Press Release
| For More Information Contact: | For Release: |
| Julie Armstrong, Health Educator | Date: 4/6/01 |
| Phone: (937) 642-2053 | |
| Fax: (937) 642-2080 |
What Matters To You, Matters To Us: Healthy Communities
The following article is a part of a series in celebration
of Public Health Week April 2-8, 2001. Please join us in celebrating this
national event by learning more about what public health is and what your health
department does for your community.
Healthy Communities: A Day in the Life of Public Health
Today Americans enjoy better health, live in healthier conditions, know more about how to take care of their health, and live longer than at any time in the past. To a large extent, these trends are the result of the efforts and activities of Public Health. Public Health works…and we Americans are the living proof. One example is that in the 20th century, Public Health efforts have added more than 25 years to the average lifespan of Americans.
Public health impacts our lives daily lives in many unrecognized forms. The following is a list of public health services which positively affected our daily lives.
 | Clean air - You can breathe deeply and enjoy the air that public health has helped keep clean through pollution monitoring and clean air programs. |
| Immunizations - You and your family face only a tenth of the death, disease and disability that previous generations did. |
| Good Nutrition - Your pregnant sister tells you her doctor suggested she visit the county health department and enroll in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental food program, another public health service that ensures pregnant, breastfeeding, and young children get the proper nutrition to help them grow and prevent sickness later in life. |
| Clean Water - You brush your teeth, knowing the water won’t make you sick because safe drinking water is the responsibility of public health. |
| Clean Environments - You take out the trash (which will be safely disposed of) and recyclables (which will spare our environment additional strain) out to the curb. |
| Injury Prevention - Wearing your seatbelt has become a habit in part because public health has explained how proper seatbelt use has greatly reduced automobile-related deaths nationwide. |
| Health Promotion - You sign up for an exercise class and remember that public health studies that show you can reduce the risks of chronic disease by staying physically active. |
| Safe Food - You walk to a nearby fast food restaurant for lunch and notice the food service license issued by the local health department on the wall, and you know the food is sanitary and free of disease-causing organisms. |
| Safe Waste Disposal - You go to the bathroom and as you flush the toilet you don’t even think twice about your city’s extensive sewage system keeping you, your family, and neighbors safe from infectious disease. |
Without even realizing it, you’ll benefit from public health every day for the rest of your life - which, thanks to public health, has a good chance of being long and healthy.
Thank you for celebrating National Public Health Week with
your Union County Health Department!
The above article was prepared by the Union County Health Department and adapted from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department and originates from the Colorado Health Department and the New Jersey Graduate Program in Public Health