Pollution

Pollution was one of the biggest disadvantages from the Industrial Revolution. Smoke from chimneys, bridges and factories blocked out most of the light in the towns during the Industrial Revolution. There was a layer of dirty smoke often covering the streets like a  filthy blanket of depression. This smoke came from the factories that used steam to power their machines. The steam was made by burning coal to heat water, creating lots of dirty, black smoke. This caused the deaths of thousands, and many developed respiratory diseases. "The Great Smog of London" in 1952 killed more than four thousand people.


But it wasn't just the smoke that posed harm to the society, water did also. Water was used to run the machines in the factories. At this time, there was no system of sewage disposal, so the toxic industrial waste would be dumped into bodies of water that were also the same sources of water people used in their homes. The result of this was water-borne illnesses such as cholera and typhoid epidemics that killed many members of the population, who mainly belonged to the working class.