What effect did continuing industrialization have on the health and longevity of people?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Medical innovations, such as improved knowledge aboutthe dangers of infection and the importance of cleanliness,had a dramatic impact on health, particularly for the veryold and the very young.

Wastewater treatment and the supply of clean drinkingwater also had a colossal impact, but depended on well-fundedlocal government agencies, so that even in 1980only half of the world’s population had access to treatedwater. New and improved medicines, such as aspirin orantibiotics, also reduced the suffering caused by disease.In 1928, Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovered thatbacteria such as penicillin could be used to fight off infections,and after reliable methods of mass productionwere developed by Howard Florey (1898–1968) in the1940s, antibiotics were widely used to protect the healthof troops in World War II. Eventually, antibiotics wouldhelp improve the health of millions of humans as well astheir animal domesticates. Yet, there is a realization that thewar against disease is far from over, as evidence grows ofhow effectively disease-carrying organisms—ranging from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) responsible for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), to Staphylococcusaureus (golden staph)—can develop immunitiesto the chemical and biological weapons used againstthem. Expensive high-tech medical procedures such asorgan transplants or brain surgery have had a more limitedimpact on human health, though they hold out the hope thathumans will eventually engineer away many forms of diseaseand perhaps remove many of the causes of old age itself,thereby extending average life spans by many decades.

More food and improved health and sanitation allowedmore people to live healthier and longer lives. Life expectancies are still significantly higher in richer than in poorercountries. In 2000, the world life expectancy at birth was65 for men and 69 for women, while in the United States the equivalent figures were 74 and 80, and in most of sub-Saharan Africa they were 46 and 47. Nevertheless, eventhe lower figures represent a transformation in what is understood by a human “life span.” For 100,000 years,the average life span of humans has been between 25 and35 years. In practice, this meant that huge numbers of babiesand infants died young. That meant that if a person wasover 35, he or she was already enjoying a life bonus. Then, injust 100 years, average life expectancies throughout theworld doubled.