Worldwide consensus says a good sewer system is more important than inventions like the development of vaccines and antibiotics.
Rightfully so, says Professor Johan Mackenbach of the Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Dutch city of Rotterdam: Improving sanitation leads to healthier public conditions.
"In 2001, unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene accounted for over 1.5 million deaths from diarrheic disease in low and middle-income countries.
"Clearly, sanitation still plays a vital role in improving public health now and in the future," Mackenbach told the BBC.
Mike Adams, a natural health advocate and published author, described medicine as no match for improved sanitary conditions worldwide.
"The truth about public sanitation is that virtually all improvement in life expectancy recorded over the last hundred years is due to public sanitation, not modern medical science or pharmaceuticals,� he said.
�Modern drug pushers like to claim that pharmaceutical medicine is saving so many lives that people are living much longer today, but the truth is that the real credit goes to the invention of municipal sewage systems.�
Adams added that if the United States turned to natural medicine and shunned prescription medications, �life expectancy would take a huge leap forward.�
One of the earliest forms of public sanitation was developed in the 1800s to stop the spread of cholera, which was identified as being waterborne. After it was figured out that shutting down certain pumps with contaminated water supplies helped alleviate the spread of the disease, Edwin Chadwick pushed to eliminate common pumps altogether. The result was piping systems that ran water to houses and the creation of sewers, which kept used water away from the general public.
In the poll, sanitation won with 15 percent of the vote.
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