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20
GENERAL PUBLIC HEALTH
Housing
As in other years since 1939, very few notifications of intentions to declare
clearance areas under section 33 of the Housing Act, 1936, have been received from
the metropolitan borough councils, but conferences were held in connection with
proposals from two boroughs.
Enquiries have, however, been dealt with in respect of over 8,000 properties,
originating from prospective purchasers or their agents, who wished to ascertain
whether there were any relevant outstanding requirements or proposals under
consideration by the Council. The records held in the department are a valuable
source of information on such subjects. Details of a large number of properties
subject to "dangerous structure" notices have also been received, and, where they
have been comprised within any scheme for clearance, redevelopment or other
activity with which the Council is concerned, information has been provided for the
use of district surveyors.
Over 450 applications for preferential consideration for rehousing on the Council's
estates on grounds of ill-health were received, of which 242 were recommended for
priority, 152 of them being considered of special urgency. There was a marked
increase in the number of applications in the later months of the year. These
figures do not include applications on grounds of tuberculosis, which, under the
procedure agreed in 1940, are referred by the valuer to the medical officers of health
of the metropolitan boroughs.
Tuberculous milk
The sampling of milk for the presence of tubercle bacilli was continued throughout
the year, and 1,250 samples were procured for biological examination. These
comprised :—
(a) Milk supplied to London by road and rail, in churns 1,169
(b) Milk obtained at Council's farms 56
(c) Milk obtained at depots, after pasteurisation 25
The presence of tubercle bacilli was shown in 35 (3.1 per cent.) of 1,120 completed
examinations, compared with 3.7 per cent. in 1944.
As a result of inquiries by officers of the Ministry of Agriculture into the origin
of 32 positive samples among the "ordinary" milk sampled, 19 cows were slaughtered.
In the case of the three remaining positive samples (tuberculin-tested milk) the source
of infection in two of the herds could not be traced. In the third herd, three cows
were found to be affected with tuberculosis and were slaughtered. None of the
positive samples was obtained from any of the Council's establishments. All the
pasteurised samples were negative.
Sampling has been spread as evenly as is possible over the whole of the consignors,
and this has necessitated the taking of only one sample from a number of
consignments.
In the course of sampling it was noted that some graded milks were contained
in unsealed churns. The attention of the medical officer of health of the particular
county was directed to this failure to comply with the Milk (Special Designations)
Order, 1936, and subsequent consignments were received in proper order.
Although only a few samples of pasteurised milk were taken, they are, owing
to bulking of milk and distribution from a limited number of depots, representative
of a large quantity of milk supplied in London. The fact that all results were
negative is significant, as it is known that before pasteurisation or heat treatment
a large degree of infectivity exists in the milk brought to the depots in bulk.
Dr. W. A. Lethem, M.C., of the Ministry of Health, has made some interesting
inferences regarding the results of the extension of heat treatment of milk, based
on the Registrar-General's statistics of death-rates from abdominal tuberculosis
among children under five years of age. This variety of tuberculosis in young