American Journal of Public Health Comment INTERIM EDITOR Mary E. Northridge, PhD

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American Journal of Public Health Comment INTERIM EDITOR Mary E. Northridge, PhD, MPH. MT SSOCIATE EDITORS Heinz W. Berendes, MD, MHS Alan Berkman. MD Manning Feinleib, MD, DrPH Lawrence J. Fine. MS, MD, MPH. DrPH Michael R. Greenberg, PhD Richard Neugebauer Dona Schneider, PhD, MPH Anne Schuchat, MD A Vision of Social Justice as the Foundation of Public Health: Commemorating 150 Years of the Spirit of 1848 Nancy Krieger, PhD, and Anne-Emanuelle Birn, ScD PhD CONSULTING EDITOR FOR Bruce Levin, PhD, MA EDITORIAL BOARD Faye Wong. MPH, RD 2000), Chair Social justice is the foundation of public or can by ourselves improve the public's health. This powerful proposition -stillcnhealth without efforts to ensure social and tested first emerged around 150 years ago economic justice. during the formative years of public health as both a modem movement and a profession. It uprisings and movements around the world is an assertion that reminds us that publie were championing social justice and political health is indeed a public matter, that sta and economic democracy, including the patterns of disease and death, of health and socialist and trade union movements irn well-being, of bodily integrity and disintegra Europe, the anti-slavery and women's rights tion, intimately reflect the workings of the movements in the United States, and move- body politic for good and for ill. It is a te ments resisting imperialism in India and ment that asks us, pointedly, to remember Mexico, as well as nationalist and suffragist that worldwide dramatic declines and con- movements (Table 1). 1848 was the year in tinued inequalities- in mortality and morbid which the Communist Manifeto was pub- ity signal as much the victories and defeats of lished and became a landmark text coalesc- social movements to create a just, fair, caring. ing the era's visions for social change. This and inclusive world as they do the achieve period also marks a burgeoning of public ments and unresolved challenges of scientific health activity, from studies of workers research and technology. To declare that health in France to public health legislation social justice is the foundation of public in Britain to recognition of the political basis health is to call upon and nurture that invinci for health inequities in Prussia. Some of ble human spirit that led so many of us to these efforts were highly influential, some enter the field of public health in the first delivered mixed results, and still others place: a spirit that has a compelling desire to failed, but all derived from a spirit of social, make the world a better place, free of misery, political, and public health activism that are inequity, and preventable suffering, a world foundational to public health and frotn which in which we all can live, love, work, play,ail, we can-and must lean. and die with our dignity intact and our humanity cherished. Hortensia AmaroPltD ( 1999) Sevgi O. Aral, PhD, MS (1998) Shirley A. A. Beresford, PhD, MA, MSc (1995) Maria L. S. Cervania, MPH (2000) Carolyn Clancy Helene D. Gayle, MD (1999) Lawrence W Green, DrPH (1999) Lucie Kelly, PhD, RN, FAAN(1998) Marvin Marcus, DDS (1998 Victor W Sidel. MD (1999 Ellien K. Silbergeld, PhD(1999) Loma Wilson, RN, MSPH (2000) Why 1848? Because in 1848 popular Mohammad N. Akhter, MD, MPH Executive Editorl Executive Director Ellen T. Meyer Johnson Reid Lelong Lowe Assistant Production Editor Ashell Alston Charlene Bright, Marilyn Butler Deborah Fow ler, Gina Pierelli, Edward Medina Pablication Consider, for instance, the case of the 1848 Public Health Act in Great Britain. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ronald Bayer, Pl1D Pablic Health Policy For Why commemorate the 150th anniverThis act authorized a newly created General sary of 1848? Because knowing the paths Board of Health to establish local boards to our field has traversed and identifying which deal with water supply, sewerage, and con dreams of the early public health visionaries trol of offensive trades, as well as to institute have been fulfilled and which have not can help us understand our current situation, put contemporary conflicts in perspective, build a collective identity, and substantively and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public inform options for future endeavors. Histor-Hh Boston, Mass. Anne-Emanbelle Bim is cal imagination is midwife to transformation: wh the Robet J. Milano Graduate School of learning from those who have gone before Management and Urban Policy, New School for and appreciating what we can now see that Social Reseach New York, NY they could not encourages us to think criti- cally in our own era. In so doing, we may Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 resist the hubristic belief that, as public Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: health professionals, we have all the answers @hsph harvand.edu) Wendy K. Mariner, JD, LLM. MPH Health Law and Ethics Elizabeth Fee, PhD Theodore M. Brown, PhD Public Health Then and Now Nancy Krieger is with the Department of Health Wendy Chavkin, MD, MPH Topics for Our Times Hugh H. Tilson, MD, DrPH Notes from the Field Sonja Noring. MA Book Corner Requests for reprints should be senst to Nancy Krieger, PhD, Department of Health and Social November 1998, Vol. 88, No. I1 American Journal of Public Health 1603

Explanation / Answer

This article attempts at emphasising the importance of public health and tries to make clear how social justice forms the basis of public health. This article tries to assert an ongoing issue of public health and wants to assert that public health is an i,portent issue and is indeed an issue thus the public as well as the political bodies require to pay attention to the ever forgotten topic. The reason 1848 was chose, is because that was the year where social justice and political democracy where the movements such as anti slavery and women’s rights came up. The author asserts that the fact that we celebrate the anniversary but forget to address the social issues with the same spirit. It is important that proper sanitary conditions be maintained as improved sanitation would result in improved health conditions and improved health conditions would neglect not only poverty but also poor working conditions. The sociologists have emphasised on the fact that places where social inequality did not persist are the places where poor living conditions and poor sanitary conditions that reflect the long histories of how certain groups had been socially discriminated and those discriminations have still not ended leading to poor living conditions contributing to poor public health.

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