Author: Dominic Donaldson
Title: Thank Cholera For Today\’s Environmental Services

Article: It is hard to imagine that only 150 years ago the sanitation in London was so bad that there was a massive outbreak of Cholera. The disease is associated with third world countries and poverty, not with a modern city. Thankfully, the spread of the disease was tracked, and the source of the outbreak was identified. The incident led to a greater understanding of the way disease spreads through germs, and inspired a whole host of environmental services we rely on daily to keep the UK disease free.

Waste management is one of the most fundamental environmental services, and is something that the majority of people take for granted. We leave our rubbish outside our house to be collected, and we flush the toilet without a second thought. If we stop for a moment to think about how we would cope if we had to handle our own waste management, it is clear that these services are a vital part of our modern way of living.

Environmental services ensure that certain standards are met to keep the country disease free. Without adequate sanitation, diseases such as cholera would be a part of everyday life. Back in 1854, the houses in London had a cesspit under the house, and the residents would literally dig their waste into the soil and wait for it to decompose. Unfortunately the process of decomposition was slower than the rate of build up due to the influx of people into the city, and it was common for these cesspits to overflow.

The problem was initially dealt with through regular cesspit collections which dumped excess sewage into the River Thames. As far as environmental services go, it was a start but certainly wasn’t an ideal waste management solution. At this time germ theory was not well known, and associations between contamination and disease were thought to be through contaminated air. The cholera outbreak in Soho changed the attitude towards germ theory when an eminent doctor made a connection between contaminated water, cesspits and the death of over 600 people.

A well had been dug near to a leaking cesspit, and the bacteria from the faeces contaminated the water supply. Once the pattern of infection was mapped, the source of the disease, a communal water pump, was identified and disabled. This was conclusive proof that germ theory should be taken seriously, and the start of providing environmental services to the public to keep outbreaks such as these at bay. Dom Donaldson is an environmental expert.
Find out more about Environmental Services from waste management to water supplies at URS.

Syndication Source: ThoughtSearch.com

Filed under: Healthy Home

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