Indoor Air Quality, 3rd Edition

18

Waste and Sewage System Noxious and Toxic Gases

In the mid-1800s, London's sanitary reform leader Edwin Chadwick commented, “All smell is disease.” Subsequently, the last half of the 19th century was dedicated to designing drainage systems and “sewer traps” to prevent the noxious gases from entering into homes. Societies further believed the stench made people feel ill, lowering their resistance to disease and predisposing to illness.

In 1881, after President James Garfield was shot by an assassin and taken to the White House for treatment, a “well-known plumber” told a New York newspaper that “the real trouble is sewer gas.” The unsanitary medical care Garfield received was considered a secondary cause in his eventual death 11 weeks later, ...