Public health practices harmful

Today there is wide agreement that (1) prevention is the first principle of public health (2) public health requires community action to create conditions that prevent disease and other threats to the health and welfare of individuals and the larger community and (3) an environment that is free from harm is the starting point of good public health practice. 

FDA has explicit statutory authority to issue information to the public. The courts have upheld the right of FDA to publicise illegal activity and to issue publicity about products and practices that it concludes to be harmful to the public health. This is regarded by many as the most potent enforcement tool available to FDA. 

As a result of rapid industrialization, the disposal of heavy metals into the environment has increased. Many industries discharge aqueous effluents that contain heavy metals, such as copper, cadmium, zinc and mercury (Saygideger et al. 2005). These metal ions can be harmful to aquatic life, and water contaminated by toxic metal ions remains a serious public health problem for human health (Pehlivan et al. 2008). Therefore, it is of great practical interest to explore ways to effectively remove these heavy metal ions from the wastewaters before their discharge, and to possibly separate them for recovery and re-use. 

There are many risks people are subjected to in the plant, at home, and elsewhere that can cause harm, health problems, and/or death with plastic products representing very few. Precautions should be taken and enforced based on what is practical, logical, and useful. However, those involved in laws and regulations, as well as the public and, particularly the news media should recognize there is acceptable risk. 

The implications of the differences in pharmaceutical prices between countries can be far-reaching for any health system with public funding. Let us focus our attention on two aspects. The first of these concerns the capacity of price regulation systems to guarantee low prices without causing excessive harm to incentives to innovate. The second concerns the widespread practice of using observed prices in other countries as a reference for the pricing authorization of new pharmaceuticals. 

Overarching this discussion are the incalculable costs in lives and human suffering. The practice of medicine is grounded in the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. Beyond all financial and business arguments stands the moral imperative to deliver safe care, or do no harm, for the good of patients, health professionals, and the public. 

Advances in Patient Safety New Directions and Alternative Approaches is a four-volume set of 115 articles, which describe patient safety findings, investigative approaches, process analyses, lessons learned, and practical tools to prevent patients from being harmed. It includes articles by AHRQ-funded patient safety researchers on topics such as reporting systems, risk assessment, safety culture, medical simulation, health information technology, and medication safety (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0034). 

The HSE expresses risk as "the likelihood that the harm from a particular hazard is realised." (para 5 (b)) Health and Safety Commission (1992) Management of Health and Safety at Work 1992 Approved Code of Practice. London HMSO. The Royal Society expresses risk as "the probability that a specified undesirable event will occur in a specified period or as a result of a specified situation." Royal Society Study Group (1992) Risk Analysis, perception and management. London Royal Society. Grimaldi and Simmonds (1984) Safety management. USA RD Irwin, express risk as "the assumed effect of an uncontrolled hazard, appraised in terms of the probability it will happen, the maximum severity of any injuries or damages, and the public s sensitivity to the occurrence." pp 181. 

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