Public Health is everyone's business

Public Health is everyone's business - we must start with education & local action groups as posted in www.blog.thestar.com.my on Friday, September 14, 2007

Malaysia in her 50th year of Independence should now concentrate to her public health, environmental management and food safety for everyone in the community. For too long, these issues had been glossed over by the government bureaucrats, consultants and experts. Instead, these parties promised that they will “look at” at these issues as they arise rather than being proactive about taking care of our lives and safety of well being for all Malaysians.
These issues are far too important to be relegated to these elite groups. All of us must participate in this dialogue because we are the backbone of this country and contribute our efforts in building and sustaining this nation while the powers that be play with words in the media statements.
So what are we talking about? Let me briefly define public safety, food safety and environmental management.
Public safety relates to how to reduce the likelihood of incidents and fatalities affecting our everyday lives – such as road safety, public transportation safety, building safety, and consumer awareness and consumer rights.
Food safety relates to how to reduce the likelihood of food contamination, poor hygiene in food handling, food storage, food preparation, kitchen equipment safety, kitchen cleanliness, food waste disposal, soft waste disposal (cooking oil) and running water to clean utensils, food preparation area and utensils, crockery, etc.
Environmental management relates to overall indicators for good and healthy living including our air quality, water quality, noise quality, soil quality, water run off, drainage, sewage disposal, drinking water quality, waste management, industrial hazardous wastes and etc.
For too long these matters were left to individuals to take care with little or no guidance from the authorities to advice on the quidelines, minimum requirements and enforcement. It is pointless to tell your neighbour to stop pouring paint and cooking oil into the common drainage if there is no one to enforce this ruling. This issue is common when we live in highly densed units or terraces or flats. Education is the first place to start to raise awareness for cleaner and healthier living.

The recent incidents where our workers were exposed to asbetos created grave concerns. Asbetos is dangerous to humans, it usually ends with death. Being expose to them create a long term illness that would be difficult to prove "cause and effect" relationship later. Their respiratory systems will be severely affected if these workers keep handling and inhaling closely with these materials with no protection. If the asbestos materials had been punctured or broken by way of nails or sawn off, the effects of these tiny particles of asbestos are very dangerous as they can linger in the atmosphere and absorb into our bodies via breathing. Because they are tiny, our airways will absorb these tiny particulates into our lungs. Are we aware of this side effect?

Research has shown that asbestos is linked to fatalities over a long period of time. Furthermore, it is quite difficult to pin point to a single source of contamination after many years, thus adding to frustration to win a legal case. Fellow Malaysians - take a stand and rise up to start local action group to promote & educate on these awareness before it is too late.

For more information, please visit www.ohiotoxicmold.com/asbestos.htm to see the effects of asbestos to our health.