Health & Wellness News

The Burn Prevention Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network educate parents about burn and fire risks to their children. What was once a packet of information will now be a video will be shown to those with newborns.

The 21st Century program is to help students with academic support and art and music enrichment.

Loneliness, isolation and social disconnect are a public health crisis in the United States. Brittany Sweeney hosts a community conversation to examine the factors that contribute to isolation — and what we can do to avoid it.

The mobile stroke unit at Lehigh Valley Health Network is expanding its reach with a new partnership. The specialized ambulance will now assist first responders in part of Berks County with neurological emergencies.

A red fox in Northampton County earlier this month became the first mammal in the Lehigh Valley to contract bird flu.

A housing facility for inmates with severe mental illness is now open in Northampton County. The Shiloh Restoration Center will have 8-beds and provide mental and behavioral health support.

Allentown saw almost 500 crashes where a pedestrian was hurt in the past five years, eight of which killed people. Federal funding is contributing $312,000 for a study to improve road safety.

The salad, sold by Wegmans, has been found to contain undeclared milk, posing a potential risk to individuals with milk allergies.

The free classes will take place at Cedar Beach and ArtsWalk parks through June, with the Cedar Beach sessions extending through the summer. The classes are a partnership between the yoga studios and the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

Take a look at stories throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

A new advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General warns of the harmful effects social media can have on the well-being of kids and teens. A psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania has advice for parents.

A Lehigh Valley author is releasing a new self-help book on anxiety. He said he saw the need for more information on the topic following the pandemic.

Members of Easton's Blueprint Communities organization announced their first project, a mural at Chubby's honoring South Side's past, present, and future, on Monday afternoon.

Northampton County and Northampton Community College will offer a free workplace safety training later this month aimed at employees of municipal governments, nonprofits and similar organizations.

The funding, through the Livable Landscape program, was unanimously approved at the county council’s June 18 meeting.

Legislators worked to establish penalties for xylazine use and trafficking in an attempt to lessen its presence in Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply. Some say doing so made way for a new, unclassified veterinary tranquilizer to take its place — medetomidine.

The tax and spending plan drew praise from Republicans for lowering taxes and funding border security, but Democrats condemned it for slashing Medicaid coverage and raising the deficit.

Nearly a year after the Biden administration designated xylazine as an "emerging threat" to the United States, Gov. Josh Shapiro classified it as a schedule III drug, making unauthorized possession a crime in Pennsylvania. Experts say the move has partly served to clear the way for new illicit substances to enter the drug market.

Proposed federal budget cuts would impact programs such as the free summer meal program for children in the Allentown School District.

The $2.75 million payment to the federal government resolves allegations that a pharmacy technician stole controlled substances on about 40 occasions and the health network failed to institute proper controls.

Despite not being approved for human consumption, veterinary tranquilizers are infiltrating the illicit drug supply in Pennsylvania. Harm reduction specialists and health care professionals say these overdoses can't be approached solely with naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.

A generous donation from a Lehigh Valley native and others funds free swim lessons for children and adults in the River Crossing YMCA's Safety Around Water, or SAW, swim education program.

The bill would limit the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, beginning in 2026.

Xylazine, an animal-grade tranquilizer that's not approved for human use, has taken Pennsylvania's illicit drug supply by storm. Known on the streets as "tranq," it accounted for almost 1 in 4 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania by 2023. Last year in Lehigh County, it was a contributing cause of death in 20 of the 112 deadly overdoses, or 17.9 percent of cases.