Elizabeth Lindberg
Health 100 – Intro to Public Health
27 March 2013
Public
Health Community Trends Paper
Public
health is the science of and art of protecting and improving the health of
communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research
for disease and injury prevention. Public health helps improve the health and
well being of people in local communities and around the globe. One of the main
focuses of public health is to work to prevent health problems before they
occur. It has made a great impact in the 20th century by improving
our quality of life by increasing life expectancy, reducing infant and child
mortality rates worldwide, and eliminating or reducing many communicable
diseases. There has possibly never been a more exciting time to pursue a career
in public health. Careers in public health range from epidemiology and
biostatistics, which involves mathematics and modeling to health educators in
the teaching field.
I
had a chance to speak with and interview a member of the public health
community named Richard Valentine. Mr. Valentine works for the Salt Lake County
Health Department in the environmental health sector as the manager of the
Bureau of Air Pollution Control. He was able to answer a few questions I had
about the public health in the Salt lake County and from this I was able to
hone in on the top five trends and issues that are affecting the health of the
Salt Lake community. The main or most prevalent issue that Mr. Valentine
discussed with me was the state and quality of the air, but he also mentioned
that food protection, sanitation and safety, water quality, and injury
prevention are also important matters affecting the community as well.
The
first issue, air pollution control, was the one that Richard Valentine
mentioned as the predominant public health right now. As the manager of the
Bureau of Air Pollution Control, Mr. Valentine mentioned that in order to
reduce air pollution this bureau regulates Motor Vehicle Emissions Inspection
and Maintenance Program. They also enforce regulations regarding sources of air
pollution. According to Mr. Valentine poorly maintained motor vehicles are the
major contributors to air pollution, which can cause serious health problems.
With the recent decrease in the quality of air that the Salt Lake County has
been experiencing it is important that members of the community do what they
can to aid in the health department’s efforts to control air pollution. We can
do this by minimizing trips, reduce driving speeds, clean up spills immediately
etc.
The
second public health issue is food protection. The Salt Lake Valley Health
Department Bureau of Food Protection regulates food service establishments
including restaurants, delis, food carts, cafeterias, caterers, concession
stands and various other businesses and organizations that engage in in food
preparation and services. Extensive food safety education is also provided to
food business owners, community organizations, and the general public on a
regular basis. This bureau offers food handler classes and online food handler
training in order to improve food protection. The Bureau of Food Protection
also recently received the Crumbine Award, which annually goes to local health
jurisdictions that demonstrate excellence and continual improvement in a
comprehensive food protection program.
The
third public health matter is sanitation and safety. The Bureau of sanitation
and Safety addresses complaints about deficiencies regarding housing, solid and
infectious waste, noise, indoor air quality, lead, radon and animal vector
control. This bureau also regulates numerous facilities and activities
including correctional institutions, schools, cosmetology, massage, chemically
contaminated properties such as meth labs, public lodging, tanning, body art,
and waste hauling. There are a number of programs that the Bureau of Sanitation
and Safety engage in in order to keep the public safe and healthy. For example,
they provide education and enforce regulations that address housing for
incarcerated persons. They make routine inspections of the living quarters and
respond to complaints about the conditions in such facilities.
The
fourth public health issue affecting the Salt Lake County is water quality and
hazardous waste. There is an organization known as the Bureau of Water Quality
and Hazardous Waste that regulates and maintains public swimming pools, solid
waste and processing facilities, drinking water systems and individual waste
water systems. This bureau can be contacted for questions and concerns at (385)
468-3862. This organization also manages the collection of household hazardous
waste and operates a pollution prevention program to assist businesses in
reducing their amounts of waste. An example of how this bureau contributes to public
health is by overseeing new pool design and continually sampling and analyzing
the water in these pools in order to ensure that all public swimming pools are
safe for public use.
The
fifth and final public health concern in the Salt Lake community is injury
prevention. The Salt Lake County Health department has an Injury Prevention
Program that is dedicated to preventing injuries among all Salt Lake County
residents. They are dedicated to child passenger safety, teen driver safety,
and senior safety. The health department also operates and runs the Safe Kids
Salt Lake County program that focuses on and is an active force for safety and
injury prevention in the Salt Lake Community. A way in which this program
contributes to the public health and prevention of injuries is by offering
activities such as car seat classes and car seat checkpoints that motivate the
public to properly use their car seats in order to prevent injuries and
accidents.
After
inquiring of Richard Valentine, one of our local public health professionals in
the Air Pollution Department, I realized that there is a lot of different
organizations that focus on keeping the people of our community healthy. I believe that the Salt Lake County is a great
place to live and the public health professionals such as Mr. Valentine are
extremely helpful in making this possible.
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