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85
SECTION VII.
PLACES OVER WHICH THE COUNCIL EXERCISE
SUPERVISION.
1. Factories and Workshops.—The premises coming under the
Acts have been inspected periodically and at irregular intervals. A record of the
work done will be found in the form supplied by the Home Office. It is the
duty of employers to notify the Local Sanitary Authorities twice a year of
the names and addresses of their out-workers. These out-workers are visited,
and particulars kept in the appropriate register. In November plans were
approved for alteration to and extension of the Edmonton Workhouse
laundry.
Outworkers.—In October we received lists from the Medical Officer of
Health of Tottenham of over 350 women which was receiving work at home from a
Tottenham firm, who were executing work at low rates for the Government.
Kit-bags and bed-ticks for the soldiers were, I understand, the articles being
mostly made. Early in November I discovered that work for a City firm was
being done in a house where diphtheria was present.
It was therefore important that the houses of these outworkers should be
visited as soon as possible to ascertain if the people were suffering from infectious
diseases or not, what the sanitary conditions of the houses were and under
what circumstances the work was being done.
Amongst the 350 homes in the Tottenham list we found several where
work had been taken in, affected with infectious disease, such as scarlet
fever, diphtheria, measles, etc., and in all cases I took steps to prevent further
spreading of infectious disease, and also disinfected such work as these outworkers
had in hand. It was necessary to protect the health of our soldiers who
would be shortly using the goods. I brought these facts on Monday the 2nd
November to the notice of the Chairman of the Sanitary Committee and the
Chairman of the Council and they authorised me to get assistance in this
direction as soon as possible.
Many of these outworkers had not done homework before and did not
therefore appear in our register. I should have liked to have received from my
colleagues in Central London lists of these persons, but I did not do so. No
doubt, like myself, they were much occupied with other business.