View report page

where the work of the mass radiography unit was also at the service of the public
during the year.
Infectious disease
There were five cases of confirmed acute poliomyelitis (2 paralytic and 3
non-paralytic) as compared with 40 (16 paralytic and 24 nonparalytic) in the
previous year.
Not one case of diphtheria was notified.
827 notifications of measles were received compared with 1,618 in the
previous year. Not one single child has died of measles since 1951 when one
death was recorded. It is interesting to note that in 1928 there were 127 deaths
recorded as due to measles, This may reflect a diminished virulence of the
disease itself, but I think credit must be given to better parental care and
understanding of the disease, and expert treatment by the general practitioners
of the borough.
There were 174 notifications of whooping cough compared with 113 in 1955.
Smoke
The nuisance from smoke at the Camden Motive Power Depot has continued
during the year, and I am unable to report that there has been any substantial
improvement I think it is true to say that repeated approach has been made to
every politician or government department who might help in any way whatsoever,
and this not only by the Council but by the Chalk Farm Tenants' and Residents'
Association. No one has attempted to deny that a nuisance exists, and a serious
nuisance at that. It has been agreed that the nuisance will be overcome when the
railway lines are electrified or alternatively when present steam engines are
replaced by diesel-electric engines. It is very hard however, to ask those who
suffer from this nuisance to accept it for a period of another 10 years.
Alternative suggestions have been made, one for enclosing the depot., extracting
smoke and discharging it from a tail chimney How practical this would be I do
not know.It would certainly be expensive if expense is to be measured in terms
of money, but in any case we have been told that there could be no justification
for this outlay in view of the fact that the works would become obsolete after
electrification.
I think one should consider very carefully how the conditions of the people
living in proximity to the depot compare from a health point of view with those
applicants who are asking the Council to re house them, or those who are living
in areas which are being represented in the slum clearance programme. I have
recently been asked to answer this very question. I would say that undoubtedly
many of those on the Council s waiting list are housed in conditions which are
more injurious to health than the conditions of residents in Gloucester Avenue,
and here I refer to families living in one room, and sometimes one underground
room On the other hand I think the conditions are worse in Gloucester Avenue
than they are in some of our slum clearance areas, and here I am speaking, not
of lack of amenities,, but of atmospheric pollution and the inconvenience of
iv