The International E-magazine on Adolescent Health; Nutrition and Your Circulatory and Respiratory Systems The International E-magazine on Adolescent Health; | Page 2

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Spring 2016

Health during the Industrial Revolution

During the period of 18th century and 19th century there were many
changes in the society. The Industrial Revolution is known foremost
as a turning point in human history. Agriculture, mining, transport
and technology were some of the major changes in that period.
These changes had an enormous impact on how economic activities
affects social processes, and the conditions they lived in. Since there
were more things to work on the people were forced to go into the
cities and that created overpopulation. Diseases grew due to the
changes in the conditions on how people lived. For example the
manufacturing of steam power created pollution and that affected
the air the people inhaled. Also since there were no sewage and
people and factories threw their toxic trash into the rivers and
streams. Water was more often the problem since it was easily
infected and people who drank that water or used it to clean or cook
would become very ill and die. There were a lot of reasons for
diseases to grow and the most known ones where Cholera, Typhoid
and Tuberculosis.
Cholera was the most known killer diseases during the industrial age
due to the fact that it killed thousands of people. Cholera is deadly
disease contained by contaminated water and it spread really fast.
The cause of this deadly virus was because people came in contact
with sewage water. The Sewage would overflow when it rained and
it went into the streams that were used for house cleaning and
cooking, which lead people into drinking the contaminated water. It
spread with ease for the reason that everyone drank from the same
source of water. During this period this disease was painful. It
consisted in an infection in the small intestine, and its symptoms
were usually diarrhea and vomiting, which leads to dehydration.
Cholera was a feared disease that spread rapidly, however it was not
the only one people feared.
Tuberculosis is a bacterium that attacks mainly the lungs.
This disease was the greatest city killer because it was
really contagious and it spreads very fast. It was spread
easily because there was an overpopulation, so the people
lived overcrowded and by breathing the air of an infected
persons cough, sneeze or talk they would also get infected.
Also, TB affected poor people that didn’t feed properly or
people who lived in poor home conditions. Tuberculosis
symptoms were: appetite and weight loss, night sweats,
fever, chills and fatigue. It is believed that TB killed onethird of the population that lived in Britain between 18001850.
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