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PUBLIC HEALTH EXHIBITION, APRIL, 1955
The Public Health Committee, upon the recommendation of the
Medical Officer of Health decided to hold a Public Health Exhibition
and in January proposals were put forward by him for this to be
held on April 14th, 15th and 16th in the new public hall at Woodford
Green. The availability of this new hall—the Sir James Hawkey
Hall—gave much scope to the setting of such an exhibition, therefore
it was decided to set up as many sections as possible dealing with
public health work carried out in the Borough. Sections dealing with
housing, smoke abatement, food inspection and hygiene, home safety,
rodent control and maternity and child welfare were finally selected.
Under the guiding hand of the Medical Officer of Health each
Officer of the Sanitary Inspector's section of the Public Health
Department was responsible for a section of the exhibits and all
were given a reasonably free hand to obtain both working and static
models, charts, graphs and photographs.
The exhibition showed what team work can produce with the
result that the hall contained exhibits which interested the visitors
both young and old.
A film section in the lounge was appreciated by many of the 3,000
visitors who saw films dealing with food poisoning, smoke abatement,
child care, etc. To make this section such a success the Department
had the valuable assistance of the Road Safety Officer who
aranged the showing of various films, and success was proved by the
fact that the lounge was filled to capacity at every showing.
We were fortunate in obtaining from private firms, Government
Departments and societies interested in the various sections many
models and items of equipment. The Department was very appreciative
of the co-operation of the many organisations approached to
this end.
It would be difficult and even unfair to spotlight any particular
exhibit because young and old showed so much interest in everything
from cabinets with living flies to model hygienic kitchens. One
interested party was made up of students from a nearby hospital.
In preparing the materials for the exhibition we had in view the
need to make the exhibition real and live, and in this direction we
appear to have succeeded because all sections had a number of
working models and apparatus. For instance there was a model which
produced smoke to clothe the surrounding buildings with smog,
mechanical book for Home Safety posters, etc. The Ministry of
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