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23
No saving effected by new proposals.
It has been stated that the handing over of the duties hitherto carried out by Sanitary
Inspectors to Factory Inspectors is designed to prevent duplication of inspection work which
is stated to cause needless expense and trouble. It is difficult to conceive that such statements
can be justified; the work is carried out by an existing sanitary staff; no new duties
are imposed by the Factory Bill on the existing staff as far as is known; no new sanitary
staff is wanted. We have worked out that only 13 per cent. of the inspections made by the
Sanitary Inspectors in this Borough would be affected; there is no question of lessening the
cost of sanitary inspections in this Borough. At present the only expense involved is the
cost of very infrequent letters from the Factory Inspector stating that they have found an
infringement of a sanitary regulation and calling the attention of the Public Health
Department to the matter.
Efficiency of service by Sanitary Inspectors.
No complaints generally have been raised as to the visits of Sanitary Inspectors, who
from their long experience of the work have been able to form practical judgments of the
variouB requirements under the Acts so that the work can be carried on in the spirit rather
than in the letter of the law. On the contrary there is reason to believe that employers in
the district as regards such matters as sanitation would prefer that the Local Authority
supervised them rather than a Central Body.
Smoke Abatement.
The smoke shafts in the Borough were frequently kept under observation and
in 604 cases the inspections were recorded. Some of these observations were made in
the early morning when smoke pollution is more prevalent. Generally the observations
extended over periods not less than one hour. Seven complaints were also received. As
the result of the inspections four intimation notices were served followed by statutory
notices in three cases.
Much of the black smoke nuisance arises from careless or inefficient stoking.
Stoking is usually considered an unskilled employment, and the stoker commonly
receives but little instructions how to carry out his work. With a view to encouraging
careful and efficient stoking, poster cards giving practical instruction as to stoking, and
suitable for hanging in boiler rooms, were obtained and a number of employers agreed
to exhibit them. We have had numerous enquiries from all over the United Kingdom
in reference to these cards.
In a central London area atmospheric pollution is a matter of importance and
it is of interest to observe in a Beport to the Air Ministry (from stations in the
British Isles at which deposit from the atmosphere is measured) that the year
1924-25 shows a slight improvement on the previous five years. The annual solids
falling on a London area is given as equal to 461 tons per square mile
Experiments have shown that the development of London fogs is due to the
replacement of water particles by smoke rather than the dirtying of the particles
themselves. In the suburbs a dense fog contains much water and little smoke
but in Central London the number of water droplets is reduced and replaced by
soot. The air over the City is warmer than elsewhere and the fog-causing water
particles tend to evaporate so that if there were no soot to take the place of the
water there should be even less natural fog in London than in the surrounding
country.