Smokey England, 1800's, How Did They Ever Survive it?

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by JR_C

I know this was already touched on, but pollution was a problem in most industrial areas before environmental protections were put in place. Below is a link to a photo taken in a suburb of Pittsburgh.
https://explorepahistory.com/display...p?imgId=1-2-DD

I'd also like to make a note about life expectancies. Of course people did die much younger than today. But the life expectancy numbers were skewed by a high child mortality rate. If you survived childhood, it probably wasn't that unusual to live into your 30s/40s, or even 50s. People weren't typically dying in their 20s.

I recall reading a bio of either Carnegie or the Mellons, and during the smoky days in Pittsburgh, you never opened a window your house, as you'd need to do a clean-up the next day. And you can imagine what traveled into your lungs outside the house.

[easthome]

Originally Posted by James Austen

Average life span 1840 in the London Whitechapel district was 45 years for the upper class and 27 years for tradesmen. Labourers and servants lived only 22 years on average. The thick greenish fogs were popularly known as "Pea Soupers"

Young boys because of their small size often worked as chimney sweeps so it's a fair assumption that most of them didn't even manage to reach 22 years of age.

Death from lung disease was only one factor for life in the slums was often brutish and full of deprivations of every kind

The writer Jack London's book "Children of the Abyss" gives a good account of life in the East End during the late Victorian period.

I think the 'average' life expectancy's being so pitifully low had quite a lot to do with the appalling death rates of young children back then.

[James Austen]

Originally Posted by easthome

I think the 'average' life expectancy's being so pitifully low had quite a lot to do with the appalling death rates of young children back then.

If you take into account child labour in the factories, 10-12 hours a day, the lack of any safety regulations or equipment, contagious diseases, poor diet, it all added up. Only the hardiest survived in the poorest areas of the big cities. It probably explains why so many Victorian families had large numbers of children and even in the more affluent parts of the cities children still died early from such things as meningitis and pneumonia