Public Health Information

El Paso County, CO – El Paso County Public Health and partnering community agencies are announcing the launch of a new countywide campaign, Man Therapy, targeted at reducing the stigma surrounding men’s mental health.

The launch, in recognition of National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, will take place Thursday, September 13 at 9 a.m. at the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners meeting.

El Paso County, Colorado — El Paso County Public Health is one of three Women, Infants and Children (WIC) agencies in Colorado among a select number of agencies in the nation to receive an award for superior support of breastfeeding mothers from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA awarded the Loving Support Award of Excellence Gold Award to El Paso County Public Health, which was among 78 agencies nationwide to be awarded.

El Paso County, CO - El Paso County Public Health announced it has hired Dr. Robin Johnson as the agency’s new Medical Director.

El Paso County, CO - The El Paso County Board of Health has appointed Susan Wheelan to the position of interim director at El Paso County Public Health, effective September 1, 2018. Director Dan Martindale will retire from the position at the end of August after 23 years of service.

El Paso County, CO – Sudden unexplained infant death (SUID) takes the lives of more than 50 babies in Colorado each year. One of the main causes for SUID is accidental suffocation from infant sleep in an unsafe environment, such as the couch or a parent’s bed. The death rate by accidental suffocation in infants is increasing nationally.

El Paso County, Colorado — When deciding where to dine and purchase food, consumers consider many factors including price, quality, and customer service. El Paso County Public Health has launched a new online retail food establishment rating system that seeks to add “food safety” to this list.

The new rating system assigns one of five categories to a retail food establishment following a routine inspection, ranging from “Excellent” to “Unacceptable.”

Have you ever become ill after eating at a potluck or restaurant and wondered what made you sick? El Paso County Public Health is launching a new online system to help investigate those illnesses that may have come from food.

El Paso County, CO– El Paso County Public Health (EPCPH) has been recognized by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) for its ability to plan for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies.

EPCPH met the comprehensive preparedness benchmarks required by Project Public Health Ready (PPHR), a unique partnership between NACCHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  EPCPH joins a group of 500 local health departments across the country that have been distinguished for excellence in preparedness through PPHR.

El Paso County, CO -- More than 45 years after tobacco advertising left American television, the biggest U.S. tobacco companies are returning with a message they never wanted to share.

Beginning November 2017, the major U.S. tobacco companies are required to run ads in newspapers and on national TV telling the American people the truth about the devastating health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke as well as the companies’ intentional design of cigarettes to make them more addictive.

Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, and El Paso County has been designated as an area with high radon potential, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.