Health

Lansing City Council put a limit of 48 medical marijuana dispensaries allowed in the city.

Carol Wood is a Lansing City Council member. She says she would like to see fewer dispensary licenses available in Lansing.

“When you look at the fact that we have 27 pharmacies that have a variety of different drugs that they’re able to access out of there and that we are looking at 48 licensed establishments for only one drug, it doesn’t seem that there’s been necessity for us to have that many to take care of the residents of the city of Lansing.”

We spoke with Bridget Tuohey of the Red Cross of Southeast Michigan about today's urgent nationwide appeal for blood donations, after tornados and other disasters impacted the agency's ability to collect blood this summer.

Tuohey says Michigan has been critically short of blood for three weeks now. 

Normally, the state can turn to other areas of the country to get blood when there's not enough donation here.  That's not the case now, says Tuohey, and the Red Cross can no longer completely fill standing orders for blood from state hospitals.  Some hospitals are postponing elective surgeries as a result.

The Red Cross needs all blood types, but especially A-negative, B-negative and O-negative.   O-negative is called the universal blood type because it can be given to anyone in an emergency.

People who can donate can walk in to a clinic.  But Tuohey says it's best to make an appointment ahead of time by calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767.)

Death from prescription drug overdose is on the rise in Michigan.

More Michiganders are dying from prescription drug abuse than from heroin and cocaine combined. In 2009, almost 460 Michiganders died of overdoses from one or more prescription drugs, up from nearly 410 deaths the year before. Data from 2010 is still being collected.

Larry Scott is with the Michigan Bureau of Substance Abuse and Addiction Services. He says there is one way to prevent the rise of prescription drug abuse.

The Detroit Free Press profiled Jerry Linenger today, a former mission specialist for the shuttle Discovery, who talked about his mixed emotions regarding today's final shuttle launch.

From the article:

It looks like something good might come out of the startling news two years ago that more than 10,000 rape kits in Detroit were found in a warehouse, untested.

Michigan State University researcher Rebecca Campbell is sifting through policies and interviewing police staff in Detroit to try and figure out why the sexual assault kits were gathering dust instead of getting tested.

And she says her findings won’t just apply to Detroit:

"Oh, this is not unique to Detroit. Not at all. This is happening in communities all throughout the United States."

The federal health care law is scheduled to take effect in 2014.  Health care leaders in Washtenaw County say they are not ready. 

Laura Weber reports: 

Two-thirds of all babies born to Michigan women in their early twenties are born out of wedlock. That’s according to a new report from the Michigan League for Human Services.

The reports shows a significant uptick over the past decade in the number of babies born out of wedlock to women in their twenties.

Jane Zehnder-Merrell is with the League. She says teen pregnancies out of wedlock used to be more prevalent.  

It’s the hottest season of the year and health professionals want people to remember to protect themselves from the sun. 

Dermatologists say it is important to stay out of the sun during peak hours from 10am to 3pm; Also seek shade; Wear protective clothing; Double up on sunscreen and reapply every two hours.  Frank Wang is with the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology. 

You do want to protect yourself because even one bad blistering sunburn can increase your risk of melanoma two-fold.