In today's Toronto Star (Aug. 11) health report Rita Daly
carried a report of a presentation at the 69th Annual
Couchiching Conference by Michael Marmot on ten non-medical
factors that affect health.

She did not mention the name of the report: "Social
Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts," how it can
be obtained, nor that it was published by WHO in 1998.

She certainly did not mention that I had provided
her with a copy of it over a year ago and that she and
others at the Star -- except for columnist Jim Coyle --
had ignored it.

I wrote the following in a letter to the editor
[this might be a good time to have others in Ontario
 and Canada ask why the Star has been ignoring this issue!]

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Letters to the Editor:

   I read with interest Health Reporter Rita Daly's
story in the Star about the ten non-medical factors
that influence health according to Michael Marmot
(Causes of Poor Health Probed, August 11).
   Star readers may wish to know that the very
important World Health Organization report "Social
Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts" -- in
which this information is contained -- has been
available since 1998 on the net at
http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities

Dennis Raphael
Public Health Sciences
University of Toronto











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   In the early hours I read in the paper of epoch-making projects
   On the part of pope and sovereigns, bankers and oil barons.
   With my other eye I watch
   The pot with the water for my tea
   The way it clouds and starts to bubble and clears again
   And overflowing the pot quenches the fire.

   -- Bertolt Brecht
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Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 308
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice: (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
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