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17
The alterations above noted were designed to provide a picture
of the air purity at the school—which is sited in the No. 2 Smoke Control
Area — during a sufficient length of time before the area becomes
operative as to reflect in some measure the impact of the Area Smoke
Control scheme.
In effect it is designed to and should provide a controlled contrast
between the air as it now is and the air as it will be under smoke control
conditions.
General:
A visit was paid by a Council party to Watson House, North Thames
Gas Board's Research Headquarters and a most instructive afternoon
resulted. The object was to clear up certain important points in the
working of a Smoke Control area and questions concerning coke, gas
ignition and a variety of other factors were satisfactorily resolved.
Radioactivity.
Attention is becoming increasingly directed to this matter which
clearly is of an extremely specialised nature. It is perhaps less important
that the Local Authority should be deemed self governing in affairs
of this kind than that they should be kept informed by whatever
Authority is responsible of all factors bearing on the welfare of the
area under their control. There is a vast gap between the professional
nuclear physicist and the Medical Officer of Health but a certain knowledge
of and an abiding interest in this scientific development is
inseparable from the work of the latter if he is to discharge adequately
the duties for which he is deemed statutorily responsible. He must,
therefore, be regarded as an essential member of the team and, in justice
alike to himself and his Authority be treated as such. This also implies
that a short course, followed after a period of 5 or 6 years by another
—even presuming he maintains an interest in the subject in the interim—
is not quite good enough. The Medical Officer of Health ought to be
able to talk the same language as the nuclear physicist, even though he
doesn't talk it quite so well, and the same applies to understanding and
appreciating the results of experiment. It is not only the duty of the
Medical Officer of Health to interest himself in matters of radioactivity
but also of other Authorities involved to ensure that the means are
placed at his disposal of translating that interest into channels of practical
application.
The potential hazards of radioactivity give food for sober thought
but they will not be better assessed through either exaggeration or
summary dismissal.
Drainage and Sewerage.
The main issue of the Regional Sewage Scheme has not yet been
practically resolved. The Essex River Board has been very active in
endeavouring to secure progress as, of course, has this Council.