How extensive is administrative law in public health, and how does it work - Research Paper Example

How extensive is administrative law in public health? There are a lot of challenges for the public health regulation in the contemporary age. Publichealth regulation has been offered extreme importance in homeland security, particularly after the twin tower terrorist attacks that happened on 11 September 2001 that were followed by the anthrax bioterrorism. There has been enormous scare of anthrax among the public. The fall of 2001 brought some of the toughest challenges that the American public health system had to encounter.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost life all over the world because of such diseases as AIDS and Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Many political factors are involved in the lack of supply of life saving medicines that are required to combat such diseases. Besides, the increased global transportation has facilitated the spread of emerging diseases, thus adding to the threats to global health and safety. There are yet other factors that have considerably aggravated the complexity of challenges for the public health agencies.

For example, increase in the extent of obesity among people in general has complicated the process of control and prevention of heart diseases, and has thus increased the verisimilitude of acquiring cardiovascular diseases and diabetes for the public. In addition to that, not many people have acquired their health insurance, and therefore, lack access to the care they need. The problems discussed so far make only a small portion of the total volume of issues that the public health agencies have to handle.

This has caused the government officials to interrogate the American public health system regarding its capability to deal with outbreak of epidemic diseases that were expected as a consequence of any future bioterrorist attacks (Kinney, 2002). Despite the fact that the public health agencies came up with praiseworthy response to the queries, there is little surety that the public health system in place in America will not have a hard time meeting the demands of future challenges. How administrative law works in the promotion of public health?

Today, administrative law assumes a cardinal role in enabling the public health agencies to combat their challenges. “The most frequently encountered legal interactions for most people, affecting both health professionals and consumers…occur through the subsystem of administrative law, which develops and enforces rules and regulations through an administrative agency” (Turnock, 2009, p. 166). This is because of the fact that administrative law provides the public health agencies with the guidance they require to formulate policies that are not only conducive for improvement in the public health, but are also acceptable and enforceable on political grounds.

Administrative law promotes formulation of transparent policies and provision of required resources to the decision makers in the public health sector. There has to be sound assessment of risks and concerns of stakeholders need to be addressed so as to implement the policies effectively, and administrative law helps the public agencies achieve that. Example of recent public health rules: Media keeps reporting many important public health rules that are introduced and enforced from time to time.

According to smokersinfo.net (2010), in Grey-Bruce, the tobacco control officers have been forbade to apply the Smoke-Free Ontario Act of the province on such local First Nations societies as Chippewas of Nawash reserves and Saugeen. The head of public health rules enforcement passed these instructions at the local public health unit in Grey-Bruce. These instructions surfaced as a result of the power vested in the aboriginal governments by the provincial Ministry of Health Promotion. The Ministry allowed aboriginal governments to enforce self formulated bylaws related to smoking.

Linda Davies, who is the Manager of the Tobacco Control Program expressed, “We’re not tasked with enforcing on reserves right now unless we have a prior agreement with the local government” (Davies cited in smokersinfo.net, 2010). Likewise, rules were passed in 2005 regarding the way WHO’s 193 Member States would deal with the outbreak of diseases that were exposing global public health to risk. The Director of International Health Regulations Coordination, Dr. Guenael Rodier explained the challenges that WHO’s Member States had to face because of their assumed roles in the implementation of the rules.

The Member States had to propose revisions in the existing regulations which was far more difficult than making new regulations from the scratch. Education is commonly employed as a means of spreading awareness about the new public health policies among the masses. “We are exploring the possibility of providing comprehensive education through a Masters degree in international health security in collaboration with several European universities” (Rodier, 2007). References: Kinney, E. D. (2002).

Administrative law and public's health. Retrieved from http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/3586867-1.html. Rodier, G. (2007). New rules on international public health security. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 85(6):421-500. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/6/07-100607/en/. Smokersinfo.net. (2010). Public Health told not to enforce tobacco rules on reserves. Retrieved from http://www.smokersinfo.net/public-health-told-not-to-enforce-tobacco-rules-on-reserves/. Turnock, B. (2009). Public Health: What It Is and How It Works. 4th ed. Jones and Bartlett Publishers LLC.