View report page

63
office is installed, the Postmaster-General regrets that he is not in a
position to impose such a condition as the Council suggests. Where
an official Call Office is provided by the Post Office under the care
of an attendant, as is frequently the case with Call Offices at shops
which are not Post Offices, it is a condition of the attendants' agreement
that he shall keep the cabinet and telephone in a clean condition to the
satisfaction of the Postmaster-General, and it is stated in the instructions
issued to Call Office attendants that the mouthpieces and earpieces of
telephones should be wiped out every morning with a clean cloth moistened
with disinfectant fluid.
The question of the need for regular cleansing of the call boxes and
apparatus was the subject of some enquiry between the years 1905 and
1910. Numerous examinations failed to reveal the presence of the
tubercle bacillus except in one case (Lancet, June 27th, 1908), but the
agitation resulted in improvements both in the construction of call boxes
and in their cleanliness. No examination appears to have been made as to
the presence of other organisms, but unless the person using the telephone
allows his mouth to come in contact with the receiver, the risk of infection
is probably small as organisms in the receiver would in many instances
be in a moist condition.
Still, even if the risk be small, it is desirable that the instruments should
be regularly cleansed, not only those to which the public have access but
also those in common use in business firms and offices.
It is of interest to note that in the Public Health Act of the Province
of Alberta, Canada, it is required that those in charge of all public pay
telephone stations shall either at least twice daily disinfect the transmitter
or mouthpiece with formalin or shall provide a supply of carbolized
vaseline and a sponge, in which case it shall be the duty of all persons
immediately before using the telephone to wipe out the mouthpiece with
the sponge and vaseline. The same requirement is to be observed in
hotels, public houses and boarding houses.