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Biomedical subjects

D A Okun

Publications and source records attributed to D A Okun.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

The value of water supply and sanitation in development: an assessment.

The attractiveness of oral rehydration therapy (ORT), a new and simple ministration that averts many child deaths from diarrhea among children, is diverting attention among donor agencies from the importance of water supply and sanitation (WS&S) in developing nations. The principal factor that led to the adoption of ORT is its apparent low cost per diarrheal death averted in children when compared with WS&S. However, WS&S provides many more benefits that are essential to sustaining the lives saved by ORT and vital to maintaining and enhancing the lives of adults and children. Among many other benefits WS&S prevents spread of the causes of diarrhea, controls many other water- and sanitation-related diseases, releases women from the heavy and time-consuming burden of carrying water from distant sources, and improves the quality of life in the community. Cost comparisons between WS&S and ORT are misleading. WS&S is a long-term investment in preventive health while ORT is a response to an immediate life-threatening situation. WS&S interventions eliminate unsanitary conditions leading to illness and death while ORT has no effect on the causes of diarrheal morbidity. The costs of WS&S are not high: $5 to $10 per capita annually. Without WS&S and hygiene education ORT programs are not likely to effect long-term improvement in child health status. ORT and WS&S programs are complementary; one should not displace the other.

Child↗
PubMed1976

Drinking water for the future.

The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 represents an important step in improving the quality of public water supply in the United States. However, it fails to address two important problems: (1) The 1970 Public Health Service Community Water Supply Survey revealed that small public water supply systems often deliver poor quality water. The Act does not assure that these supplies will now receive appropriate attention; furthermore, the Act does not address the needs of the 50 million people not now served by public water systems; (2) About one-third of our population draws its drinking waters from polluted sources. The decisions to use these low cost sources were made generations ago when consumers could be protected from water-borne infectious disease. A new problem has now arisen--the presence of numerous synthetic organic chemicals of uncertain health consequence, not removed by conventional water treatment. The Act does not address this problem. Regionalization and the integration of water resource and water pollution control authorities are proposed as a reasonable solution to these problems. The development of dual water supply systems in order to conserve scarce pure water sources for human consumption appears to be a feasible way to avoid using polluted waters for drinking. The development of dual supplies would be enhanced by regionalization and integration of water authorities.

Environmental Health↗