Another state just declared the opioid crisis an emergency

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has declared the state’s opioid epidemic a public health emergency, joining a handful of states using an emergency declaration to bolster efforts to combat the crisis. The 90-day declaration will expand access to the state’s prescription drug monitoring program and allow emergency responders to leave the overdose-reversing drug naloxone with a person when they respond to a call and a patient declines to be taken to a hospital. Other states have used that kind of declaration to implement new prescribing guidelines and tap into additional funding for treatment and prevention.

Meanwhile, President Trump signed a new bill yesterday that gives customs and border agents more portable screening devices and pays for more lab equipment and staff to prevent illicit drugs like fentanyl from coming into the country.

Ramping up efforts to combat environmental health harms

The World Health Organization and the United Nations’ environmental arm are teaming up to work together on antibiotic resistance, air pollution, and other critical health issues tied to the environment. The organizations say there’s an urgent need to step up their work as environmental pollution and climate change take a growing toll. A report published last fall in the Lancet found that pollution disproportionately impacts the poor — more than 90 percent of all deaths tied to pollution occur in low-income and middle-income countries. And across all countries, diseases driven by pollution are most prevalent among minority populations.

Would pricier potato chips translate to better health?

Taxes might be coming for your Dr. Pepper — and they could be coming for your Sour Patch Kids and Cheetos, too. Public health researchers are raising the idea of a national junk food tax in a new paper published in the American Journal of Public Health. Their suggestion: Make junk food manufacturers pay an excise tax. The analysis finds that a national tax on junk food, sugary drinks, or both has the potential to make a dent in diseases blamed on unhealthy foods and could raise revenue for public health initiatives. Research published last year found that food policies such as sugary drink taxes and produce subsidies could cut cardiovascular disease deaths.

Inside STAT: Why do damaged fingernails fall off?

(hyacinth empinado / stat)

Fingernails sometimes fall off when they’re damaged, like if your hand gets caught in the car door. When fingernails break off, it’s due to a shock to the matrix, the spot at the bottom of your nail that’s responsible for growing your fingernail. I explore the secrets and science of fingernails in a new episode of our video series Boddities — watch here.

How loneliness harms your health, according to a former surgeon general

Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is keeping busy since leaving his post in April, including working to educate the public about the health effects of loneliness and isolation. The physician talked about what he calls “an epidemic of loneliness” at a Cambridge event last night moderated by WBUR’s Asma Khalid. Social isolation higher risk of anxiety, depression, dementia, and premature death. Another effect of all that isolation? It’s bad for business, Murthy says. “Healthy people can do more and bring more to the workplace,” he said, “and the health of our employees is essential to any business.”

Lab Chat: Breaking up biofilms that resist antibiotics

Taking a page from a peptide found in our own bodies, scientists have created an antibacterial agent that could one day be used to break up biofilms — those slimy buildups of bacteria that can cause infection. Here’s what Anna de Breij of the Netherlands’ Leiden University Medical Center told me about the research in mice and human samples, published in Science Translational Medicine.

What are you studying?

[We looked at] a human antimicrobial peptide which plays a key role in the innate immune response against bacteria. Based on this naturally-occurring peptide, we designed a novel set of peptides and screened for their ability to kill bacteria in biological fluids.

What did you find?

[We found a peptide] which was highly effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains. The peptide could also kill bacteria within a biofilm, a protective sugar matrix that protects bacteria. Biofilms often contain persister cells, which are highly tolerant to antibiotics and are responsible for many recurring infections. [Our peptide] killed persisters and biofilm-encased bacteria very efficiently, [and] doesn't induce resistance.

What to read around the web today

§ Houston's scoring a big health-care win by finding housing for homeless people. But can the program survive? Politico

§ R.S.V.? She hadn't heard of it. Then her child was hospitalized. New York Times

§ Goop's 'trusted expert' Anthony William dispenses junk science, critics say. Inverse

The latest from STAT Plus

§ ‘I recognize the responsibility I have’: A rare female CEO in Big Pharma weighs in on diversity.

§ Overhaul of 340B program could happen this spring, key Republican says.

Correction: Yesterday's newsletter misstated a statistic on infant sleep practices. Roughly 22 percent of mothers report putting infants to sleep on their side or stomach, which is considered unsafe. The American Academy of Pediatrics says babies should sleep on their backs in their own cribs, without any toys or soft bedding.

Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,