Medicine & Public Health in Credo: Public Health Policy

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Federal executive department charged with administering government health programs.

Agency established to safeguard the environment. Congress officially brought the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) into existence in 1970, but its roots go back as far as 1962. The impetus for the USEPA was a best-selling book by Rachel Carson, a bird watcher, titled Silent Spring.

From the The Columbia Encyclopedia
Agency of the Public Health Service division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is charged with protecting public health by ensuring that foods are safe and pure, cosmetics and other chemical substances harmless, and products safe, effective, and honestly labeled.

From Nursing Leadership The HRSA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is the principal federal division aimed at improving health care access to vulnerable and special needs populations

From the The Columbia Encyclopedia
Agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on Staten Island in New York City, and was given its present name in 1948.

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
A federal agency of the Department of Labor established by Congress in 1970 to maintain safe conditions in the workplace.

From The American Heritage Medical Dictionary
The chief general officer in the medical departments of the US Army, Navy, or Air Force.

An association of independent states formed in 1945 by 51 states as a successor to the League of Nations. The UN aims to maintain peace and international cooperation as well as to promote social development and human rights; has headquarters in New York City. At the end of World War II, the United Nations was established with the aim of preventing further devastating wars. It is a member-based international organization open to all legitimate sovereign states in the international community. While it has a broad and expanding mandate that changes with the times, maintaining international peace and security remains a central aim.

Federal executive department established in 1862, whose head was made a cabinet member in 1889. The department administers federal programs related to food production and rural life.

Contamination of the air by noxious gases and minute particles of solid and liquid matter (particulates) in concentrations that endanger health. The major sources of air pollution are transportation engines, power and heat generation, industrial processes, and the burning of solid waste.

Measure of the variety of the Earth's animal, plant, and microbial species, of genetic differences within species, and of the ecosystems that support those species. Biodiversity is generally used to refer to all aspects of variability evident within the living world, including diversity within and between individuals, populations, species, communities, and ecosystems.

Movement to protect the quality and continuity of life through conservation of natural resources, prevention of pollution, and control of land use. Emerged out of concerns over pollution, global warming, soil erosion, deforestation, waste disposal, and resource depletion. To the extent that many of these environmental problems have been created by industrial production, economic growth and Western-style consumption, environmentalists often offer a critique of the model of economic growth on which they are based.

Acute illness following the eating of foods contaminated by bacteria, bacterial toxins, natural poisons, or harmful chemical substances.

Health care refers to services provided by medical professionals aimed at promoting physical and mental welfare, through the prevention, treatment, and management of illness.

From Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine
Health promotion is any planned combination of educational, political, regulatory and organizational supports for actions and conditions of living conducive to the health of individuals, groups, or communities.

Securing adequate food supplies and necessary nutrition is a global concern. The production, distribution, and consumption of food are matters that concern governments, corporations, and individuals everywhere. As a profession, study of the materials that nourish an organism and of the manner in which the separate components are used for maintenance, repair, growth, and reproduction.

Rights (as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution) regarded as belonging fundamentally to all persons. A right is an entitlement that is usually encoded in a legal context. One can distinguish between human rights and citizenship rights. citizenship rights are guaranteed by governments for nationals of a particular territory, whereas human rights are thought to be geographically and politically universal.

Process of conferring immunity to infectious disease by artificial methods, in other words making someone not liable to catch a disease. The most widely used technique is vaccination (see vaccine). Immunization is an important public health measure.

From McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
An interdisciplinary field that focuses on preventing occupational illnesses and injuries.

Contamination of the environment as a result of human activities. The term pollution refers primarily to the fouling of air, water, and land by wastes (see air pollution; water pollution; solid waste). The concept of pollution consists of the inappropriate or undesirable mixing of items or elements that may in themselves be quite appropriate or desirable.

From the Encyclopedia of American Studies
The connection between science and the health of the American public evolved late in the nineteenth century. Innovations during the twentieth century brought radical changes to health care.

Level of consumption that an individual, group, or nation has achieved. The evaluation of a standard of living is relative, depending upon the judgment of the observer as to what constitutes a high or a low scale.

The food stamp program is a federal program to help low-income people buy food.

A means of producing immunity against pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria, by the introduction of live, killed, or altered antigens that stimulate the body to produce antibodies against more dangerous forms.

Contamination of water resources by harmful wastes; see also sewerage, water supply, pollution, and environmentalism.

Process or activity by which water is provided for some use, e.g., to a home, factory, or business. The term may also refer to the supply of water provided in this way.