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247
[1911
was, unfortunately, no legal necessity for the employer to give information
respecting these outworkers. Her investigations have resulted, as the Council
is aware, in the issue by the Secretary of State of an Order which will in
future compel the manufacturers of confectionery to keep lists of their outworkers,
and to notify their addresses to the sanitary authority.
There is another matter to which she also draws attention, viz., the fact
that there is no compulsion on the manufacturers of cigars and cigarettes,
bookfolders and bookbinders to notify outworkers engaged in these trades.
This is much to be regretted, for in the event of an infectious disease occurring
in the premises where they work these trades might easily disseminate its
infection.
Her remarks respecting the outworker suffering from tuberculosis are of a
painful description, and it is not too much to say that there must be something
seriously wrong when such a state of affairs can exist to-day.
Altogether her report is a very instructive one, and should receive careful
attention by everyone interested in public health work.
Restaurants and kitchens where food is prepared. —There are
on the register the addresses of 74(3 restaurant kitchens and places where food
is prepared, containing 1,031 rooms, to which 412 visits were paid, as compared
with 745, containing 1,029 in the preceding year. It was impossible for
Mrs. Young to visit the whole of them, but those which more particularly
required inspection were inspected. In many of these she found as usual a
great difference in their sanitary state, according as they were situate in the
basement, on the ground floor, or on the upper storey. Thus, of those in the
basements, 25 per cent, were unsatisfactory; on the ground floors, 15 per
cent.; while, on the upper storeys there were only 4 per cent.
Workshops notified to H.M. Inspector.—Under the provisions of
Section 133 of the Factory and Workshop Act, it is required that the Medical
Officer of Health, when he becomes aware that any woman, young child, or
person is employed in a workshop, shall forthwith send notice to H.M. Inspector
of Factories. 168 workshops were reported during the year in accordance
with this section.