AMERKAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION

IO I5 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005     o   (2021 789-5600

MaJrch 10, 1981                     LARRY J. GORDON, M.S.,M.P.H.,President

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, -DC 20500

Dear Mr.  President:

The American Public Health Association opposes the nomination
of Dr. C. Everett Koop as Surgeon General, U. S. Public Health
Service.  While it is appropriate that the Surgeon General of
the Public Health Service should be a physician, it is critical
that the Surgeon General be a physician trained and experienced
in public and community health rather than solely in clinical
medicine.  There is no single profession except the profession
of public health itself which covers the full spectrum of
public health.  The professional skills of physicians, biologists,
chemists, physicists, planners, nurses, environmental scientists,
environmental engineers, bacteriologists, virologists, and scores
of others have a contribution to make to the field, but no one of
these encompasses the total spectrum of public health practice.
Those trained and experienced solely in clinical medicine deaf
with the treatment of patients, typically on a one-to-one basis.
Public health professionals however deal with populations and
communities with a primary emphasis on prevention.   The two
activities, treatment and prevention,
in approach and practice.         are extremely dissimilar

Many recent improvements in the health status of Americans have
been due primarily to prevention activities and changes in life-
styles.  Future improvements in health status and the quality
of life must and will emanate primarily from improvements in
disease prevention, health promotion, and improved control of
environmental contaminants and pollution.  Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services, Richard S. Schweiker
has consistently identified the need for an increased emphasis
on prevention.  This theme prevailed in the Republican Platform
as well.  Thus, the need to have a Surgeon General trained and
experienced in public health rather than in clinical medicine
and medical research has never been more important.

We are confident that a qualified senior official from the U. S.
Public Health Service,
the Administration,   whose views are compatible with those of
           and who has the training and experience

necessary to be sensitive to the needs of public health can be
identified, nominated,and confirmed.  The best interests of the


The President
-March 10, 1981
Page 2

health of our citizens will be served by the appointment of a
public health professional who has the skills and desire to
further the causes of disease prevention, health promotion,
and environmental health.

Thank you for your consideration of our views.

President