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Public Health: “The causes of the causes of death”

By: CHP | Posted on: June 18th, 2010 | Share:
Categories: Air and Water Quality • Disparities • Economic Issues • Education • Policies and Laws • Public Health • Transportation

In the past, we’ve sent out props to Dick Jackson, (Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA), and the current issue of Fast Company magazine offers another slew of quotations and observations from this great champion of health-oriented policy.

In one vignette, Jackson recalls seeing a woman in her 70s walking along the side of the road in the summer heat, doubled over, presumably from osteoporosis, and thinks:

“If she were to die before making it home, the official cause of death would be heat stroke, and not a lack of sidewalks and shade trees.If she were to be hit by a truck, she would be considered an auto fatality, not the victim of a lack of transportation alternatives.”

“What public health is about,” Jackson says, “is the causes of the causes of death.”

Of the 30-year increase in American life expectancy over the 20th Century, he says:

“Twenty-five of those years came from public health, and only five from medical care — and yet we spent 17% of our GDP on treating disease.”

Check out the entire article here.

Photograph by Gabbi Schmitt, 13, of Portland Oregon (submission for 2010 CHP Youth Photo Contest)