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28
Difficulties are at times experienced in dealing with bug
infestation of some of the premises. The London County Council
as the landlords have used various solutions and at the present
moment are successfully using a method of cyanide fumigation.
This they are applying only to empty premises, as a precautionary
measure in the first place seeing that the adjacent houses are
emptied for the few hours necessary for exposure After the sealing
of all apertures in the building, cyanide solution is sprinkled on
the floors upstairs and down. The concentration of gas used is
about 8 per cent., and is allowed to act for 6 hours. At the end
of this period of time, the house is opened up, and well ventilated.
Copper benzidine acetate solution turns blue in the presence of
hydrogen cyanide. If filter papers moistened in this solution
are turned blue, the indication is the presence of cyanide concentration
exceeding 0 01 per cent. This test has to be passed
before the house is declared ready for occupation. The results
of this method of fumigation are very encouraging.
To reduce the risk of transference of vermin infestation by the
tenants from their old premises to the new, some authorities have
adopted a comprehensive scheme of disinfestation, dealing with
the tenants themselves, with their clothing by stoving, and with
their furniture by fumigation in the removal vans.
Sometimes it appears that the new tenants moving into a
clean home, who previously had never suffered from infestation, find
vermin in the house shortly after transfer. As the authorities
were satisfied of the cleanliness both of the transferring tenants
and of the premises, it was suggested that possibly the furniture
was infested in course of transit by infected vans. The furniture
removers who are chiefly engaged in removals to this estate were
circularised for information as to the steps they take to eliminate
this risk. Most asserted it was their practice periodically to wash
out the vans with antiseptics.
Smoke Abatement.
The only important source of smoke nuisance was that reported
last year. A total of 40 observations showed that there was
from this factory no smoke for 247½ minutes, moderate smoke
for 605½, and black smoke for 488 minutes. In this factory there
was a large amount of wood dust and shavings to be disposed of,
and the only method of disposal was by burning. Part of the
difficulty of disposing of it in this manner was due to the different
physical states of the wood and to the different types of wood
used. The method employed of cremating it in the furnaces