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lung cancer due to cigarette smoking, accidents in the home and on
the roads, the bigger, but largely hidden problem of alcoholism,
and the small, but unhappily rising incidence of venereal disease
in young people. These are the really serious health problems
which confront us in the community today, serious because, unlike
the remnants of the diseases of the past, they are increasing every
year.
None of these, however, admits of solution through the
weapons that were so effective in the past. In the face of these
problems, the only weapon we have is health education. These are
fundamentally problems of behaviour and they will be solved—if
they are to be solved at all—through education. Indeed, if health
education fails, then we shall fail, for no other solution is possible.
Here then is a new challenge to our Public Health Service, and
it is the growing realisation of this challenge which is bringing
with it the demand for more personnel to undertake this important
work.
With the object in view, health education sessions given by
the Health Education Officer, Health Visitors and Teachers in
many schools within the Borough, also Clubs, Parent Teachers'
Associations and other organisations have continued during the
year, in which greater and fuller publicity was given to the problem
of accidents in the home. This section of health education was
considered most necessary, due to the appalling number of
fatalities and injuries occurring nationally, and also to the accident
statistics as supplied monthly by the local hospitals within the
Borough area. These in themselves bring this vital problem nearer
home.
HOME SAFETY
Those of us who work for the cause of home safety know very
well that accidents are caused and can, therefore, be prevented.
For us, study of many cases has proved that "accidents" are not
"bolts from the blue" or sudden acts of unkind fate, but a chain
of events, starting from a cause and leading to a result, a tragic
result, which could have been prevented by action somewhere
along the line.
The aspirin bottle "could" have been put away after the last
use, the mat "could" have had a non-slip backing, the handle of
the saucepan "could" have been turned away from the front of the
cooker. If these simple acts had been carried out, a small child
could have been saved a trip to hospital, an old person could have
avoided a fall, and the scalding accident need not have happened.
How can we get these simple truths across to those who have
not yet absorbed them? The Press, radio and television play