Public health issue. It is not a public health issue; it is an issue relating to poor environmental management. A good analogy would be acid rain. Acid rain never killed anyone. And yet, we have spent about $20 billion in North America to try and solve, or at least, mitigate that problem. It has not yet been solved and it should be seen in exactly the same light: as a problem resulting from environmental degradation.
On June 9th, 2008. See this statement in context.