Ethical inequalities - The Guardian 19th November 2007

Pasteurisation, declared Dr Edith Summerskill in 1949 as she introduced one of the great public health reforms, had been blocked by ignorance, prejudice and selfishness. The ignorance was that of consumers; the prejudice was against the exercise of state power; and the selfishness was landowners' refusal to bear the cost of a life-saving reform. Perhaps as many as 40,000 people died from drinking milk infected by bovine TB after it was known that it could be eradicated by pasteurisation. Yet similar resistance has not weakened in the intervening 60 years. In the next fortnight MPs will debate the health and social care bill, another measure containing, in the fruit-for-pregnant-mothers grant, the merest nod at improving the nation's health as well as its healthcare.

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