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
Hillingdon 1970
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hillingdon]
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The accident occurred to a window-cleaner cleaning windows inside the London Airport buildings. The fall was from the comparatively low height of 12 feet. The ladder was examined and showed no defects. Such accidents indicate the need for extreme care to avoid over reaching when working on large areas of glazing. This is the first fatality to be notified to this Authority.
| No. Reported | Action Recommended | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal | Non -Fatal | Prosecution | Formal Warning | Informal Advice | |
| Offices | 15 | 15 | |||
| Retail Shops | 36 | 1 | 35 | ||
| Wholesale Warehouses | 19 | 19 | |||
| Catering | 1 | 19 | 20 | ||
| Fuel Storage | 1 | 1 | |||
| Totals | 1 | 90 | 1 | 90 | |
The number of notified accidents continues to rise each year but this is thought to be due
mainly to occupiers of premises becoming aware of their liabilities under the Act to notify rather
than a specific increase in actual accidents.
In addition, 13 further accidents were notified which, because they did not take place on registered premises or for other reasons were not technically notifiable, are not included in the statistical tables.
| Cause | Offices | Retail Shops | Wholesale Warehouses | Catering Establishments | Fuel Storage Depot | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal | NonFatal | Fatal | NonFatal | Fatal | NonFatal | Fatal | NonFatal | Fata/ | NonFatal | |
| Machinery | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Transport | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| Falls | 9 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 4 | |||||
| Stepping or striking against object or person | 4 | 2 | ||||||||
| Handling | 4 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 1 | |||||
| Struck by falling object | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Fires & explosions Electricity Hand tools | 3 | |||||||||
| Not otherwise specified | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
| Non-Fatal | 15 | 36 | 19 | 19 | 1 | |||||
| Total: Fatal | 1 | |||||||||
| Total | 15 | 36 | 19 | 20 | 1 | |||||