Food safety: A public health priority

Food safety: A public health priority.

Safe and nutritious food in adequate amounts is required for the sustenance of life and the promotion of good health. However, food provides an environment for microbial growth and, when contaminated, can act as a vector for bacteria, viruses, parasites, and prions, causing food poisoning. Besides, it is often contaminated with toxic chemicals present naturally and/or mixed accidentally or inte...

Occupational health of Iranian farmworkers: A public health priority

Food Safety Informatics: A Public Health Imperative

To date, little has been written about the implementation of utilizing food safety informatics as a technological tool to protect consumers, in real-time, against foodborne illnesses. Food safety outbreaks have become a major public health problem, causing an estimated 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. Yet, government inspectors/regulators t...

Lung Infection—A Public Health Priority

E merging lung infections capture the world's imagination because of the potential for pandemics. Recent examples include avian infl uenza and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). However, even in the absence of new pathogens or pandemics, lung infections have tremendous impact. Lung infections cause more disease than better-recognized threats to the public's health such as cancer, hea...

Pain as a global public health priority

BACKGROUND Pain is an enormous problem globally. Estimates suggest that 20% of adults suffer from pain globally and 10% are newly diagnosed with chronic pain each year. Nevertheless, the problem of pain has primarily been regarded as a medical problem, and has been little addressed by the field of public health. DISCUSSION Despite the ubiquity of pain, whether acute, chronic or intermittent, ...