The City of Euclid became the first community in our jurisdiction to pass Tobacco 21 legislation. City Council member Taneika Hill was instrumental in leading the effort along with Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail, Euclid Police, local retailers, and Euclid High School students. The success of Euclid’s program has spurred similar activity in Brooklyn, Cleveland Heights, Lakewood and University Heights. Find out more about Tobacco 21 here.

Health Improvement Partnership-Cuyahoga, a consortium featuring CCBH, Case Western Reserve University and dozens of other community organizations, released the county’s first health improvement plan in 2017. HIP-Cuyahoga is focused on building opportunities for everyone in Cuyahoga County to be healthy. Learn more at www.hipcuyahoga.org

CCBH sanitarian Tom Barsa performs a residential lead inspection, which includes swiping doorways for the presence of lead dust. 93.5% of kindergartners attending Cleveland schools from 2014-2017 that were screened for lead had a detectable amount of the toxin in their blood. 25.7% of these children had a level of lead in their blood at which the CDC says warrants a public health response. Exposure to lead, even at low levels, can damage a developing brain and cause educational, behavioral and health problems.

Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided With Naloxone) offers free naloxone kits to those whose lives are affected by the nationwide opioid epidemic. CCBH hosts a weekly walk-in clinic which allows visitors to learn within 20 minutes how to properly give naloxone to an overdose victim. Learn more here from MetroHealth.org

A public health officer from the U.S. Marine Corps leads an inspection of a food facility at Kadena Air Base in Japan. Food inspections have become much more hands-on and collaborative over the past 25 years. As a result, we learn more about each of our local operations and we share that knowledge with you. Inspection reports for all of the food operations in our jurisdiction are available at www.ccbh.net

Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, it was clear that our country needed improved capabilities to respond to emergency situations. Here is a CDC poster outlining the six areas of concentration for public health during times of emergency or disaster.

Retired CCBH sanitarian Chris Bosworth is shown testing water quality in a local pool. CCBH inspects over 600 public swimming pools and spas each year. All of the inspection reports are available online at www.ccbh.netfor your review.

A school nurse tests the hearing of a young student. A series of tones are sent through the headphones and the student responds to them by raising a hand.

Car seat safety has come a long way over the past 60 years. As shown here, early child restraint systems were not totally effective in fully protecting children. Tennessee was the first state to require car seats for children in 1978.

More than 1.6 million children, known as “polio pioneers,” participated in the polio vaccine trials of 1954. Dr. Jonas Salk had presented his findings for a cure to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1953, which then took a “calculated risk” by helping to make the vaccine available to groups of children across 38 states. That willingness to move forward forever changed the course of history. Founded in part by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938, who was himself a victim of polio, the NFIP was the predecessor to the March of Dimes.