Public Health Flashcards
What is public health?
The health and well-being of ordinary men, women and children.
What was public heslth like in the early 1800s?
It was in a pretty poor state
What was the national average age of death for a working British man?
30
In some places like Liverpool it was 15.
How did Menchester’s population grow?
It grew from 45,000 in 1751 to about 450,000 by 1851
What was the connection between towns growing and living conditions?
The faster the towns grew the worse the living conditions became.
What were the living conditions like?
New housing was built very quickly, very badly and wherever there was space.
Lots of families shared these houses.
They lacked basic facilities such as toilets and running water.
There was no one to clean these towns and no sewers to take away the waste so rubbish and sewage piled up in the streets and floated in rivers.
What was disease like?
It spread very quickly because of the filthy, overwroded conditions.
What were some diseases?
Smallpox, typhoid and tuberculosis but the most feared was cholera.
When did cholera arrive in Britain and how many people did it kill within a year?
In 1831 and killed 50,000 people within a year
What would happen to people who suffered cholera?
They were violently sick and suffered from painful diarrhoea. Their skin and nails turned black just before the victim fell into a coma and died.
What was set up to investigate the disease?
Special groups called ‘Boards of Health’ in some towns to investigate how it was spread and how it might be prevented.
What was something that people believed which is why little progress had been made in public health? 1.
People belived that the government shouldn’t interfere with the everyday lives of people rich or poor . They believed that the people had no right to tell factory owners and buisnessmen to build good houses with clean water supplies. What the people drink, where they wash and what they do with their rubbish is their own business.
What was something that people believed which is why little progress had been made in public health? 2.
Spending money on drains, rubbish collections and street cleaners would cost money which would force up taxes. Rich people were not keen to pay more tax money to help the poor people living in areas the rich people don’t even visit.
What was something that people believed which is why little progress had been made in public health? 3.
Some people made a fortune from renting out houses that they own. Some people sold water from door-to-door. They don’t want anything to change and don’t want fresh water to be pumped into cities.
What were 9 things that Chadwick said in his report?
Disease is caused by bad air
A medical officer should be appointed to take charge in each district
People can’t develop clean habits until they have clean water
The poor conditions produce a population that doesn’t live long, is always short of money and is brutal and rough.
We must improve drainage, remove rubbish from houses, streets and roads and improve water supply
We must improve sewers and drains so rubbish is flushed clean away, rather than left to rot
The poor cost too much, the rich pay to feed and clothe orphans, money would be saved if fewer parents died of disease. A healthier workforce would work harder too.
More people are killed by filth and bad ventilation each year than are killed by wars.
The bad air is caused by rotting vegetables and animals, by damp and filth and by stuffy overcrowded houses. When these things are improved the death rate will go down.
When did the government finally decide to act?
After more outbreaks of cholera in 1837 and 1838
How did the government act?
They set up an enquiry to find out what living conditions were really like all over Britain
Who was in charge of the governments plan?
A government official by the name of Edwin Chadwick.
What did Chadwick do?
Over a two year period, he sent out doctors to most of the major towns and cities who interviewed hundreds of people.
