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Moveable Dwellings.
Six families occupied moveable dwellings under licence from the
Council during 1949. Frequent inspections were made, but no public
health nuisance was discovered.
Legal Proceedings.
Proceedings were commenced in eight cases where persons
responsible failed to comply with Statutory Notices served by the
Authority. In four instances the summonses were withdrawn, the work
required having been commenced. In other cases Nuisance Orders were
made by the Bench together with the imposition of fines and /or costs.
In all cases the nuisances were finally remedied.
Food Premises.
The control of premises on which food is prepared, stored, or sold,
is a subject which in the public eye has been predominant in the matter
of environmental hygiene. It has continued to engage the attention of
local authorities and their Officers, and of equally well-informed trade
organisations. Local organisations too, and through them the general
public, have expressed opinions, though not always with the more logical
approach which comes with a full knowledge of the subject.
Whilst in no way wishing to minimise the importance of the
subject it does appear that publicity has frequently failed to discriminate
between that which is necessary and that which is aesthetically desirable.
The wrapping of bread, for instance, is desirable, but the consumption
of unwrapped bread has not proved harmful to public health. Bread
is not a medium for the growth of bacteria and no case of food
poisoning due to contaminated bread has ever been known.
The feeling is abroad too, that this matter is now engaging the
serious attention of public health authorities for the first time. Nothing
could be further from the truth. For many years it has been our duty
to inspect and control food premises. The law relating thereto has
ambiguities in common with many other statutes, and its detailed
interpretation has undoubtedly varied in different districts. There has
I not, for many years, been the least excuse for the continued existence of
I unhygienic food premises.
The danger of contamination which needs the greatest publicity
today is that arising from persons and not from premises.
Personal hygiene on the part of the food handler is of first
importance, and whilst the law can, and does, insist on the provision of
adequate washing facilities, it has not, as yet, demanded their use at
specified times. To obtain this, we must depend on the food handlers
and encourage them by the exhibition of posters and personal conversatile.
Undoubtedly the constant 'plugging' of "Now Wash your
Hands" must give good results. Nevertheless, the obvious place for
this form of education is in the home and the school where the young
may then early form the habit of strict personal cleanliness.
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