Category: Health

We follow local stories of well-being in the Hill Country Observer, from physical and mental health to systems of healthcare and insurance and the challenges of medicine today.

  • Issue:

    Bipartisan push on mercury pollution

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    Senate vote keeps tougher emission controls on track By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer PITTSFIELD, Mass.At first glance, Mark Jester doesn’t seem like the right demographic to be calling for tougher rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jester is a registered Republican who ran in a special election for state representative last year, and his read more

    Bipartisan push on mercury pollution
  • Issue:

    Lyme that lingers

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    By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer QUEENSBURY, N.Y.When Holly Ahern found out several years ago that her daughter’s mysterious illness was Lyme disease, she quickly immersed herself in the subject. Ahern, an associate professor of microbiology at SUNY Adirondack, soon learned about the controversies swirling around the disease and came to realize that many others were read more

    Lyme that lingers
  • Issue:

    Next step for health care

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    With coverage nearly universal, Mass. looks to cut costs, push prevention By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer NORTH ADAMS, Mass. From his second-floor office on the campus of North Adams Regional Hospital, Chip Joffe-Halpern has a unique vantage point from which to watch the course of health care reform in Massachusetts. As executive director of Ecu-Health read more

    Next step for health care
  • Issue:

    Activists push new strategy on biotech crops

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    Vermont labeling law stalls as attention shifts to California By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer On an April weeknight in Montpelier, the Vermont House Agriculture Committee held a public hearing on a bill to require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. To the surprise of even the bill’s supporters, more than 400 people showed up. read more

    Activists push new strategy on biotech crops
  • Issue:

    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions

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    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions, prompting backlash By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   BENNINGTON, Vt. Asked about the subject of childhood vaccines, Lauryn Starkie Kreuder became guarded. Starkie Kreuder and her husband have chosen not to vaccinate their two children. Citing philosophical objections, they obtained a waiver from the state’s vaccine requirements. The waiver read more

    Vermont moves to limit vaccine exemptions
  • Issue:

    Vermont’s biggest insurer pushes back on Home-birth law

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    Vermont’s biggest insurer balks at providing coverage By CRAIG IDLEBROOK Contributing writer   DANBY, Vt.It was supposed to be a watershed moment for home-birth midwives like Heather Whitley. Last year, Vermont legislators responded to a grassroots campaign to bring home births more into the mainstream medical system, passing a bill that requires private health insurers read more

    Vermont’s biggest insurer pushes back on Home-birth law
  • Issue:

    Homegrown from goat’s milk

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    Kitchen science lesson evolves into skin-care business By STACEY MORRIS Contributing writer   STILLWATER, N.Y.A typical day for Hal Mayes involves making upwards of 1,200 bars of goat’s milk soap at his Saratoga County farm and manufacturing plant. Not so typical is the fact that his homegrown business regularly fields orders from virtually every continent. read more

    Homegrown from goat’s milk
  • Issue:

    A sign of tough times for group for hearing-impaired

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    By JUDY BERNSTEIN Contributing writer   QUEENSBURY, N.Y.The children, seated in chairs around the edges of the room, were concentrating — and laughing — as they signaled to each other with their hands. King monkey, cat, signed one girl to another. Cat, dog, signed that girl to a boy nearby, as the dozen kids, ages read more

    A sign of tough times for group for hearing-impaired
  • Issue:

    Peer-support approach challenges long-held views of mental illness

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    Peer-support approach challenges long-held views of mental illness By TRACY FRISCH Contributing writer GLENS FALLS, N.Y. Brad Morrow had his first encounter with the mental health system when he was in his late 30s. In the space of 15 minutes, a psychiatrist he’d never met before told him he had bipolar disorder, gave him some read more

    Peer-support approach challenges long-held views of mental illness
  • Issue:

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup

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    Mass. backs GE’s call to restrict scope of PCB removal By DAVID SCRIBNER Contributing writer LENOX, Mass.From Canoe Meadows, the 285-acre Audubon wildlife preserve in southeast Pittsfield, the Housatonic River winds its way south in a coil of oxbows through a floodplain flanked by farms and wetlands, creating one of the most diverse wildlife habitats read more

    State pushes to limit Housatonic cleanup