Bay Area

Mayor London Breed and Health Department Launch New Program to Fight Overdoses and Deaths

Published

6 years ago

October 3, 2019

Mayor London N. Breed and the Department of Public Health (DPH) announced on Sept. 30 a new overdose prevention program for single room occupancy hotels (SROs), to be carried out by DPH in partnership with the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

The innovative program is in response to the rising number of overdose deaths in San Francisco, approximately 30 percent of which occur at SROs.

After years of keeping overdose deaths relatively flat, even in the face of a rising number of overdoses, San Francisco is seeing an increase in overdose deaths. This is largely the result of the introduction of fentanyl into the drug supply, which is a very potent opioid that carries a high risk of death by overdose.

“We must do more to fight the serious danger that fentanyl presents to our community, and this new program will help us meet people where they are and provide SRO residents with the training and medication to prevent overdose deaths,” said Mayor Breed. “This effort builds on San Francisco’s long history of implementing innovative solutions, working with the community, and emphasizing harm reduction to save lives.”

The number of fentanyl overdose deaths in San Francisco has increased each year since 2014. There were 36 fentanyl overdose deaths in 2017, 89 deaths in 2018, and in the first quarter of 2019 there were 39 fentanyl overdose deaths. Fentanyl has driven an overall 17 percent increase in all drug overdose deaths in San Francisco from 222 in 2017 to 259 in 2018. For the first time, fentanyl has surpassed heroin and prescription opioids as the leading cause of opioid overdose death.

“We knew fentanyl was coming and have been monitoring it closely,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of Health. “Now it’s here. We will continue to expand our aggressive work to prevent overdoses and increase access to treatment.”

The Health Department supports the Harm Reduction Coalition’s Drug Overdose Prevention (DOPE) Project, which provided over 15,000 doses of naloxone to thousands of people at risk of experiencing or witnessing an overdose in 2018 alone.

DOPE recorded 1,658 overdose reversals in that year and is on track to nearly double that number in 2019. The DOPE Project continues to expand operations, with new sites and mobile activities in San Francisco. In addition, DPH provides low barrier access to buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder and reduce overdose risk. DPH expanded the Street Medicine team, which is comprised of nurses, doctors, and social workers.
The Street Medicine team conducts outreach to homeless and marginally housed residents and clinicians provide prescriptions for the opioid treatment medication buprenorphine directly to people on the streets suffering from opioid addiction.

The new program will expand overdose prevention efforts even further. Based on the successful Tenant Overdose Response Organizers (TORO) program from Vancouver, the SRO project will work closely with SRO operators and tenants to develop on-site overdose prevention programs.

The project also will support the installation of naloxone-rescue boxes throughout the buildings to improve access to this critical life-saving medication. The SRO program will begin later this year and is supported by the California Department of Public Health, the California Department of Health Care Services and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“By deliberately expanding overdose prevention efforts to SROs, the residents, many of whom are formerly homeless and have struggled with mental health and substance use issues, will be empowered to save lives and support their community,” said Dr. Phillip Coffin, Director of Substance Use Research for the Department of Public Health.

The Department of Public Health reported an increase in overdose deaths in August, and earlier this month issued a health alert to San Francisco health providers when additional fentanyl overdoses occurred. Three men with no known history of opioid use required critical hospital care in San Francisco following fentanyl overdose, in three separate incidents. Two died from the overdoses and one recovered.

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Related Topics:fentanyl Mayor London Breed San Francisco

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.