London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hammersmith 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hammersmith Borough]
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no report of a fatal accident.
It is felt that there are many accidents which are not being reported,
as the majority of reports come from the same firms over the years. These
are generally the larger concerns and it may be that many of the smaller firms
are just not notifying the Local Authority when accidents occur on their
premises. Accordingly, we have made arrangements to circularise all firms in
the area in the near future reminding them of their obligations urider this
section of the Act.
It should be of interest to see if there is an increase in reports
during the next year.
Twenty-two of the reported accidents were investigated. No prosecution
was deemed necessary, eleven firms were given informal advice and one
formal warning was given.
The following table shows the primary cause and the type of premises
in which the accidents occurred:-
| Primary Cause | Class of Workplace | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offices | Shops | Wholesale/ warehouses | Catering establish-ments | Total | Inves-tigated | |
| Machinery | ||||||
| Transport | 5 | 1 | 6 | 5 | ||
| Falls | 7 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 17 | 12 |
| Stepping on or striking against object or person | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Handling goods | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Struck by falling object | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Fires | ||||||
| Electricity | ||||||
| Hand tools | 5 | 5 | 2 | |||
| Not otherwise specified | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 41 | 22 | |||||
Summary of Accidents Investigated
Falls of all kinds, including from steps or staircases
These formed the largest group of accident reports again during 1970 as
last year. A total of seventeen were notified and of these it was felt
necessary to investigate twelve. As previously mentioned, one formal warning
was given and this concerned a trap-door in the floor of an "off-licence" shop,
B.7