Ethics SPIG

Submit Abstract

The Ethics SPIG invites abstracts for panel discussions, oral presentations, roundtables, and posters on topics concerning ethics and public health. The focus of this year's conference is "Water and Public Health". We encourage researchers, authors, teachers, those in public health practice, and especially students to submit abstracts related to ethical issues linking public health and water, including those that cross boundaries or borders. This encompasses physical as well as disciplinary borders. We encourage submissions related to global health, pandemics, international research ethics, and/or globalized trade. Sessions that discuss relevant findings, case studies, materials, programs, or information linking ethics and public health are strongly encouraged, as are reports of ethics related activities in State and local health departments (for instance, accreditation of ethics boards/bodies). Submission of topics related to other areas of ethics and public health are also welcome.

Ethics, Water, and Public Health

Access to clean water and adequate sanitation is a growing problem for many parts of the world. One billion people are in need of clean water, and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation. Is water then destined to become a highly priced and increasingly scarce commodity as has oil? Contraction of the world’s water supplies, alongside an increase in population numbers will raise important questions about how the resource is to be shared as demand converges. What will the implications of climatic change be on existing sources of water? Are populations going to slowly become resigned to – and possibly enthusiastic about – the idea of sewage recycling as a buffer to existing water reserves? Will the technologies be developed that will permit underground water to be used responsibly and sustainably to fill the existing gap?

Running concurrently with the water crisis, concerns about water-borne diseases, particularly in the developing world, continue to gain significance, and the onus remains to create systems that will allow safe and clean drinking water to be available, and also discourage habits that facilitate the spread of diseases such as bilharzia (schistomiasis), cholera, dysentery and typhoid.

Of particular interest are the ethical implications of a structural- ecological perspective on water – it is not a discrete entity, but is inherently a lynch pin and connecting factor in the entire web of planetary life. The focus is therefore not on water, but on the water cycle and its connections on the land and the atmosphere. The notion of a “watershed” has this connotation, just as the notion of “land” and “landscape” is not about only the soil, but the connection between the soil and the biotic community. Suggested areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
  • Chlorination and Carcinogens
  • Civil Engineering and Water Ethics
  • Climate Change
  • Clinical Ethics versus Public Health Ethics
  • Control of Water Contamination
  • Corporate Water/ Privatization of Water
  • Ethical Issues in Groundwater Conservation and Management
  • Ethical and Aesthetic Issues in Waste Water Reuse
  • Health hazards of drawing down ground water levels and reserves
  • History of the Water Fountain
  • Organisational Ethics
  • Philosophical Implications of an ecological perspective on water
  • Public Health Ethics of Water, Death and Disaster
  • Putting a value on water resources – quantification and commodification
  • Water Control and Indigenous Cultural and Human Rights
  • Water Resource Allocations
  • Water and Cultural Meaning
  • Water and International Health
  • Water as a Public Good – the “Public Trust Doctrine” versus the “Prior Appropriation Doctrine”
  • Water, Justice and Public Health (is water the next ‘oil’?
  • Water, Sewage, Recycling, Technology Risks, Aesthetics
  • Water-borne diseases
Case Studies in Public Health Ethics

Have you faced an interesting ethical dilemma in your public practice or research? This year, the Ethics SPIG is planning a Roundtable case discussion session. Please submit any case(s) you’d like to discuss. This format provides the opportunity to present an introductory presentation up to 20 minutes with time for extended discussion at a dedicated table with interested conferees. You will present 2-3 times during the 1.5 hour session. (There is no PowerPoint projection for this format. Speakers provide handouts.) In addition, applications are invited for ‘Author Tables,’ where public health ethics practitioners will have a discussion on a recent book.

Public Health Ethics- Poster Session

Posters on the intersection of public health and ethics including those consonant with the previously listed topics. Topics closer to the conference theme will be given preference.

Student Papers on Water and Public Health Ethics

The Ethics SPIG encourages submissions by students and young professionals. All submissions are welcome, but priority will be given to those topics that fit most closely to the general theme.


Abstract Submission

If possible, please indicate in your submission which topic best suits your presentation. Abstracts must be at least three sentences long but no longer than 250 words. When filing the abstract, all prospective presenters will complete a system-prompted conflict of interest form and state learning objectives. (System links will provide details.) In addition to submitting case studies and individual abstracts, proposed panels of three to five presentations are welcome, as are proposals for joint sessions with other APHA SPIGs and Forums. Individuals are invited to contact the program chairs (listed below) to discuss potential ideas.

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Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses and health educators at its annual meeting. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so that members can claim credit or attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:
1) an abstract free of trade and/ or commercial product names
2) at least one MEASURABLE objective (to understand or to learn are not measurable objectives). Examples of acceptable measure action words: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List
3) a signed Conflict of Interest form with a relevant qualification statement
Thank you for your assistance in making your session credit worthy.
Contact Annette Ferebee at annette.ferebee@apha.org if you have any questions.
Submit Abstract

Program Planner Contact Information:
Andrea Lynn Kalfoglou, PhD
Sociology & Anthropology
Health Administration and Policy Program
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
1000 Hilltop Circle; PUP 212
Baltimore, MD 21250
Phone: 410-455-2061
Fax: 410-455-1154
akalfogl@umbc.edu

and
Jennifer Prah Ruger
School of Medicine and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Yale University
60 College Street, P.O.Box 208034
New Haven, CT 06520-8034
Phone: 203-785-6193
jennifer.ruger@yale.edu

and
Bruce Jennings, PhD
Center for Humans and Nature
109 West 77th Street, Suite 2
New York, NY 10024
Phone: 212.362.7170
Fax: 212.362.9592
brucejennings@humansandnature.org