Healthy by law: The missed opportunity to use laws for public health

Amir Attaran*, Tikki Pang, Judith Whitworth, Andrew Oxman, Martin McKee

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debatepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Health is the result of biological and social determinants; both are important. Nature dictates the laws for biological determinants; people create the laws for social determinants. Nature's laws are hard to discover and are eternal whether or not they suit humanity; people's laws are easily written and can be changed at anytime to suit humanity better. So why is it that the public health community, which expends much effort and expense probing natural laws, places negligible emphasis on collection, analysis, and making greater use of the world's public health laws?

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)283-285
    Number of pages3
    JournalThe Lancet
    Volume379
    Issue number9812
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

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