Despite a major decrease in the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) since the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its recommendation in 1992 that infants be placed for sleep in a nonprone position, this decline has plateaued in recent years. Concurrently, other causes of sudden unexpected infant death that occur during sleep (sleep-related deaths), including suffocation, asphyxia, and entrapment, and ill-defined or unspecified causes of death have increased in incidence, particularly since the AAP published its last statement on SIDS in 2005. The AAP, therefore, is expanding its recommendations from focusing only on SIDS to focusing on a safe sleep environment that can reduce the risk of all sleep-related infant deaths, including SIDS.

Excessive alcohol drinking is the third leading cause of death in the United States, leading to 79,000 premature deaths annually. It is also the cause of increased disease and injury. Although the public health impacts of binge drinking are known, its economic cost has not been assessed for the United States since 1998. Using data from 2006, a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by Mathematica assessed costs for health care, productivity losses, and other effects, including property damage, from excessive drinking. On a per-capita basis, the economic impact of excessive alcohol consumption is approximately $746 per person, mostly attributable to binge drinking.