London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

A scientist who has devoted his career to saving lives in the world’s poorest countries by improving sanitation and hygiene – including revolutionising attitudes to toilets - has been honoured with an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Diarrhoea kills more children in Africa than any other disease but is almost entirely preventable with low cost measures such as safe drinking water, basic toilets and better hygiene. Over the last three decades, Professor Sandy Cairncross has dedicated his career to seeing access to these basic life saving services increased in the poorest countries of the world. Working as a scientist – pushing ahead our understanding of these diseases – as well as working on the ground with governments and international agencies such as UNICEF and WaterAid, he has worked tirelessly to improve people’s lives. At the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where he is Professor of Environmental Health, he is well-known for his ability to inspire both students and staff. He has been honoured for services to Environmental Health Overseas and a “lifetime of selfless commitment and outstanding personal contributions”.

A public health engineer by profession and an epidemiologist by vocation, Professor Cairncross has focused on finding innovative ways to prevent disease by improving people’s environments. His many life-saving contributions have also included building water supplies in Lesotho, Southern Africa and supporting programmes to eradicate Guinea Worm disease – a parasitic infection spread by drinking water contaminated with larvae – in West Africa. Once the worm is inside the body, it causes painful skin-blistering. Prof Cairncross played a critical role in reducing cases of this debilitating disease from more than 3.5 million people in 1986 to 3,000 cases in 2009.

Prof Cairncross has embraced the unglamorous issue of toilets and while working for the Government of Mozambique in the late 1970s and early 1980s he helped set up a sanitation market which made dome slabs to make pit latrines easier to use comfortably and cleanly. The round shape of the revolutionary, lightweight slabs also meant people could roll them home rather than having to put them on a cart. The market went from strength to strength and eventually sold more than 300,000 toilets.

He said: “I like to think this is a recognition of the importance of environmental health, which is often neglected by comparison with more glamorous fields of health research. Everything I’ve achieved has been the result of team work and I hope my colleagues realise the extent to which they too have earned this honour.”

LSHTM Director, Professor Peter Piot, said: “There is no doubt that Professor Cairncross’s work and influence has helped prevent millions of episodes of water, sanitation and hygiene-related illness in the developing world, saving innumerable lives and enabling countless numbers of people to enjoy better health from living in safer environments. We are delighted that his commitment to an area of health which is not the most glamorous subject has been honoured in this way. It is easy to forget this in the richest countries, where we take these things for granted. He has dedicated his life to seeing that these foundations of public health are put in place in the poorest countries and inspired generation after generation of students."

His citation reads: “Professor Sandy Cairncross has probably done more in the last 30 years to save lives and improve living standards in developing countries by advancing the neglected field of sanitation and hygiene than anyone else in the field. As a result of his influence many more people in the developing world have survived to enjoy better health from living in safer environments. “

Clarissa Brocklehurst, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, said: "UNICEF welcomes the recognition Sandy Cairncross is receiving through this award. Sandy has been a tireless advocate of water, sanitation and hygiene and has done so much to shine the light of science onto the diseases that steal the lives of children when sanitation and water supply are lacking. I have personally learned a great deal from Sandy, am grateful for his commitment, and am honoured to have worked with him.”

WaterAid chief executive Barbara Frost said: "Sandy brought wisdom, quiet good sense and science to the WaterAid Board. His research into public health and hygiene has shaped and guided our work.”

Prof Cairncross, who completed a PhD in soil mechanics at the University of Cambridge, has worked at the School for more than 25 years. He currently leads the Environmental Health Group and the Hygiene Centre at LSHTM and is Research Director of the Department for International Development-funded SHARE Consortium, a £10 million five-year programme on sanitation and hygiene.