The Obama administration has announced a new public health goal: the elimination of traffic fatalities in the United States in the next 30 years. It's a response to news of an entirely different sort: In 2015, 38,300 people were killed on American roads, a 7 percent increase over the previous year and the largest jump in 50 years.

The Transportation Department will, among other things, emphasize increased seatbelt use, expand deployment of rumble strips along roads and elevate awareness about the dangers of drunk and distracted driving. The emergence of self-driving cars might help — human error plays a role in 94 percent of car crashes — but drunk driving remains the biggest villain.

Getting the Lead Out

Elevated levels of lead in the blood is significant health threat. Short-term overexposure can cause abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weakness and constipation. Long-term overexposure can lead to depression and forgetfulness.

It's worse for children, who are at risk of lifelong harm, particularly in terms of neurological development. Each year, approximately 310,000 children ages 1 to 5 are found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood.

The good news is that the rate of lead poisoning has fallen dramatically in the past two decades, according to new numbers from the Centers for Disease Control, from nearly 26 percent in 1988 to under 2 percent in 2014.

Racial disparities persist, however: Black children are twice as likely as white children to have elevated blood lead levels.

Body of Knowledge

It takes roughly an hour for the human eye to completely adapt to darkness, but once fully adapted, it is 100,000 times more sensitive to light than it is in bright sunlight.

Life in Big Macs

One hour of making beds burns 136 calories (based on a 150-pound person) or the equivalent of 0.2 Big Macs. One hour of jumping on said bed consumes 704 calories — or 0.8 Big Macs.

Counts

52: Percentage of Americans surveyed who say they use a dietary supplement, such as botanicals, fish oils or probiotics

Source: JAMA

Doc Talk

Blood-brain barrier: surgical drapes

Phobia of the Week

Hamartophobia: fear of sinning

Never Say Diet

The Major League Eating record for strawberry-rhubarb pie is 7.9 pounds in 8 minutes, held by Patrick Bertoletti. Bertoletti is a professional eater who also holds the record for blueberry pie consumption (hands-free) at 9.17 pounds in 8 minutes. His, apparently, is a Life of Pie.

Best Medicine

Three patients at an in-patient psychiatric clinic are up for release. The psychiatrist-on-call informs them that they will have to pass a simple test before they can leave.

Psychiatrist: "How much is two plus two?"

Patient #1: "Blue."

With a nod from the psychiatrist, an orderly escorts Patient #1 back to his room.

Psychiatrist to next patient: "What is six minus three?"

Patient #2: "Square."

An orderly escorts Patient #2 back to his room.

Psychiatrist: "OK, you're next. How much is five plus five?"

Patient #3: "10."

The psychiatrist is astounded. "How did you know that?" he asks.

"Easy," replies Patient #3. "Everyone knows blue multiplied by square equals 10."

Observation

"I'm a light eater. As soon as it's light, I start eating." —Comedian Doug Larson

Sum Body

Three things in your body longer than you are tall.

1. Your small intestine is roughly 18 to 23 feet in length. "Small" refers to its diameter, about 1 inch. The large intestine is wider — 3 inches — but shorter in length at about five feet. The small intestine is tasked with absorbing most of the nutrients from the food we consume. The large intestine extracts water and creates stools for defecation.

2. Your circulatory system — all of the arteries, veins and capillaries transporting blood throughout the body — adds up to roughly 60,000 miles of tubing if laid end to end.

3. Your DNA stretches out roughly six feet. Every cell nucleus in your body is packed with six feet of DNA. If you uncoiled all of the DNA from all of the cells in your body and tied the strands together, it would stretch 10 billion miles, from the Earth to Pluto and back.

Curtain Calls

Jerome Irving Rodale (1898-1971) was an author, playwright, publisher and pioneer in modern organic farming. In 1971, at the age of 72, he appeared on the The Dick Cavett television talk show, where he joked at one point during the interview that he was in "such great health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way."

Rodale was sitting beside another of Cavett's guests, newspaper columnist Pete Hamill, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. The show was never broadcast.