Healthy by Law: The Missed Opportunity to Use Laws for Public Health

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

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Healthy by Law: The Missed Opportunity to Use Laws for Public Health

The Lancet, Vol. 379, pp. 283-285, January 2012

3 Pages Posted: 7 Feb 2012

See all articles by Amir Attaran

Amir Attaran

University of Ottawa - Common Law Section; University of Ottawa - Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine

Martin McKee

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Date Written: January 1, 2012

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 eff ort and expense probing natural laws, places negligible emphasis on collection, analysis, and making greater use of the world’s public health laws?

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Attaran, Amir and Attaran, Amir and Pang, Tikki and Whitworth, Judith and Oxman, Andrew and McKee, Martin, Healthy by Law: The Missed Opportunity to Use Laws for Public Health (January 1, 2012). The Lancet, Vol. 379, pp. 283-285, January 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2000327