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HEALTH EDUCATION
Subjects of Health Education which were topical during the year were the importance
of vaccination against smallpox; the connection between smoking and bronchitis and lung
cancer; the need for constant attention to personal hygiene, and for the inculcation of good
sanitary habits amongst children, who in time can educate their parents and relations.
When the newspapers reported cases of smallpox in the Country, there was an immediate
rush by those who had ignored or even rejected all offers of vaccination in the past,
and a demand for mass vaccination. Fear, as ever, caused unreason in the population, but in
Southall, with a tradition of trust in the officers of the Health Department, it was possible to
satisfy those needing vaccination that there would be time enough to make them safe. The
private practioners were given as much help as possible—supplies of vaccine were brought
from the Central Laboratory by Health Department staff every day, and quietly and slowly
a large proportion of the population was made immune—the County also arranged a few
extra clinic sessions for vaccination of adults in addition to normal infant vaccination.
There was an intensive campaign by the central authorities in order to educate the
public on the dangers of smoking. Free publicity material was provided in great quantity,
large posters for public notice boards, a special issue for display in the surgeries of general
practitioners, who had signified willingness through their Executive Councils to display the
posters. Clinics and schools were issued with posters and leaflets from Middlesex County
Council.
Although the dysentery outbreak had been largely overcome by the beginning of the
year, it gave the opportunity for persistent publicity on the need for hand washing before
handling food, and the attention of the school managers, and the owners of restaurants,
food shops and factories had their attention drawn to the need for the desirability of washing
facilities of the most suitable character and in the most suitable position for the public to be
able to do what they were being asked to do and wash their hands frequently.
A Seminar was held by the Central Council for Health Education in February. The
subject was on "New Horizons in Health Education", but really the Seminar was devoted
more to new methods of health education than to new subjects, as the old lessons on the
rules of healthy living are so poorly understood and so little obeyed; the simple rules of
exercise, nutrition, sleep and cleanliness, should be known well enough after the years and
years of health education in homes, in schools, in factories, in shops, in restaurants, yet how
little they are obeyed, particularly cleanliness—the Scandinavians and the Americans, who
used only to object to English plumbing, now object to the dirty food shops and kitchens,
and the methods of food handling in this country, and look at our litter-lined streets with
amazement and disgust. There was general agreement that television was a more powerful
factor now than any other in getting the messages of health education through to the
public, and already in certain parts of the country closed circuit television was being used
successfully by Public Health Departments.
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