GCSE Revision: Industrial People's Health

Overview

• Focus on living conditions in urban industrial cities like Manchester and Leeds.
• Discussion on epidemics with focus on cholera.
• Examination of public health changes and reforms.

Key Themes

1. Impact of Living Conditions
   • Housing, food, clean water, and waste.
   • Movement from countryside to urban areas.
2. Response to Epidemics
   • Cholera outbreaks and changing beliefs.
3. Improving Public Health
   • Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1875.

Timeline

• Industrial Era: 1750 to 1900.
• Population increase from 6 million (1750) to 37 million (1900).
• Political changes and urbanization.

Urban Living Conditions

• Poor Working Conditions
  • Overcrowded slum housing, spread of disease due to dirty water.
  • Back-to-back housing with poor construction and no ventilation.
• Reasons for Poor Conditions
  • Rapid urban growth, weak town governments, laissez-faire attitudes.
  • Lack of sewage and clean water systems.
• Diseases
  • Tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, and other waterborne diseases.

Cholera Epidemics

• Spread and Symptoms
  • Brought by sailors in 1831, symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea.
• Response to Cholera
  • Initial beliefs in miasma and divine punishment.
  • Change in understanding with Jon Snow linking disease to contaminated water.
• Public Health Reforms
  • Edwin Chadwick's sanitary report, leading to Public Health Act of 1848.

Key Public Health Reforms

1. Edwin Chadwick's Sanitary Report
   • Linked poor health to living conditions.
   • Led to the 1848 Public Health Act.
2. Jon Snow and the Broad Street Pump
   • First demonstration of waterborne disease spread.
   • Ideas initially dismissed due to strong belief in miasma.
3. Joseph Bazalgette's Sewage System
   • Addressed the Great Stink of 1858 in London.
   • Advanced sewage systems reduced waterborne diseases.

Public Health Acts

• Public Health Act of 1848
  • Established the General Board of Health, but limited impact.
• Public Health Act of 1875
  • Forced councils to improve sanitation; marked significant government intervention.

Local Initiatives and Reforms

• Sanitary Act of 1866
  • Made councils responsible for water supply and sanitation.
• Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875
  • Improved food quality control.
• Women's Cooperative Guild
  • Campaigned for better health services and reforms.
• Local Housing Projects
  • Slum clearance and building of better housing in cities like Manchester.

Conclusion

• By 1900, significant progress in public health, though many challenges remained.
• Life expectancy still low, and infant mortality high.
• Ongoing need for housing reforms and better living conditions.