This month is National Women’s Health month and the Rockland Department of Health is reminding residents that screening for breast and cervical cancer are available through the Rockland Cancer Services Partnership. Outreach workers who speak Creole, Russian and Spanish in addition to English are available. Call 845-369-0742 for more information.

Rockland’s 23rd Annual Senior Awareness Day Conference will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. May 20 in the fieldhouse at Rockland Community College.

Thirteen workshops will be available on such topics as health and exercise and the future of Medicare. two seniors will be honored for their volunteer work. George Rosato of Nanuet, who volunteers at the Meals on Wheels Clarkstown Senior Center, will receive the Senior Citizen of the Year Award and Wilhelmena Wolk of Spring Valley, who volunteers for the Association for the Visually Impaired, is this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Contribution by a Senior Citizen Award.
Rockland County Commissioner of Health Dr. Joan Facelle will deliver the keynote presentation on the topic “Staying Healthy: The Top 10 Things You Can Do.”
Registration is free and includes a continental breakfast. For more information, call the Rockland County Office for the Aging at 845- 364-2110.

Recent tests of 18 iron supplements showed problems with two products, including one sold at Duane Reade stores that contained unhealthful levels of lead, according to ConsumerLab.com, a White Plains-based evaluator of health products.

Tests showed that Duane Reade Time Release Iron 50 milligrams contained 0.6 micrograms of lead, a level that exceeds safety standards set by California, the only government in the nation that has set a lead limit, according to Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com.

Cooperman said it isn’t likely that products from Duane Reade would be sold in the Golden State, since all Duane Reade’s 242 stores are in the New York City metropolitan area, including six in Westchester. The company does, however, sell the product via its Internet site, DuaneReade.com.

Nevertheless, Cooperman said, in the absence of a limit set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ConsumerLab.com relies on the California standard for its testing.

California’s limit is a good one, Cooperman said. “So we hold all supplements, regardless of where they are sold, to that standard.”

The other problem product ConsumerLab.com encountered was Vitron-C High Potency Iron Plus Vitamin C, which, tests showed, contained just 37 percent of the nutritional iron claimed on its label. The supplement is widely sold, including at well-known Internet retailers, such as Amazon.com.

Iron supplements are popular with U.S. consumers, racking up some $237 million in sales in 2006, Cooperman said.

ConsumerLab.com’s full report on iron supplements is available to subscribers of its Web site.

Cancer screenings will be offered to Westchester residents with little or no health insurance through the county’s Health Department’s Healthy Living Partnership, thanks to two grants.

New York State awarded the county a $337,500 grant for the next five years and the Susan G. Komen foundation awarded the county $75,000 to help residents get the necessary and life-saving screenings for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer.

During the 2006-2007 grant year, Westchester’s Healthy Living Partnership conducted close to 5,000 clinical breast examinations, nearly 2,000 screening mammograms, more than 400 colorectal cancer screening tests, and nearly 4,000 cervical cancer screenings, the county’s Health Department said.

So there’s no excuse to get screened if you haven’t already!

For more information, call 914-813-5260 or visit www.westchestergov.com/health

Just in time for national Nurses Week, seven nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern have made a local magazine top 50 list. Liz Ponte, Denise Shultz and Kathryn Kelly are among the top 20 nurses in the region, according to a list compiled by Hudson Valley magazine. Nurses Heidi Grecco, Tina Roeder, Jim Spears and Gladys McLeod are named among the top 50.

For consumers who pay for prescription drugs out their own pockets, a new price study by Yonkers-based Consumer Reports finds it pays to shop around.

The consumer publication’s research showed that not only that prices vary from store to store for the same, but the differences can be dramatic — even within the same chain, depending on location.

Consumer Reports placed calls to 163 pharmacies nationwide to gauge price differences among four prescription drugs, three name brand medicines and one generic. For a three-month supply of pills for the urinary incontinence drug Detrol, for example, the price ranged from $365 to $551.

The magazine also found significant price disparities for the two other name-brand drugs it studied: for Plavix (which prevents blood clots), the spread was $382-$541, and for Levoxyl (for treating hypothyroidism), prices ran from $29 to $85. And for the generic alendronate (for osteoporosis), the price range was $124 to $306.

The magazine’s small scale market-basket study showed Costco was the cheapest for the four drugs CR sought quotes for, followed by AARP.com and Wal-Mart. Walgreens and Rite-Aid were among the priciest for the four drugs.

Besides calling different stores and comparison shopping, other cost-saving tips include:

• Don’t rule out independents: Though they’re not the cheapest overall, many mom-and-pop pharmacies are highly competitive and offer top notch service.

• Talk to your employer: Benefits administrators can provide details about pharmacy benefit managers, also known as PBMs.

• Buy generics: They can cost 20 to 50 percent less than their brand name equivalents.

• See if there’s a discount program: Some stores have programs for those 50 and older; other programs are open to anyone without insurance.

The full report is available for free now at www.ConsumerReportsHealth.org, or in the June issue of Consumer Reports magazine available on newsstands tomorrow.

Which municipality has the best tasting water in the county?  You be the judge.  The Westchester County Department of Health will hold its annual water tasting contest on Tuesday, May 6.  Step right up and choose the winner.

This year’s event, hosted as part of National Drinking Water Week, will be held in front of the Michaelian Office Building, 148 Martine Avenue, White Plains, 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.  In case of rain, the event will take place on May 8.

The participating municipalities in this year’s taste test will be Village of Croton-on-Hudson, Town of Greenburgh, City of Peekskill, Pabst Water Company (North Salem), United Water New Rochelle, United Water Westchester (Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook) and the City of Yonkers.  The winner of last year’s blind taste test was the City of Yonkers.

For additional information about this year’s event or other water quality initiatives, contact the Westchester County Department of Health at (914) 813-5000 or visit www.westchestergov.com/health.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found hazardous amounts of chromium in some flavors of a dietary supplement called Total Body Formula and Total Body Mega Formula.
The samples contained up to 3,426 micrograms of chromium for the recommended serving (17 times the recommended intake). The recommended chromium intake for an adult ranges from 35 to 45 micrograms per day.
Excessive consumption of chromium can cause fatigue, muscle cramps, hyperactivity, hypoglycemia, renal failure and liver toxicity. Excessive chromium intake also can interfere with certain medications.
The new FDA finding comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the number of confirmed cases of adverse reactions in consumers using the products has climbed to at least 201 people in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Consumers were first warned in March not to purchase and to discontinue the use of Total Body Formula in tropical orange and peach nectar flavors and Total Body Mega Formula in the orange/tangerine flavor.

Part of the hospital’s Community Health Lecture Series, Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla will hold its “Cooking with Kids” workshop for children and parents on May 6 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The event will offer a hands-on approach to getting children excited about food, health and nutrition.

Registered dietitians Mindy Hermann and Marie Roth will introduce basic nutrition principles and guidelines supporting the concepts of balance, variety and moderation, as well as utilizing the food guide pyramid.  On the menu will be fun and easy snacks that are also healthy, along with main courses and desserts.

Over 100 parents and children from the local community are expected to attend the free event.

Actor Denzel Washington and his wife, Pauletta, will be in Mount Vernon, his hometown, Friday to award two scholarships for research in neuroscience.

The Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Scholarship in Neuroscience Awards have been given annual since 2004 by the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The Washingtons said that they wanted to announce the scholarship recipients in a ceremony at Mount Vernon High School ” to help persuade students from Denzel’s hometown to consider careers in the sciences because they offer the potential to change the world,” according to a statement from the hospital.

The scholarship winners — undergraduate, graduate and medical students pursuing training in the field of neuroscience — are given monthly stipends to work during the summer with established scientists.

The scholarships are being awarded this year to a Los Angeles resident who is a graduate students and a Davis, Calif., resident in medical school.