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39
risk of bathers contracting infection from water containing typhoid
organisms.
This last summer a larger and more general agitation was aroused
because it was being appreciated that the virus of poliomyelitis was
excreted in the stools not merely of patients but of apparently healthy
people. The suggestion was submitted that this source of infection
peculiar to these coast towns might account for the increased incidence
of poliomyelitis which occurs in the late summer and early autumn months
at such places. The official attitude on the matter is set out in a reply
given by the Minister of Housing and Local Government to a question
about what steps were being taken to reduce the pollution of beaches
round the coast by sewage: " Providing that the siting and design of the
outfalls were such as to ensure that the sewage was carried out to the
open sea and not along the coast, the discharge of sewage into the sea
was not necessarily objectionable and indeed was often an efficient and
economical method of disposal. Where nuisance was caused, as had
happened with some of the older outfalls, it was for the local authorities
concerned to provide a remedy. They were well aware of their responsibilities
in the matter and a number of schemes in coastal areas had
been carried out in recent years or were in preparation to improve outfalls
or to provide preliminary treatment or both."
Soiling of Railway Tracks. A related subject and one in which
this district, because of its many railway lines, is more immediately
interested and one which is raised at intervals is the discharge of effluent
from railway trains on to the tracks. In a reply to a question on what
extent discharge from trains was contributing to the spread of poliomyelitis
or other infections, the Minister of Health said he was advised
that study of the location and environmental circumstances of notified
cases of poliomyelitis afforded no support for the view that effluents from
railway trains was a determining factor in the incidence or transmission
of the disease, and that there was no evidence of other infections being
attributable to this cause. On another occasion the Minister of Transport
and Civil Aviation replied that an expert committee set up by the British
Transport Commission confirmed the view taken by the European and
American Railway Administration that there is no practical alternative to
the present method of disposal.
Blocked Drains. Section 38 (1) of the Middlesex County Council
Act, 1956, provides that a notice may be served by the Medical Officer
of Health or a Public Health Inspector upon the owner or occupier of
any premises at which a drain, private sewer, water closet or soil pipe is
stopped up, requiring him to remedy the defect within 48 hours.
Section 38 (2) gives powers to the authority to do the work themselves
in default. The Public Health Committee at their February meeting
authorised "the Chairman, if he should see fit, to approve the carrying
out of work under Section 38 of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1956,
in urgent cases, any such action to be reported to the Committee at their
next meeting for confirmation."
Flooding. The development of Paines Close was followed by
complaints of flooding received from those in Paines Lane and adjoining