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7
In addition to the cleansing of persons referred to above,
the number of articles of personal clothing disinfested at the
Medicinal Baths during the year was 16,471.
Disinfection and Disinfestation.

Verminous Houses - Treatment by D.D.T.
In 1946 an experimental scheme for the eradication of
bugs in dwelling houses, involving the use of dichlorodiphenyl-trichlorethane
(D.D.T.) was put into operation. In
addition to D.D.T. in 2½% and solutions, a similar compound
known as Gammexane was used as a disinfestant, and a number
of rooms were treated with D.D.T. and Gammexane "smokes",
Lethane was used as a "control disinfestant" in a number of
cases. For the systematic operation of this scheme, four
areas of the borough were selected containing approximately
3,250 houses, a large number of which were known to be bug
infested. The actual spraying of these rooms took place in
1946, but the work of collating the results, involving reinspections
of the rooms in 1947, was not completed until the
end of the year under review,
A comprehensive report, together with a detailed summary
and analysis of the results obtained was submitted to the
Council in December,1947, and copies were sent to the Ministry
of Health, the London County Council and other authorities.
The experiment showed that the most effective disinfestant
used was the 5% solution of D.D.T. in kerosene, as, after very
severe teste, it was successful in eradicating bugs,in 97,2%
of the rooms treated. As a result of this operation, the
Council decided that, in addition to routine disinfestation, a
syatematlc programme for the eradication of bed-bugB should
be carried out using 5% D.D.T. as the primary disinfestant.
Destruction of Rats and Mice.