3.1 The impetus for public health reforms Flashcards
Why did reforms to public health become such a pressing issues from 1780
The industrialisation of Britain: between 1781 and 1871, the population of Britain grew from around 13 million to 31 million
Population growth and population on the move, people flocked to growing towns and cities for job oppurtunities
Overcrowding meant sub-standard living conditions
Impact of a rising, mobile population
Death rate fell:
Medical industry produced vaccine prevented smallpox
agricultural industry producing food in better quantity and quality
chemical industry producing soap that was cheap and readily available
Textile industry producing cotton that was cheap and easy to wash (helped people stay clean)
Birth rate rose:
fewer people dying, meant more people living to their 20s and 30s to have babies
more babies living onto adulthood, meant that their generation would have more babies and so on
Marriage rate rose:
farmers in rural areas employed fewer live-in servants, this allowed for agricultural labourers to begin life on their own and so thy would get married earlier
in industrial areas unskilled workers were replacing skilled craftsmen (who often had to 7 year apprenticeships), so industrial workers could get married earlier
no conraception
population distribution changes (1800s)
by 1851 50% of people lived in towns and this rose to 72% by 1891
by 1900 4 out of 5 British citizens were urban dwellers
Civil registrations of births deaths and marriages (introduced in 1837) showed that urban birth rates were higher than death rates which added to the already increasing migration
though these global rates did conceal facts, for example, in manchester 57% of babies died before their 1st birthday
William Farr
the appointed chief statistician to the newly Office of the Registar General, from 1837 all births deaths and marriages and england and wales had to be registered there
Through insisting that doctors registered the cause of death, he was able to produce statistics that were invaluable to public health reformers and he used his position to advocate public health reform
Impact on living conditions (housing)
Due the increased rate of urban growth, led to negative effects on the existing housing and sanitation provision, which led to many diseases
Bad housing and housing conditions were not uniquely a product of the industrial revolution, however, widespread dose overcrowding was, cellars and attics are filled with working people and there families and were used as workplaces
Impact on living conditions (sanitation)
Most of the housing for those moving to live and work in the fast-growing cities had to be newly built, they often varied in standard and many were poorly built
The lack of services within houses, most housing in the first half of the 19thC lacked drainage, sewerage and regular water supply
Lavatories or privies were usually outside and were emptied into cesspits, some used ash privies where the users contents were covered in ash
Water was in short supply and expensive, and the supply of water was controlled in the form of vested interests in the form of private water companies
Poorer areas of towns and cities had to use standpipes and inhabitants had to queue to buy what they could, those too poor to buy water took what they could from wells or streams
Impacts of epidemics on the health of the nation
in the first half of the 19thC overcrowding and lack of sanitation and clean water meant that disease was rampant the life expectancy of the working class was low due to:
Overcrowded conditions without clean water led to body lice, which spread typhus fever, which many died from, there were epidemics in 1847 and 1839 and an outbreak in 1847 killed 10,000 people in NW england alone
Influenza, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and measles were epidemics
Typhoid and diarrhoea were common
Cholera hit Britain in 4massive epidemics
Increasing understanding about the causes of disease
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