Prevention Matters

Oklahoma’s new plan to improve the state’s health system has been named  Partnership for Prevention’s “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while school lunches that don’t meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants was named “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week.”

Oklahoma state officials have unveiled a plan to improve its health system, with an emphasis on improving children's health and reducing obesity and tobacco use. The plan identifies four infrastructure areas in the state's health system that need to be improved: financing of public health programs, the effectiveness of the health care system, work force development and access to public health services.

The federal government is providing the nation's schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn't meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants. USA TODAY found that, from late November 2008 through January this year, the US Department of Agriculture bought nearly 500,000 pounds of ground beef with unusually high levels of an indicator bacteria known as "generic E. coli." The government also accepts beef with more than double the limit set by many fast-food chains for total coliform, which is used to assess whether a beef producer is minimizing fecal contamination in its meat.