Topics in Brief
A Community Bulletin

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) will once again participate in National Wear Red Day, a program of the American Heart Association (AHA) by holding a free “Wear Red Day!: Women and Heart Disease and Stroke” event on Friday, February 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Arline and Henry Schwartzman Courtyard. There will be complimentary blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar screenings, as well as educational information and prevention tips. There will also be a noontime seminar addressing heart disease and stroke with several physicians and a heart disease survivor also will share her story. Appointments for screenings are requested but walk-ins also are welcome. For more information or to make an appointment, please visit www.rwjuh.edu/heartevents or call the RWJUH Community Education Department at (732) 418-8110.

Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes and the County Office of Consumer Affairs want residents to be aware of a number of Haiti relief effort scams that have been brought to their attention. Before sending money to any organization that claims it is helping with relief efforts in Haiti, Mercer County and the Better Business Bureau recommend that individuals be cautious when giving online, especially in response to spam messages and emails that provide links to relief organizations, and to find out if the charity has an on-the-ground presence in the disaster area. Potential donors are also encouraged not to rely on the advice of bloggers, Web sites, or other third-party groups about which relief organizations to support, and to be leery of groups that claim 100 percent of donations will assist relief victims. (True charities have overhead and administrative costs.) Links to legitimate relief efforts can be found on the Mercer County web site, www.mercercounty.org. Consumers who think they may have been victimized by a Haiti Relief scam should contact the Office of Consumer Affairs at (609) 989-6671 or online at http://nj.gov/counties/mercer/commissions/consumer/index.html. The FBI has established a telephone hotline, National Center for Disaster Fraud, at (866) 720-5721, staffed by a live operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They also can be e-mailed at disaster@leo.gov.

Mercer County will host an information session, “Medicine Safety: Play it Safe!” to inform residents on the potential dangers within their medicine cabinets. The workshop will be Wednesday, February 10 from 10 to 11 a.m. at County Connection, Route 33 at Paxson Avenue in the Acme Shopping Center, Hamilton.

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