Public health as part of sustainability efforts

Post date: Nov 01, 2017 11:49:28 AM

All sustainability efforts essentially boil down to the formation of goals and plans that would benefit humanity and the environment in the future. The equation will always include actions that will address the most pressing issues the world has been facing. From poverty to climate change to child mortality and epidemics, a consolidated movement must ensue to properly and efficiently provide solutions to many of the world’s problems.

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Public health is naturally intertwined with a lot of other social aspects. The history of public health, for one, is tied to social developments like urbanization and heavy industrialization in city centers that eventually prompted various local agencies to respond to growing sanitation issues and mortality caused by widespread contraction of diseases. Urban development initiatives must be truly grounded on health management to be able to provide livable spaces to people.

Environmental changes also affect the health of the general public. Urban pollution particularly accounts for a big part of the contaminants that were introduced since the Industrial Revolution. Sustainability efforts on public health must also come to terms with the urgency of regulating the emission of dangerous air contaminants to alleviate the effects of pollution, not to mention climate change.

Infrastructure and housing development must thoughtfully consider sustainability strategies to be able to create public and private spaces that would integrate a natural concern for public health. Materials, locations, and mobility functions of entire populations should be founded on a humanistic appraisal of long-term benefits to the general well-being of the people.

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U.S. Army veteran, Captain Martin Lloyd Sanders received his doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1997. He is currently the Chief Scientist for the U.S. Public Health Service. To learn more about the range of his professional work, visit this page.