|
|
|||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the classic story that exemplifies the public health approach to disease prevention, John Snow removed the handle of the Broad Street pump in London to halt a cholera epidemic. Snow knew neither the agent of the disease nor its mechanism, but he acted after making reasoned conclusions drawn from systematic observations of the distribution of the disease. In his carefully researched and exhaustively referenced book, Black Lung: Anatomy of a Public Health Disaster, historian Alan Derickson asks why the "pump handle" was not removed why dust was not controlled when so much was known for so long
HOME | SUBSCRIBE | SEARCH | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | COLLECTIONS | PRIVACY | TERMS OF USE | HELP | beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2009 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. |