Portal latinoamericano de toxicología
Health as an indicator of the sustainability of development
30 September, 2008
"Fairness in distribution of wealth is a matter of life or death." Sir Michael Marmot. United Nations – World Health Organization. Summary of the conference, by Ana Digón. Buenos Aires, 25/09/08. Closing the gap in health equity (which in turn derive from social inequities) and do so in the lifetime of this generation, is the challenge that Prof. Sir Michael Marmot raised, on behalf of the World Health Organization, during the open meeting that took place yesterday afternoon at the National Chancellery. Read more. See also Pagina12: The other vision on poverty and health (only available in Spanish, image from this newspaper) and WHO: http://www.who.int/social_determinants/final_report/en/ ; Commission on Social Determinants of Health – Final Report & PDF ).
Michael Marmot
To do this he recalled the recommendations arising from the report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health:
1 – To improve living conditions: that is, the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age
2 – To combat the uneven distribution of power, money and resources (structural factors on which living conditions depend).
3 – To Inform and train (decision makers, professionals and general public) on Social Determinants of Health, their impacts, ways to measure them and strategies to build on substrate Research in Health Public.
Factors associated with a healthy environment, fairness’ distributive policies and the special conditions of risk associated with the impacts caused by climate change, unfair employment and lack of universal health care were elements of repeated words. Prof. Marmot considered community’ health profile as the best quality indicator of local development and success in local policies, anywhere in the world, and remembered the status of Argentina as the only country that included the issue of Social Determinants of Health in its governmental structure.
Professor Marmot recalled the failure of free-market policies to build a sound and fair world, measured the transfer of resources and money from the less developed countries to the developed world (in what he described as a true spoliation of poor countries by the richest) and, in that context, concluded that the resolution of the problems of social inequality is a departure from the political will. "If we do not do it is not because we can not, but because we do not want"
Sir Michael Marmot is the Coordinator of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health of the World Health Organization – United Nations.
1 – To improve living conditions: that is, the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age
2 – To combat the uneven distribution of power, money and resources (structural factors on which living conditions depend).
3 – To Inform and train (decision makers, professionals and general public) on Social Determinants of Health, their impacts, ways to measure them and strategies to build on substrate Research in Health Public.
Factors associated with a healthy environment, fairness’ distributive policies and the special conditions of risk associated with the impacts caused by climate change, unfair employment and lack of universal health care were elements of repeated words. Prof. Marmot considered community’ health profile as the best quality indicator of local development and success in local policies, anywhere in the world, and remembered the status of Argentina as the only country that included the issue of Social Determinants of Health in its governmental structure.
Professor Marmot recalled the failure of free-market policies to build a sound and fair world, measured the transfer of resources and money from the less developed countries to the developed world (in what he described as a true spoliation of poor countries by the richest) and, in that context, concluded that the resolution of the problems of social inequality is a departure from the political will. "If we do not do it is not because we can not, but because we do not want"
Sir Michael Marmot is the Coordinator of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health of the World Health Organization – United Nations.