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Public Health Department,
92, Bath Road, Hounslow.
July, 1930.
To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
REPORT ON WIDESPREAD OUTBREAK OF ILLNESS AT
FIRESTONE WORKS.
On the 5th March I was rung up by the Engineer to the
Firestone Works, notifying me of a widespread outbreak of illness
at the Works, and that the Work's Medical Officer would be getting
into direct communication with me, which he did shortly after;
informing me of the nature and extent of the outbreak and that
although it was thought that it might be some water borne trouble,
the Firm were apprehensive that it might possibly be some air
borne epidemic or an illness arising from some process in the
Works.
I visited the Works, and information was collected from all
the sufferers that were available, as to their symptoms and habits
in the matter of food, together with information as to the nature
of their work and the departments in which they worked.
The outstanding symptoms were profuse diarrhœa, with considerable
abdominal pain, and a definite tendency after the original
attack to relapse. These points were clearly brought out in the
report by the Medical Officer to the Works.
It was found that the Engineer had already had samples of the
water analysed, and had informed the Metropolitan Water Board,
whose officers had visited the Works and taken samples of the water.
The reports of the two sets of analyses are appended.
From this it appeared that there had been definite pollution
of the drinking water in the factory.