The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled a new National Vaccine Plan to enhance the coordination of all aspects of federal vaccine and immunization activities. Its goal is to ensure that all Americans can access the preventive benefits of vaccines. The plan also addresses such issues as research and development, supply, financing, distribution, safety, global cooperation, and informed decision-making among consumers and health care providers.
Smiths Detection has announced that numerous local and national security agencies used the company's threat detection systems and training assistance to help maintain security at the recent NFL Super Bowl - in addition to other events and venues associated with the annual professional football championship game. Leading up to the event and on game day, teams of law enforcement and counterterrorism officials had a variety of Smiths Detection tools available, and used them, for air monitoring, entrance screening, and response operations related to any potential unknown chemical threat or biological substance detected.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requesting appropriations of $4.3 billion to protect and promote the public health as part of the President's fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget, which requests a 33 percent increase over the FDA's enacted budget for FY 2010. The FDA's 2012 budget proposes four critical initiatives and increases for: transforming food safety & nutrition; advancing medical countermeasures; protecting patients; and regulatory science & facilities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a new web portal providing important health and health care indicator data to support innovations in information technology. The Health Indicators Warehouse represents a vast collection of health and health care indicators along with new web 2.0 technologies to support automated data services through application programming interfaces (APIs).
Bruker Detection has announced the launch of its compact, fully automated, and fast toxin-identification system, called the pTD (portable Toxin Detector). The pTD system accepts liquid and solid samples and does not require any external sample preparation steps. Through the use of multiplexed proprietary lab chips, every sample is automatically checked simultaneously for five toxins.
The city of Fort Worth, Texas, purchased, configured, trained, and successfully deployed WebEOC emergency management software from ESi in 3½ months, just in time for the 2011 Super Bowl and an unexpected snow and ice storm in the days leading up to it. Fort Worth's EOC activation included participants from city agencies and county departments, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the American Red Cross, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has unveiled the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) $57.0 billion fiscal year 2012 budget request - prioritizing efforts to protect the Nation from terrorism and other threats while making an unprecedented commitment to fiscal discipline, including the identification of over $800 million in efficiency and administrative savings.
NPPD (National Protection and Programs Directorate) Under Secretary Rand Beers discusses the efforts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to secure high-risk chemical facilities. DHS is eager, he said, to work with the Committee, Congress, and all levels of government and the private sector to achieve passage of legislation that permanently authorizes and appropriately matures the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program.
"The new outdoor WV-SW395 dome camera gives end-users, designers, and integrators the ability to fashion a fully intelligent HD system with consistent design and functionality," said Bill Taylor, President of the Panasonic System Networks Company of America. "It's a high-efficiency product solution that complements the power of network-based video surveillance implementations."
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of State (DOS) have announced the creation of an annotated version of the B-1 visa - issued to foreign citizens visiting the United States for business purposes - that will make foreign maritime workers eligible to apply for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).
