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as other functions of the Local Authority, this is partly due to the
wider ramifications, the more systematic control and the scientific
application as well as the higher degree of training of your
officers. In this way a well-knit service under Environmental
Medicine should never become the object of public concern, in
other words the epidemics of days gone by are now nipped in the
bud and many should no longer become epidemics. I will herein
give a brief survey of the greater extension of the responsibilities
which now fall on the shoulders of the Public Health Committee.
Health Education should now become a prominent feature
of the Council's Services to the people. Up to the present it formed
an accidental corollary to other functions of your officers; when
these functions became operative the officers availed themselves of
the opportunity to teach.
Now, education of the public in the circumstances of health
is a duty which the Council must no longer neglect. It will be
necessary, therefore, through the medium of the press, films and
lectures, to bring to the notice of the public fundamental matters
concerning health.
The Ministry of Health considers that the Local Councils
should not only contribute to the funds of Health Education but
also actively become the source of information for its people.
So many Councils consider they have done their share when
they have paid their contributions—Edmonton Council must not
rank as one of these, but must actually extend and develop its
services to provide for its people all the information they need.
It is the intention of the Council to hold a Clean Food Exhibition
in the forthcoming year; this will afford an excellent
opportunity to the members and officers combined to launch a
campaign for the production and maintenance of clean food.
I regret, however, to have to mention that your present staff
is insufficient to maintain such a campaign; there are some 100
factories and 500 food shops and other premises in the Borough
concerned with the manufacture, preparation, storage and sale of
food.
Your Sanitary Inspectors now deal with unsound food and
its ultimate disposal. It is your responsibility not only to deal with
unsound food as such, but also to investigate the reasons why it is
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