On Monday January 11th, we introduced legislation with Councilman Nick Mosby to require warning labels that inform consumers about the health impacts of sugary drinks.   

Scientific evidence shows that consuming one sugary drink a day increases a child’s chance of becoming obese by 60 percent -- and one in four of Baltimore’s children drink at least one soda each day.

"The science is clear: The biggest contributor to childhood obesity is sugary drinks," Dr. Leana Wen said. "Childhood obesity will lead to adult diseases that kill, and we must do everything we can to protect the health of our children."

Research has shown that parents are less likely to buy their child a sugary drink when they are presented with a warning label at the point of purchase, when compared with a normal calorie label.

Beverage companies disproportionately market their sugary drinks to low-income communities that are already hardest hit by health disparities and have the highest rates of diabetes and heart disease. The consumption of sugary drinks is increasing rampant inequities, putting our most vulnerable children on the fast track toward poor health and shortened life spans.

We introduced a public awareness campaign named "ReThink Your Drink" to educate consumers about the health impacts of consuming sugary drinks.

As anticipated, we have faced opposition from vested interest groups, including the Maryland-Delaware-DC Beverage Association and the Maryland Retailers Association. Even the Baltimore Sun editorial board released a letter questioning whether now is the right timing for this initiative.

In Baltimore, one in three school-aged children is either overweight or obese. One major cause of this obesity epidemic is sugary drinks. The time is right for warning labels for sugary drinks. There is no reason to delay. The purpose of this campaign and legislation is not to restrict choice but to give consumers the information they need to make informed decisions.

Across Baltimore community leaders, physicians and citizens have voiced support for this initiative. Almost 2,000 people have signed our petition to support warning labels.  

To spread awareness, we also launched the ReThinkYourDrink Challenge to encourage residents to avoid sugary drinks for 30 days. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Dr. Leana Wen have committed to join the challenge and cut out sugary drinks for 30 days. You should too!

We still need your support! Please sign our petition and contact your councilperson asking them to support this legislation. You can follow the campaign on social media at @Bmore_Healthy with the hashtag #ReThinkYourDrink .

Baltimore city officials worked around the clock to restore the city after a historic blizzard hit at the end of January. Over 30 inches of snow were reported in parts of the city, leaving roads blocked and many stranded in their home. 

The Baltimore City Health Department worked intensively with the National Guard, Fire Department, Department of Transportation, and other city agencies to protect the health of our most vulnerable citizens during this emergency. Specifically, staff were deployed around the clock to assist with life-sustaining medical transport such as dialysis; ensuring our senior citizens have access to food and necessities; maintaining the operation of the city’s animal shelter; and providing up-to-date information about clinic and pharmacy operations. We also worked with hospitals and clinics to ensure they had enough employees to provide vital services.

Under the leadership of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, we prioritized helping residents access critical treatment. We worked with the city transportation vendor to map all the locations of residents in need and ensure first responders could gain access to the residences. Throughout the course of the snow recovery efforts, we helped hundreds of residents get to dialysis.

"This is not easy. These individuals are out top priority," Dr. Wen said. "It was a tremendous team effort.”

Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help citizens in need during this trying period.

For decades, there has been a federal funding ban for needle exchange programs, despite their demonstrated effectiveness at reducing the spread of disease among injection drug users. 

Last month Congress effectively lifted the ban in the recently passed federal Consolidated Appropriations Act. Dr. Wen commended  the lift of the ban as an important first step in helping states implement this evidence-based harm reduction policy that saves lives. This will open up funding opportunities to new programs and help sustain existing ones... Lifting the ban is "necessary but not sufficient" as Dr. Wen explains in a Huffington Post piece.

"In Baltimore, our health department has conducted the needle exchange for over 20 years. More than 8 million clean syringes have been distributed to clients throughout the city, preventing thousands of clients from contracting HIV and hepatitis C. The percentage of HIV diagnoses attributed to drug use has fallen from nearly 63 percent to an all-time low of 11 percent." Dr. Wen said.

Baltimore is committed to working with our federal partners —and now partners across the county —to stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis, provide critical medical services that our communities need, and most importantly, save lives.

The new Safe Streets West Baltimore site, which is set to open in the coming months, will be operated by Catholic Charities Baltimore. Safe Streets is an evidence-based violence intervention program that treats violence like a disease that has the potential to be contained.

Baltimore already has four Safe Streets sites where workers have mediated over 880 conflicts, more than 80 percent of which were deemed "likely" or "very likely" to result in gun violence. We are looking forward to working with Catholic Charities to reduce gun violence in West Baltimore.

In a statement Bill McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities stated "We are bringing on great people from within the Sandtown-Winchester community who will have a positive impact and make a difference in their neighborhood and the city."

Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) officials issued a letter this week providing comment to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Proposed 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. We strive to contribute to the national effort to combat opioid use and overdose.

CDC issued the draft guideline in December 2015 to provide recommendations about opioid prescribing for primary care providers, and sought public comment.

In the letter, we applaud the CDC’s recommendations to expand treatment options, change prescribing standards, and expand review of the patient’s history. We encouraged the CDC to go one step further and expand the availability of on demand addiction treatment and monitor and regulate the price of Naloxone.

We look forward to the release of the final CDC guideline, which will be a valuable tool in educating providers about the important role they play in addressing the opioid epidemic.

Kenny Brandmuse came to Baltimore from Lagos, Nigeria, where he faced threats from strangers due to his sexuality. Kenny now works with BCHD to design programs focused on addressing HIV sigma within the gay black community.

Kenny was named one of 16 HIV Advocates to Watch in 2016 in HIVPlus Mag! We congratulate Kenny on this recognition for the important work he is doing to empower black men living with HIV in Baltimore. We knew he was one to watch and are glad that HIVPlusMag agrees!

“When we stigmatize people living with HIV, they become silent. When they become silent, we inhibit open communication about HIV/AIDS,” said Mr. Brandmuse. “When we inhibit open communication about HIV/AIDS, we have new rates of HIV infections.” 

Kenny uses the power of storytelling to build empathy and facilitate conversations about HIV. He is organizing an event on March 6th to talk about HIV in the bay community. 

Join us for the next installment of the B'more Health Talks podcast, Friday, February 5th, from 12:30-1:30 pm. During the next discussion on health care and health insurance, Dr. Wen will be joined by leaders including:

• Carolyn Quattrocki, Executive Director, Maryland Health Benefit Exchange
• Deborah Rivkin, Vice President of MD Government Affairs, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
• Dr. Peter Beilenson, President and CEO, Evergreen Health
• Kevin Lindamood, President and CEO, Healthcare for the Homeless
• Jekisha Elliott, Deputy Director of Connector Program, HealthCare Access Maryland
• Vincent DeMarco, President, Maryland Health Care for All Coalition.

Please join us by calling 605-562-3180 and using the access code 117-245-291 and tweet-chat live with the hashtag #BMoreHealthTalks.

In the meantime, we hope you will email us at bmoreheard@baltimorecity.gov with suggestions, ideas, or comments for this and future episodes.

And if you missed the last installment, please visit www.soundcloud.com/bmorehealthtalks to listen to any of our previous episodes.

Dr. Leana Wen received a standing ovation for her talk on "Public Health as an Urban Solution" at TEDxBaltimore. She started off her talk with a description of BCHD's role in the recovery efforts from the Baltimore Riots. She emphasized the vital role of public health in every aspect of life.

"Violence is a public health issue. Racism is a public health issue. Inequality is a public health issue. Public health is a social justice tool to level the playing field of inequality."

In her last TEDx Talk, Dr.Wen spoke about how one medication alone can save 25,000 lives each year. Watch to learn more!

On January 21st, Jennifer Martin, BCHD's director of emergency preparedness, joined a panel to discuss the Paris Agreement, climate change and public health. She was joined by former congressman Henry A. Waxman and other regional experts to discuss the implications of the agreements on public health in Baltimore.

"We recognize that climate change is an important public health issue because environment often determines health. At BCHD, we work to limit the impact of direct pollutants like lead, while working to change the factors of environmental pollution." -Jennifer Martin

Dr. Wen joined former Health & Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and other national health innovators at the Clinton Foundation’s Fifth Annual Health Activation Summit. The summit was a convening of health experts to engage in action-oriented dialogue and use case studies chart the path for scaling and sustaining what works in health advancement.

Dr. Leana Wen was a member of a panel discussing public health strategies to reduce health disparities. The summit was an opportunity to talk about Baltimore's challenges and solutions on a national stage.

At the summit, Dr. Wen had the honor to meet former President Bill Clinton and tell him how he changed her life. As she explains, “Growing up in a poor neighborhood without role models, I wanted to enter a career in public service but had no idea where to start…. It's a fair bet that I wouldn't have entered public health and certainly would not be running Baltimore's Health Department if I didn't receive the encouragement President Clinton gave me so many years ago.”

BCHD initiative B’more for Healthy Babies (BHB), which launched 7 years ago under the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health, is a series of programs that engages Baltimore communities in healthier behaviors.

The program has helped our city reach its lowest infant mortality rate in recorded history. B’more Fit is an initiative under the larger BHB program that helps mothers, who may otherwise have been susceptible to obesity, reach a healthy weight after pregnancy. Both of these programs together have served thousands of women and families in Baltimore since their inception.

Citylights has highlighted these successes of Baltimore in its latest issue as part of CityMatCH’s Maternal and Child Health publication, which looks at the work of five participating health departments, including BCHD.

Congratulations to Dr. Wen who this week was named one of The Daily Record's Influential Marylanders. The award honors individuals who have impacted Maryland's business community and have brought services and success to the region. The Daily Record's editors selected winners in the following categories: civic leadership, communications, education, finance, freestyle, general business, health care, law, philanthropy, real estate and technology.

Do you have a New Years resolution to eat healthier or lose weight? Whether you do or not, we challenge you to rethink your drink for 30 days and cut out all sugary drinks from your diet! You'll be in good company... Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake recently committed to joining the #ReThinkYourDrink challenge!

Drinking one sugary drink a day drastically increases your risk of becoming obese or developing diabetes. There’s no better time to challenge yourself to choose better beverages for your health.

Follow us on social media at @Bmore_healthy for tips and facts about sugary drinks. Don’t forget to share your progress using the #ReThinkYourDrink hashtag!