Health Protection Flashcards
Health Protection: Definition
A term used to describe important activities of public health, in food hygiene, water purifaction, environmental sanitation, drug safety and other activities, that eliminate as far as possible the risk of adverse consequences to health attributable to environmental hazards.
Essentially, eliminating hazards in the environment
Legislative Basis
Much of health protection has a legislative basis and regulatory functions. Core legal actions are available to public health officers.
For example, the Minimata Disease Story was a case of huge mercury poisoning in Japan where a company poisoned a bay and caused significant mortality and birth defects. As a result, new environmental legislation was formed.
Enforcement Ladder
Cooperation
Education
Coercion
Enforcement
Closure
Public Health Act
Works anywhere the public goes.
Ie. Houses, churches, university, restaurants, malls etc.
Emergency Preparedness
Mitigation: pre-disaster sustained activities to decrease the impact or likelihood of occurence (vulnerability assessments, networks, awareness).
Preparedness: delineate authority and responsibility, provisions for people, equipment, planning, training, ability to respond, communicate.
Disaster Response
Response: immediate, short-term (notify responders, obtain staff/equipment, sit-reps, media releases)
Recovery: surveillance, return systems to normal, financial compensation, social services, reestablish public confidence
Risk Management
There are usually 4 types of approaches to decrease risk (RATE)
Regulatory: set laws or standards for consumer products
Advisory: physicians use most often. Educate patients about hazards and prevention
Technical: having equipment such as autoclavers or PPE
Economic: incentives to minimize risk or penalties for not minimizing risks. Such as taxing cigarettes as a deterrent for young people.
Risk = _________
Risk = Hazard + Exposure + Susceptibility
Hardards are biological, chemical, physical, phychological etc.
Exposure is route, dose, duration
Susceptibility is developmental stage, disease, genetics etc.
Routes of Exposure
Inhalation
Ingesions
Dermal (skin contact)
Parenteral (injected)
Direct (radiation)
Susceptibility
People who are more susceptible react at lower levels of exposure.
Threshold Effect
Until a certain point of exposure, nobody is affected. The threshold effect is the first veryical line when susceptible individuals start to become affected.
The second line is the resistant line in which a healthy person would not react until a higher concentration than this point.
Susceptibility Factors
Developmental - fetuses, children, elderly
Underlying disease - asthma and pollution, osteoporosis and trauma
Genetics - fair skin and UV cancers
Why are Children More Susceptible?
Increased Exposure - behaviour may cause more contact or exposure
Increased Toxic Effects - children have a smaller body mass, so this results in increased concentration ot the same amount of toxin
Longer life ahead - cancer latency.
Things That Influence Perception of Risk
Control - lack of control heightens perception of risk
Immediacy - proximal impacts are usually valued more than delayed
Agency - lack of ownership or benefit from hazard increases perception of risk. For example, miners will see the mine as less risky than townsfolk
Severity - people fear the catastrophic. Sharks over mosquitoes.
Media - plays a role on risk
XL Foods Case
E. coli 0157 is spread fecal-orally
E. coli outbreak is reported to public health
