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Dust Bowl: Effects on Children's Health
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Dust Bowl: Effects on Children's Health
Introduction/Background
Introduction
Between the 1930s and 1940s many states in the central southern area of the United States experienced a environmental phenomenon that would later be known as the Dust Bowl. The over tilling of farm land along with a new found drought caused this region of America to become filled with dust, greatly affecting the lives of those who lived there. The way that children were affected during this time period is something not often discussed but is wildly important because of the long term affects it caused. Physical as well as mental health in children were greatly altered during this time leading to a new type of generation.
Physical Health
Children of the Dust Bowl era endured many physical tolls in their daily life. The dust brought up many lung diseases, most commonly pneumonia and bronchitis. There was also a frequency in malnourishment because of the drought bringing on smaller crop yields. Pairing all of this with their age making them more suseptable and the work they were required to do for their family.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted
Mental Health
The Dust Bowl brought on a lot of mental struggle for children because their environment was so detrimental. Grief, hunger, and dangerous living conditions greatly affected these impressionable young minds. Seeing their parents struggle and stress also contributed to a deteriorating mental health. The dusty and often dark gave many seasonal affective disorder making them very depressed.
Methods of Prevention
Many efforts were taken by parents to protect their children's health in the best way they could. A notable method was a common practice of sleeping with a cloth over the nose and mouth in order to block the dust from getting in their lungs. The dust was so bad however that when these people awoke each day the dust had caked onto the cloth and in their mouth that they had to spit out mud quite often. There was also the strategy of covering doors and windows with anything they could use in order to attempt to keep dust out of the house. These times were based purely on survival, living to the next day despite how unlivable their conditions were.
Long term Impacts
Long Term Impacts
When considering how these conditions affected these children for the rest of their life, it is important to consider the trauma they experienced having grown up the way they did. These children saw more horror then they were ever meant to experience at their ages, endured more physical trauma then average. Their adult life carried on that deteriorating mental and physical health, hindering their livelihood.