Environment and human health

From Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Ancient medicine laid the foundational concepts of a healthy lifestyle (it is no coincidence that the bowl with the snake of the god Asclepius became the universal emblem of medicine, and the term originates from the goddess Hygieia). The Roman Empire adopted this knowledge, deploying large-scale construction of bathhouses, sewage systems, and aqueducts. However, a dangerous historical paradox manifested even then: sanitation outpaced hygienic knowledge. The Romans used lead for pipes and tableware glaze, unaware of its toxicity. The result was mass chronic lead poisoning.

The feudal era (6th–14th centuries) in Europe turned into stagnation. Dominant religious dogmas urged caring only for the purity of the soul. Total neglect of hygiene led to devastating epidemics of typhus, syphilis, cholera, and plague. Cities were drowning in waste — for instance, the Paris of that era was called the "city of mud" due to the habit of dumping sewage onto the streets. During the same period in the East, the physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) attempted to preserve and systematize the rules of housing hygiene, nutrition, and child-rearing in his work The Canon of Medicine.

Urbanization and the birth of occupational medicine

With the development of capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, a rapid growth of manufactories and cities began. Population crowding led to a sharp spike in morbidity. Mass occupational pathology among workers formed under unbearable sanitary and hygienic conditions.

The foundation for solving these problems was laid in 1700 by the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini. His encyclopedic work De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (Diseases of Workers) detailed for the first time the treatment and prevention of ailments in representatives of over 50 professions (from miners to gilders). Early capitalism also brought other negative factors: social stressors, initial environmental pollution by industrial waste, and hypokinesia due to partial labor automation.

The emergence of experimental hygiene

Since epidemics did not distinguish between classes and struck both workers and the bourgeoisie, society realized the economic damage caused by diseases. The ancient precept transformed into a pragmatic principle: "Prevention is better than cure".

True prevention required precise laboratory data. Experimental hygiene emerged, relying on chemistry, physics, and microbiology. Outstanding scientists (Max Pettenkofer in Germany, Edmund Parkes in England, A.P. Dobroslavin and F.F. Erisman in Russia) began meticulously studying environmental objects:

• Air, water, and soil.
• Housing conditions.
• Clothing and foodstuffs.

The main practical result of this work was the development of strict hygienic standards.

The scientific and technological revolution and environmental crisis

By the end of the 19th century, the successes of hygienists had reliably reduced mortality. But the 20th century brought a new threat — the ruthless exploitation of nature. Environmental degradation in industrialized countries created a global hazard for the biosphere.

Industrial pollution critically worsened living conditions:

1. Atmosphere: Megacity air became toxic (traffic police officers in Japan were forced to wear gas masks).
2. Hydrosphere: Drinking water became impossible to consume without complex special treatment.
3. Nutrition: Growing food in contaminated soils became hazardous to health.

Society reacted to the crisis in the 1970s–1980s by publishing resonant scientific literature (Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows), which helped shift the situation for the better. The main conclusion for modern science: hygiene must develop ahead of the curve to ensure technological progress remains safe for humans.

Briefly: answers to topical questions

Class and exam questions

What else to study on this topic

• The contribution of Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna) to the development of personal hygiene rules
• The specifics and unique developmental path of domestic hygiene
• The methodological base of laboratory studies of environmental factors
• The impact of hypokinesia and social stressors in the era of early capitalism

Other topics in the section "Introduction. Subject, History, Modern Environment"

Prepared by WhiteCoat Pro faculty in accordance with the medical school curriculum. For educational purposes only.