Top Health Milestone Since 1840

Posted on | January 22, 2007 | Comments Off on Top Health Milestone Since 1840

A soon-to-appear Health Politics piece goes underground to explain what happens to all that NYC water once it is drained, flushed and otherwise discarded. As if to reassure me that I had indeed picked a topic worth exploring, the British Medical Journal on January 18, 2007, went public with its poll of the top health milestones since the journal began in 1840. And at the top of the list, with 11,341 votes, was none other than sanitation. The reasoning? Improved sewage disposal and clean water supply systems, in addressing cholera and a wide range of other waterborne diseases, surpass antibiotics, the discovery of DNA, and anesthesia in positively impacting the quality of human life.