Public Health Problems Of The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was considered to be one of the most powerful empires ever. But as the empire grew larger, it fell apart. Since it is impossible to say that only one issue caused the destruction of the empire, many of the theories are interconnected. Some of the issues that the Romans had back then can be applied to the United States today. An issue that was prevalent in the fall of Rome and an issue that is prevalent now in America are public health and environmental concerns. There were many issues with public health in ancient Rome. One of the major health problems was lead poisoning. At first, this wasn’t as big of a problem as it grew to be because most of the lead poisoning was from the lead pipes that carries water to houses.
But later on, it was thought that the lead pipes were preferable so the lead pipes then carried the water to the homes. But, since the pipes were made of lead, the lead deteriorated and mixed with the water and when a person consumes lead, they can die. Another problem was that when citizens went to the gladiatorial games there was always a big crowd so if someone in the crowd had a disease many others were at risk of catching the sickness. And many people were poor so some of them had to live on the streets. Sadly, if they lived on the streets they were at risk of catching any diseases that any person walking by was carrying. And if you didn’t live on the streets, you would share a small, overcrowded apartment that was very hot and you had a great chance of getting sick if one person got sick. So when they went to the next gladiatorial game, they would get others sick (Fall of the Roman Empire). Not to mention citizens of Rome did not have personal baths like we do. So, everyone bathed in the public baths. And
For instance, just like the Romans we don’t have a good way of getting rid of our garbage. Instead of throwing it out of our windows, we put it all in a smelly dump where the garbage contaminates the air. Furthermore, just like the Romans had health issues so do we but to a lesser extent. While many people in this country can and do have health care so that they can go to the doctor when they are sick, some cannot afford the price so they do not have health care. And when some of them get really sick, they go to the emergency room. And when some of them are done meeting with the doctor, they leave without paying. But since the doctors and nurses still have to get paid, the taxpayers have to give the government more money to pay them. And this makes the taxpayers unhappy. But at least we don’t have the gladiator games like they did in Rome. Finally, we also cut down trees. We cut down trees because tree loggers make money by cutting down the trees and then selling the land to more often than not build more homes. But when you cut down forests, you force the inhabitants to move and when they move, the creatures living there either have to move or die because there are now fewer resources for them. In conclusion, although the issues that ancient Rome had are different than