Urban Poverty-Public Health Link
The poor in the city, subjected to precarious living conditions,
exposure to pollution and congestion, deficient nutrition, and low
immunity, have always been hit hard by pandemics. The cholera epidemic
of 1831 and 1832 in London concentrated in overcrowded slums with
precarious housing, abysmal water supply, poor sanitation, and piled-up
garbage. The Poor Law Commission, established in 1834 in its 1838
report, argued for the need to prevent disease to promote the health of
the community. In 1842, Edwin Chadwick published a report on the
Sanitary Conditions of the Laboring Population of Great Britain,
emphasizing that public health problems were largely environmental
rather than medical. He made a strong case for the central government to
assume the responsibility for public health.