View report page

interfered with. The site was chosen as being the most
suitable and fairly representative of the properties most
seriously affected by the nuisance. The monthly deposits
from one of these gauges would be analysed by the Public
Analyst on behalf of the local authority and the deposited
material from the other would be analysed by Chemists of
the Board.
(ii) The British standard deposit gauge now situated within the
curtilage of the Gas Works (near the entrance between Nos.
16 and 18 Clementina Road) would be under the control of
the Council's Public Health Inspectors and its contents
analysed by the Public Analyst.
(iii) The Board would be prepared to co operate with the Council's
Inspectors in carrying out an informal investigation to
ascertain the amount of grit, dust, etc., deposited inside
houses. For the purpose of comparison two houses would be
used, one on the Clementina Estate and the other remote from
the Gas Works. The deposited material would be collected by
means of petrie dishes sited in the rooms in question and
left for specified periods which would vary according to
climatic conditions, appropriate measures would be taken to
ensure that the rooms would not be used during the period of
investigation. The petrie dishes would be deposited and
collected in the presence of the Board's Officers and the
contents would be weighed and microscopically examined.
The arrangements as set out above have now been satisfactorily implemented and the
survey for the scientific measurement of grit and dust deposited in the area is now in
progress; a third British standard deposit gauge has also been sited in the Lea Bridge
Road area for comparative purposes.
The British standard deposit gauge is the instrument recommended by the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research for the measurement of solid atmospheric pollutants and
is in use by local authorities and other organisations throughout the country. The results
of such tests are expressed in tons per square mile per month and in grammes per 100 sq.
metres per month, and these are published monthly in the Atmospheric Pollution Bulletin of
the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. In the course of time it will, therefore,
be possible to consider the amount of dust and grit deposited in the vicinity of the
Gas Works in relation to deposits officially recorded in other parts of the Borough and in
comparable areas in London and elsewhere.
The Board's programme of the further improvements they propose to carry out at the
Works to mitigate grit an dust emission appears to be progressing satisfactorily but it is
too early to draw any definite conclusions from this or from the results of the tests so
far recorded.
HOUSING AND NUISANCE ABATEMENT
Of the statutory duties and responsibilities confronting the local sanitary authority
none is more important, or indeed more onerous than that which concerns obsolescent housing.
The duties of the Public Health Inspectorate in relation to existing housing accommodation
is concerned generally with the repair, demolition and closure of unfit houses, slum
clearance, and other matters arising from the issue of Certificates of Disrepair under the
Rent Act. Dwelling houses are inspected as a general routine or on complaint and statutory
action taken as appropriate to secure the remedying of defects and abatement of nuisances.
Over the past 12 months some 17,347 inspections and re-inspections were made under Public
(21)