MAN AND HIS CITIES—II Urban Pollution And Its Impact On Health

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31030, 9 April 1966, Page 17

MAN AND HIS CITIES—II Urban Pollution And Its Impact On Health

To the two well-known forms of urban pollution—air and water-must be added to more pernicious form of “mental pollution.” Damage to health in large cities, where air pollution is on the increase, has been demonstrated without room for doubt. The water problem is even more serious. More than 200 million human beings are short of drinking-water. A decade from now there will be 300 million unless great efforts are made.

Une hospital bed out of four in the world is occupied by a patient who is ill because of polluted water. Poor water supplies and disease are inseparable.

This second of three articles prepared by the World Health Organisation for World Health Day discusses effects on the health of city dwellers of polluted water and air, of noise and refuse, and the impact of entertainment and other pressures in cities.

In 75 developing countries only 33 per cent of townsfolk have running water indoors or in the yard; another third have easy access to public outlets and the remainder have to be content with what they find. In the wake of industrialisation and urbanisation, water pollution continues to increase the world over.

Peak periods of mortality occurred in Belgium (1930), Poza Rica in Mexico (1958) and London (1952), because of atmospheric pollution in highly industrialised areas. This evil reduces solar irradiation by 30 to 40 per cent, especially in the ultra-violet part of the spectrum—the most precious biologically. Chronic bronchitis is among the less dangerous results. It has even been found that, when non-toxic fumes invade residential areas, the health of children and persons disposed to or afflicted with cardiovascular troubles is likely to be impaired. There seems to be little doubt that smoke in cities plays its part in promoting cancer. As much as 50 per cent of urban pollution proceeds from domestic heating, especially by fuel oil. The next worst offender is the car exhaust. No fewer than 50 per cent of motorists in Paris have a concentration of carbon monoxide in the blood of one millelitre a 100 millelitres, which is on the threshold of intoxication. Waste Disposal The amount of refuse grows all the time: food, empty tins, bottles, vegetable matter and rubble are heaped indiscriminately to the satisfaction of rodents and insects. The cost of collecting and disposing of garbage in the United States costs 10 dollars a head a year. In many large tropical and sub-tropical towns little or no attention has been paid to waste water, hence the proliferation of the mosquito Culex fatigans. This mosquito adapts itself to urban conditions and the denser the population of the city the more if proliferates. It lives in human dwellings thrives on human blood, and has led to an unprecendented

increase in filariasis. Whereas 25 million persons in India were living in danger zones in 1953, the figure had risen to 64 million by 1960. The road to prevention is to build sewerage and drainage networks, but the cost of such projects is far too great for most of the countries concerned.

In a majority of developing countries, the public authorities cannot afford to supply the population with good drinking-water. And those which succeed in doing so are often hard put to it to dispose of waste water. While sewerage is sometimes satisfactory in developed countries, the likelihood of water shortage is a fact to be faced in many large cities. Paris nearly went dry in the summer of 1959 and the situation in New York and Melbourne is admittedly critical. Effects of Noise Noise is another source of urban pollution. The main cause is motor traffic which contributes to nervous disease, insompia, nervous tension, ill temper and accidents. The undue extension of the older cities contributes to the increase of noise by obliging people to drive over long distances. These trips are a liability and serve to offset the time gained by reduced working hours; in certain cities, it may take four hours a day to travel to work in the morning and to return home in the evening.

These comings and goings have a disturbing effect on family life—the father may be more of a guest in the house than a member of the family. The distances are also to blame for traffic accidents, mortal mishaps occurring largely in urban areas and affecting pedestrians in 20 to 40 per cent of cases. Between 1953 and 1960 the highway death toll rose by 37 per cent in Western Europe and accidents went up by 79 per cent.

Nervous effects attributable to noise are difficult to define since individual reactions vary considerably. Sound perception varies from one person to another and certain frequencies escape some ears completely whereas they exasperate others. Some experts do not attach undue importance to noise in towns since lack of noise may be equally harmful because the lack of stimulus it entails. What seems most serious in towns is not so much the sound of traffic as that of noisy neighbours shouting, listening to the radio or television or busy with a doit-yourself job. Misuse of leisure can be considered part of “mental pollution.” The impact of films in developing countries is tremendous, yet films pro-

duced or imported are generally devoted to violence, robbery and sex. Another danger of the cinema is that it encourages passivity in all too many teenagers and contributes to putting them out of touch with their real situation.

At the same time, television and transistorised radio sets may play a vital part in developing countries by enabling illiterates to hear what they are unable to read. Thus television, radio and the cinema are exceedingly valuable and, at the same time, dangerous, offering as they do to many people the only opening on modern culture. So far as liquor is concerned, it would be unreasonable to contend that its ravages are specifically urban. Country districts are equally affected and, in certain cases, considerably more so. Children In Cities Juvenile delinquency is not peculiar to the new neighbourhood. Juvenile mobs are the product of big cities old or new; in Britain this type of problem youth generally hails from the older towns; they seem impelled by some unconscious desire to vent spite on other people who, in their view, are enjoying a form of life from which they are unfairly excluded.

There seems to be an established link between young offenders and industrial belts. Thus, between 1950 and 1958, juvenile delinquency rose astronomically (by 124 per cent) among street gangs in towns of 100,000 inhabitants and more, whereas the increase was only 28 per cent in smaller places.

The reason seems to be an absence of affection. Children are sent to kindergarten early on and, when they fall ill, even mildly so, they are sent to hospital. Over 50 per cent of the children admitted to Paris hospitals, according to one estimate, suffer from no serious complaint; it is merely that their parents work and have no time to look after them. Not All Gloom

It would be quite wrong to conclude from this gloomy description that modern urban living has no positive aspects. Poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are none of them specifically urban. Quite the contrary, the outstanding problem in towns and cities is that of rural difficulties transplanted into alien surroundings. Migrancy is not necessarily bound up with destitution and ignorance: to go to the town will appeal to the most go-ahead and active villagers. Nor need industrialisation be an evil. It is often progressive in promoting stable jobs and stable income. While town life does tend to destroy the tribe and large family, it favours the more restricted unit comprising husband, wife and children. The urbanised family ceases

to be a unit in the economy and loses some of its educational importance; its affective ties grow more complex, parents are content to be loved by their children instead of demanding obedience. Cities have always been the hub of innovation, the home of creative thought; new creeds, art forms, political ideas spring up in towns. However, this dynamic impact of city life originates with a minority; there are just as many conservative ideas and hidebound customs in urban as in rural areas. Even so, city life lends itself better to progress. The standards of living and education are higher than in the country. The death-rate is lower among city dwellers inasmuch as preventive measures are more effective and medical attention more rapid and easier to obtain. Comfort and hygiene are more highly developed. The most urbanised areas in the world today, in North America and Europe, include the most highly educated, the best paid, fed and housed population in all the history of mankind. (To be concluded)