Public Health

Latest California Healthline Stories

Why Even Public Health Experts Have Limited Insight Into Stopping Gun Violence in America

After the 1996 Dickey Amendment halted federal spending on research into firearms risks, a small group of academics pressed on, with little money or political support, to document the nation’s growing gun violence problem and start to understand what can be done to curb the public health crisis.

America Worries About Health Costs — And Voters Want to Hear From Biden and Republicans

The presidential election is likely to turn on the simple question of whether Americans want Donald Trump back in the White House. But health care tops the list of household financial worries for adults from both parties.

How a Friend’s Death Turned Colorado Teens Into Anti-Overdose Activists

High school students in Colorado are pushing for a change they say is necessary to combat fentanyl poisoning: ensuring students can’t get in trouble for carrying the overdose reversal drug naloxone wherever they go, including at school.

Toxic Gas That Sterilizes Medical Devices Prompts Safety Rule Update

The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening regulation of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic gas used to sterilize medical devices. The agency is trying to balance the interests of the health care industry supply chain with those of communities where the gas creates airborne health risks.

The Supreme Court Confronts a Public Health Challenge: Homeless Encampments

Homelessness is a soaring public health crisis, with a record 653,000 unhoused people in the United States, according to federal estimates. Tent and recreational vehicle encampments have exploded in recent years, crowding streets and sidewalks from Portland, Ore., to New York. In California, where roughly a third of all the nation’s homeless people live, doctors […]