View report page

St. Marylebone will be within a smoke control area from the autumn of 1965. The conversion of the
boilers at Lodge Road power station to oil firing and the impending closure of the antiquated generating
plant at Aberdeen Place together represent a major industrial contribution to the local clean air scene.
Nationally, it is indeed instructive to note that the amount of smoke emitted by industry has been
reduced by more than two-thirds since the passage of the Clean Air Act whereas domestic chimney
smoke has declined by less than one-fifth during the same period! Indicative of the progress which is
being made, albeit too slowly from a public health standpoint, in the industrial and domestic spheres
of atmospheric pollution is the growing public clamour for clean air on the roads of Britain. Diesel
smoke and petrol exhaust products are under increasing attack and rightly so. Over the next decade
much progress can confidently be predicted in dealing with these sources of pollution.
A full description appears on pages 15 and 16 of the initial impact in St. Marylebone of the main
provisions of the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act which became effective at the beginning of
August. The office worker is now entitled to that legal concern for health, safety and welfare which
has long been enjoyed on the factory floor. Truly a great step forward. As always it is a pleasure to
record the contribution which the public cleansing service makes towards a cleaner healthier environment.
The dustless system of refuse collection now covers the whole of the St. John's Wood area;
details of this extension and of other advances are contained in the information kindly supplied by the
Director of Public Cleansing on page 17 of the report. In April personal hygiene in public places
received further encouragement from the decision of the Council to abolish the small charge made for
the use of water closets at public conveniences, thus providing a completely free service.
Personal hygiene in public and in private is one of the fundamental goals of health education.
This important aspect of public health work received a timely boost from the Report of the Cohen
Committee with its emphasis on unifying effort, intensifying training, defining targets and evaluating
progress; a note on the main recommendations of the Committee appears on page 6. How urgently a
more intensive approach to health education is needed can be judged from the current failure to
convince the public that good teeth matter— the real reason for the successful opposition to fluoridation
of water as a means of preserving dental health. Once popular concern is aroused a very different
climate prevails! Thus the education of the food handler gained additional impetus from the typhoid
epidemic in Aberdeen with more than four hundred cases of enteric fever being notified. An outbreak
of this magnitude is always instructive. In this instance a forceful reminder of the ease with which
infection, once introduced, can be conveyed from one article of food to another; of the hazard involved
in keeping cold cooked meats on display at room temperature; and of the limitations of scrupulous
personal cleanliness in the face of food contaminated during the process of manufacture.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the major typhoid epidemics occurring in
successive years at Zermatt and Aberdeen is the need to abandon insular attitudes. In 1963 the
outbreak at a Swiss tourist resort emphasised the contracting size of the world in terms of ease of
travel from one country to another. This year the necessity for a global outlook in matters of health
was reinforced by the outbreak at a Scottish tourist resort attributable to the cooling of cans of
sterilised corned beef in unchlorinated river water thousands of miles away. Today world health is the
concern of us all.
As St. Marylebone merges with its neighbours to form the new City of Westminster a broad note
seems a peculiarly appropriate one on which to conclude this last annual report on the health of what
the first holder of my office, Dr. Robert Dundas Thomson, referred to one hundred and eight years
ago as "perhaps, the most important district in England"! It only remains for me to thank His Worship
the Mayor, the Chairman, Councillor Dr. H. K. Ashworth, and members of the Public Health
Committee, and the members of the Council generally for their continued help and encouragement.
To my colleagues in other Departments of the Council I extend my sincere thanks for all the assistance
they have so willingly given me. Finally, I am very mindful of the debt of gratitude which I owe to
the Staff of the Public Health Department for their loyal and cheerful support at all times.
I am, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
HASTINGS E. A. CARSON,
Medical Officer of Health.
(iii)