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43
The following, a copy of a bacteriological examination of a sample
submitted for analysis in September, is typical of other reports:—
Probable number of coliform bacilli: MacConkey 2 days 37°: nil per
100 ml.
Probable number of faecal coli: nil per 100 ml.
Fluoridation. In spite of the unanimity of the findings in all areas
in which fluorides in small doses have been added to the public water
supplies that the teeth of children are appreciably less carious, the schemes
have run into difficulties in different parts of the world. In this country,
trials were limited to four districts: Andover, part of Anglesey,
Kilmarnock and Watford. In Andover, as in some small towns in New
Zealand, fluoridation became a political issue and Andover decided to
discontinue the practice. It seems that some of the places in America
where fluoridation had been introduced abandoned the practice, though
in some of these districts the arrangements were in'roduced again. All
evidence points to the desirability of something being done on these lines.
The considered opinion of an international group of experts was given in
a report published during the year from the W.H.O. on the Value of
Fluoridation of Public Water Supplies for the Prevention of Dental
Caries. The Committee had no doubt about the efficacy, safety and
practicability of fluoridation. It drew attention to the mass of evidence that
concentrations of one part per million of fluorides artificially or naturally
present in drinking water do no harm to health and go far to prevent
decay of the teeth. Although the reports from different parts of the
world all point to this reduction in the incidence of caries and the safety of
the practice, it is improbable that there will be any extension in this
country of the arrangements already started, unless a limited extension as
part of the trial, until the results of the consumption of treated water on
teeth of children in those districts have been assessed, and for that it is
necessary to wait for some years.
DRAINAGE AND SEWAGE DISPOSAL
The soil sewage from this district flows to the West Middlesex
drainage Works at Mogden. Surface water finds its way out of the district
by the various water courses. The Annual Report for 1954 set out the
arrangements for the disposal and treatment of the sewage of the district
and the drainage.
Soil Drainage. The work which the Council had authorised in
1955 for the Pinner Relief Soil Sewer Scheme, designed to relieve the
main sewers serving Pinner which had become overloaded because of the
development which had taken place in this locality since the war, was
completed during the year, coming into operation on the 14th March, 1958.
In 1957, the Minister of Housing and Local Government intimated
he would be prepared to consider a scheme for the construction of a new
deep soil sewer to relieve the present overloaded Wealdstone sewerage
system. In 1944, a 21 in. diameter sewer was laid to cater for the Cullington