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Provision was also made for the weekly cleaning of windows.
Such requirements as these are of course a step in the right direction, but it is
difficult to understand why they should be restricted to Railway Offices only. Could
they be extended to all offices where clerks and other persons are employed, their utility
would, I am sure, soon become apparent in the general improvement in the health of a
large and important section of the community, many of whom are at present earning
their daily bread in surroundings of a most unsatisfactory and even dangerous character.
In this age when so much appears to be done to alleviate the sufferings of the
tuberculous patient and to secure his restoration to health, it is a matter of regret that
our legislature do not furnish local authorities with more definite and efficient powers
for remedying conditions in offices, which in many cases must contribute largely to the
spread of this disease.
Had the Railway Offices Bill passed into law, the duties of carrying its provisions
into effect would have devolved upon the Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State
under the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. Such arrangement would have resulted
in considerable overlapping, and these duties should certainly be entrusted to the Local
Authority who are already armed with some powers in this matter in accordance with
existing legislation.
The failure of this Bill to reach the third reading is regrettable, as the principle of
the provision and maintenance of sanitary conditions in offices once established, little
difficulty should be experienced in extending it in the directions I have indicated.
THE RAG FLOCK ACT, 1911.
The Rag Flock Act, 1911, which came into operation on the 1st July, 1912,
prohibits any person selling or having in his possession for sale, any flock manufactured
from rags, or using for the purpose of making any articles of upholstery, cushions or
bedding, flock manufactured from rags, or having in his possession such flock intended
to be used for any of the foregoing purposes, unless it conform to the following
standard of cleanliness prescribed by the Local Government Board Order of the
8th June, 1912, i.e.:—
"Flock shall be deemed to conform to the standard of cleanliness for the
" purposes of sub-section (1) of Section 1 of the Act, when the amount of
" soluble chlorine, in the form of chlorides, removed by thorough washing
" with distilled water at a temperature not exceeding 25 degrees Centigrade
" from not less than 40 grammes of well mixed samples of flock, does not
" exceed 30 parts of chlorine to 100.000 parts of flock."
In the event of any offence against the Act, any person charged with such offence
shall be entitled, if he bought the flock from any person resident within the United
Kingdom under a warranty that it complied with the foregoing standard of cleanliness,
and took reasonable steps to ascertain, and did in fact, believe in the accuracy of such
warranty, to have the person who gave the warranty brought before the Court and
summarily convicted of the offence.
It is the duty of the Sanitary Authority of the district to administer this Act
and for this purpose the Medical Officer of Health or Sanitary Inspector are empowered
accordingly.