More than 3 million people, a record number, suffered premature deaths from air pollution in 2010, according to a new report published in the Lancet. For the first time, air pollution has moved to the top 10 list of killers, making it a top public health concern surpassing even high cholesterol.

For comparison, air pollution killed just 800,000 in 1990. Pollution and related deaths have surged in countries seeing economic gains, like China and India, although technology and new standards can mitigate the problem around the world. In East Asia, pollution ranks fourth, behind smoking, as a high risk factor.

These deaths are largely preventable. David Pettit at NRDC writes:

Fortunately there are many actions that can be taken to address outdoor air pollution. The technology is readily available at a fraction of the investment cost compared to the health costs that the public bears. We can replace polluting old engines with much cleaner new models. Alternative fuels and more efficient equipment can address global warming pollution in addition to traditional air pollutants like soot. Renewable-based electric power can replace polluting diesels and other fossil fuel engines in virtually every sector.

The U.S. took additional steps this year by releasing mercury standards for coal-fired power plants, which is estimated to save up to 11,000 lives annually.

Three doctors in Georgia are seeking to block their state’s restrictive abortion ban, which outlaws the procedure after 20 weeks of gestation except in very narrow cases of medical emergency.

Representing the doctors in an Atlanta court on Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that — in addition to preventing women from choosing when to terminate a pregnancy — the stringent law will force doctors to make an impossible choice because they could be criminally prosecuted for providing their patients with the health care they need:

“It is unconstitutional on its face,” ACLU attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas told the judge. “It is undisputed that plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm.” [...]

“The act, which bans nearly all pre-viability abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization, infringes on the fundamental right of a woman to decide whether and when to bear a child,” and breaches rights enshrined in Georgia’s constitution, the ACLU argued in a Nov. 30 complaint.

Georgia was the seventh state in the nation to enact a 20-week abortion ban. Such measures typically rely on the widely disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks.

The ACLU has also taken legal action against a similar stringent 20-week abortion ban in Arizona, successfully blocking the measure from taking effect while a court considers the case against it. Arizona officials defended the restrictive legislation by claiming that medical issues that arise after 20 weeks of pregnancy are simply “the woman’s problem.”

This month’s deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School has sparked a national conversation about improving gun control laws and the woeful state of America’s mental health care system. Fortunately, Obamacare will address the latter by increasing access to mental health services through its Medicaid expansion and state-wide health exchanges — but Kaiser Health News reports that a little known NRA-backed provision in the health law may undermine the former.

Inserted into the Affordable Care Act at the request of pro-gun, NRA-backed Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Obamacare subsection titled “Protection of Second Amendment Gun Rights” makes it illegal for wellness and better-living programs to require “the disclosure or collection of any information relating to… the presence or storage of a lawfully-possessed firearm or ammunition in the residence or on the property of an individual; or… the lawful use, possession, or storage of a firearm or ammunition by an individual.” The provision also prohibits insurers from using a patient’s gun possession status in order to determine premium rates.

Supporters might argue that gun ownership is a personal choice, and that patients should have a right to privacy from providers and insurers on such a matter. But critics say the provision stifles meaningful dialogue between providers and patients on an issue that undeniably has implications for public health and medical costs.

As University of Pennsylvania social policy professor Susan Sorenson puts it, “A lot of people buy guns every year, and it’s a health concern… To regulate what the provider can or can’t do really intrudes into the role of the health care provider, which is to ensure the health of the individual and the people who are living in that home.”

And Obamacare doesn’t extend this privacy to other costly lifestyle choices. Last month, the Obama administration issued a rule allowing insurers to consider patients’ smoking histories when setting their premium rates. Gun violence costs Americans $5.6 billion in annual medical bills, but the totals are actually closer to $100 billion per year — the same number that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that smoking costs Americans each year in medical costs — when accounting for lost productivity.

The fact that such a provision found its way into the health care law without so much as a mention from the media or national politicians underscores the far reach of the gun lobby’s influence. Sen. Reid, who quietly requested the addition, has a solid “B” rating from the NRA, and the influential lobbying group — which overwhelmingly supports Republicans — declined to weigh in on his 2010 re-election campaign.

Fewer teens are smoking cigarettes than ever before, according to the results from an annual survey of thousands of students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades.

Just 10.6 percent of respondents said they had smoked a cigarette at some point over the past 30 days, down by slightly over a percentage point from the year before. Researchers noted that, even though one percentage point may not seem like a big decline, the current trends among young people reveal that the public campaign against tobacco use has made significant progress — particularly since most lifelong smokers first pick up the habit in their teenage years:

Longer-term trends showed teen smoking rates dropping by about three-fourths among eighth graders, two-thirds among 10th graders and by half among 12th graders since a peak in the mid-1990s, researchers said.

One reason cited by experts is that the proportion of students who have ever tried smoking has declined sharply. Whereas nearly half of all eighth graders had tried cigarettes in 1996, just 16 percent had done so this year.

Teen attitudes toward smoking also continued to become more negative. For example, 80 percent of teens said they preferred to date nonsmokers in 2012.

Nevertheless, anti-smoking advocates point out that efforts to combat Big Tobacco aren’t over yet, particularly since austerity policies have led states to slash funding for their anti-smoking campaigns. A federal court recently ruled that tobacco companies have “deliberately deceived the American public” about the dangers of smoking, but that doesn’t mean the tobacco industry has completely stopped marketing their products to children.

“We cannot let our guard down when the tobacco industry still spends $8.5 billion a year — nearly $1 million ever hour — to market its deadly and addictive products and is pushing new products…that entice youth,” Susan Liss, executive director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told Reuters.

Ever since Darden Restaurants — the owner of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains — first announced its anti-Obamacare campaign, the company has had a tough couple of months. Darden admitted as much when it revised its predictions for latest quarterly earnings down in December, attributing the drop to “recent negative media coverage on Darden [...] and how we might accommodate healthcare reform.”

The negative press led the company to reverse course on its threat to shift employees to part-time status to avoid covering them under Obamacare. The latest report on Darden’s earnings prove that was a good move, since the restaurants did take a turn for the worse as a result of their bad publicity. Its net income fell 37 percent:

The decline in traffic comes despite the company’s efforts to revamp the menus and marketing for its flagship chains. At Olive Garden, the company rolled out an updated advertising campaign and introduced more light and affordable dishes. At Red Lobster, it added options for people who don’t like seafood.

But the company said revenue at U.S. restaurants open at least a year fell 2.7 percent for its three biggest chains during the quarter; it fell 3.2 percent at Olive Garden, 2.7 percent at Red Lobster and 0.8 percent at LongHorn Steakhouse. The figure is a key metric because it strips out the impact of newly opened and closed locations.

Olive Garden and Red Lobster are not the only chains attempting to make their employees pay more instead of offering them basic health care. Denny’s and Papa John’s have also warned they may cut back hours to avoid the provision in the health care law that requires firms with 50 or more full-time workers to offer health benefits. In reality, the costs of Obamacare are overstated, as it only imposes a small increase in health care spending for larger firms, while actually reducing it for smaller employers.

Widespread budget cuts to state mental health services during the Great Recession have left that area of the health care sector with significant gaps. But that may be poised to change, as the mental health community is gearing up to lobby the federal government for their legislative agenda in the aftermath of last week’s tragic shooting in Newtown, CT.

As the Hill reports, the public is currently pushing for a renewed focus on mental health treatment. According to Gallup, a full 84 percent of Americans believe that increasing government spending on mental health services would be “very” or “somewhat” effective in helping prevent future mass shootings. And advocates are hoping that the renewed attention on the need for mental health care may encourage lawmakers to make the issue more of a priority going forward:

Advocates told The Hill that they plan to emphasize the role of Medicaid in paying for mental-health services and urge Congress not to cut the program in an agreement to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” [...]

Kate Mattias of the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said she hopes lawmakers can adjust their thinking to integrate mental health into larger healthcare discussions.

“Whenever there is a conversation about health, mental health needs to be part of that conversation,” she said.

“It’s thought of differently, but we need to talk about it broadly, just like we talk about lowering diabetes or cardiovascular issues.”

Mental health advocates are advocating primarily for strengthening community-based mental health services across the country, as well as improving the early diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill minors. A coalition of mental health groups plan on crafting a legislative proposal that would ask lawmakers to double the United States’ capacity to provide mental health services. According to a 2011 Kaiser Foundation report, more than 60 percent of adults and 70 percent of children with mental illnesses don’t receive the health services they need.

Some politicians are already taking initiative by proposing new legislation to increase mental health services in schools and colleges. And earlier this week, Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) — whose state mourned its own mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater this past summer — asked state lawmakers to dedicate over $18 million to expanding mental health services in Colorado.

On Wednesday, when President Obama announced the creation of a new White House task force to address the root causes of gun violence, he also cited mental health as a top priority. “We’re going to need to make access to mental healthcare at least as easy as access to a gun,” Obama said.