Sacramento Make Progress In Effort To Lower Deaths Of African-American Infants While Asleep
Data showed that the occurrence of infants dying in their sleep was disproportionately high.
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento County Sees Big Drop In Percentage Of Black Infants Dying In Their Sleep
In 2013, half of all Sacramento County infants who died in their sleep were African American, even though African Americans composed just 10 percent of the county population at the time. On Wednesday, Sacramento County supervisors learned that a concerted effort to reverse these tragedies appears to be working. In 2015, the latest year for which there is data, African American infants represented 21 percent of the 14 babies who died in their sleep, according to a report from the Child Abuse Prevention Center. (Anderson, 11/15)
In other public health news —
Orange County Register:
California’s Crisis With Athletic Trainers: High School Athletes Are At Risk
California has more than 800,000 high-schoolers playing sports, yet the state does not require schools to have athletic trainers at practices or games—and very few do. Just 25 percent of public high schools employ a full-time athletic trainer, according to CIF data from 2016-17 (athletic directors from 1,406 schools self-reported—an 88.6 percent rate). Even more troubling? California is the only state that does not regulate the profession of athletic training. That means that anyone can call themselves an athletic trainer, regardless of whether they are certified; regardless of whether they possess the educational qualifications, clinical experience or medical knowledge to practice. (Fader, 11/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Southern California Smog Worsens For Second Straight Year Despite Reduced Emissions
Southern California smog worsened for a second straight year in the latest sign that progress in cleaning the nation’s most polluted air is faltering. The dive in air quality comes even though emissions are declining, forcing regulators to explain why returns are diminishing after years of progress battling smog. (Barboza, 11/15)