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
Hampstead 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]
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42
The firsttreatment of sewers against rodent infestation for 1953
was commenced on 5th January and completed on 24th January. It was
carried out in conjunction with the other Authorities of No.4
London Workable Area. The Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries no
longer assist Local Authorities by the loan of their rodent operators
so the treatment was carried out entirely by the Borough Engineer's
Department. As an experiment, motor transport was reduced to a
minimum being used only for carrying gangs to their initial baiting
places at the beginning of each day instead of remaining with the
gangs. The daily areas were then traversed on foot and the materials
transported by handcart. The arrangement was very satisfactory and
Shewed a considerable saving in cost.
The treatment was carried out on a three-day cycle as opposed
to the four-day cycle previously in use. The procedure was to
prebait for two days and poison on the third day at manholes where
there had been a complete or partial take on the previous day's
prebait. In the four-day cycle the fourth day was used for recording
the results of the poison bait takes and counting the number of dead
rats. The visit on the fourth day is not necessary since the
effectiveness of the treatment Is determined from the prebait take
figures. The prebait used was sausage rusk, with 2½ per cent, of
zinc phosphide added for poisoning.
Table I below gives the results of this treatment, tabulated for comparison with those for the corresponding period of 1952. TABLE I
| January 1952 | January1953 | Increase (+) or decrease(-) of 1953 over 1952 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of manholes prebaited | 688 | 706 | per cent. + 2.62 | |
| No. of manholes shewing complete prebait take | 218 | 158 | -27.5 | |
| No. of manholes shewing partial prebait take | 170 | 388 | +128.3 | |
| No. of manholes shewing no prebait take | 300 | 160 | -46.6 | |
The comparative decrease in the proportion of complete takes to
the number of manholes prebaited is from 31.7 per cent. in 1952 to
22.4 per cent. in 1953, while the increase in the proportion of
partial takes to prebaits is from 24.7 per cent. to 55 per cent.
(Table II).
In the second treatment, which was carried out in June, 1953,
721 manholes were prebaited and the percentage of "complete takes"
was further reduced to 8.17.