Science

Group Health Cooperative says it lost money in August and needs to cut costs.  That will include some layoffs this year. It’s not a calamity, says CEO Scott Armstrong, but the trend could lead Group Health to finish the year in the red if it doesn't make changes.(For the complete story, click the "listen" button above.)  

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington state is not immune from America’s obesity epidemic. A new study looking at where the trends are headed on weight-gain shows half the population headed for obesity by the year 2030. Currently, 26.5% of Washington residents are already considered obese. That’s a step beyond overweight, using the standard measurement of body-mass-index (BMI). If you walk across the state 20 years in the future, “half the people you cross will be obese,” says Albert Lang with the group Trust for America’s Health, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to report on obesity.That’s based on trends of the past decade continuing (and there is a debate among researchers about whether obesity trends may have hit a plateau).The authors of this report analyzed health data collected by federal agencies, and they see Washington state as pretty typical – currently ranking 33rd most obese among the states. By 2030, they predict Washington will rank 28th.Lang says the problem leads back to diet and lifestyles:“People are just not walking, (they’re) driving more, and they’re eating and drinking way more calories, and a lot of them don’t have nutritional value whatsoever,” he says, acknowledging it's hard to keep track of what you eat -- even for experts. “I barely know what the calories I'm putting in my body are.”People need better information about food, according to the report, in order to lose weight. And they need other help, such as safer routes for walking and more parks.Why does Washington have a higher percentage of obese people than states like California or Colorado? There’s no clear answer to that.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Washington banned indoor smoking nearly seven years ago, but one exception survives: hookah lounges.Local health departments have struggled to shut them down. The lounges say they’re private clubs, not public venues, so the law doesn’t apply. They all charge some sort of membership fee, typically about $5.That defense doesn’t sway health officials, like Frank DiBiase of the Tacoma Pierce County Health Department. His office inspected three hookah bars in Tacoma last year.“After going out there and looking at the situation we determined that, Yeah, it definitely seems that they are in violation of the state’s smoking in public places law,” says DiBiase.Last week, DiBiase announced a settlement with the Venus and Mars Lounge, which agreed to stop offering tobacco products. The lounge isn’t closing entirely; it’ll experiment with a smokeless, tobacco-free product that’s infused into the air from heated rocks.The settlement came nearly a year after the health department first contacted the lounge. He says another hookah lounge will get served its papers in the next few days.Trendy on campus, but cultural for othersIn a hookah lounge, you sit around on couches or arm-chairs with a group of friends and puff on sweetened tobacco. The hookah itself is a tall water pipe, typically with multiple hoses coming out of it.  Customers might pay $15 or 20 to rent the pipe and for a tobacco mixture, with flavors like apple or peach.Hookah lounges have been a trendy business near college campuses across the country.“The thing is, hookah might be trendy in this country, but it is an old tradition,” says Nebil Mohammed of Seattle’s Medina Lounge. “My grandma smokes it, my mom smokes it. It’s like a coffee.”For some immigrants, it’s an alternative to a bar, where they can play cards and share a pipe. “Most of them are from the Middle East, from Islamic states. They don’t go out and drink,” says Mohammed, whose club has a $5 membership and doesn’t serve food. “So, they just sit down and chit chat. It’s more like a social thing, where you sit down and talk about everything, you catch up on everything -- what happened around the world.” A gateway to youth smoking?One survey in King County found more high school seniors were smoking hookah tobacco than cigarettes. DiBiase of the Tacoma health department says people underestimate the potential dangers of hookah smoke.“There's kind of a misunderstanding that somehow because the smoke goes through a water reservoir and you inhale it, that it’s not as harmful. But there’s been a fair amount of research and the risks are as great or greater than smoking a cigarette”During an hour on a water pipe, you can inhale as much smoke as a hundred cigarettes, according to a study from the World Health Organization. The amount of toxic material inhaled is probably similar to cigarettes, according to other published studies.One reason the hookah bars can stay open is simply a lack of manpower in the local health departments. King County is down to just one person to enforce all the tobacco laws -- and the main focus is on retail shops that sell to minors.The legal proceedings can be cumbersome, involving documenting the smoking violations, and then working with lawyers to file the appropriate legal papers."Over the past several years, we have had a number of them pop up," says Scott Neal, who oversees tobacco prevention for Public Health Seattle & King County. "We have issued notices and warnings probably to all of them. I think eight have shut down, and four are still operating."Recently, he's heard from the cities of Renton, Kent and Bellevue that businesses have applied for business licenses to open private hookah lounges. Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Despite the difficult economy, more Americans have health insurance than a year ago, according to newly released census data. One reason: the new “Obamacare” law allows young adults, up to age 26, to stay on their parents’ insurance. Many others qualified for government programs in 2011, such as Medicaid and Medicare.The pattern is different, though, in Washington state.Young adults were given the right to join their parents plans back in 2007, so there was no sudden boost in 2011. Meanwhile, 27,000 people were forced, by budget cuts, off of the state’s Basic Health Plan.And the decade-long trend continues, of people losing private coverage.“People are dropping their insurance because can no longer afford the cost,” says Stephanie Marquis of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s. “If they get employer-sponsored health care, either the employer is dropping the coverage, or they're being laid-off from their jobs and, therefore, no longer have health insurance.”Overall, about 51,000 people in Washington lost coverage last year.The Insurance Commissioner’s office predicts people will continue to lose coverage until the federal health law takes full effect – which is supposed to be in 2014.Other highlights from the US Census "2012 Current Population Survey (CPS)" regarding health insurance: The number of people with health insurance increased to 260.2 million in 2011 from 256.6 million in 2010, as did the percentage of people with health insurance (84.3 percent in 2011, 83.7 percent in 2010). The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 63.9 percent. This was the first time in the last 10 years that the rate of private health insurance coverage has not decreased. The percentage covered by employment-based health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 55.1 percent. The percentage of people covered by government health insurance increased from 31.2 percent to 32.2 percent. The percentage covered by Medicaid increased from 15.8 percent in 2010 to 16.5 percent in 2011. The percentage covered by Medicare also rose over the period, from 14.6 percent to 15.2 percent. The percentage covered by Medicaid in 2011 was higher than the percentage covered by Medicare. In 2011, 9.7 percent of children under 19 (7.6 million) were without health insurance. Neither estimate is significantly different from the corresponding 2010 estimate. The uninsured rate also remained statistically unchanged for those age 26 to 34 and people age 45 to 64. It declined, however, for people age 19 to 25, age 35 to 44 and those age 65 and older.

Despite the difficult economy, more Americans have health insurance than a year ago, according to newly released census data. One reason: the new “Obamacare” law allows young adults, up to age 26, to stay on their parents’ insurance. Many others qualified for government programs in 2011, such as Medicaid and Medicare.The pattern is different, though, in Washington state.Young adults were given the right to join their parents plans back in 2007, so there was no sudden boost in 2011. Meanwhile, 27,000 people were forced, by budget cuts, off of the state’s Basic Health Plan.And the decade-long trend continues, of people losing private coverage.“People are dropping their insurance because can no longer afford the cost,” says Stephanie Marquis of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s. “If they get employer-sponsored health care, either the employer is dropping the coverage, or they're being laid-off from their jobs and, therefore, no longer have health insurance.”Overall, about 51,000 people in Washington lost coverage last year.The Insurance Commissioner’s office predicts people will continue to lose coverage until the federal health law takes full effect – which is supposed to be in 2014.Other highlights from the US Census "2012 Current Population Survey (CPS)" regarding health insurance: The number of people with health insurance increased to 260.2 million in 2011 from 256.6 million in 2010, as did the percentage of people with health insurance (84.3 percent in 2011, 83.7 percent in 2010). The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 63.9 percent. This was the first time in the last 10 years that the rate of private health insurance coverage has not decreased. The percentage covered by employment-based health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 55.1 percent. The percentage of people covered by government health insurance increased from 31.2 percent to 32.2 percent. The percentage covered by Medicaid increased from 15.8 percent in 2010 to 16.5 percent in 2011. The percentage covered by Medicare also rose over the period, from 14.6 percent to 15.2 percent. The percentage covered by Medicaid in 2011 was higher than the percentage covered by Medicare. In 2011, 9.7 percent of children under 19 (7.6 million) were without health insurance. Neither estimate is significantly different from the corresponding 2010 estimate. The uninsured rate also remained statistically unchanged for those age 26 to 34 and people age 45 to 64. It declined, however, for people age 19 to 25, age 35 to 44 and those age 65 and older.