Victorian era to modern day
I have examples such as sanitation vs pollution,
top down approach vs bottom up approach
there are some papers on history of occupational health approaches from 19th to 21 st C on my RG site.
viz
J.LEIGH.
“ History of occupational disease recognition and
control”
J OHS (ANZ ) 23:519-530(2007)
J.LEIGH “Long-Latency Disease: The Long-Lasting
Epidemics”
In: Peterson C, Mayhew C (eds) Occupational health and
safety : International influences and the
‘new’ epidemics. Amityville, Baywood (2005) pp 75-96
There has been a dramatic increase of life span of humans between the 19th & 21st centuries . The advent of vaccines & antibiotics are responsible for this achievement . In the 19th century , infectious diseases , such as cholera , plague , polio , small pox etc caused pandemics leading to high mortality . In the 21st century , non communicable diseases usually occuring after 40 years are the leading cause of death . It is still possible for infectious diseases such as H1N1 Influenza & Covid 19 to affect humans .
Agree with @Singh Shivakumar .
The main emphasis in Public Health in the 19th century was in combatting the outbreaks of infectious disease, and this resulted in a great increase in life expectancy AT BIRTH. Today, the main challenge is degenerative disease, and, since the 1970s, there have been significant reductions in the mortality rates from cardiovascular disease. Even so, life expectancy at more advanced ages has not dramatically risen.
Some years ago, I remember attending a talk given to the Institution of Ship-builders and Engineers of Scotland by Prof Harry Burns, who at the time was the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland. He was saying that, in the C19th, it was the engineers who designed and built gigantic structures like reservoirs, pipelines, water treatment and sewage works, whereas now, they were involved in the design much smaller things, such as artificial joints and sophisticated instruments.
Bw
Chris Ide
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