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This Week's Facts:Firesafety.gov Encourages Diligence During Holiday Season
Another great feature is the Kids Section. Here you can download coloring books and pictures to color. They also have activity sheets to prepare kids for fires and classroom curricula for teachers.
------------------------------- Friday Facts Editorial Team:
Katharine Springer
Elisabeth
O’Donnell
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MedlinePlus Connects Users to Important Health Info
State Offers Relief to Eligible Soldiers' Families
Census Discontinues Long Form, Cites Response Rates
“After the 1990 census, Congress raised concerns about falling census response rates and rising costs. Congress also expressed an interest in having more timely long-form sample data for policy purposes, noting that decennial census long-form data were out of date not long after their release and became less useful as the years went by. Congress asked the Census Bureau to explore alternatives to the long form, with the goals of simplifying the census, containing costs, and producing more timely information to inform policy debates and legislative actions.” The American Community Survey went through a decade of testing and development in a limited number of locations and 4 years of national implementation before it launched nationwide in January 2005 and began surveying monthly samples of about 250,000 housing units. In 2006, a monthly sample of about 20,000 people living in group quarters was added to the housing unit sample. Both samples were chosen based on carefully designed methods of selection to provide representation of the entire U.S. population. After 1 year of continuous data collection, the ACS amasses enough information to release single-year estimates of housing and population characteristics for all areas that have at least 65,000 residents. The 2005 ACS results were released in the summer of 2006, and new 1-year estimates have been released every year since then. After 3 years, the ACS amasses enough data to make estimates for any place with at least 20,000 residents. The Census Bureau will release the first of these 3-year period estimates in December 2008. The ACS will have collected enough data to release 5-year estimates in 2010 for areas down to the tract and block group level, as the decennial census long form has done in past censuses. All the estimates will be updated for all geographies every year thereafter." For more information, view the American Community Survey Compass handbooks. More Reasons to Wash Hands Before Dinner Tonight December 6-12 marks National Hand washing Awareness Week. The week is sponsored by the Henry the Hand Foundation. Henry is designed to teach kids about the importance of washing their hands – proper hygiene goes a long way in preventing disease and infection. This is particularly important as we enter flu season. The Foundation has hand washing kits available for the home, school, workplace or hospitals. You can also sign up for hand washing alerts that provide tips on infection protection, family health and much more. The CDC is another great source for hand washing tips for kids. They include a link to the School Network for Absenteeism Prevention, or SNAP, a program specifically designed to teach middle schoolers about proper hygiene. The CDC also includes tips on when you should wash your hands and for how long. Finally, special precautions may be needed after a disaster. If you ever find yourself in such a situation, the CDC has advice on how to stay hygienic. |
