water and the public’s health€¦ · 04/12/2019 · college of pub lic heal th universit y of...

Water and the Public’s Health

Donna J. Petersen, ScD, MHS, CPH

Dean, USF College of Public Health

Polk County WateReuse Annual Meeting

December 4, 2019

SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY & REHABILITATION SCIENCES UNIVERSIT Y OF SOUTH FLORIDA

COLLEGE OF PHARMACYUNIVERSIT Y OF SOUTH FLORIDA

COLLEGE OF NURSINGUNIVERSIT Y OF SOUTH FLORIDA

COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTHUNIVERSIT Y OF SOUTH FLORIDA

UNIVE RSIT Y OF SOUTH F LORIDA

MORSANI COLLEGE OF MEDICINE MORSANI

COLLEGE OF MEDICINE







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Our Practice Is Our Passion

What is “health”?

• A complete state of physical, mental and social

well-being and not merely the absence of

disease or infirmity• World Health Organization, 1947







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE


What is “public health”?

• what we do collectively as societies to create

conditions in which we can all be healthy• Institute of Medicine, 1988, The Future of Public Health







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE


Anyone here rather NOT be healthy?

Social Determinants of Health

Relative Contributions to “health”

Canadian Institute of Advanced Research (2012) quoted in Op. Cit. 1

Estimate somewhat ironic . . .

Water and human health







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE


Something we should have learned in grade school:

There is no new water on the planet







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE







COLLEGE OF MEDICINE


Millennium Development GoalsUnited Nations/WHO 1999→2015

MDG Goal 7C was declared “met”

Yet, Clean Water remains a global goalUnited Nations/WHO 2015→2030

SDG Goal 6• Half the world’s population experiences

water scarcity at least one month per year

• 3 in 10 people lack access to safely managed drinking water systems

• Water and sanitation remain major contributors to child mortality

• 800 children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to poor hygiene

CDC Traveler’s Advice

Meanwhile, back in the United States…

Environmental contributions to health: water

Multiple efforts to protect water

Waterborne diseasesCDC estimates 4-32 million cases of acute gastrointestinal illness per year

• Cholera• Giardiasis• Cryptosporidiosis• Cyclosporiasis• Schistosomiasis• Guinea worm• Campylobacteriosis• Dysentery• Naegleriasis• Typhoid fever

Climate change impacts on water borne illnessesNational Institute of Environmental Health Science, NIH

• Droughts can cause increased concentrations of effluent pathogens, overwhelming water treatment plants and contaminating surface water

• Changes in ocean and coastal ecosystems, including changes in pH, nutrient and contaminant runoff, salinity, and water security, can degrade fresh water

• Increased frequency of intense extreme weather events can cause flooding of water and sewage treatment facilities

• Indirectly, the lack of water can cause crop failure, malnutrition, starvation, population displacement, and resource conflict

• Changes in the distribution and concentrations of chemical contaminants in coastal and ocean waters through release of contaminants previously locked in polar ice sheets, or in runoff from coastal and watershed development

• Among several suggestions for global mitigation is

Water reuse and recycling!!!

Florida Potable Reuse Commission

2020 Florida Legislative Session

Regulatory Framework for Potable Reuse

Regulation necessary but not sufficient . . .

Drinking Water Week May 3-9, 2020

Public Health = Water

water and the public’s health€¦ · 04/12/2019 · college of pub lic heal th universit y of...

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