Bridge, Phillips, Elam Drainage District News From the desk of Milton Sandy Jr
July 17 , 2011
Vol 2011-8
This newsletter is directed to friends and supporters of our efforts to get something done about the repetitive flooding in Corinth and Alcorn County which on May 2, 2010, caused loss of life, public and private property and threatened public health and safety by the massive release of raw sewage into flood waters. If you have news, questions or comments, please fire away.
Urban vs. Country- Which is Healthier? A rather intriguing story headline in the Wall Street Journal this Flood Threat for July week caught my attention. We all assume that living in a non-urban environment has to be healthier right? Everybody assumes from the news headlines that living in the big city puts you at greater risk for crime, pollution and other environment related diseases. Fortunately for Corinth and Alcorn county, the article did not include the risks of flooding. What I found so interesting about the article is the data source was a newly released national study of factors evaluating – How healthy is your your local county?
From the Wall Street Journal- July 12, 2011 ….For many urban dwellers, the country conjures up images of clean air, fresh food and physical activities. But these days, Americans residing in major cities live longer, healthier lives overall than their country cousins—a reversal from decades past. Many cities that were once notorious for pollution, crime, crowding and infectious diseases have generally cleaned up, calmed down and spread out in recent years, while rural problems have festered. Rural residents are now more likely than other Americans to be obese, sedentary and smoke cigarettes. They also face higher rates of related health problems including diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and high blood pressure, according to County Health Rankings (CHR), a research project that recently issued its second annual report of state-by-state comparisons of health measures in every U.S. county. To be sure, city dwellers live with more air pollution and violent crime. They also have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases and low-birth-weight babies and are more likely to drink excessively. But overall, urbanites tend to rate their own health more highly and are less likely to die prematurely than rural Americans, according to the county rankings report....
The new set of reports released last week rank the health of nearly every county in the nation and show that much of what affects health occurs outside of the doctor’s office. For the second year, the County Health Rankings confirm the critical role that factors such as education, jobs, income, and environment play in how healthy people are and how long they live. This year, the Rankings allow people in more than 3,000 counties and the District of Columbia to compare the overall health of their counties against other counties in their state, and also compare their performance on specific health factors against national benchmarks of top-performing counties.
Contact: Milton Sandy Jr 662-286-6087 - Fax 287-4187 - E-mail mlsandy@tsixroads.com