Message From The Commissioner In the last 30 days we’ve seen three major health policies introduced in our City, including two great initiatives that directly impact the health and wellness of our youth.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) set new guidelines for its Local School Wellness Policy and expanded its Healthy CPS initiative with a new Healthy Snack and Beverage Policy. Both policies set new standards for health in schools across the district and works in conjunction with our Healthy Chicago agenda to make Chicago the healthiest city in the nation. Just last week, Mayor Emanuel announced that new healthy vending machines will be located across all City departments and buildings starting in January 2013. These new vending machines will ensure that City employees and the visiting public are provided with predominantly healthy snack and beverage options from vending machines in these buildings. Policy change is an important and unparalleled tool that helps shape the health of our City and ensures the wellbeing of all Chicagoans. With these new and exciting policies we all can look forward to a brighter and much healthier Chicago.

Sincerely,

Bechara Choucair, M.D

November 2012 UPDATE

www.CityofChicago.org/Health

HEALTHY CHICAGO PRIORITIES

CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

On October 15, Latino AIDS Awareness Day, CDPH partnered with the Little Village Chamber of Commerce and CALOR to host health and wellness fairs in order to remind Chicagoans of the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment. The fairs included free condoms and HIV testing. (HIV Prevention)

Governor Pat Quinn proclaimed October 21-27, 2012 Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week in Illinois. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported a 93 percent decrease in the rates of children with lead poisoning since 1997. In 2011, 1.1 percent of Chicago children aged 6 and under had elevated blood lead levels. Lead poisoning is one of the most preventable environmental health problems in the United States, with lead-based paint and lead contaminated dust being the main sources of lead exposure among Illinois children. Chicago was the first city in the nation to

HEALTHY CHICAGO IMPLEMENTATION

www.CityofChicago.org/Health

limit lead content in household paint to .06 percent in 1972. (Healthy Homes) CDPH is collaborating with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) to provide free mammograms to CHA residents. Letters and flyers have been sent to female CHA residents between the ages of 50 and 69 to announce the initiative. Mammograms are being provided at four CDPH locations. (Breast Cancer Disparities) On November 5, CDPH, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office, Smart Chicago Initiative and CHITREC launched the Chicago Health Atlas, a website that displays aggregated health-related information via a citywide map. Data displayed include diagnoses, medications and lab test data provided by local health care institutions. To view the Chicago Health Atlas, visit http://chicago-health-atlas.herokuapp.com/. (Public Health Infrastructure)

Mayor Emanuel recently announced the introduction of an ordinance to transition all vending machines in City buildings into healthy vending machines starting in January 2013. These new vending machines will ensure that City employees and the visiting public are provided with predominantly healthy snack and beverage options. In addition, the calories of food and beverage options will be displayed. This initiative adds to the many steps Mayor Emanuel has taken to improve wellness in Chicago, including the Park Families Wellness Initiative, which will feature affordable nutrition education and active lifestyle programs for Chicago communities who are most in need of wellness services. (Obesity Prevention, Heart Disease & Stroke) On October 24, the Chicago Board of Education approved new guidelines and requirements in nutrition, nutrition education and physical activity with updates to the District’s Local School Wellness policy. Along with providing healthful school food which meets or exceeds USDA standards, the new Local School Wellness policy directly affects the school environment by introducing or raising the bar in the following areas:

Convening school Wellness Teams and regular reporting of school wellness activities.

Implementing minimum grade level requirements for nutrition education.

Requiring recess for elementary schools.

Prohibiting the use of food or physical activity as a reward or punishment.

Ensuring that students regularly participate in physical activity.

In developing the new policy, CPS received support from Healthy Places, an obesity prevention project, to create the District-level Health and Wellness Promotion team dedicated to promoting healthy eating and physical activity. Healthy Places, a joint effort of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC), has also partnered with CPS in their work to both institute programming and increase local schools’capacity to promote better health and wellness for all children across the District. (Obesity Prevention) On November 12, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced that it will expand the new Healthy CPS initiative by advancing a new Healthy Snack and

Beverage Policy. The policy sets new standards for all foods and beverages sold to students on school grounds, outside of meals that are already part of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. This includes vending machines options and food at in-school celebrations. (Obesity Prevention)

www.CityofChicago.org/Health

HEALTHY CHICAGO POLICY UPDATE

Healthy Chicago Grant News On November 14, the Partnership for a Healthier America and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association announced $50,000 in support for the Active Transportation Alliance, Local Initiatives Support Corporation-Chicago and World Sport Chicago to continue the PlayStreets initiative during 2013. PlayStreets events temporarily close streets to traffic to create safe places for the community to enjoy physical activity. Details about the extended locations and dates of PlayStreets events are available at www.ahealthieramerica.org/playstreets. (Obesity Prevention, Heart Disease & Stroke)

CDPH also received three supplemental grant awards: $42,563 from SAMHSA for the Minority AIDS Initiative/Targeted Capacity Expansion (MAI/TCE) program. The funds will be distributed through existing contracts to community-based agencies working to integrate HIV prevention into their substance abuse and/or mental health protocols. (HIV Prevention) $42,543 from CDC in restored funds to the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program. (Communicable Disease Control & Prevention) $34,482 from IDHS in restored funds for the Healthy Families parenting program for outreach to high risk pregnant women in Southeast Chicago. (Healthy Mothers & Babies, Violence Prevention)

Getting The Word Out John Piercy, founder of Neighbor Capital, is a recent awardee of The Hitachi Foundation Young Entrepreneurs Program for his development and launch of the City’s Neighbor Carts, our mobile produce cart partner. John Piercy founded Neighbor Capital to address the social challenges facing the Chicago area. Neighbor Carts leases specially-designed aluminum carts to pre-qualified vendors who receive training, financing, marketing and other services to start their produce cart business. One-half of the mobile produce cart operations are within underserved communities and food deserts. Produce carts are a key strategy in the Healthy Chicago public health agenda. (Obesity Prevention, Heart Disease & Stroke) Need a flu shot? A new interactive mapping app can help you find a CDPH flu clinic near you. The map is available online at www.CityofChicago.org/Flu/Map. Just type in your address and the flu clinics in the vicinity of the address you provided are pinpointed on a map that includes the clinic’s address and hours of operation. (Communicable Disease Control & Prevention) The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force is working with area hospitals to provide 500 free mammograms to uninsured women for its Beyond October event, which takes place during the month of November. Visit www.chicagobreastcancer.org for more info or call 312-942-1899 to schedule an appointment. (Breast Cancer Disparities) On Nov. 15, CDPH announced the launch of its new tobacco prevention campaign titled “Secondhand Smoke Kid.” The campaign includes radio and TV promotions, and ads on CTA trains and buses that raise awareness of the effects that secondhand smoke has on children. The advertisement is a localized version of a CDC national campaign to combat smoking and tobacco use. (Tobacco Use)