View report page

28
Smoke Nuisances.—During the year 1,479 observations were made
by the Smoke Inspector, and 41 intimations and statutory notices
were served for the abatement of this nuisance. The general results of
the service of the notices has been to cause a more general use of
anthracite coal in the furnaces of factories, and the adoption of proper
smoke-consuming apparatus.
PUBLIC HEALTH (LONDON) ACT, 1891,
PROPOSED AMENDMENT.
My experience of the last few years shows that there is need for
some amendment of the Public Health Act, which will enable local
authorities to deal more promptly with recalcitrant owners of
property in respect to the cleansing of rooms, especially those
occupied by the working and lower classes.
To the credit of the majority of property owners most of the
cleansing is done on the service of a notice by the local authority ; but
there is a certain class of owners who will not do such work unless
by a Magistrates' Order.
At present in order to obtain a Magistrates' Order to cleanse the
walls and ceilings of an occupied room, it is necessary to take it as a
general nuisance under Sec. 2 of the Public Health (London) Act as a
nuisance, or dangerous, or injurious to health.
It is extremely difficult to prove that a dirty ceiling or wall is
dangerous or injurious to health in any special sense. Certainly
cleanliness of dwelling, as well as personal, is essential to good health,
and when they are so dirty that they give rise to a stuffy or unwholesome
smell, they tend to lower the vitality of the inmates. But the
local authority should have the power of dealing with this before it
reaches the condition to injuriously affect the health of the occupants
in a similar way to that in which factories, or workshops, or bakehouses
are periodically cleansed. The following extracts show that
the law is adequate to deal with the cleansing of these:—