"Community wastewater management and adequate sewer systems play important roles in sanitation and disease prevention." -CDC

Each of us uses the sewer every day. It's hard to imagine life without the convenience of modern plumbing and sewers. In medieval London human waste flowed down streets in open gutters. Chamber pots were thrown from windows into the street. The stench would have been unbearable by modern standards. People wore pattens over their normal shoes to raise them off the ground and above the filth. The ability to bathe or do laundry, or use the bathroom within the comfort of our homes, is a modern convenience not available to most of the United States until the late 19th Century.