Why do qualitative research?
mental health, and health economics, also have key con- tributions to make.Secondly, health professionals should join the social and environmental critics of macroeconomic policy to ensure that the health costs and benefits of macroeconomic policies are examined in policymaking.Thirdly, more health professionals can contribute locally to healthy cities projects and other intersectoral activities.The health sector can also promote wider understanding of the many positive implications for public health of environmentally sustainable development.7Do these suggestions take the health sector beyond reason- able limits?The battles for public health in the 19th century offer some help.Doctors themselves did not build sewers or provide clean drinking water, but they had a crucial role in seeing that the health costs of not providing these expensive services were widely understood.Though it did not sail under the flag of intersectoral policy, that was a period of hard fought and highly effective intersectoral activity with pro- found economic implications.Many of the battles were about