ABSTRACT
There is a long history of concern about the effects of environmental conditions on health. The slums, polluted water supplies and lack of sanitation of the typical nineteenth-century industrial city have their echo in the appalling living conditions still endured by many inhabitants of the Third World. However, the problems of the Victorian city led to an outcry that had its practical expression in the Sanitary Reform movement. Since then the developed countries of the world have made great strides towards creating more civilized conditions. However, this has led to no lessening of public concern about the environment and health. People still worry about the effects of air pollution from traffic and industry, about nitrates and other contaminants in the water supply and about the possible risks of living near nuclear power plants and hazardous waste dumps. An important common thread in these issues is that the problems are for the most part local in scale. The Victorian industrial city might have been a nightmare, but close by were rural areas with a much less polluted environment to which the more favoured citizens could escape.
