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25
It is hoped that such old people's organisations as can will not
only provide the usual afternoon's recreation with a little tea, but will
also make arrangements to provide lunch either on the day the club
meets or another day. To this end the Lewisham Old People's Welfare
Association is prepared to cooperate by conveying the meals in bulk
from the central kitchen, where they are obtained, to the luncheon club.
The health department during the year continued to take a detailed
interest in the work for old people generally and remained in the closest
touch with the Lewisham Old People's Welfare Association (LOPWA),
which Association has offices in the department. LOPWA is, so far as
the borough council's work for old people's welfare is concerned, the
main body in the area and has affiliated to it the various other bodies to
which the Council makes grant. LOPWA is responsible for the Mealson-Wheels
service to housebound old people.
The laundry service carried out by the borough council for the
small number of old people living at home whose infirmity is such as
to make them incontinent of urine or faeces was continued and expanded
during the year, over 36,000 articles being cleansed. The service was
highly appreciated ; it can only be used, however, where section 122
of the Public Health (London) Act applies.
Measurement of atmospheric pollution
The three deposit stations continued in use throughout the year.
In the second half of the year smoke measurements were begun. The
apparatus for this consists of an electric motor which draws outside
air through a filter paper, the smoke producing a stain on the paper.
The amount of smoke is calculated by comparison with standard
shades and the amount of air drawn through is measured by a modified
gas meter. The outside air is sampled 10 to 20 feet above ground level
and about 3 feet from a wall. The smoke measurement stations were
set up in consultation with the Fuel Research Station at Greenwich
(acting under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research)
and are sited at Valentine Court, Paragon Place, and Downham Depot.
Towards the end of the year arrangements were made in certain
areas of greater London to make more frequent measurements of
smoke and other impurities in the atmosphere should there be a
prolonged smog. Lewisham was one of the areas concerned and as far
as smoke measurement was involved volunteers at or near the sites
at Valentine Court and Paragon Place were shown how to take recordings,
and they arranged themselves into rotas for 24-hour work. One such
warning of smog was given on the evening of November 15 and
three-hourly recordings were made from the smoke apparatus at both
Valentine Court and Paragon Place. At Valentine Court between 9 p.m.
on November 15 and noon on November 16 the average amount of
smoke was 184 milligrammes per hundred cubic metres, while at
Paragon Place between 10 p.m. on November 15 and 7 a.m. on November
16 the average was 235 milligrammes per hundred cubic metres. The
smog however was not prolonged as it began to disappear in the early
hours of the morning.