Professional
Highmark Healthy Places, Healthy People
| The word "place" can represent many things - a home, backyard, school, city, distant nation or the immediate space surrounding you right now. Just as places are everywhere around us, so is the environment - from the air we breathe to the water we drink and the ground on which we walk. The environment has a great impact on our health and well-being. Living in a safe, clean environment helps us stay healthy. What we eat and whether we exercise are environmental factors with known connections to a number of diseases. In addition, environmental exposures to pollutants are linked to many diseases, including asthma, cardiovascular disease and cancer. While we cannot prevent some diseases, those illnesses with an environmental cause very well may be avoidable. When we learn to live in harmony with our environment, we just may find a key to the secret of human health. Healthy people live in healthy places. | Highmark Healthy Places, Healthy People is a comprehensive educational program designed by the Center for Environmental Oncology to educate the public concerning the environmental causes of cancer. There are certain healthy activities in which we can take part and certain known carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) we can avoid in our daily lives to help reduce our risk of developing cancer in our lifetimes. While researchers continue to search for cures, prevention of cancer through focused research, education and public policy designed to reduce exposures to carcinogens in the environment is just as important. As the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The time is now to start working on that ounce of prevention. |
If you are interested in hosting a Highmark Healthy Places, Healthy People speaker or event, please email us or call 412-623-3375.
