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1991.04.29 :  Former Secretaries Meet

Contact:  HHS Press Office (202) 245-6343
April 29, 1991

       Six former secretaries of HEW and HHS convened Monday with
Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., to discuss current and future
directions in federal health and human services activities.
       Meeting with Secretary Sullivan were Arthur S. Flemming
(HEW secretary from 1958-1961), Elliot Richardson (1970-1973),
David Mathews (1975-1977), Joseph A. Califano Jr. (1977-1979),
Richard S. Schweiker (1981-1983), and Margaret M. Heckler (1983-
1985).
       The private meeting included discussions of child health
and assistance programs recently consolidated in HHS under the
new Administration for Children and Families; disease prevention
initiatives, including infant mortality, immunization and lead
poisoning prevention activities; and HHS' role in international
health assistance.
       The meeting was the second "summit" of HEW/HHS secretaries
under Dr. Sullivan.  Former secretaries first convened with him
in a private discussion in March 1990.
       A joint statement by the HEW and HHS Secretaries was
issued following the meeting:

         JOINT STATEMENT OF SECRETARY SULLIVAN AND FORMER
            HEW/HHS SECRETARIES AT HHS "SECRETARIAL SUMMIT."

As America prepares to enter the 21st century, it is important
for all our citizens to recognize the growing importance of
disease prevention and health promotion as a key to new gains in
our public health.

In the first part of this century, we came to understand, and
essentially eliminated in this country, the nutrition deficiency-
related diseases.  In the middle years of the century, with the
development of antibiotics, we gained previously undreamed-of
control over infectious disease.  In more recent years, great
advances have been made in transplant and imaging technologies.

These gains grew from our national investment, both public and
private, in basic and applied science and biomedical research. 
Such investment must continue.  In the years ahead, we hope for
new leaps in biomedicine -- new understanding of viruses,
cancers, the immune system, genetics and more.

But at the same time, we must recognize that our own individual
behavior, and our national strategies for addressing preventable
illness and injury, are becoming one of the most fertile areas
for major increases in health status, life expectancy and quality
of life.  We are what we eat, drink and breathe.  

Both the obviously preventable diseases (like lung diseases
closely associated with smoking) and other diseases (in which
behavior choices are one of several possible components)
represent areas in which vast improvements in health can be made
through personal and social choice.  Indeed, many of these are
areas in which significant improvement can hardly be hoped for
without personal decision and action.  Smoking, for example, is
the leading preventable cause of death in our country,
responsible for more than 400,000 deaths per year.  All of our
advanced technology cannot overcome the effects of the individual
who develops lung cancer from smoking.

The Public Health Service estimates that control of fewer than 10
risk factors could prevent between 40 and 70 percent of all
premature deaths, a third of all cases of acute disability, and
two-thirds of all cases of chronic disability.  This represents
an enormous field of opportunity for improved health status.  It
calls for a new public understanding of disease, of limits in the
power of medicine, and of the influence that each of us has over
our own health destinies.

A key role for HHS now and in the future is to convey to
Americans a better understanding of the scope of opportunity
presented by disease prevention and health promotion choices. 


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