UNIT 8 PROMOTING PUBLIC HEALTH latest

During the past years in Victorian times, outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and influenza killed thousands and the Great Stink of London, when raw sewage filled the Thames, forced politicians to move Parliament. Edwin Chadwick demonstrated the link between poor living conditions and disease and reduced life expectancy. The government realised that they would have to organise a public approach to health and from these beginnings, public health was born. In 1842, Edwin Chadwick one of the Poor Law Commissioners published a report called ‘Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain’ highlighting the dreadful conditions people were living in. People refused to work and go outside due to infectious diseases, most of them were from working class. Due to the little attention given by the government to controlling diseases, he concluded that it would be cheaper to spend local taxes on improving housing and hygiene instead of running workhouses. The report also suggested the provision of access to clean water, removal of sewage and rubbish from the streets. However, the report also received negative comments from the middle-class taxpayers saying they ‘did not see why their money should be spent on better living conditions for the poor who did not pay anything towards the improvements themselves’