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PUBLIC HEALTH ACT 1961 - SECTION 41
It was necessary to take action under this Section of the Act in one case during
the year. It provides for compensatory payments to persons excluded from work
at the request of the Medical Officer of Health in the interests of public health, and
was invoked in connection with an employee at a local bakery. The employee concerned
was proved to be a 'carrier' of Sonne dysentery and though he himself 'felt
fit' it was Imperative to keep him 'off duty' till he was certified free from infection.
HOME SAFETY
It is perhaps not generally known that accidents in the home cause as many
deaths and serious injuries as road accidents. For this reason an active home safety
campaign by the Home Safety Officer and the Health Visitors has continued throughout
the year. Talks, film shows and discussions have been held with adult groups,
especially women's organisations who displayed a lively interest in the points
which arose. Almost everyone present at these talks admitted to keeping medicines
and pills which were no longer needed and consciences were pricked with regard to
other dangerous practices which had become habitual, such as drying tea cloths,
clothes and even wet hair over the gas stove. The audiences themselves were able
to confirm the knowledge of the officers by commenting on, for instance, the difficulty
of walking down stairs for wearers of bi-focal spectacles and the dangers to
elderly or infirm people where the banister rail ends two or three steps shorter than
the stairs - this fault is now being corrected in new houses.
Copies of a booklet on home safety were distributed to 2,520 pupils in junior
and senior schools as well as to members of adult organisations, and several of the
large factories employing large numbers of women have co-operated in the campaign
by displaying posters and distributing leaflets. Literature has also been given out
in various out-door events in the borough throughout the year.
Groups of girls in Girl Guide or Girls Life Brigade Companies are studying
Home Safety as part of their efforts for the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards.
A regular programme of press advertising, especially near November 5th and at
Christmas, has been carried out
A poster competition organised among senior schoolchildren was very
ful and some very good designs were entered.
MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH
Population
The estimated population of Barking at each mid-year for the past decade, as
notified by the Registrar General, is given below.
It is good to note that our population figure shows an increase this year.
1953 76,800
1954 76,580
1955 75,990
1956 75,560
1957 75,070
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