Public Health Act 1848
- Created by: georgiaj96
- Created on: 20-05-14 12:45
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- Public Health
- Overcrowding
- Between 1800 - 1850 population doubled
- Manchester, Leeds & Liverpool trebled in size
- Leeds- 70% drinking water came from the River Aire
- Liverpool:1840s- 10-20% of the population lived in cellars
- Manchester- 50% children died before 5
- Housing thrown up rapidly and cheaply, near the factories- they were cramped
- No running water or drains
- Human, animal and vegetable waste thrown in the street
- Demand for housing high, so rent was high
- Overcrowded, dirty & poorly ventilated conditions encouraged diseases to spread
- Body lice caused Typhus
- Polluted water caused many to die from diarrhoea and typhoid
- Death rates doubled
- Depression & high unemployment- people weaker through lack of food and medicine
- Cholera
- From Asia
- Epidemic in 1831
- Over 32,000 died
- Forced the Government to set up a Central Board of Health, over 1000 local boards were created
- Once the epidemic was over, local boards were disbanded
- Advice: houses to be whitewashed, bleeding by leeches, temporary fever hospitals to be set up and those with cholera to be put in quarantine
- The importance of personal hygiene wasn't recognised
- Many believed it was spread by 'bad air'
- 1848: recognised as waterborne
- 1867: Louis Pasteur developed his 'germ theory'
- Opposition to Reform
- Lack of knowledge
- Required technical engineering expertise that councils didn't have
- From local councils, property owners and water companies
- Cost
- Improvements would cost a lot
- Builders not concerned with water supply, drainage or ventilation, only profit
- Same attitude that shaped the Poor Law- Laissez-faire
- The 'Dirty Party'
- Lack of knowledge
- Chadwick's Report on Sanitary Conditions 1842
- He was convinced illness, disease and death increased the cost of poor relief
- Report sold 100,000 copies
- Demonstrated: clear link between poverty and disease, poor housing and water supplies led to disease & high death rate and crime was the result of insanitary conditions, not the other way around
- He advocated a central government put into practice by local authorities
- Stressed the need for clean water
- 1844: Another government report confirmed his findings
- Public Health Act 1848
- Established a General Board of Health with 3 members- 1 was Chadwick
- The Board had the power to establish local boards if it met certain requirements
- Local boards given powers to deal with sewerage, new houses, water supplies and draining
- A major breakthrough, but the reforms weren't compulsory
- General Board main function was to advise and provide information through inspectors
- Faced opposition as it was seen as increasing centralisation
- Overcrowding
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