Prevention Matters

The Best/Worst Idea awards are a regular feature of Prevention Matters, the blog of Partnership for Prevention. Each week, Partnership for Prevention's staff will choose the designees based on nominations of items in the previous week's news submitted by members, staff and the public at large. To submit a nomination or for more information, contact Damon Thompson at dthompson@prevent.org.

BEST

People should get carryout instead of cooking while drunk, a senior fire officer has warned. It follows an early morning rescue from a house fire of a 24-year-old man in Prestatyn, Denbighshire. North Wales Fire Service said the man had been drinking and not heard the smoke alarm during the fire. Neighbours saw the smoke and dialed 999. The fire service said the man had fallen asleep while cooking. Tom Pye from the brigade said: "Our advice is to never cook after drinking - please prepare a sandwich before you go out or get a takeaway instead."

For more than three years, HealthNewsReview.org editor Gary Schwitzer has been methodically reviewing TV health news claims for accuracy and responsibility. But no more; he told NPR's “On the Media” that he's found the vast majority of TV consumer health reports sickening. For example, he says the morning health news segments on network TV unquestioningly promote new drugs and new technologies; feed the “worried well” by raising unrealistic expectations of unproven technologies that may produce more harm than good; fail to ask tough questions; and make a serious discussion of health care reform even more difficult.