Americans — and New Yorkers, it seems — are only getting fatter. Obesity rates rose in 31 states in 2006, according to a study published yesterday by the Trust for America’s Health. In New York, 22.4% of adults are considered obese, an increase of 0.7% from 2005.

In a state-by-state comparison, New York ranked 38th, a spot it shared with New Hampshire. Mississippi had the highest obesity rate, with 30.6% of adults considered to be obese.

Anyone with a body mass index above 30, a calculation based on a person’s height and weight, is considered obese.

Yesterday’s report also looked at overweight children, ages 10 to 17. In that category, New York ranked 18th, with 15.3% of children considered to be overweight.

“Telling people to eat less and exercise more just hasn’t worked,” the director of the comprehensive weight control program at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Louis Aronne, said.

According to the city’s Department of Health, 34% of adults are obese, and 22% are overweight. An estimated 43% of elementary school students are overweight.

INCREASED ASTHMA AMONG 9/11 WORKERS

Rescue workers exposed to dust at the World Trade Center site after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks developed asthma at exponentially higher rates than those of the general population, according to a new survey that shows new asthma diagnoses among WTC workers were 12 times higher than normal. The study, released by the city’s Department of Health yesterday and published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is based on interviews with individuals enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. Among 25,748 people interviewed, 3.6% — or 926 workers — developed new cases of asthma after working at ground zero. Among the general population, the rate of new diagnoses was 0.3%.

The cumulative amount of time spent at the site had a direct impact on a worker’s chance of developing asthma, the study found. The highest rate of new asthma cases, 7%, was among those who arrived at the site September 11 and worked there for more than 90 days.

Workers who wore masks at the site reported asthma diagnoses at a rate of 4%, while those who did not reported diagnoses at a rate of 6.3%.

NYCRX OFFERS PRESCRIPTION DRUG AID

In an effort to make prescription drugs more affordable, the city’s Department of Health has launched a program to enable New Yorkers to purchase federally subsidized medications. Through the program, NYCRx, uninsured or underinsured patients can buy prescription drugs at steep discounts both from federally qualified health centers and from pharmacies run by the city’s 11 public hospitals.

In April, the Health Department rolled out the program at four sites in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and officials said they expect to expand the program to an additional 14 sites in the coming months.

Congress created the 340b pharmacy savings program in 1992, but patients and pharmacies have complained of bureaucratic obstacles that NYCRx aims to navigate for them.

An estimated 930,000 New Yorkers did not fill prescriptions in 2003 because of cost, health officials said. For the uninsured or underinsured patients, NYCRx “can represent a real savings option for them,” the health department’s assistant commissioner of chronic disease prevention, Dr. Lynn Silver, said.

TASTE IS ALSO A GUT REACTION

People have taste buds in their intestines, not just their mouths, according to new research by scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

“Cells of the gut taste glucose through the same mechanisms used by taste cells of the tongue,” the lead author of the study, Dr. Robert Margolskee, said in a statement announcing the findings.

The results, published in the August 20 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help address obesity issues and may lead to new treatments for people with diabetes.

“This work may explain why current artificial sweeteners may not help with weight loss, and may lead to the production of new noncaloric sweeteners to better control weight,” Dr. Margolskee, a professor of neuroscience at Mount Sinai, said. “Sensing glucose in the gastrointestinal tract is the first step in regulating blood sugar levels.”