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Public Laundry.—The Public Laundry facilities consist of a machine laundry comprising 8 fully
automatic washing machines, 3 spin dryers and 4 tumbler air dryers; the hand laundry has 6 units
for hand washing, 2 spin dryers and 2 tumbler air dryers. By means of a time control the tumbler
dryers will dry all types of materials, including woollens. The rotary ironing machines have proved
most successful, a 15 lb. load of domestic washing can be washed, dried and ironed in 1^ hours. This
completely modern installation has resulted in an increased number of young married women using
the laundry, and many expressions of appreciation have been received.
Further improvements to lighting and layout and the replacement of existing washing machines
will shortly be undertaken.
Medical Examinations.
Staff.—The Medical Officer of Health is medical adviser to the Council for staff purposes. During
1963, one hundred and six examinations of the Council's employees and new entrants to the
superannuation scheme were carried out.
Parking Meter Exemptions.—The Council are empowered in certain circumstances to give exemption
from parking meter charges to a person who is severely disabled. During the year, fifty-one
applications were referred to the Medical Officer of Health for observations and, if necessary, medical
examination.
Home Safety.
The provisional statistics covering 1963 indicate that 7,754 people died in Great Britain as a result
of an accident at home. Yet again these fatalities exceeded in total the number killed on the roads
(6,922) but the resultant publicity has been so insignificant that public awareness still does not seem
to have been aroused to the serious problem of preventing home accidents. In fact, it appears that
the only extensive publicity given in the national press to the tragedy of home accidents is to incidents
of death in fires associated with oil heaters.
Four-fifths of home accident victims are young children of under five years and elderly people over
65 years of age. Three-fifths of the total deaths are amongst females, due mainly to the preponderance
of women in the elderly age group. Of children under 15 years of age, more boys than girls are killed
as a result of accidents in their homes and more die from this cause than from all other accidents
elsewhere, including road accidents, or from any one infectious disease. This is a national problem
which demands urgent attention. Means of prevention must be found to stop this single factor
accounting for so much death and disablement. In addition to the fatalities, maiming, disfigurement
and psychological effects caused by home accidents there is also the heavy burden they place on the
hospital services. One badly burnt child may spend up to 400 days in hospital and in the early stages
require constant attention and the skill of teams of doctors and nurses to save its life. The annual
cost of hospital treatment for home accident victims is estimated at some five million pounds.
In continued support of the national"Training for Home Safety Campaign" organised by RoSPA
some 10,000 bookmarks and 3,000 safety handbooks were issued and 2,000 letters sent to residents,
drawing attention to the need for adopting common-sense precautions in the home. In addition,
copies of the London County Council home safety handbook were distributed via the public libraries.
In the latter half of the year, RoSPA initiated a "Buying and Selling For Safety Campaign The
object was to educate the public to buy articles for the home which were known to be safe and therefore
carried the various"approval"symbols, and to seek co-operation of the retailers in only selling such
articles. Accordingly a letter was sent to all relevant retailers in the Borough and to some 2,000
residents, drawing attention to this worthwhile policy, and the local press kindly co-operated by
publishing a home safety feature prepared in the Department. The policy of giving lectures, aided
by film or film-strips, was continued and six old people's clubs were visited for this purpose.
Where an outbreak of fire in domestic premises is found to be attributable to an oil heater, the
London Fire Brigade sends details of the heater and circumstances of the fire to the local public health
department. Two such incidents were notified during the year. In one the heater was not constructed
in accordance with the Oil Heaters Regulations, 1962. As the heater had been purchased in an
adjoining borough, the matter was brought to the attention of the public health department concerned
and, as a result, the remaining stock was withdrawn from sale. In the other the heater complied
with the Regulations and it was not possible to identify the actual cause of the fire.
In St. Marylebone these matters are dealt with by the Public Health Committee and at the invitation
of RoSPA a member of the Committee has been appointed to serve on Area 10 (Greater London and
Middlesex) Home Safety Committee which meets quarterly at Terminal House to discuss and
co-ordinate work in the field of home safety throughout the area.