Health in the industrial revolution
Introduction The health in the industrial revolution era was very bad; middle class people were not expected to live beyond the age of 50 and labourers and workmen only lived about half that time. Some children were lucky to live to the age of 5! (The current life expectancy is around 80)
Causes-Growth of towns Fast growth brought urban problems, and industrial-time cities were common with dangers to health and safety. Rapidly growing industrial cities could be quite deadly, and were often full of contaminated water and air, and infectious diseases. Living conditions during the Industrial Revolution varied from the luxury of the homes of the wealthy to the shabbiness of the workers. Poor people lived in very small houses in cramped streets. These homes often shared toilet facilities, had open sewers, and were prone to germs worsened by persistent dampness. Disease often spread through contaminated water supplies.
Health heroes Health hero Rise to fameWhat difference did it make? John Snow He revealed the true cause of cholera in dirty water rather then what was believed before that it dirty air. Cholera was much easier to control and many could prevent themselves from getting it. Robert Koch Koch worked on anthrax and tuberculosis (TB) and he further developed the work of Louis Pasteur. The diseases he worked on were much easier to handle. Edwin Chadwick He sent out a team of inspection teams of doctors all over Britain to try and see what was killing everybody. He found out many people were living in slums and looked at diseases caused by bad conditions. Joseph Bazelgette He formed a new sewage system all over London that improved massively the health and hygiene in that city. There was much less cases of dirty-water afflicted diseases including cholera.
Disease The public suffered severely from illness’ that included three deadly contagious diseases: cholera, TB, typhus and influenza. These infectious diseases were often fatal or left its victim too weak to fight against other diseases. The main cause of these illnesses was the consequence of the poor sanitation conditions such as an overcrowding workers, contaminated water, and unpaved streets with ankle deep mud. Many families riddled by fever died due to poor public health. It was estimated that in 1839, for every person who died of old age or violence, eight died of specific disease caused by the sanitation.
Sanitation Because cities were growing fast, there was a big sanitation issue. Problems such as overflowing drains, sewage leaking through faulty pipes, and decaying animal and human waste attributed to the sanitation problem. In addition, sewage gasses were released through toilets, baths, and sinks into the homes of London’s inhabitants. Such poor sanitation conditions, as well as the employment of coal-fired stoves, produced heavy and foul-smelling air in and around the city. Wastes and other dirty material plagued the environment and its inhabitants due to the lack of proper disposal means. Tons of raw sewage, both from the city itself and by the neighbouring valleys, was dumped straight into the Thames River and eventually carried up the river by the tide. Sanitation conditions were repulsive during Victorian London.
Facts Middle class men might live, on average, to 45. The average lives of workmen and labourers spanned just half that time. Children were lucky to survive their fifth birthdays. (The current life expectancy is around 80, and higher!) It was believed that bad smells caused disease. It was obvious; in poor districts, the air was foul and the death rate high. In the prosperous suburbs, no smells – therefore no disease. In London it is thought 7000 people died of the disease in the outbreak which represented a 50% death rate of those who caught it. 15,000 people died in London in the outbreak. The disease usually affected those in a city’s poorer areas, though the rich did not escape this disease. Bees have 5 eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front.
The end