London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kingston upon Thames 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston-upon-Thames]
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21
PART VIII OF THE ACT,
Outwork.
The following table gives details of work which is carried on in private dwelling houses, The conditions obtaining have been found to be satisfactory.
| Nature of Work | No. of Outworkers |
|---|---|
| Wearing apparel -Making etc. | 5 |
| Cardboard Boxes | 1 |
| Puses | 1 |
| Brass Articles | 8 |
| 15 |
9. CAMPING SITES.
There are no camping sites within the Borough. A licence was
granted for a caravan to be stationed at the rear of one of the
stores in the town. The applicants, however, obtained other
accommodation and the vehicle was not, in fact, put in position,,
10, ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION.
During the year 20 complaints were received in respect of
smoke or grit emission. These complaints, in the main, related to
one particular installation. Whilst the plant in this case could
be improved, the prime cause for the nuisance was to a large
extent due to the inefficient manner in which the plant was operated.
Advice was given and demonstrations made by members of the staff in
an effort to bring about an improvement. In this part of the
country there is a shortage of skilled stokers and at the present
time it is obvious that a man with the skill and intelligence to
carry out stoking properly can obtain a more lucrative and congenial
occupation elsewhere.
The difficulty in recruiting skilled staff and the problem of
obtaining a regular supply of suitable coal have together been
good reasons for the conversion of practically all the industrial
plants in the district to oil firing.
In the domestic field much could be done to provide adequate
supplies of suitable types of smokeless fuel and improvements
could also be brought about by the replacement of obsolete and
inefficient firegrates with more modem appliances. In many
instances the cost of conversion could be recovered in some
measure by the consequent saving in fuel consumption.
With regard to the recording of atmospheric pollution,
instructions were given for the installation of an instrument for
the recording of smoke and sulphur dioxide by the volumetric
method. The advantage of this instrument over the deposit gauge is
that it is possible to obtain daily readings of pollution and to
observe more closely the effects of weather conditions on the state
of the atmosphere. The instrument which is installed on the roof
of the Guildhall was in operation for the whole year. The following
table and graph indicate the results obtained. Smoke is
expressed in milligrams per .100 cubic metres and the sulphur
dioxide in parts per 100 million.