Public health: 19th Century

Public Health Acts
1. 1848
  1. Causes
    1. Cholera epidemic
    2. Miasma
    3. Poverty/overcrowding
    4. Poor couldn't vote
    5. People claimed poor relif when ill
    6. Way to raise taxes
  2. Effects
    1. Act not enforced, only third of towns used it
      1. Unless death rate passed 23 per thousand
    2. Abolished 1858
    3. Water companies objected, etc.
  3. What was it about?
    1. Local board of health
    2. Local medical officer
    3. Removal of rubbish
    4. Build new sewer systems
    5. General board of health with E.C
2. 1875
  1. Causes
    1. 1861 - Pasteur's germ theory showed how disease spread, hygiene improved
    2. 1867 - Cholera
      1. 1867 - Working class could vote
    3. William Farr - Death rates higher in towns and cities/ villages
    4. 1854 - Snow proves the link between dirty water and cholera
  2. What was it about?
    1. Local councils responsible for
      1. Removal of rubbish
      2. Sewers
        Drains
      3. Clean water
      4. Public toilets
      5. Monitoring quality of food in shops
    2. Basic services e.g water, lighting still in hands of private companies/individuals
    3. Ensured quality of housing improved
    4. Enforced new law against polluting water
    5. Local medical officer
      1. Health and sanitary officers
Individuals
1. Edwin Chadwick
  1. Role
    1. Secretary to comisson in charge of workhouses
    2. Published results of housing conditions in towns survey: 'Report on the sanitary conditions of labouring population of Great Britain'
    3. Suggested it would be cheaper if local taxes used to improve housing and hygiene
    4. Suggestions criticised by some
      1. Laissez-faire government
      2. Water companies thought it would reduce profits
    5. Cholera epidemic (1848) forced government to change
  2. 1848 Public health act
2. John Snow
  1. Discoveries
    1. Used statistical, systematic methods to plot the location of Cholera victims near Broad street
      1. Marked deaths on map
    2. Investigated theory that cholera spread through dirty w.
    3. Clear concentration of death around water pump on Broad street
      1. Removed pump, deaths fell
  2. Sig. impact
    1. Identified pump as cause of contagion
    2. Change in epidemiology
    3. Saved lives
    4. Proved ideas were correct
  3. Lim. impact
    1. Believed in miasma
    2. Taking pump handle had little effect, epidemic already going
    3. Report gathered little support
      1. None from authorities and public
3. Joseph Bazalgette
  1. The Great Stink - 1858
    1. Hot weather, combined with sewage in River Thames intensified smell
    2. Cholera outbreak
    3. Convinced government public health reform needed
  2. Role
    1. Designed complex sewer system for London
      1. Considered future population
    2. Over 7y to complete
    3. 1,300 miles of sewers & pumping stations and embankments

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Public health: 19th Century

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	Created by Dede Casely-Hayford almost 10 years ago