Approximately 76 million Americans – one in four – are sickened by foodborne diseases each year. Of these, an estimated 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die. Medical costs and lost productivity due to foodborne illness in the U.S. are estimated to cost $44 billion annually. Experts estimate that most foodborne illnesses could be prevented if the right measures were taken to improve the U.S. food safety system.
Right now, however, major gaps exist in the nation's food safety system, including obsolete laws, misallocation of resources, and inconsistencies among major food safety agencies.
In our report, Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America's Food Supply from Farm-to-Fork, we outline a plan to reallocate resources and restructure bureaucracy to significantly reduce the number of foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. each year, and keep America's food supply more secure.
November 15, 2014
How Ebola Exposes Diminishing US Investment in Public Health
Policy and Advocacy
For TFAH position statements and letters, congressional hearings, briefings and testimony, and additional policy and advocacy materials, click here.
Selected items from TFAH's Resource Library:
Community Transformation Grants (CTGs): Promoting Proven Strategies to Fight Chronic Diseases
Community Transformation Grants, one major initiative funded under the Prevention and Public Health Fund, are targeted at addressing the leading causes of chronic diseases to improve the health of Americans and reduce health care costs over the long term. The investments being made are critical to make sure people can take personal responsibility for their health care, outside of the doctor’s office, and allow individual communities to address their greatest health needs. CTGs will benefit more than one in three Americans, approximately 145 million people.
Half of Americans Could Be Obese By 2030… Or We Could Invest In The Prevention Fund
Half of Americans could be obese By 2030...or we could invest in the Prevention Fund. An analysis conducted by the National Heart Forum, based on a peer-reviewed model published last year in The Lancet, estimates that that 50 percent of Americans are on track to be obese in the next 20 years.1 Obesity could even top 60 percent in 13 states. Right now, 36 percent of Americans are obese.
NACCHO National Profile of Local Health Departments
On January 21, 2014, NACCHO released the 2013 National Profile of Local Health Departments report on its new Profile website, www.nacchoprofilestudy.org. The report demonstrates continued funding cuts across several programmatic areas at local health departments (LHDs), including emergency preparedness. Funding for emergency preparedness, particularly per capita funding, saw a significant drop in 2013, with LHDs reporting median per capita funding of $1.15 in 2013 compared to $2.07 per capita in 2010.
The Prevention and Public Health Fund: For A Healthier America
Prevention saves lives, reduces health care costs, and makes the country a healthier, more productive place. More than half of Americans live with at least one serious preventable health condition, like diabetes or heart disease, which forces taxpayers to spend billions of dollars a year on health care. And, today’s children are in danger of becoming the first generation in American history to live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. The Prevention and Public Health Fund enables communities around the country to invest in proven strategies to improve health. That’s why the Fund has the support of more than 760 national, state and local organizations.
The Prevention Fund: A Matter of Life and Death ad version 1
Shouldn’t America try to prevent diseases, instead of just treating people after they’re already sick, and it’s often too late? Just three of the reasons why the Prevention Fund is deadly serious.