Ten Great Public Health Achievements

and a p.s. - check out the fluoridation link within the article if you're interested in health, and health history. I've learned quite a bit - i kinda thought fluoridation was a bit of a 'fluff' addition to the list. I was wrong.

Flouride's a loaded one. On the teeth -- good, great, done a lot. In the water -- conflicting evidence, which I still haven't figured out to my satisfaction. (A little seems to be good, for sure, but evidence that there has been too much and negative consequences thereof.)

On the other side of things, I'm really shocked and dismayed at how many parents are deciding not to vaccinate their kids these days. I don't know what the general trend is, but on a rather crunchy parenting forum I participate in, that's the norm, to the point where I get flamed if I speak up in favor of vaccinations.

Lots of 'loaded' topics on that list, sozobe. I fell over that page looking for up-to-date abortion stats. Vaccinations, fluoride, smoking ... can we find more health topics to rage about? why, yes - they're all there!

About the fluoride - i'd always 'heard' things about the total health implications of gum disease - that site, and where i've wandered since were certainly eye-opening.

That, and the vet's comment last night that uncontrolled gum infections in dogs was linked to heart disease (in dogs). errrrrrr, heart disease? I've got more to learn, again!

Well, majority agrees with me: control of infectious diseases is the most important public health achievement. Well, I think "immunization" should not appear as a separate line, it is a part of "control of the infectious diseases" together with introduction of accessible antibacterial medicines, and implementation of aseptic principles in public medicine.

Here's a fluoride link -- can't vouch for it, but seems to summarize the anti-fluoride view pretty well.

http://www.redflagsweekly.com/connett/2002_nov28.html

This is the part that I have found several places, and has made the biggest impression on me:

steissd - take it up with the Centre for Disease Control - those are their 10 divisions.


i'm not sure what's supposed to happen in areas where there are naturally high levels of fluoride in the water. I'd generally prefer fluoridated toothpaste vs. fluoridated water, but as i was the only kid in my kindergarten class who knew what a toothbrush was, i'm not sure i'm ready to vote out fluoridated water yet.

ehBeth, how did it happen that in Canada there might be kids that did not know about the toothbrush? As far as I know, Canada is very far from Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa...

Yeah, I know. If there were one thing I could do about the problem, it would be greatly increased education for pediatricians about taking care of kids' teeth. An astonishing amount of ignorance out there.

Pediatricians? I would rather focus educative efforts on parents; they are supposed to teach their offspring the basics of personal hygiene.

There are poor, as well as poorly educated, people all over the world, steissd.

I agree with steissd that the focus needs to be on the parents. There are still so many children who do not have regular exposure to any kind of health practitioner that expecting the paediatrician to be helpful is only good for the part of the population that has better than adequate medical care.

I was lucky. My parents were well-educated before they came to Canada. My mother was a health care professional. I had an advantage that many children didn't, and don't have.

Well, ehBeth, poor people in the First World countries cannot be compared in terms of the life conditions even to the middle class of the poorest Third World countries. I spent four years in Afghanistan in 1982-86 (as a Soviet infantry officer), and I learnt there what the real poverty and ignorance look like.
By the way, what country did your parents come to Canada from: UK or France?

True, about education for parents. Still, I have found (my own experience and many others') that parents often get inaccurate information from their pediatricians regarding teeth. One would hope that a medical professional would either have accurate information or say, "I don't know, ask a pediatric dentist."

But general education for all would be more useful, yes.

Neither, steissd. Immigrants from the U.K. and/or France to Canada have been pretty few and far between for about a hundred years.


trying to edit to add some stats (and a correction - immigrants from Britain were still in the top 10 immigrant groups until the 1980's, immigrants from France don't even register in the census of 1901)

From 1971 to 1980
Refugees accepted from Uganda and Chile (1972 to 1973); Indochinese Boat People (1975 to 1981)
1. British Isles (13%)
2. United States (10%)
3. India (6%)
4. Portugal (5%)
5. Philippines (4%)
6. Jamaica (4%)
7. People's Republic of China (4%)
8. Hong Kong (4%)

From 1981 to 1990
1. Hong Kong (7%)
2. India (7%)
3. British Isles (6%)
4. Poland (6%)
5. People's Republic of China (6%)
6. Philippines (5%)
7. United States (5%)
8. Viet Nam (4%)

From 1991 to 2000
1997 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Citizenship and Immigration Act; 7,000 refugees from Kosovo arrive in 1999.
1. People's Republic of China
2. India
3. Philippines
4. Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong
5. Sri Lanka
6. Pakistan
7. Taiwan
8. United States


(refugees are not counted in the immigration numbers, and i don't know what they did with the percentages in the last group)

statscan link

sozobe, when i was growing up, they still had public health nurses who went into the community to work with families that didn't have access to doctors. Those services seem to have lost almost of their funding, so there are parents out there who seem to have no reliable source of information in a lot of healthcare areas. Too bad that dental care/vaccinations etc aren't 'sexier' - i can't think of any popular television programs that would cover these issues.

The changes in the immigration patterns are particularly notable in Toronto.




city of toronto immigration profile

hi, ebeth, sozobe, steissd and all! re. toothdisease and heart problems: that"s nothing new. from what i've read over the years dentists (in canada anyhow) have been advised to tell patients about possible connections between severe tooth-decay and heart-disease. it is believed that a bacterial infection of teeth and gums can easily spread through the blodstream and cause heart problems of all kinds. deep seated infections(in the jaw, as an example) can also cause cancer, and the nasty thing is - as i found out a few years ago - there may be no pain indicating any problems. when i finally was sent to a dental surgeon, he found that a nasty cyst had spread right inside my upper jaw - but i had no pain; the cyst just burst one day. the surgeon did a superb job and no further problems developed. the surgeon sent a specimen sample from my gums to the lab for a cancer cell test - turned out to be o.k.....didn't really want to provide a gory story; hope this helps in the discussion. n.b. electric toothbrushes are no better than the 99cents kind(from newsweek mag). growing up in germany in the 30's and 40's we had a visit by a public health dentist in the school twice a year - still cost me a couple of teeth - no fluoride in the water. hated going to the dentist as a kid; now i really like the dentist, nice fellow. also, when i grew up, you didn't get a needle...just grit your teeth and open wide! have a NICE DAY now. hamburger

I know I'll be brushing my teeth very well tonight! This thread already made me go find my hot cinnamon tooth picks!