(Smyrna) – The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) and Delaware State Police will conduct a quarterly test of the Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations Alert and Notification system on Tuesday, January 9, 2018.  The sirens will sound between 10:30 AM and 11:00 AM.

The 37 sirens located within ten miles of the Salem/Hope Creek (New Jersey) plants will be activated for three to five minutes.  The siren tests will be followed by a test message of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on local radio stations.

Sirens that will be tested are the same sirens used to alert the public in the event of an actual emergency at either the Salem or Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations.  In such an emergency, the public would be alerted by the sirens to tune radios to one of the local EAS stations for important emergency instructions.

NEW CASTLE (Jan. 2, 2018) – In embracing one of the policy objectives of Governor John Carney’s Action Plan for Delaware, the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) has become a founding member of the national My Healthy Weight, a first-ever collective initiative offering obesity prevention and treatment for individuals of all ages. Delaware is one of nine founding members of this public-private initiative developed by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the Bipartisan Policy Center, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In Governor Carney’s Action Plan, his transition team recommended that DHSS launch a statewide effort to reduce the impact of obesity as a way to improve health outcomes and reduce health costs. About two-thirds of Delaware adults are at an unhealthy weight, either obese or overweight, and half of all Delawareans don’t get regular physical activity. In 2014, about 11 percent of Delaware adults reported having diabetes, with that percentage rising to 18.6 percent for Delawareans with incomes below $15,000, compared with 7.8 percent for those who make $50,000 or more per year.

Starting in January 2019, Medicaid clients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher will have access to at least 12 visits a year with a health care professional to support healthy weight. Individuals with a BMI of 25 or higher and specific cardiovascular health risks and children with at-risk BMIs will also be offered visits with health care professionals. Further support will be provided for eligible individuals to access community-based programs focused on obesity prevention and treatment.

“My Healthy Weight offers the opportunity for DHSS to provide consistent coverage through our Medicaid program to thousands of clients who are at an unhealthy weight,” Governor Carney said. “This initiative will improve the quality of life for many Delawareans, offer us new ways to prevent obesity, and help us reduce the impact of such chronic conditions as diabetes, hypertension and cancer. I am grateful to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for believing in our ability to build a healthier Delaware.”

Delaware joins a collaborative of health care leaders from across the nation, including private and public payers and employers, who have joined together in this innovative pledge. The initiative will provide millions of Americans with consistent coverage to support healthy weight change.

“With obesity and diabetes at epidemic rates in our state, My Healthy Weight offers us a way to provide consistent coverage to support healthy weight change and bring down our statewide rates,” said DHSS Secretary Dr. Kara Odom Walker, a board-certified family physician. “We know that poverty is the number one social determinant of health, so we are proud to offer this connection to care to our Medicaid clients as an important step forward in preventing and treating obesity in our state.”

“Each founding member in My Healthy Weight is a leader in the fight to combat this national public health crisis,” said Dr. Howell Wechsler, CEO, Alliance for a Healthier Generation. “By covering obesity prevention and treatment for members of all ages, they are taking a bold action to support better health at the most fundamental levels. This proactive, preventive initiative will make our entire health care system better and will improve millions of lives.”

More than one in three U.S. adults has obesity, with obesity care costing as much as $210 billion per year nationwide. Physical inactivity, obesity, and related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and hypertension, constitute some of the most challenging and costly public health threats facing America.

“Health care is changing rapidly in America and prevention is too often an afterthought or left out of the conversation entirely,” said Bipartisan Policy Center’s Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anand Parekh. “The founding members of My Healthy Weight are putting a historic stake in the ground to say that they value obesity and chronic disease prevention, which represents a fundamental and long overdue shift in the way we think about health care in this country.”

“Delawareans deserve clean air,” says Governor John Carney 

WILMINGTON, Del. – Delaware announced today its intent to send four Notice of Intent to Sue letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding air pollution that comes into Delaware from other states.

The NOI letters, as required by the federal Clean Air Act, inform the EPA that the Delaware Department of Justice – acting on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control – will file suit against EPA for its failure to require power plants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to reduce air pollution that significantly affects the quality of the air that Delawareans breathe.

Delaware has previously petitioned for relief to the EPA.

“The Clean Air Act entitles Delaware to relief from upwind pollution and the remedy we are seeking is reasonable and within EPA’s authority and responsibility to grant,” said Governor John Carney. “Delawareans deserve clean air, but our air quality is significantly impacted by pollution traveling downwind from other states. We are simply asking that the EPA require these power plants that pollute Delaware’s air to run their existing pollution control equipment when the plants are in operation.”

Four petitions filed between July and November 2016 by DNREC under Section 126 of the federal Clean Air Act, sought to have EPA require certain power plant units in upwind states to use their air pollution controls to reduce emissions.

The lawsuits will contend that EPA’s approval of the petitions is critical to protecting the health of Delawareans and helping contain the state’s rising healthcare costs from treating respiratory and lung diseases. EPA approval is also important to Delaware’s economy because fewer health-related absences from the workforce results in an increase in productivity.

Ground-level ozone, or smog, has been one of Delaware’s most pervasive and challenging air pollution problems. More than 90 percent of the ozone in Delaware originates from emissions in upwind states.

The filing of the Section 126 petitions, as well as the related Notice of Intent to Sue letters, comes after decades of efforts by DNREC to influence reduction of air pollution transported into Delaware from upwind states.

Though Delaware has made dramatic progress on improving air quality in recent years, emissions from out-of-state power plants continue to prevent Delaware from attaining and maintaining federal health-based air quality standards.

“The Department has pursued – and will continue to pursue – voluntary and collaborative efforts with partner states to ensure upwind power plants meet the same stringent standards which Delaware is required to meet,” said Shawn Garvin, Secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. “It is now time for EPA to hold upwind sources accountable for ozone emissions that are impacting downwind states.”

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