters and the animals that reside in those environments.
There has been a lot of lobbying concerning this bill from big business and the Senate especially needs your calls! Call the toll-free number for the Senate (1-800-423-6900) and the toll-free number for the House (1-800-423-2900) to leave a message for your senator and/or representative or you may call or email them directly. To learn more about this bill visit www.mainepublichealth.org/policy
http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/ (scroll ½ way down the page to member name and address list) and http://www.maine.gov/legis/house/townlist.htm to find your representative.
TOBACCO TAX… Calls are still needed!
MPHA supports raising the tobacco tax by $1 per pack and has submitted testimony to support this measure. CALL YOUR SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE TODAY to urge them to increase the tobacco tax! Below please find an excerpt from our testimony. For the full testimony, please go to www.mainepublichealth.org/policy
Tobacco taxes are first and foremost a public health tool. Keeping tobacco prices high is proven effective at helping smokers quit and keeping kids from starting to smoke. It saves lives, lowers health costs, and is recommended by the National Centers for Disease Control.
Raising the tobacco tax by $1 a pack will result in an 11.4% decline in youth smoking rates and will keep 8,800 kids in Maine from starting to smoke. The proposed $1.00 per pack increase to the cigarette tax will also lead an estimated 5,400 Maine adult who quit, and save $205 million in long-term health care costs.
Tobacco use costs our State in many different ways. It costs us in medical care to the tune of $602 million health care costs. It costs us in lives, killing 2,200 Maine adult tobacco users every year. In addition, of those youth that take up smoking, 27,000 will die prematurely due to their tobacco use. It costs us by contributing to, or exacerbating, every major disease known to man. And those costs don’t even include the dangerous health ramifications of secondhand smoke.
