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the schools to inculcate a desire to preserve local amenities
which play such a large part in promoting the health of
the community.
Among the environmental problems which remain, the
most important is, undoubtedly, the lack of adequate housing,
particularly for young married couples and for the aged
and this in spite of great strides which have been made in
recent years by the housing authority.
Problems of atmospheric pollution are coming more
and more into the foreground and, although in this Borough
the problem may not be so acute as it is in more highly
industrialised areas, smoke emissions from the domestic grate
add considerably to the impurities which are discharged into
the atmosphere. Now that the Clean Air Bill has finally
reached the Statute Book, the powers of local authorities are,
to some extent, strengthened and, no doubt, the development
of smokeless zones will have to be considered in the years
to come.
The work of the Bexley, Erith and Crayford Home
Safety Committee continued to make progress. In an
attempt to prevent accidents from poisoning in the home,
display cards were sent to all doctors and chemists in the
Borough for use in their waiting rooms and shops, urging
parents to keep drugs and medicines in places where children
would not have access to them. A brains trust and film
show were, also, held which was well attended particularly
by senior schoolchildren. It is hoped to intensify this
propaganda by giving regular talks and demonstrations to
the latter and one is driven more and more to the conclusion,
in these days when television and other distractions tend to
keep people tied to the homes, that in the senior schoolchildren
of the Borough lies the main hope of any future
development in regard to health education in general.
It is pleasing, once again, to record that the Bexley Old
People's Welfare Committee has continued to do excellent
work in alleviating the lot of many old people by friendly
help, by assistance in kind when necessary, by making
arrangements for inexpensive holidays and in other ways.
Their work, to some extent, co-ordinates and is complementary
to, that of the many Old People's organisations
in the Borough providing clubs and other recreational
facilities. The work of this voluntary organisation is of
immense value to the old people in the Borough. The
domestic help service and more recently the night attendance
and family help services provided by the Local Health
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