Warning—City Living Is Dangerous to Your Health

SINCE the late 1920's millions of Americans have forsaken life in the country for the opportunities to be found in the large cities. Today 70 per cent of the United States population is living on only 2 per cent of the land. ¹

We have come to the cities for a variety of purposes work, education, or social advantages but have these "ad vantages" really been to our over-all good? Specifically, how has this affected our health?

According to the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the air we breathe in our big cities ordinarily contains high levels of carbon monoxide, a highly toxic gas that interferes with normal intake of oxygen, another gas essential to life. Carbon monoxide levels are high enough in city air to slow down the reactions of even the healthiest persons, making them more prone to accidents. ² The National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association confirms that high rates of illness and death are associated with the polluted air that hangs overhead in a motionless mass.³ There is also less sunshine in the big cities because of the sun's rays being obscured by the pollutants. "Cities tend to have less sunshine, more rain, less wind, and higher temperatures than do rural areas," says Elgin.⁴

Emotional health is also adversely affected in urban areas. Overcrowding is more harmful than we realize prob ably because it is so subtle. Dubos says, "Paradoxically the dangers of over population will be increased by the extreme adaptability of the human race. Human beings can adapt to almost any thing polluted air, treeless avenues, starless skies, aggressive behavior, the rat race of overcompetitive societies, even life in concentration camps." ⁵

Because we adapt so easily to "almost anything," does that mean we are maintaining good, balanced emotional health? Not necessarily. Parr states that "every thought and feeling we experience leaves its traces on our personality. If enduring features of our surroundings provoke steadily predominant moods or frequently repeated emotional responses, the conclusion seems inescapable that the environment itself may be a major determinant of personality." ⁶

Even though we may not realize it, the environment does affect us. Parr, in the same report, tells us that it is not how much stimuli we receive that is important but how many different images are transmitted to our minds that really counts. Diversity, rather than repetitive quantity, is what helps prepare a healthy mental attitude. As we commute or walk to work, school, or yes, even church, how much diversity do we see? Or are we continually bombarded by the repetitive scenes of brick buildings, old familiar signposts, even the repetition of common sounds and smells?

In the Scripture story of Lot we find one of the greatest examples of a city's subtle influence over man's mental health. The city was, of course, Sodom.

Sodom was probably not much different than many cities today. It offered the same kind of social, educational, and work advantages we look for in our cities. It also contained a strong segment of society with twisted moral judgments, and we have the same problems. Lot chose this kind of society for himself and his family even though he was a worshiper of the Living God and undoubtedly shared with his family the wonders and mercies of God. But apparently the city held a greater influence upon the members of his family than it did for him, for not only did he lose his wife as her heart pulled her back to Sodom, but his daughters be came involved in the first reported cases of incest.⁷

Too Great a Price

In a report to the 94th Congress, the Stanford Research Institute tells us that "anxiety, alienation, disorder, and mistrust seem to be part of the price we must pay for the adaptation of our individual and collective social arrangements to an economic system which brings us such great material benefits." ⁸ What a price for material benefits! Certainly this is not God's plan for a healthy, happy, holy life.

Our Creator is concerned about the whole man, not what size house we own, or how much income we bring home. He is not concerned about how popular the school is which we or our children at tend. He wants us in the best environment so we can prepare for eternal life. He wants us to be where we can best be transformed into His image.

In 1908 Ellen White said, "Do not consider it a privation when you are called to leave the cities and move out into the country places. Here there await rich blessings for those who will grasp them. By beholding the scenes of nature, the works of the Creator, by studying God's handiwork, imperceptibly you will be changed into the same image." ⁹

Today there are more people leaving the cities than are entering them, ac cording to Beale. ¹⁰ This is, of course, a significant trend. As opportunities arise for us to seek a more rural life, we might carefully and prayerfully consider the consequences for ourselves and our families. No sacrifice is too great if we would but gain heaven. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).