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SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA
PART 1-COMMENT
ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH INSPECTORS
The establishment of Public Health Inspectors comprises the Chief Public Health
Inspector, Mr. B. J. Ashcroft, Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector, Mr. R.A.Reeves, 7
District Public Health Inspectors, and 3 Student Public Health Inspectors.
I am pleased to report that for the first time for many years a full complement
of District Public Health Inspectors was maintained during 1959. Mr. Reeves, Deputy
Chief Public Health Inspector, retired from the service of the Council in February.
Mr. Reeves was held in high esteem by his colleagues and at the presentation which
preceded his retirement many tributes were paid to the loyal and conscientious service
he had rendered the Council and the public for some 32 years. The post of Deputy Chief
Public Health Inspector was filled in June on the appointment of Mr. G.F. Downing who
was previously with Slough Corporation.
The student scheme for the training of Public Health Inspectors introduced by the
Council in 1954 is still in operation and has shown good results. Two of the Students
obtained the necessary statutory qualifications during the year and one has since been
absorbed into the permanent establishment of Public Health Inspectors; the other
obtained a post with a neighbouring authority.
HEALTH EDUCATION
The local sanitary authority is armed with a large and ever increasing number of
complicated Acts, Statutory Orders and Regulations to eliminate or control those
factors in man's physical environment which are or may be harmful, but it should be
realised that pure and safe food and water clean air, and the maintenance or the
betterment of environmental conditions in houses, factories, workshops, shops, and
places of public entertainment cannot be secured by legislation alone, and more and
more emphasis must be placed on the importance of health education both in the field
during the course of routine day to day visits of inspection as well as in the form
of health exhibitions film shows, window displays and talks to selected groups of
people.
The promotion of health education in all its aspects forms an important part of
the duties of the Public Health Inspectorate, but none is more important or indeed
more effective than that carried out on the district, it is an accepted fact that
people learn more rapidly and thoroughly by demonstration and participation than by
theoretical instruction. Public Health Inspectors meet people at their places of work,
for instance, food handlers and operators of industrial plant capable of causing air
pollution, visit people in their homes and indeed are in contact with everyone in the
community whose activities have a public health significance. The Inspector has, therefore,
extensive unrivalled scope for effective health education by demonstrating on the
spot how the principles and practices of environmental sanitation should be observed
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