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TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OP THE
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OP POPLAR
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the health and sanitary
circumstances of the Borough together with a summary of the work of the Public
Health Department during 1955.
In a review of public health it is well at times to consider the aims of
the local authority and the methods which are employed to promote the health of
the public.
The health of a community depends more on how people live than where they
live but whilst it is possible for a local authority to use its powers to improve
the premises in which people dwell and work it is almost impossible to change
people's habits by legislation. The aim of the public health services is so to
alter the circumstances that it is easy to live healthily and less easy to live
in a manner which may be injurious to health and this method of approach has
achieved a great deal in the past and is continuing to do so.
For example, the requirement in London that every dwelling shall have a
proper piped water supply ensures that everybody uses pure water merely because
it would be much more inconvenient and probably more expensive to obtain water
that was not pure, and use of a pure and safe water supply has for so many years
been accepted by the public that there is no need to explain its advantages.
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