Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volume I and II

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 339

Between 1946 and 1960 a total of 228 waterborne out-

breaks with 25,984 cases were reported in the United States.^7

An outbreak in California involving Salmonella typhimurium

affected an estimated 18,000 persons in a population of

130,000.^8 An explosive epidemic of infectious hepatitis in

India with about 29,300 cases of jaundice was attributed to

inadequate chlorination and poor operation control.^9

Sewage normally contains organisms causing various types

of diarrhea, dysentery, infectious hepatitis, salmonella infections,

and many other illnesses. It becomes obvious that all sewage

should be considered presumptively contaminated, beyond any

reasonable doubt, with disease producing organisms. The mere

exposure of sewage on the surface of the ground, such as from

TABLE 1

Life expectancy at birth

Period or year Life expectancy

Neanderthal man (50,000 BC–35,000 BC) 29.4a

Upper paleolithic (600,000 BC–15,000 BC) 32.4a

Mesolithic 31.5a

Neolithic anatolia (12,000 BC–10,000 BC) 38.2a

Bronze age—Austria 38 a

Greece classical (700 BC–460 BC) 35 a

Classical Roman (700 BC–200 AD) 32 a

Roman empire (27 BC–395 AD) 24

1000 32

England (1276) 48 a

England (1376–1400) 38 a

1690 33.5

1800 35

1850 40

1870 40

1880 45

1900 48

1910 50

1920 54

1930 59

1940 63

1950 66

1960 68

1970 71

Note: The 1970 life expectancy reported by the United Nations for Sweden

was 71.9 for males and 76.5 for females and for the United States 67.0 for

males and 74.2 for females.

a E. S. Deevy, Jr., “The Human Population,” Scientifi c American, Vol. 203,

No. 3, September 1960, p. 200.

Life expectancy fi gures from 1690 to 1970 are for the United States.

TABLE 1a

Increase in life expectancy between 1900 and 1968 at selected ages a

Age Years added Age

Years

added

0 21 45 4.8

1 15.5 55 3.6

5 12.0 60 3.1

15 10.4 65 2.7

25 8.8 70 2.4

35 6.7 75 2.0

a Reference: The New York Encyclopedic Almanac 1971, New York, NY,

p. 496.

TABLE 2

Selected vital statistics—deaths per 100,000 in the United States

Cause

Death rate for year

1900 1950–60

Pneumonia and infl uenza 202 32

Tuberculosis 195 7

Diphtheria 40 0 


Measles 14 0.2

Diarrhea 110 —

Typhoid 31 0 


Malignant neoplasms 64 150

Cardiovascular and renal diseases 345 520

All causes 1719 934

TABLE 2b

Leading causes of death—deaths per 100,000 population in the

United States

Cause Death rate

Diseases of the heart 364.5

Cancer 157.2

Cerebral hemorrhage (stroke) 102.2

Accidents 57.2

Motor vehicle 26.8

All others 30.4

Pneumonia and infl uenza 28.8

Certain diseases of early infancy 24.4

Arteriosclerosis 19.0

Diabetes mellitus 17.7

Other diseases of the circulatory system 15.1

Other bronchopulmonic diseases 14.8

Cirrhosis of liver 14.1

Suicide 10.8

Congenital malformations 8.8

Homicide 6.8

Other hypertensive disease 5.6

Other and ill-defi ned 88.7

Total of all causes 9.537

From U.S. Public Health Service, 1967.

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