News at Ten - The Public Health Act 1875

in The People's Health 1250 - Present Day

It took until 1875 for the government to realise it had a responsibility for public health.How does the government address the major public health issues of this period? This podcast looks to the change from seeing poverty as a divine judgement to a problem that had to be addressed and solved. A pressing need to improve the health of the workforce for work in the factories or for the army and scientific understanding of what caused disease allowed solutions to be sought. His podcast will look at the impact of the census, the work of Booth and Charles Dickens and how it altered perceptions of the poor. The public health act of 1875 was the umbrella act that drew all laws relating to sanitation, disease prevention and public health under the full control of the government.