Smoking Social Norms Among Young Adults in New York City.

More than half of young adult (YA) (ages 18-26) smokers are non-daily smokers. While standard cessation methods are generally successful with adults and daily smokers, there is evidence that they are not as successful among non-daily smokers or young adults. Additionally, YA smokers are also in a transition period to regular smoking, making research on understanding how interpersonal and environmental factors affect this group of smokers critical.

HEALTH SURVEY OF FREE-RANGING RACCOONS (PROCYON LOTOR) IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA: IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMAL HEALTH.

We conducted health assessments on 113 free-ranging raccoons ( Procyon lotor ) in Central Park, New York City, US, in February 2010, September 2010, and November 2011 in conjunction with a trap-vaccinate-release program to control a raccoon rabies epizootic. Five individuals were sampled at two time points for 118 raccoon examinations in total. We tested 13 of 13 and 8 of 13 euthanized raccoons for rabies and canine distemper virus (CDV), respectively, by antigen testing on brain tissue; all were negative for both viruses.

Highlighting the ratio of sodium to potassium in population-level dietary assessments: cross-sectional data from New York City, USA.

Objective: To contrast mean values of Na:K with Na and K mean intakes by demographic factors, and to calculate the prevalence of New York City (NYC) adults meeting the WHO guideline for optimal Na:K (<1 mmol/mmol, i.e. <0·59 mg/mg) using 24 h urinary values.

Mental health of those directly exposed to the World Trade Center disaster: unmet mental health care need, mental health treatment service use, and quality of life.

Mental health service utilization several years following a man-made or natural disaster can be lower than expected, despite a high prevalence of mental health disorders among those exposed. This study focused on factors associated with subjective unmet mental health care need (UMHCN) and its relationship to a combination of diagnostic history and current mental health symptoms, 5-6 years after the 9-11-01 World Trade Center (WTC) disaster in New York City, USA. Two survey waves of the WTC Health Registry, after exclusions, provided a sample of 36,625 enrollees for this analysis.

Comparison of health outcomes among affiliated and lay disaster volunteers enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry.

Background: Volunteers (non-professional rescue/recovery workers) are universally present at man-made and natural disasters and share experiences and exposures with victims. Little is known of their disaster-related health outcomes.

Methods: We studied 4974 adult volunteers who completed the World Trade Center Health Registry 2006-07 survey to examine associations between volunteer type (affiliated vs.

The NYC native air sampling pilot project: using HVAC filter data for urban biological incident characterization.

Native air sampling (NAS) is distinguished from dedicated air sampling (DAS) devices (eg, BioWatch) that are deployed to detect aerosol disseminations of biological threat agents. NAS uses filter samples from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in commercial properties for environmental sampling after DAS detection of biological threat agent incidents. It represents an untapped, scientifically sound, efficient, widely distributed, and comparably inexpensive resource for postevent environmental sampling.