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2
H (1).
Public Health Department.
Council Offices,
Erith.
To The Mayor, Alderman and Councillors
of the Borough of Erith.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Report for the year 1944
and as the need for security fortunately is now over, I have
introduced some additional features omitted in recent years.
The present emergency has shown how necessary it is to
maintain a constant and unremitting vigilance over environment,
including nutrition, if the health of the people is to he
secured. In the school report therefore, I have made some
short comments on the public feeding in the borough. Despite
great advances in the environmental field of health, large tracts
have hardly as yet been touched:—atmospheric pollution, milk
supply, factory hygiene and even housing are only a few of
those which readily come to mind as presenting problems for
solution—and in my special report on a proposed five-year plan
for public health in the town, included in this report as a
supplement, the conclusion is accepted that despite other claims,
housing of necessity must occupy a 100 per cent. priority in
any immediate health plan for the district.
In examining the statistics in the Report the low estimate
of the population, given by the Registrar General as 36,780,
must be borne in mind the lowest recorded with the exception
of 1941, since 1936. The death rate is 12.5 compared with
15.7 for the administrative County of London and with 11.6
for England and Wales, and it is to be noted that among the
causes of death—''other violent causes"—stands third
(nearly second) in the list.
Infants, though they have the highest potential for
survival, are the citizens most vulnerable to unfavourable
environmental conditions. The infantile mortality rate of 49.16
is the highest recorded in the borough during the past five years
but I believe it reflects the war social conditions of the area.
Of the neo-natal deaths, 42.3 per cent. were in premature