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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1897
29
Special Report on Code of Rules for Disinfection of Premises for the
Guidance of Disinfectors.
It will be within the memory of the Vestry that in January last, in accordance
with the request of the Vestry, I presented a "provisional code of rules for disinfection
of premises for the guidance of Disinfectors." The document was referred back to me
by the Vestry for further consideration and report. After mature reflection I have
come to the conclusion that, so far as my experience goes, the report calls for
alteration in a few details only. The amended report I, therefore, present to the
Vestry, and shall be glad to consider any suggestions as to amplification or modification
of the practical details of disinfection. The rules in question read as follows: —
VESTRY OF ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR, SOUTHWARIv.
Public Health Department.
CODE OF RULES FOR DISINFECTION OF PREMISES FOR THE
GUIDANCE OF DISINFECTORS.
On receiving notice from the Sanitary Inspectors of the need of disinfecting a
room or rooms, the disinfectors are to carry out the following instructions:—
1. In every case the premises must be disinfected (if possible) on the day of
receipt of such notice from the Inspector, and that the disinfectors attend at the
Health Office at half-past nine each morning for the purpose of receiving instructions.
2. Every room that has been exposed to infection must be disinfected.
3. Subject to the above requirements the convenience of parishioners must be
studied, and any complaint of incivility or of neglect in following out these rules will
be regarded as a serious breach of duty.
4. Before burning the sulphur all gilt, lacquered or copper fittings or ornamentation
should be removed from the room, washed with a cloth wrung out of carbolic
acid solution (1 in 30), and placed outside the door; also all portable textile articles
such as beds, bedding, carpets, curtains, wearing apparel and the like, shall be removed
in canvas bags for disinfection in the steam apparatus, after a list has been made.
5. The chimney opening, windows, ventilators, cracks, apertures, and doors shall
be securely sealed by means of thin brown paper and paste, a supply of both of which
materials shall be kept at the disinfecting station.
6. Sulphur candles, to amount to pounds of sulphur to 1,000 cubic feet of air,
shall be burnt in an iron bucket or pail, provided by the Vestry for the purpose, and
no other method shall be used.
7. In every case the room must remain sealed up for six hours at least; eight
hours if it can be arranged.
8. The disinfectors shall, after six hours or longer, call at the premises, unseal
the room, throw the door and windows wide open, and advise the occupier to let the
room be thus freely exposed to the fresh air for (if possible) twenty-four hours. If
that length of time cannot be arranged, the room must be left open as many hours as
can be managed.