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March/April 2008 |
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Matters HomeAgainst Disease: The Impact of Hygiene and Cleanliness on Health
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SDA Publishes New Book Detailing Public Health Benefits of Cleaning and Hygiene
The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) has unveiled a new website, AgainstDisease.com,
which houses a new publication that describes the historic and present-day
impact of hygiene and cleaning on public health.
Against Disease: The Impact of Hygiene and Cleanliness on Health is an update
of the 1984 SDA publication, Cleanliness and the Health Revolution. The new
book is authored by Dr. Allison Aiello of the University of Michigan School
of Public Health; Dr. Elaine Larson of Columbia University; and Richard Sedlak,
SDA Senior Vice President, Technical & International Affairs.
Against Disease examines the historical scientific record on the role of sanitation,
medical advances, and personal hygiene and cleanliness in reducing the incidence
of disease-related morbidity and mortality. "Too often, the positive contributions of hygiene
and cleaning to public health
are down-played or forgotten. To help spread the word about the connection
between hygiene and health, SDA is making Against Disease available for download
at no cost on AgainstDisease.com," said SDA's Rich Sedlak.
Against Disease recounts that a substantial, yet overlooked component of the
health revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was a socio-cultural
transformation in personal hygiene and cleanliness. The book examines records
of soap production and consumption, bathing and hygiene habits, epidemiological
data, and morbidity and mortality data from not only the United States and England,
but also other areas of the world, to support this hypothesis.
"Today, the health revolution is still ongoing in the form of personal
hygiene and household cleanliness–two important disease prevention strategies," the
authors write. "This book includes an examination of the effectiveness
of today's handwashing and household cleaning and disinfecting practices
in removing and killing microbes.
"This fact is clear: good personal and household hygiene practices, although
often overlooked in the past, remain vital contributors to good health."
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