1 janv. 1875 - Public Health Act 1875

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For most of the 1800s, people believed in a laissez-faire style of government, thinking it should not intervene in public health. However, things began to change around the mid-1800s:
- Snow's discovery of the link between dirty water and cholera and Pasteur's Germ Theory showed that cleaning up towns could stop the spread of disease.
- In 1867, the Second Reform Act was passed, giving over a million working class men the vote. If politicians wanted to win elections, they had to make promises to improve public health to gain support from industrial workers.
- Writers like Charles Dickens and philanthropists like Octavia Hill helped change attitudes towards the poor, who suffered the worst conditions.

In the 1870s, the government finally took action to improve health. In 1871-72, the government followed the Royal Sanitary Commission's proposal to form the Local Government Board and divide Britain into sanitary areas administered by officers for public health.
In 1875, the government of Benjami Disraeli passed another Public Health Act which forced councils to:
- Appoint health inspectors and sanitary inspectors who made sure that laws on things like water supplies and hygiene were being followed.
- Maintain sewerage systems to prevent further cholera outbreaks.
- Keep their town's streets clean.
The 1875 Public Health Act was more effective than the one passed in 1848 because it was compulsory. In 1875, Disraeli also brought in the Artisans' Dwellings Act, which let local councils buy slums with poor living conditions and rebuild them in a way that fit new government-backed housing standards. Other important reforms included the 1876 River Pollution Prevention Act, which stopped people from dumping sewage or industrial waste into rivers.

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