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iii. SANITARY circumstances
The District Public Health Inspectors served 3,722 notices during
the year, and in 56 cases legal proceedings had to be employed to enforce
compliance. The Department now has 7 district inspectors, which is four
below the establishment.
Legislation passed during the year included the Clean Air Act, 1956,
which receives further mention below, and the London County Council
(General Powers) Act, 1956, in a section of which power is given to Borough
Councils to make byelaws regarding the artificial lighting of common staircases.
Draft byelaws have been prepared and submitted to the Minister.
Another Act of Parliament passed this year changed the designation of
Sanitary Inspectors to Public Health Inspectors.
Clean Air.
The Clean Air Act, 1956, an act to make provision for abating the
pollution of air, received the Royal Assent on 5th July, 1956. Certain
provisions of the Act, as far as Borough Councils are concerned, came into
operation on 31st December, 1956, namely, those relating to the installation
of new furnaces, smoke control areas and researqh and publicity. It is
understood that the remaining provisions of the Act will come into force
early in 1958. The Minister of Housing and Local Government is empowered
to make regulations dealing with various aspects affecting the implementation
of the Act, and so far the only regulations made are those relating to
authorised fuels in Smoke Control Areas.
Measurements of air pollution are regularly taken in the Borough by
means of deposit gauges and lead peroxide instruments which give monthly
records of deposited matter and concentration of sulphur in the air, and
also by combined smoke filters and volumetric sulphur dioxide apparatus
which afford daily readings. Summaries of the recordings obtained from
these instruments during the year will be found in Tables 8 and 9 on
pages 60 and 61.
In view of the present criticism of motor traffic in London creating
fumes either from petrol or diesel oil it is interesting to refer to the
report of Stepney's Borough Engineer in the Annual Report of the Council
for the year 1906, in which he states:
"A very reprehensible feature in connection with the mechanically
propelled motor vehicles passing through the Borough is the quantity
of oil and grease which is allowed to escape from the machinery on to
the roadway. The chief transgressors in this respect seem to be the
petrol omnibuses. Another very serious imperfection is the emission
of hot greasy smoke from the forepart of motor vehicles... while the
partial combustion of petrol may be assigned as the chief contributory
cause of most of the noxious dense vapour which in this instance escapes
by way of the exhaust pipe at the rear... At the beginning of last year
only a score of these vehicles (motor omnibuses) were running in the
Metropolis, but by 31 December the number had increased to 230."
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