View report page

74
BAKEHOUSES.
During the year, in addition to the usual systematic inspections,
all the bakehouses have been made the subject of a night inspection
during working hours. It is very desirable that this should be done
periodically, for while during the day-time it is possible to inspect the
premises and to see that they are in a reasonably sanitary condition,
having regard to the purpose for which they are used, it does not
follow that sanitary conditions are maintained even when facilities for
their attainment are amply afforded.
This is well illustrated in the attitude of the bakers towards the
provision of lavatories. The provision of lavatories was insisted upon
in the case of underground bakehouses as a condition of the certificate
of the Council necessary for their continuance after 1903 as required
by the Factory and Workshop Act of 1901.
In the course of inspection it is found that a very large proportion
of the lavatories are unprovided with soap or towels, and present other
evidence of not being used.
In extenuation the bakers urge that it is too much to expect of
them to go out of a hot bakehouse at night in a half-clothed condition
and wash in a cold lavatory where they would be exposed to severe
chill, and they prefer to wash in a bucket in the bakehouse itself.
Unconsciously they reveal the fact that the use of the lavatory
precedent to baking is not a usual practice, and that washing is a
process rendered necessary chiefly by the adhesive qualities of flour
and dough when brought into contact with hands and arms.