By HILARY GAVIN
MENTION the name John Snow in conversation today in our celebrity-riven society and I suspect most people of my generation, at least, would jump to the conclusion that you are talking about the Channel 4 journalist Jon Snow.
Of course our younger generation might think you are referring to the fictional character Jon Snow played by actor Kit Harington in the hit HBO television series Game of Thrones, based on George R R Martin’s epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire.
But I doubt very much that many people nowadays would ask you to spell John Snow’s name to clarify the subject in question. And, if they do, and they quickly realise that you are not referring to either of the two men above, I doubt many people would have a clue who John Snow was in real-life!
I’m ashamed to say that I’d forgotten the Victorian English physician’s name when I researched the cholera outbreak that plagued Soho in London in the 1850s this morning, after first hearing about him in a documentary on telly many moons ago.
If there is any justice in our crazy modern world – everyone living in Britain today should have the name of the Nineteen Century scientist John Snow engraved on their hearts because he made the discovery that cholera was water- and not airborne.
As you can see, I’ve embedded the History Classroom Video YouTube video on John Snow and Cholera at the top of this WordPress blog because the likes of the university professor Robert Winston, and eminent historians featured alongside him, can do a much better job of explaining John Snow’s vital work than me.
In brief, John Snow dispelled the “scientific belief” held by physicians in Industrial Revolution Britain that Miasma, or bad air, caused cholera. Snow made this ground-breaking discovery by researching an outbreak of the deadly disease in Soho, London, and tracing it back to the contaminated Broad Street water pump.
Of course, the majority of self-serving mid-century politicians and academics decried John Snow’s truly scientific discovery and it took another THIRTY YEARS for his work to be recognised as a cornerstone in the study of epidemiology.
If you’d like to your children to learn about the Miasma Theory, the dangers of Laissez-faire mid-Victorian economics and politics, and the life of John Snow, take a look at the BBC Bitesize Medicine in Time video where they’ll discover more about social reformer Edwin Chadwick and the life-saving John Snow [link below].
Now, at this stage, I suspect you’re wondering why I am featuring John Snow’s discovery with you now on my WordPress site, and I’m sure some of you might consider me to be alarmist when I tell you: “Because I’m worried about Britain’s disintegrating utilities infrastructure after years of underinvestment by privatised global utility companies headed by CEOs who don’t appear to give a hoot about ordinary folks’ health”.
Unfortunately, it seems local politicians, and council officers in some cases, are compliant in the worrying demise of Britain’s infrastructure as they repeatedly tell the electorate, as individuals, to contact your unresponsive telecoms, gas, electricity and water suppliers rather than take up arms against them to protect you.
Saying that, I recently had a very productive email exchange with a long-serving Chichester District Council Environmental Health officer after I contacted CDC to outline my worries about the stopcocks in my road in Hunston [see link] upon hearing, on the village grapevine, about a possible sewage leak nearby.
Stopcock Issues: Ensuring Safe Drinking Water in Southover Way in Hunston – Hilary Gavin
During this exchange, I told the CDC officer about my worries regarding our failing utilities across the country and asked him whether the surface, upkeep or neglect of our unadopted road in Southover Way could possibly result in future public health risks.
I should say the CDC officer in question was very informative and knowledgeable, although he told me he couldn’t assist me further, but I thank him for pinpointing me to this “public-facing” advice from The Drinking Water Inspectorate [DWI].
Please read below:
“The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) advises customers to report concerns about drinking water to their water company in the first instance and the Portsmouth Water Website details:
| General enquiries Water quality enquiries (taste, smell, appearance) | 023 9249 9888 |
Their code of practice is at COP-DOMESTIC-CUSTOMERS.pdf Page 9 deals with water quality. It doesn’t specifically say you can request a water quality test but advises customers to contact Head Office if concerned (the number above.) They might offer to carry out a test. Any private individual can commission and pay for a test privately if they wish.”
In a sign-off to his email to me, the CDC officer wrote:
“The issues you describe with regard to wholesale failing infrastructure are simply beyond my teams’ powers and scope. If you have evidenced concerns about failing infrastructure then each concern should be directed to the relevant provider and/or appropriate regulator.”
Anyhow, I hope you have found this blog post informative, and I long for the day when our privatised utilities companies start to listen to the hard-hit British consumers and step in soon to stop the rot in our decaying infrastructures.
Our future collective prosperity in Britain depends on it.
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Hilary Gavin
Freelance Journalist & Writer
T/A Business ‘n’ Commas
6 Southover Way
Hunston
CHICHESTER
West Sussex
PO20 1NY
Tel: 07940 444664
grumpywoman@hilarygavin.blog
Regularly posts on Facebook and LinkedIn on social media
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