If you've been wondering lately what the most important medical discovery of the past 167 years is, you're not alone. The British Medical Journal asked its readers to vote on the most important medical milestone since the first issue of the journal was published in 1840. The nominations were narrowed down to 15, with experts writing supporting articles for each discovery. Worthy candidates ranged from antibiotics to the birth control pill. When all 11,000 votes were counted, the most important medical advance of modern times proved to be... Sanitation!

Of course, sanitation (both sewage treatment and water supply) has had amazing impacts on human health. As the Industrial Revolution spurred urbanization throughout Europe in the late 18th century, close living quarters, lack of sewage disposal and inadequate access to safe drinking water led to outbreaks of infectious disease. Waves of tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid and other diseases took a heavy human toll. As cities began to adopt sanitation systems, deaths from infectious disease plummeted.

This prestigious award notwithstanding, sanitation has yet to reach the promise it holds for improving human health in large part because of a lack of funding and a failure to update treatment methods to combat emerging contaminants.

Millions of Americans become ill from contact with untreated sewage every year as we fail to reinvest in sewage treatment systems. There is no credible excuse for this lack of funding. As Representative Baird (D-WA) stated at a recent congressional hearing on sanitation funding, federal investment in wastewater infrastructure over seven years is less than the amount we spend on the Iraq war in a month. For the sake of our health - and, heck, the sanity of sanitation! - our elected leaders should provide the government funds necessary to modernize the country's aging wastewater infrastructure.

For sanitation live up to its Oscar-worthy performance as the greatest medical breakthrough in recent history, we must commit to fully funding good treatment systems that are going bad.