Review of “A Strategy for a Livable Environment”

The recommendations of the Task Force on Environmental Health appointed by the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare are examined by the Committee on Environmental Health Activities of the Sanitary Engineering Division, ASCE. The recommendations describe 10 Action Goals and 24 supporting actions which the Task Force states will constitute a desirable strategy for fulfilling the Department's responsibilities in environmental health. The Action Goals identify important existing problems, describe specific tasks for dealing with them, and set target dates by which the goals are to be attained. The strategy for the long-range program requires a reshaping of the Health, Education and Welfare organization which will stress the task or function to be performed rather than the category of the health worker's specialized field. It emphasizes the need for generalists as opposed to specialists and calls for the training and use of ecologists who will be concerned with evaluation and management of a comprehensive environmental health program. The Committee on Environmental Health Activities supports recommendations on the need for the generalist. However, it believes that the type of generalist needed is not one originally trained as such, but rather the former specialist who has demonstrated extraordinary ability through his broad interests, knowledge, vision, aggressiveness and management talent. In the Committee's opinion the specialist is unnecessarily and unwisely downgraded by the Task Force. Further, it believes that the emphasis given to the need for the ecologist in environmental health programs is not realistic and detracts from the value of the Report.