Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bromley]
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owners and tenants who have been so ready to meet us in
our aim to make every house a fit one.
Contraventions. Public Health Acts.
No serious contravention which called for statutory
proceedings came under the notice of the Department.
VII.—SMOKE POLLUTION.
Eight inspections were made in connection with
nuisances arising from the emission of smoke; five were
through complaints received and three in the course of
routine inspection. In six instances a nuisance existed,
and, as a result of informal action taken, abatement was
secured in each case.
The Sanitary Inspectors, three of whom hold the
special certificate of the Royal Sanitary Institute for Smoke
Inspection, find that there is a general desire on the part
of firms having steam generating equipment, to remedy
as much as possible the causing of nuisances from
emission of smoke, and to carry out the expert advice
given for improvement in stoking methods.
VIII.—SHOPS ACTS, 1912-1934.
The Shops Act, 1934, came into operation on the 30th
December, 1934. The Sanitary Inspectors were reappointed
as inspectors for the purposes of the Act, and
also one Health Visitor is authorised to act as an inspector
under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health where
special circumstances warrant it.
We have in Bromley some 800-900 premises of retail
business to which this Act applies. Happily the Act has
received the support generally of shop-keepers, otherwise
the multiple provisions of the Shops Acts would entail a
superabundance of detailed work which could only be
encompassed by a special staff.
Fundamentally the Act of 1934 aims at control of
hours of employment and the safeguarding of the young
growing adolescent against undue fatigue through working
long hours. Inasmuch as the Act controls the hours of