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| Why is public health important? |
| Your health is determined not only by your own genetics and personal choices, but also by the environment around you. We all strive to live long, healthy lives and where we live, work and play affects our health. If you care about your health, the length and quality of your life, and the health and lives of your friends and family, then you should care about public health and the one week out of the year dedicated to bettering the lives of you and your surroundings. |
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| How does public health save lives? |
| Public health combats threats to health by implementing educational programs, developing policies, administering services, and conducting research. Over the last century, public health has lead to increased life expectancies, world-wide reduction in infant and child mortality, and the elimination or reduction of many communicable diseases. |
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| What are the top public health issues today? |
| There are many public health issues that may be of interested to your audiences f Please see our page on this topic for some examples:
http://www.whatispublichealth.org/impact/today.html. If you have others you would like to see us add, please send your ideas to stickers@asph.org. |
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| How does the world around us affect our health? |
| The spread of disease or the quality of air and water are some of the more obvious ways in which the world around us affects our health. While your own genetics and personal choices are primary determinants of your health, the environment in which you live is another determinant. The task of public health is to investigate how the ecology of health affects our well-being, from social networks and economic circumstances to our environment, and then minimize health risks and promote better health for all of us. |
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| How does globalization affect our health? |
| The frenetic movement of food and people across borders permits illnesses to move rapidly from a remote village to far away cities. Poor sanitation and a lack of health resources engender new diseases that can ultimately threaten the health of Americans. The globalization of health links us all more closely than ever before. |
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| Why should government support public health? |
| Investing in public health helps everyone, and the failure to invest puts us all at risk. The current budget shortfall and lack of well-trained public health professionals exposes America to increased risk from threats such as mutating infectious diseases, potential bioterrorist attacks, natural disasters and preventable diseases. We need to support our public health infrastructure if we want to keep America healthy. More practically, it is an effective way to control soaring health care costs. |
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