Public health: short history
Industrial revolution had changed everything including lifestyle, mindset throughout industry world as well as on sanitation condition. The sanitation condition was very sad, at least this was expressed in the Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. Implicitly this was represented by philosophy of Edwin Chadwick (1800–1890) who viewed the improvement of drainage, housing and water supply as an essential national economic good, as it prevented the early deaths of working men. The sanitation condition at that time was described:
Many dwellings of the poor are arranged around narrow courts having no other opening to the main street than a narrow covered passage. In these courts there are several occupants, each of whom accumulated a heap. In some cases, each of these heaps is piled up separately in the court, with a general receptacle in the middle for drainage. In others, a plot is dug in the middle of the court for the general use of all the occupants. In some the whole courts up to the very doors of the houses were covered with filth.
Stream rivers in urbanized areas were affected by open sewers in city. The River Cam, was great polluted for many years. Historical record showed that the River Cam was grossly polluted by sewage from Cambridge in the 19th century, but 1897 onwards, the chemical and biology quality was improved.
During the middle of the nineteeth century, public health measures were not sufficient and efficient as well. It had driven the condition to an appaling stage in public health concern. The appaling sanitation condition was also triggered by the development of technology. At least by the time Philip Reis invented the telephone, nearly 80% lived in urban areas in 1860. At that time, the theory of disease and illnesses were not fully noted and appreciated, this made epidemics became global symptoms over major cities in the world. Roy Porter described, in his excellent medical history, a vivid picture of the kind of life the working classes led in 19th century Britain and the industrialising world. He was describing how terrible sanitation condition at that time, that would make life expentacies were really low.
However, some minor public health measures did have a positive result, such as removing corpses during epidemics, mass education of sanitation, pay attention to cleanliness, these were known to help the public health. These all led to the decline of infant mortality rates at the end of the 19th century. Identification of Cholera 1884 was extensively studied, and it was identified in water via the microscope and could now be contained by public health officials.
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/projects/bluetelephone/
html/health.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/edwin-chadwick
Related Posts
Environmental Engineering Roots
Environmental engineering is a relatively new profession with a long and honorable history. The title of "Environmental engineer" interestingly was not used until 1960s in US, when academic programs...
Engineer Term: Civil and Environmental Engineer
We know that most part especially throughout europe and US, environmental engineering is usually part of civil engineering. This is because inside civil engineering, contains information, field of...
Water supply and wastewater system: brief history
Long time ago, probably up to present, public water facilities were part of civil engineer's project. Water supply and wastewater drainage were among the job whose civil engineers do to preserve...
Wastewater treatment plant: the beginning
As you probably already aware, waste disposal methods had been found from ancient time. Sewers were found in the prehistoric cities of Crete and ancient Assyrian areas. Sewers built by the Romans,...
This website is dedicated for environmental engineering, field I am involved with. This is more or less would be the place to introduce some people about what environmental engineering is and will be...
environment