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5
housing branch, which although a function to which the borough
council cannot contribute directly is one which has the health committee's
full support.
Social medicine statistics ; the fog
In section A, vital statistics, will be found some further comments
on the statistics of occupational or social class which have been
obtained from 11 of the 14 towns in the United Kingdom which have
a population between 200,000 and 300,000. It is hoped to keep this
analysis for a further year, making three years in all, and then to
publish more comprehensive details of it. It shows promise of revealing
some interesting factors. In section A will also be found a report of
the increasing deaths from lung cancer (page 19) and in section B
details of the great fog (pages 38 to 44).
Establishment of Sanitary Inspectors
The establishment, which was agreed to in 1947 after considerable
thought and discussion, is 21 made up of the following : the Senior
Sanitary Inspector, the Deputy Senior Sanitary Inspector, a group
food inspector, a group housing inspector, a group district inspector,
3 food inspectors, 10 district inspectors, and 3 housing and special
purpose inspectors. The senior and deputy senior inspectors also act
as group district inspectors, there being 13 districts in all.
There has been an increasing number of vacancies in the above
establishment, amounting to four at the end of 1952. Recent advertisements
for filling vacant positions have met with decreasing success ;
thus although there were 17 applicants for an advertisement issued in
September, 1950, to four advertisement in 1951 there were 8, 5 (none
suitable), 5 and 6 applications, and for six advertisements in 1952
there were 1 (not suitable) 4, nil, 5 (none suitable), 3 (none suitable)
and 2 applications. This matter was reported in detail to the Establishment
Committee, and the Public Health Committee was also made
aware of it, as I take the view that the long-term results may be more
serious than the immediate results. Perhaps the main objective of the
duties of sanitary inspectors is to improve or at least to preserve the
standard of living accommodation and environmental conditions in
the borough. A lowering of this standard may not be obvious at first,
but once it occurs it is much more difficult to overcome. It is therefore
in my view highly desirable that the establishment of sanitary inspectors
shall be maintained.
One of the reasons for the dearth of candidates is no doubt financial,
and in this connection the London District Council was giving consideration
to the matter at the end of the year. A further point is that the
differential in the rate of pay between sanitary inspectors in the
metropolis and those in the provinces has very considerably lessened
since before the war, and therefore with the higher cost of living in
London metropolitan work becomes less attractive. There is also
however a general fall in the number of inspectors available, owing to