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Verminous Conditions and Unckanliness.
No cases of filthy premises were brought to light during the year,
and only five premises were found to be in a verminous condition.
These were dealt with by the Council's Disinfector.
Smoke Abatement.
Many complaints were received from residents regarding a
nuisance from dense smoke emitted from the chimney of a laundry.
The owners of the laundry were very co-operative and in due course,
by the installation of automatic stoking apparatus and induced draught
flues, the nuisance was abated. In other less severe cases, improvements
were obtained with the co-operation of the factory managers.
One hundred and seventeen observations were made by the
Sanitary Inspectors during the year.
The extent of pollution by deposited matter (grit, etc.) in the
small area of light industry at St. Mary Cray is determined by
exposing a standard deposit gauge (as designed by the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research) for a period of one month, and
then examining the solid and liquid fractions of the sample collected.
There has been little variation in the average annual amount of
deposited matter during the past seven years and compared with similar
areas in other parts of the country, it is not excessive.
A Lead Peroxide Instrument, sited in the centre of Orpington, is
used for determining the average distribution of sulphur dioxide in
the district. In this method, a small cylinder, or "candle," coated
with lead peroxide and protected by a louvred box is exposed to the
air each month and then analysed for sulphates, since the sulphur
dioxide taken up from the air is oxidised by the lead peroxide to
sulphate. Statistics published by the Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research show that Orpington air compares favourably
with towns of similar size and distance from London.