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44
In addition 316 visits were made to premises of outworkers who are
persons undertaking at home work sent out from factories or business
premises.
Industrial Hygiene.
"The Council at its meeting on the 3rd October, resolved that the following
suggestion be referred to the Public Health Committee for consideration:
'That the County Council should seek amendment of the existing
legislation or the promotion of new legislation, with a view to the integration
of all forms of welfare in the County districts, with special reference
to all factory welfare schemes, by which local Medical Officers would
be enabled the better to control in their respective districts any outbreaks
of illness or disease, or infringements of the Factory or other
Health Acts.'
The following was submitted by the Medical Officer of Health to
the Public Health Committee: —
"Legislation about the health of those working in factories preceded
that which led to the development of the public health services, and has all
along remained distinct, with the result that even to-day local sanitary
authorities have very little direct concern with the conditions of work of
those employed in factories.
"The first of the Factory Acts of general application, that of 1833,
required the appointment of factory inspectors and prohibited the employment
of children under nine years of age. The Act of 1844 provided for
statutory medical supervision by certifying surgeons. Later legislation was
largely incorporated in the Factory Acts of 1937 and 1948. The provisions
of all these and the orders and regulations made under them provide for the
control of environmental working conditions, dangerous hazards and the
employment of juveniles. Quite apart from what has been required by
legislation, since the middle of the last century a few progressive employers
appointed doctors to care for the health of their workers. But it was not until
the first world war that the importance of the human factor in industry began
to be recognised. The second world war emphasised this.
"In the last few years a number of authoritative bodies have surveyed
the needs and the structure of the present industrial services. The most
recent is the Dale Committee set up in 1949, with the following terms of
reference. 'To examine the relationship between the preventive and curative
health services provided for the population at large and the industrial health
services which make a call on medical manpower; to consider what measures
should be taken by the Government and the other parties concerned to
ensure that such medical manpower is used to the best advantage, and to
make recommendations.' It will be noticed that the emphasis is on the conservation
of manpower. The Committee reported in 1951.
"To-day, there are engaged in various aspects of the health, safety and
conditions of work of those engaged in factories, a variety of agencies which
include the public health service, industrial medical officers, and the general
practitioner service under the National Health Service. One of the chief
demands seems to be for the general application and extension to industries
throughout the country of industrial health services of the kind irregularly
distributed among a comparatively few industries. There is no questioning
the advantages to employers and employees alike, of an industrial health