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of effort is made to see that the river is supervised throughout its
length. Therefore, a meeting of Medical Officers of Health, the
County Engineer and Chief Chemist from Middlesex County Council
Sewage Works at Mogden, was arranged at the Ealing Town Hall
in order to secure this co-ordination of effort. Much useful
information was exchanged and there is little doubt that the meeting
will be of value in helping to prevent pollution throughout the
length of the river.
During the summer months it was noted that children were
playing and bathing in the River Brent in its course through the
Borough. In view of the investigations which had been carried on
over some period, it was felt that this was not a river which could
be regarded as entirely safe for such purposes and instructions were
given that schools should be notified of the possible dangers involved
in allowing children to play in the river, and to take other measures
to publicise the position at that time.
Atmospheric Pollution.
The June Minutes of the Public Health Committee gave some
statistics and a map showing the incidence of deaths from pneumonia
and bronchitis during the two weeks of the fog.
Seventeen deaths were recorded in the first two weeks of
January 1953, which could be attributed to this cause, as compared
with seven in the corresponding period of the previous year. The
increase was. however, less than that for the London area as a
whole.
For the past three years complaints have been received from
the Long Drive area of Greenford regarding damage to growing
crops in the gardens adjacent to the factory area. This damage
usually occurred in the early summer months and most of the
vegetation afterwards largely recovered. This limited our field of
enquiry but a considerable number of inspections and investigations
were carried out in an effort to ascertain the cause of this damage.
Specimens submitted for analysis gave no definite clue as to the
cause of the trouble and it was not until the summer of this year
(1953), as a result erf reports received from the Clinical Research
Association, that the presence of flourine in the atmosphere was
suggested as a possible cause of the damage I referred the matter
to the Chief Inspector of Alkali works and supplied him with reports
of our investigations and the results of the analysis of samples.
As a result erf his investigations into the works technique at the
factory believed to be involved, a modification of this technique
was carried out, and the subsequent analysis of the contents of
atmospheric pollution gauges erected in the neighbourhood, have
shown that the amount of flourine discharged into the atmosphere
has been reduced to negligible proportions.