Old Public Health of the 19th Century - Essay Example

Public health: An overview: Although Public Health is somehow, a modern terminology, yet it originates a few centuries back. Three basic public health movements are generally recognized. The first is known as the Old Public Health, and then comes the New Public Health followed by the Ecological Public Health. The three movements vary in the nature of the roles and duties of practitioners associated with the public health. The old public health is analyzed in the following text. “The “old public health” model is based on the discipline of epidemiology and the subject matter of the biomedical and behavioral sciences”. (Holman, 1992 noted in Fleming & Parker, 2009, p. 18). Old public health and the environmental factors: Industrialization in the 19th century: There have been significant advancements in the field of science and technology over the centuries. This has resulted in rapid, urbanization, industrialization and mass construction. Man’s exposure to technological facilities is much enhanced today, than it has been in the past. But this process of development has brought certain calamities with it. One of the key reasons which endanger public health is the rapid industrialization accompanied with improper planning and treatment of the environmental issues that occur as a result of the same. (MacDonald, 1998) mentioned in the p. 22 of his book that in the late 1700s, which is also known as an era of Industrial Revolution, there was no such concept as that of public health. It is a characteristic feature of the man to strive for wealth and power. This urge has caused man to expand the means of earning money and get power. And this urge in man is natural and must not be criticized. However, the way man has acted to satisfy this urge in him is quite debatable. Nations have been striving to excel from one another in the field of science and technology, and therefore invested time and money in expanding industries. However, what these nations lacked in was a responsibility to understand that the environmental effects these industries would result in might not be favorable for the people in the surroundings. “Most histories of public health begin with a discussion of what is known as the “sanitation phase” in the mid-nineteenth century…” (Earle et al, 2007, p.11). The hustle and bustle of the rapid process of changing the world for good did not give the developers enough time to consider the after-effects of their struggle and plan the process of development in a way that would enhance the benefits and suppress the evils that would be the outcome. Only if the developers had planned the construction after considering the importance of the relation of environment and industrialization, this world would have been an even better place to live in. Any thing we construct / develop has an impact on the environment, and every change in environment causes a direct or indirect influence on the society. Hence, ultimately, the society is influenced by the process of development. This is what the concepts of professional ethics, corporate social responsibility and the public relations originated from. After realizing this missing aspect of research and development, scientists and researchers have done enough research in these areas, and a lot of information and guidance on these areas is available in literature today. “In dealing with the definition of public health, it is often tempting to adopt the position of “better safe than sorry,” or it is “best to err on the side of safety.”” (Epstein, 2002, p.6). Therefore, the need of a public health system was felt on national level that would cause the public to live in a way that would ensure their safety, and they were encouraged to get involved in activities that would improve their health. 19th century was an era of revolution. The entire world was busy developing industries and thus no single nation was prepared to remain behind in this race of power and economy. People moved from rural to urban areas for getting employed in the newly developed industries. This huge influx of people in the towns of UK raised the issue of overpopulation in the cities. “Rapid nucleated urban growth associated with industrialization throughout the 19th century involved an exponential growth in materials transfers and in waste flows.” (Douglas et al, 2002). Living areas were stuffed with workers. Due to less space, people were forced to live in small rooms in the basements with very less ventilation. Additionally, when those cities were initially developed, government did not have an idea that the cities would soon be crowded with workers from rural areas so as to design the city’s infrastructure in a way that would take the load of sanitation from such a large number of people in the coming times. The water sewage system and the quality of drinking water was extremely pathetic and presented an altogether different picture of Europe in comparison to where Europe stands today from a technical perspective. The rapid shifting of people, especially workers from rural to urban areas for the reason of getting work gave birth to the necessity of an efficient sewage and several other wastes’ disposal system, which the governments had not been very efficient to meet. In the absence of a proper waste disposal system, people started to dump or bury rubbish heaps in open lands, which gradually started decaying, giving rise to a number of dreadful diseases. Among the many epidemic diseases that emerged in UK in the first half of the 19th century, a few are the Cholera, Dysentery and Tuberculosis. “The impact of epidemic disease and poor health status of the urban proletariat established enduring link between urban life and ill health.” (Berridge, 2003). Also, there was a very unhygienic system of water supply in the UK particularly in the first half of the 19th century. In those circumstances, a lot of people used to share contaminated and still water of the wells, for drinking and other domestic purposes, and faced horrible consequences. Another big reason for a horrific position of public health in the Europe in general, and the UK in particular of the 19th century was none other than poverty, which a lot of nations in the world are still suffering from today. Apparently, the relationship of poverty with public health may sound a bit questionable, but this was indeed, what played a very important role in aggravating the conditions of bad public health in the UK of the 19th century. Though, the phenomenon is fairly simple to understand. As pointed out before, a lack of the knowledge and expertise in Town Planning, lack of sufficient resources accompanied with a bad management of construction and development kept the developers from looking at the matter from a sociological point of view. The responsibility of ensuring public health rested with the local government in the 19th century. Also, the local governments in those times could not do much to improve the situation because any attempt the government would make to set the things right considered altering the ways in which business men were developing buildings for their business purposes. This idea was certainly not appreciated by the developers and businessmen. “The government of early and mid-Victorian England did not so much seek to provide new remedies for old problems…” (Martin, 1996, p. 238). This resulted in appropriately located buildings, which had led to further narrowing of the streets, densification of houses and living areas, and a decrease in the green areas and open fields. The ultimate sufferers were the poor people of the society who could not afford the medical expenses to cure the diseases. Like all other fields, Medical Science in the 19th century was far behind where it stands today, and accordingly, much needed to be done in order to find solutions to the newly discovered diseases. Science and technology was too less developed to allow scientists to judge the root cause of the spreading diseases. This hindered the way to discovering cures for them. Diseases took the form of a challenge for the scientists of that age, and they were not very sure what they ought to do that might get them out of the illusion. That is why, they seldom misinterpreted the cause / source of any particular type of disease. Scientists kept working on the issue, and after years of study and research, drew the conclusion that the bad public health was due to the dreadful conditions the people lived in. therefore, efforts were made on national level to educate the public on the health related aspects, which is a key characteristic feature of the old public health model in that the old public health focuses on realizing environmental and individual factors, that become a reason for the threat to the public health, and then finding a solution for the same. Therefore critiques have argued that the old model of public health has certain limitations because it assumes the awareness of health hazards as a prerequisite to influence the public to change their attitude toward health issues for good. The old public health model assumes that it is an individual’s interests and habits that influence his / her health and therefore an individual’s personal efforts to improve his / health by taking necessary precautionary measures can ultimately make a difference. “The use of history in public health highlights the importance of contextualising health problems and contributes decisively to the genesis of a theory of the social conditioning of health and disease processes.” (Perdiguero et al, 2001, p. 668). Therefore, in contrast to the old public health model, new policies have made in the past few decades which have made it the responsibility of the managers to ensure the safety of their workers. For example, it has been internationally accepted that all industries will follow the policies laid out in the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA), to ensure that workers are provided with a safe and healthy environment to work in. Such policies have shifted the responsibility of health and safety assurance from the workers to the employers, who are legally bound to manage their work and workers in a way that would conform to the standards of OSHA, failing which, the employers incur financial liabilities. Such measures have filled the voids in the old public health concept, by eliminating the need for the workers to be financially sound to take care of their health by putting the responsibility of their health and safety on the shoulders of the employers. Acknowledging the concept of old public health model as a rational approach, (Griffiths & Hunter, 2007) note on p.146 of their book that public health is something, that cannot be granted, it is rather achieved through personal efforts. Conclusion: The old public health model explored the environmental factors which played their role in producing and spreading various epidemic diseases like Cholera and Tuberculosis, and one of the major environmental factors referred to by the scientists by mutual consensus was the poorly managed rapid industrialization. Industrialization, development and construction of buildings in the 19th century should rather have been carried out in a way that would locate them strategically so as to enhance the necessary interaction among them as well as acquire the appreciation and satisfaction of the stake-holders. Later, nations realized the important areas, they should have paid attention towards in the first place, but somehow they failed to. The old public health model concentrated mainly on the factors of the environment which were responsible for endangering the public health. This led to a rapid research and development in the literature of Urban / Town Planning. Governments have recently paid due attention to the issue of public health and a considerable amount of policy-making has been done in this regard. “The new public health concept builds on the traditional or the “old public health” concerns that had begun to focus mainly on physical environments.” (Hitchcock et al, 2003, p. 306). Therefore, in the modern world, the companies have to take care of many things besides business that would ensure the company’s conformance to the standards of corporate social responsibility, to earn good public relations. References: Berridge, V & Loughlin, K, 2003. “Public health history”. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57 (3), pp. 164-165. Available at: http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/3/164.full.pdf. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Douglas I., Hodgson R. and Lawson N., 2002. “Industry, environment and health through 200 years in Manchester”. Ecological Economics, 41 (2), pp. 235-255. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-45C0277-1&_user=10&_coverDate=05/31/2002&_alid=1271284692&_rdoc=21&_fmt=high&_orig=searc. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Epstein, R. A., 2002. “In Defense of the “Old” Public Health: The Legal Framework for the Regulation of Public Health”. Available at: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/files/files/170-rae.old-public-health.pdf. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Earle, S., Lloyd, C. E., Sidell, M and Spurr, S., 2007. “Theory and research in promoting public health”. Sage Publications: London, pp. 11. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=zRUPeDzcRdgC&pg=PA11&dq=old+public+health+model&ei=VomvS4WYBIHklQTTzKSrDQ&cd=4#v=onepage&q=old%20p. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Fleming, M. L. & Parker, E., 2009. “Introduction to public health.” Australia: Elsevier, pp. 18. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=-idJ-zl61YQC&pg=PA18&dq=old+public+health+of+19th+century&ei=eEquS__8H4TmlATY8eWHDQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q=old%20public%20health%20of%2019th%20century&f=false. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Griffiths, S. & Hunter, D. J., 2007. “New perspectives in public health-Second edition”. Radcliffe Publishing, 2006. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ou6RZNN2cd0C&pg=RA1-PA146&dq=old+public+health+in+UK&ei=MFyuS9CeFpCclQSX7umqDQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q=old%20public%20health%. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Hitchcock, J. E., Schubert P. E. and Thomas S. A., 2003. “Community health nursing caring in action-Second edition”. USA: Delmar Learning. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=nwz-1TE-Uc8C&pg=PA306&dq=old+public+health+of+19th+century&ei=eEquS__8H4TmlATY8eW. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Martin, H., 1996. “Challenging history-Britain in the 19th century”. Nelson Thornes Ltd: United Kingdom, 2002, pp. 238. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=SjPDDaMhns0C&pg=PA237&dq=19th+century+public+health+in+UK+England+Britain&ei=IkyvS9auPI3ulQ. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. MacDonald, T. H., 1998. “Rethinking health promotion-A global approach”. Routledge: USA, 2003. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=kKC7eLcUfGcC&pg=RA1-PA21&dq=old+public+health+in+UK&ei=U1GvS_HJOKqEkATkxeWnDQ&cd=2#v=onepage&q=old%20public%20health%20in%20UK&f=false. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Perdiguero, E., Bernabeu, J., Huertas, R. and Ocana, E. R., 2001. “History of health, a valuable tool in public health”. Journal of Epidemiology Community Health, 55:667–673. Available at: http://jech.bmj.com/content/55/9/667.full.pdf?sid=2b2bc789-2da7-43b0-a6dc-34c1275d61a7. [Accessed 26 March 2010]. Read More