Although the number of people who smoke cigarettes has continued to decline, hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia and the United States continue to light up every day. Virginia has the 12th lowest smoking rate in the nation. As of 2008, 2.4 million Virginians, about 40.5% of the population, have tried smoking. Nearly 60% have tried to quit and 40% continue to smoke. One in six Virginians, about 973,000 people, were smokers in 2008.

For months, the Alexandria City Public School system and the Alexandria Health Department have been developing a plan to relocate the adolescent clinic to T. C. Williams High School. Members of the City’s catholic community are opposed to the plan because clinic staff provide contraceptives and other family planning information.

Today, Congressman Jim Moran hailed the House’s passage of legislation spearheaded by Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello to foster increased competition among health insurers and lower premiums for consumers. H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, will repeal the special anti-trust exemption for the health insurance industry. The legislation prevailed on a 406 – 19 vote.

The General Assembly yesterday passed legislation sponsored by Delegate David Englin (D-45) to protect children during public health emergencies by ensuring they have equal access to life-saving vaccines. House Bill 270 requires the Virginia Department of Health’s emergency vaccination plans to include procedures to ensure the prompt vaccination of all school-aged children, without preference as to whether they attend private schools, charter schools, traditional public schools, or are home schooled.

The Virginia General Assembly today passed House Bill 267, sponsored by Delegate David Englin (D-45), that will enable the Virginia Department of Health to launch a statewide Advanced Health Care Directives Registry in April.

Today’s bill begins the final phase of a two-year effort that started with 2008 legislation sponsored by Englin and State Sen. George Barker (D-39) to establish Virginia’s Advanced Health Care Directives Registry as a statewide registry for living wills and advanced medical directives so medical professionals and emergency responders can access these documents when they are needed most.

Today, the Virginia Department of Health announced its participation in text4baby –a new free mobile phone information service providing timely health information to pregnant women and new mothers during pregnancy and through a baby’s first year. Virginia was the only state in the country to pilot text4baby and serves as the model for the nation.

The Virginia Department of Health announced today that the existing shellfish closures in the James and Rappahannock Rivers have been revised opening large portions of areas previously closed for shellfish harvesting.

After only 18 months as Alexandria’s Health Director, Dr. Lisa Kaplowitz has resigned. On March 1, she will become the Director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, located within the Office of the Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC.

According to a 2007 Inova Health Systems study, 42.5% of Alexandria’s children are overweight or are in danger of becoming overweight; 70 percent do not eat enough fruit and vegetables; 30 percent do not get enough exercise and more than 50 percent spend four or more hours a day looking at a television or computer screen.

The Virginia Department of Health announced today that the James River and a portion of the Rappahannock River will be closed to shellfish harvesting due to flooding in those rivers. The emergency closure is effective January 27, 2010.

The James River will be closed down to the vicinity of the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, Interstate 664. The Rappahannock River will be closed down to a line extending from Monaskon on the north shore to Stove Point on the south shore.