Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Introduction:

The topic of my advocacy project focuses on reducing foodborne and sanitation related illness. 

Under Healthy People 2010's goal 8, "promoting health for all through a healthy environment," I will focus on objective 8.29 which specifically states "Reduce the global burden of disease due to poor water quality, sanitation, and personal and domestic hygiene."

One main issue is sanitation problems, which can refer the fact that  “Poor sanitation, hygiene and unsafe water claim the lives of an estimated over 1.5 million children under the age of five every year” (WHO 2009). Additionally, 2.5 billion people live without the access to effective urine and feces disposal which is a leading cause of diarrheal disease (wateraid.org). Together, these two issues alone create a domino effect of problems. For example, a child experiencing diarrheal disease due to improper water or sanitation, may also miss school and will need an adult around to take care of them; this adult will then miss work and miss out on the pay for that day/s until the child gets better, leading to more issues. Poor water quality, personal, and domestic hygiene all contribute to the sanitary issue.

The Legislation that addresses this is bill S.1269 which is titled "A bill to provide for enhanced foodborne illness surveillance and food safety capacity, to establish regional food safety centers of excellence, and for other purposes." This bill introduces a way in which we can improve our health at a local level by diminishing sanitation problems.

Those affected most by this issue are those living in developing countries, but you can find sanitation problems just about anywhere, including here in America. Anywhere that there are large amounts of people with very poor sanitation problems will arise that can greatly reduce human health as well and lessen the quality of life. According to WHO, the main routes in which human health is affected by poor sanitation include polluted drinking water, contamination into the food chain, dirty areas that provide breeding grounds for insects such as flies whom spread disease, and environmental pollution that limits certain sources of food such as fish. 

THe Development Goal (MDG) target is to "reduce by half the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015." If this were to happen The gains would be that people wouldn't have as many problems with poor hygiene which leads to "loss of productivity, preventable health costs, low educational achievement, high morbidity and poor social development" (WHO). These situations happen in America as well but not as extreme in most areas; if bill S.1269 does pass the losses may include a small increase in taxes to ensure that we are able to provide better surveillance when it comes to preventing foodborne illness, and establish these regional safety centers. 

We know the severity of this issue, but the consequences of putting another bill in place that would ensure better food safety and sanitation would be the need for funding. At the moment, I can't seem to find any information on how this bill will be funded whether it be by a specific health organization or the government. For those most affected by the issue, it seems as if the benefits would weigh out the consequences; for society these benefits would equal lower rates of foodborne illness contributing to better quality of life overall.

I may have touched on some of the economic impacts previously, but if bill S.1269 were to pass, and more regional safety centers were opened as well as more food safety surveillance, more jobs would be created in health services! Our economy seems to be at an all time low, so creating jobs seems like a really good boost, as well as lessening foodborne illness outbreaks. Overall, this bill should pay itself off over time rather than be a burden. "For every $1 spent on sanitation, up to $9 is returned in reduced healthcare burden and increased productivity."

I mentioned social impacts previously, and how better sanitation creates a domino effect of better health, better quality of life, less disease, better productivity, etc. for all people. As mentioned earlier, it is possible that the funding could slightly effect taxes, but at the moment we have no idea what the costs would be. 

 The barriers to addressing better sanitation worldwide includes many variables. Better education and cleaner availability of resources are key. In America, we have to reach out to areas that have the poorest sanitation, and make sure that we are educating and making these resources available to lessen the cases of foodborne illness. 

We will need resources such as funding for buildings for these safety centers, as well as resources to pay workers at the new jobs that will be created. Resources that least burden the general public is the number one goal. Restructuring county buildings where food safety surveillance could be optimized could also be a less expensive route. 

The history of the sanitation issue has expanded with time itself; as we have become more educated, sanitation issues have lessened. In the state of Minnesota, I have found that many food safety workers are over-worked due to some multi-county centers with very few workers trying address way too many problems, therefore, it is more likely that some problems get overlooked or don't get the attention they need. In many rural communities, it appears as if nothing is being done to address this problem. We need more safety centers/workers if we want to prevent foodborne illness.

It is likely that most public health workers would definitely be for this bill, I for one would recommend this bill. We need to put our health first!