Learn: GPH: Chapter 4 Key Terms

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The main assessment and epidemiologic agency for the nation, directly serving the population as well as providing technical assistance to states and localities.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

The government agency that is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of all Americans by offering effective health and human services. The agency also has a goal of promoting scientific advances in social services, public health, and medicine.

Economic impact

Total costs and benefits that a particular event or situation can have on the overall.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The federal agency responsible for prevention and cleanup of water pollution and air pollution, control of toxic substances, and other issues of environmental contamination.

Federal role in public health

The fundamental purposes of government to provide general welfare.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The federal agency that ensures the safety and nutritional value of the food supply; evaluates all new drugs, food additives, and colorings; and regulates medical devices, vaccines, diagnostic tests, animal drugs, and cosmetics.

Libertarians

Advocates of a particular political philosophy.

Local public health agencies

Government agencies in the United States on the front lines of public health.

Misinformation

False or inaccurate information, especially information that has been given with the intention to deceive.

Moralism

When certain acts or policies are promoted or discouraged based on the person's moral beliefs (e.g., opposition to a condom-distribution public health program because of moral opposition to certain types of sexual activity).

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

A weekly publication issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is widely distributed in print and electronically via the Internet. MMWR reports on timely public health topics that the CDC deals with, such as outbreaks of infectious diseases and new environmental and behavioral health hazards.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The primary federal agency for biomedical research. The NIH has its own laboratories and also provides funding to biomedical scientists at universities and research centers.

Nongovernmental organization (NGO)

An organization that is neither a part of a government nor a conventional for-profit business.

Occupational Safety and Health Act

A law passed by Congress in 1970 that established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the Department of Labor. OSHA was authorized, among other things, to set standards regulating employees' exposure to hazardous substances.

Paternalism

Restriction of people's individual freedom with the aim of protecting their health and safety.

Tragedy of the commons

The overuse of a shared resource, such as a fish or timber stock, or pollution of a shared resource, such as the air or water, because each individual cares more about their own interests than the interests of the population as a whole.

State health departments

States have the primary constitutional responsibility and authority for the protection of the health, safety, and general welfare of the population, and much of this responsibility falls on the state health departments.

Surgeon General

The operational head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States.