Health and the Urban Environment

Journal/Book: Reprinted from the Archives of Environmental Health February 1965 Vol. 10 pp. 357-363. 1964/1965;

Abstract: Air Pollution and Family Illness: I. Design f or Study JAMES R. McCARROLL MD; ERIC J. CASSELL MD; WILLIAM INGRAM MPH; AND DORIS WOLTER RN MPH NEW YORK Submitted for publication Sept 4 1964. Read before the Seventh Annual Air Pollution Medical Research Conference Los Angeles . Feb 10-11 1964. From the Department of Public Health Cornell University Medical College. A dominant theme of human history is the consolidation of populations into ever larger social units. Acceleration of this trend in industrialized societies has concentrated 75 % of the population of the United States onto 10% of the land. Although the pressures tensions crowding and dirt of the urban environment are commonly stigmatized as injurious to health astonishingly little objective evidence is available to support this belief. As measured by every vital index available our major cities are very likely the healthiest and most beneficial environments for human habitation ever developed. Despite the apparent advantages of urban populations compared to rural ones certain features of the urban environment undoubtedly exact a toll on the health of its citizens and may indeed be direct or indirect causes of disease. Certainly the seeding of our environment with a host of new and complex chemical agents may influence health in subtle ways not immediately apparent. The most widespread chemical agents to which city dwellers are exposed are products of the combustion of organic compounds; since ... schö

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