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In my first year (1928) in Leyton, there were notified 346 cases of
diphtheria, of whom 18 died. In 1954, as in each of the previous five years,
not only has no Leyton resident died from diphtheria, but no case has even
been notified. The last death from diphtheria occurred in Leyton in 1947.
These are but two of the many signs of improvement in the public
health. In my Annual Report for 1950 I included facts and figures showing
the great reduction in deaths from infectious diseases. Those of us who
remember the high death and disability rates of the so-called common
infectious diseases but a generation ago can at least claim that our efforts
have been successful—so successful that many former fever hospitals have
now been closed altogether and many others allocated for other purposes.
Three Prime Necessities of Life.
The food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe are three
fundamental requirements on which our bodies depend for health ; and
ideally all three should be pure and unadulterated.
Some idea may be obtained of the extent to which our food is adulterated
by reference to a report on " Our Daily Bread " (page 24). In recent years
there has been a great increase in the practice of spraying growing crops,
fruit and stored food with chemicals to prevent or discourage weeds and
insect pests ; and constant vigilance is required to ensure that such chemical
fungicides should not be allowed to contaminate our food in harmful concentrations.
An example of such contamination of oranges sold in the
Borough is to be found in a report on " Thiourea " (page 45).
The control of our drinking water supply, the prevention of pollution
of its source, and the dangers to which it is exposed by the great recent
increase in the use of synthetic detergents are matters dealt with in a report
on " The Water We Drink " (page 25).
" The Air We Breathe " is the tide given to a report on atmospheric
pollution (page 28), one of the most serious and urgent public health problems
of our day and generation—at least to dwellers in large towns.
Housing.
There is no activity of a local authority more conducive to family health
and happiness than the efficient administration by the Council of its duties
and responsibilities in housing—the abatement of unsanitary conditions in the
home, the demolition and clearance of slums, and the provision of dwellings
complying with modern standards of fitness and decency.
Any attempt to clear slums without adequate provision of dwellings for
dispossessed families can have but one result—increased overcrowding,
which is a greater menace to health and happiness than is the slum. For
that reason it is definitely laid down in the Housing Acts that action involving
clearance-area procedure can be undertaken only if the authority can provide
in advance accommodation for persons who will be displaced by the clearance.
Looking back on Leyton's record in slum clearance during my tenure of
office the most disappointing feature has been the inability of the Council
as local sanitary authority to carry out its full statutory responsibilities in the
clearance of slum areas owing to the persistent failure of the Council as