SPH News is a compilation of news articles from the WVU School of Public Health, as well as links to external publications, newscasts and websites that mention our school and the accomplishments of our students and faculty members. The School of Public Health has no control of the content of external websites.
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: 2013 graduates receive school’s first degrees – Dominion Post
5/20/2013 12:34:43 PM
Friday evening was one of firsts for the
School of Public Health.
When
R. Constance Wiener was hooded for her Ph.D., she became the school’s first official graduate during its first commencement ceremony.
“It’s an honor and a privilege,” Wiener said about being the first graduate.
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Charleston Gazette - Monongalia healthiest, McDowell least healthy, according to new health rankings
3/20/2013 9:00:00 AM
Charleston Gazette - The report released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin researchers ranks counties by several health factors such as smoking, drinking, obesity, premature deaths, and other areas including education, access to health care and unemployment. [
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Charleston Gazette - Mining counties have higher death rates, study says
3/13/2013 9:00:00 AM
Charleston Gazette -Over the past five years,
WVU researcher Michael Hendryx and various co-authors have published peer-reviewed studies examining possible links between mountaintop removal and various illnesses. The work has linked health and coal-mining data to show, among other things, that residents near mining face a greater risk of cancer, birth defects and premature deaths. Environmental groups have not funded Hendryx, but those groups have seized on his findings to argue that mountaintop removal isn't just an issue about mining's effects on salamanders, mayflies or isolated mountain streams. [
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The Verge - Is it time for the US government to disable cellphones in cars?
3/12/2013 3:06:51 PM
Distracted driving continues to pose a major safety risk across the United States, and it's a problem that can't be solved through legislation alone. That's the argument a pair of researchers from West Virginia University made earlier this month, in an
essay published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association. According to co-author
Dr. Jeffrey Coben, the issue stems from two converging phenomena: a proliferation of mobile technology that has only amplified the risks associated with calling or texting while driving, and state-legislated bans that, while well-intentioned, remain difficult to enforce. Coben's proposed solution? In-car technology that would render cellphones inoperable. [
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WVU Healthcare - Laws, education not enough to curb distracted driving
3/6/2013 3:00:52 PM
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Admit it or not, most of us are guilty of having fiddled with a cell phone while behind the wheel. As West Virginia and other states take measures to keep drivers from texting and talking while driving, a new report from researchers at the
West Virginia University School of Public Health asserts the laws probably aren’t making much impact on the number of injuries caused by distracted driving.
“Keeping an Eye on Distracted Driving,” appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), released online today. The paper was co-authored by
Jeffrey H. Coben, M.D., interim dean of the
WVU School of Public Health, and
Motao Zhu, M.D., Ph.D. Both study public health and safety topics through
WVU’s Injury Control Research Center.
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Charleston Daily Mail - Smokers cough up $231 million in taxes
2/27/2013 2:00:00 PM
West Virginia University's School of Public Health released a survey showing that 60 percent of the state's residents favor increasing tobacco taxes to fund public health programs. That's down from 72 percent support just four years ago.
The drop should be alarming to those who lobby year after year for higher taxes on people who use tobacco.
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State Journal - Complete Streets at top of AARP's WV legislative agenda
2/27/2013 9:00:00 AM
Christiaan Abildso of the School of Public Health at West Virginia University helped collect data related to injuries and fatalities caused by incomplete street infrastructure. West Virginia has the second highest rate of inactivity in the nation, he said, and the lack of sidewalks and bicycle lanes prevent that statistic from changing.
"What we did was review seven years of data provided by the Division of Highways that come from police reports, collected around the state, to better understand the burden of crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians and motor vehicles and cyclist," he said. "Complete Streets, as we hear today, is legislation used in many states as a mean to institutionalize and improve pedestrian and cyclist design in areas where the need exists, and usually that need is established using crash data such as what we reviewed."
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Associated Press - WVU survey: Public backs higher cigarette taxes
2/25/2013 9:00:53 AM
A survey of West Virginia adults shows 60 percent would favor higher cigarette taxes if the revenue would benefit public health.
Forty-three percent back an increase of $2 per pack or more.
The 2012 survey of 2,132 smokers and non-smokers was recently released by researchers at
West Virginia University's School of Public Health.
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WTRF - New federal funds to examine texting and driving laws
1/9/2013 9:51:59 AM
New federal funding has been awarded to WVU to examine the effectiveness of 'texting and driving' law [
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WVU Health Report - Smoking Ban Study
12/26/2012 7:57:08 AM
Smoking Ban Study WVU Health Report
Laws that ban smoking in -public places have lead to fewer heart attacks, strokes and respiratory heart disease hospitalizations. That's the conclusion of a recent analysis of 45 studies on the effects of smoking bans across the country.
The analysis appeared in the American Heart Association journal "Circulation"
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