He said it was "inevitable" that these deprived urban areas would replace south Wales communities as the most unhealthy places as the Welsh towns got over the health legacy of heavy industry.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Health warning for inner cities

Mapp's "health and fitness" aspirations are now the Department of Health's responsibility and come under the 2012 legacy goal of getting "two million people more active" by 2012.

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And those systems can be used to help expand routine vaccination and other health activities, which means the legacy of polio eradication will live beyond the disease itself.

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The valleys pose particular problems, with their legacy of ill-health, low skill levels and low employment activity rates, but there are also concentrations of poverty along the North Wales coastline, in south Pembrokeshire and in parts of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.

BBC: merthyr www.freefoto.com

Once we stop concentrating dirty, legacy power sources in poor communities, our public health costs will drop and the quality of life for millions will improve.

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"There is an urgent need to assess the environmental legacy of the recent conflict and put in place a comprehensive clean-up of polluted and health-hazardous sites, " said Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director.

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The plan finally addresses the tax-code legacy of World War II, by equalizing the tax treatment of employer-sponsored and individually-purchased health insurance.

FORBES: Why Mitt Romney's Plan for Pre-Existing Conditions is Better Than Obamacare's

His one major legacy as governor -- the health care reform bill for which Massachusetts Democrats now honor him -- was part of that same Romney political calculus.

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Moreover, these companies all have new or nearly new factories in America, which deliver higher quality and productivity than the American makers' older plants and are not burdened with a legacy of high pensions and health-care costs.

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