REMARKS*
by
Hon, John E. Fogarty of Rhode Island
House of Representatives, U. 5S. Congress

I am both pleased and honored to be with you this afternoon. Of all
our great universities, Harvard is the fountainhead, It was the first, and
it has never abdicated its position of leadership.

Therefore, it is for me a matter of special significance that we are
dedicating two buildings in this great university to research in environ-
mental health and nutrition--two areas of study that are very close to the
heart of the problems of modern man,

We have looked to Harvard for leadership many times in the past. And
our expectations have always been fulfilled. Now we look to you to lead us
out of a tangled present into the future. I Imow that we shall not look in
vain.

The adventures of scientific, industrial man have been exciting and
dramatic, But they have yielded a harvest of mixed blessings. We have
shining skyscrapers--and slums. We have glorious expressways--and smog.

We have millions of pleasure boats--and dead water,

I am confident that we can unmix these blessings-~sort out the good
from the ill--keep the benefits of our metropolitan, industrialized world and
control the harmful by-products. But we haven't done it yet.

To do it, we need two things, First, we need more knowledge, Second,
we need the courage and the determination to apply what we know, and what we
Learn.

This is why the concept of an environmental health research program
here at the Harvard School of Public Health is so exciting to me, Here in

the fine new building we dedicate today will be concentrated the advanced

 

*Dedication of Nutrition and Environmental Health Research Buildings,
Harvard School of Public Health, October 8, 1962.
-~ 26

and sophisticated research tools and know-how needed to explore the complex
relationships between man and his environment, This building will be a
powerful generator of new knowledge.

And second, the location of this facility in an outstanding school of
public health is the best guarantee that the Imowledge generated here will
not be allowed to collect dust on the shelves. It will go directly to those
who, after studying here, will become the leaders of the public health move-
ment of the future.

Tt has seemed to me, as a legislator with keen interest in the health
of people, that public health workers have not been quick enough to tackle
the challenge of the new environment. There have been many voices raised;
but I have the impression that they have been, in large measure, erying in
the wilderness. I think that, with a relatively few exceptions--most of them
in very large cities--most of the service in environmental health has been
Lip-service.

I am well aware, of course, of the fact that most city and State
health departments are under~budgeted, under-staffed and badly overworked.
Most health officers are hard pressed merely to render the traditional
services, much less seek new worlds to conquer.

Yet I am convinced that we need to strike a new balance in public
health practice. The shining achievements of public health in the past
half century are the upward sweep of the average lifespan in the United
States and the downward plunge of mortality statistics for the communicable
diseases, We can never know how many of us here today would not be among
those present if these successes had not been won, or if they had been
delayed by only a few years. Moreover, it is very clear that we cannot

afford to relax our vigilance against these ancient enemies of man, The
-~3-
disturbing story of the resurgence of venereal disease dramatizes this
lesson for us.

But neither the continued presence of the enemy at the gates nor the
burdens of trying to do too much with too little can justify neglect of the
great health problems of today and tomorrow. Our new balance in public
health practice must combine vigilance in commmicable disease with greatly
increased activity to combat chronic diseases and environmental hazards.

The assault of our man-made environment takes many forms. There is
the chemical assault--new pollutants in the air we breathe and the water we
drink, new chemical products in use on farms, in factories, everywhere
around us. There is the physical assault on ionizing radiations from many
sources. There is the generalized assault on our minds and nerves of speed,
noise, crowded conditions, internal pressures,

I hope that the research program you design and carry out here will be
as broad and diverse as the environment itself. And still more fervently I
hope that the results of your work will be channeled swiftly and effectively
into action, It would be the height of folly to create a shining, industrial-
ized, nuclear-powered world for a human race whose health has been impaired
in the process, It is up to the leaders in the field--and surely the Harvard
School of Public Health will produce many of them=--to keep this from
happening.

But significant as environmental health is, it is no more vital to the
future condition of man than the field of nutrition to which your other new
building will be dedicated. Better diets and improved nutrition levels are
undoubtedly among the major causes of our great national advance in health
in this century. And the relationship of nutrition to the chronic diseases

may well provide some of the great breakthroughs of the immediate future.
~4e

Today in the United States the diseases of nutritional deficiency
have virtually disappeared. Pellagra and scurvy are almost unheard of,
Children are growing more rapidly than ever before, Adults are taller and
heavier.

True, we still have pockets of malnutrition in a very few limited
geographic areas and among certain socio-economic groups. Undoubtedly diets
could be further improved for some segments of our population. But the
malnutrition which still persists can usually be traced to such circumstances
as ignorance, poverty, misguided dieting or food faddism, or to such
conditions as alcoholism, Certainly an abundance of nutritious food is
available,

Yet there are many nutritional problems remaining, even here in the
United States. Perhaps 20 percent of our adults are over-nourished--that is,
obese, We have much to learn about desirable dietary patterns for our aging
citizens, :

Moreover, an exciting chain of evidence is now linking diet with our
greatest health problem of all--heart disease, It has been found that the
type and amount of fat in our diet affects blood cholesterol levels, which
in turn are somehow related to coronary heart disease. The theory is not
yet firmly proved. There are weak links in the chain of evidence. And
much of this evidence ise-in legal terms--guilt by association,

The final answers can come only through research in man himself, over
a period of years. I am sure that projects such as this, striking at the
root of the leading health problems of our time, will furnish much of the

quiet drama in the laboratories of your new nutrition research building.
-~5-«

Further, I know that those laboratories will perform important
services, not just for our ow country but for the world. JI am aware of
the long history of explorations in world nutrition problems conducted by
Harvard and its distinguished staff. I know that students come here from
every continent, to learn and carry back to their own people the latest
developments in nutrition research, I know that Harvard scientists have
studied dietary problems at first hand in many of the developing nations.

And I know, as do all of you, that there is no stronger bridge to
international understanding than the mutual labor of trained minds, focusing
their attention on the most fundamental problems of mankind.

I salute the Harvard School of Public Health for its distinguished
past, and for its promising future. I am proud that the Federal government ,
through the Public Health Service, has been a partner with private
philanthropy in the development of these new resources of health, And I.
join with you in looking forward to the changes in public health patterns
which will have their genesis in these buildings we dedicate today-— changes

which will raise our level of health still higher in the years ahead.